Page 63 of Then She Vanished

If only they knew.

‘Gary, don’t do this, please!’ she yelled.

Exhaling, she gasped. She didn’t tell anyone that Gary had been a bad husband. She remembered when Elissa was a baby and they rented a holiday cottage in the middle of nowhere. Mobile phones were expensive and neither of them had one and there wasn’t a house phone. He had taken the car and left her for a whole night on her own, locked in that cottage and not saying a word about where he’d gone. He’d been angry as she’d smiled at the man who served them at the petrol station. It was all making sense now. He used Elissa to lure her into his trap. He was so jealous of Eric – Ruth knew he’d locked her up, just like back then in the cottage.

She screamed again, knowing she was nothing more than a pawn in the sick game Gary was playing. As soon as she escaped her situation, she was going to kill Gary with her bare hands. She couldn’t think of another person on earth who she hated as much, not even the lying, cheating scumbag, Eric.

What if Gary had taken their daughter? No, that was stupid.

Or was it?

Her heart began to ramp up again. She had called the police because she recognised the scarf that she saw on the news. They would call her back. They knew who she was and they’d be able to locate her or trace her phone.

Patting her clothes down, she realised she no longer had her phone. Her kidnapper had taken it. She gasped and held a hand to her heart.

That noise again.

She glanced in the direction it came from and a red light came on. It had to be a camera.

The crackling sound made her flinch and the sound of a child’s voice filled the air.

‘Don’t be scared, silly. It’s just a game.’

The child’s giggles echoed through the room.

FORTY-ONE

Exhausted, Gina hurried back to Gary’s house where the team had come together. A PC ran over and Gina wasted no time in filling him in. ‘Get the team updated. We need patrol cars looking for the van.’

The PC headed back to his team.

Gina called over to PC Ahmed. ‘Shaf, keep any potential crowds away from the house. I know the neighbours are starting to come out in droves. Jacob and I are going in. Give the incident room a call with updates and get a search team over here. Tell them that Gary Pritchard is wanted for perverting the course of justice.’

Shaf nodded and stepped to one side.

Jacob slipped on a pair of latex gloves and Gina did the same. He pressed the back-door handle and opened it. She reached for the light switch, turning it on, and began to slide a few kitchen drawers open. They were messy, but there was nothing out of the ordinary.

She followed Jacob into the living room. A large, framed photo of Elissa playing with a cat in Ruth’s garden adorned the wall above the fireplace. A sick feeling formed in her stomach.

Why had Gary lied and then run?

She headed over to the sideboard and opened the large top drawer. ‘Jacob, hurry, you have to see this.’

He abandoned what he was doing, jogged over and began staring at the made-up chessboard. ‘I didn’t expect to find that here. A chessboard, and the only piece missing is the… um, I don’t play chess.’

‘The white queen. And we found that exact piece on Ruth Pritchard’s kitchen table.’ She studied the pieces for a moment. ‘The other chess pieces we have in evidence come from a different set. This one is a bit more ornate, but it’s still a chess piece, which just happens to be a firm link to our kidnapper and the case. Can you take a photo? I’m heading upstairs to see if I can find a computer or tablet.’

A slight humming sound caught her attention. She turned the hall light on and began her ascent up the creaky steps. A moth began to crash into the wicker light shade. She ignored the creepy shadow it was casting on the bare magnolia stair wall.

The bedrooms were almost bare except for a single bed in the master room, but what did strike her as odd was the loft ladder being down.

She stood in silence for a moment, listening to the humming coming from above. ‘Jacob, we need to check out the loft,’ she called.

He took the stairs two at a time and furrowed his brows as he met her by the metal ladders. ‘What has Gary Pritchard been doing in the loft? It sounds like he has some electrical equipment whirring away up there.’

‘I’m going up. Follow me closely.’

She led the way, her boots clunking on the metal rungs. On reaching the top, she could see two large-screened computers whirring away. Grabbing a joist, she pulled herself in and bowed her head to avoid hitting any beams. She used the torch on herphone to light the way ahead and on reaching the desk, she nudged the mouse.

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