Page 93 of Then She Vanished

‘How is she, guv?’ Jacob called her over to one side.

She glanced up and down. They were on a ward filled with side rooms with a main ward at the far end, but she kept her voice hushed, not wanting to wake any of the other sick children. ‘Traumatised.’ She paused. ‘What’s happening at the bunker?’

He cleared his throat. ‘I’ve just been talking to the officers there and at Eric Hathaway’s house. Bernard and his team have arrived and there are officers searching the bunker and the house. The bodies should be removed soon. One of theCSIs found three names written under the bed on the back wall. It looks like they were all written with different hands, with different pens. As suspected, they are Joanie, Elissa and Felicity.’

‘They left a record. They knew they might not make it out.’

Jacob frowned and nodded. ‘Mrs Hathaway is at the station. She’d just got home from the hospital. Her daughter is here somewhere after she was admitted earlier. Mrs Hathaway said she’ll have to come back to the hospital later. We don’t know if she knew anything about the bunker or what had been going on, but a search of their house is underway. Everything is pointing to Eric Hathaway killing Gary Pritchard. There was literally blood on his hands. Bernard’s team found something else, at the back of the structure housing the bunker.’

‘What was it?’

‘Two large flat stones. They look like nothing to be concerned about on their own but when turned over, Bernard saw that they’d been engraved. The first had the name Joanie on it. Mother to Albie and Sammie, RIP. The other stone had the name Felicity engraved on it, followed by RIP and there is another stone further away with nothing written on it.’

Gina took a huge breath and ran her fingers through her now loose hair. ‘Poor Joanie, we now know what happened to her, and it looked like she had two children, one of them was Albie Hathaway. As for Felicity – Marie is going to be devastated.’ She shuddered. ‘I know we’ll need to speak to Marie. She’s all the family Luna has now.’

Jacob nodded. ‘Obviously, we need to confirm that Luna is Felicity’s daughter, which won’t take too long. We’ve already spoken to Marie, while you were with Luna. An officer was despatched to her place and has stayed there. If Lunaisher niece, she is keen to take her in and look after her. We’veasked her to hold fire on visiting right now as it might be too overwhelming for Luna.’

‘And is there a social worker assigned to the case?’

Jacob nodded. ‘Should be here within the next few minutes.’ He pointed to the woman in pumps and black trousers walking up the corridor. ‘I think she’s just arrived. I’ve also heard that Ruth is awake and ready to speak. O’Connor has been sitting with her. She’s in a room on ward twelve.’

After filling the social worker in, Gina and Jacob’s footsteps echoed along the main corridor in the hospital. She hated having to leave Luna, but she needed to speak to Ruth.

O’Connor was standing outside the room when they got there. Gina peered through the little window in the door. Ruth was sitting up in the bed, having a drink. She had oxygen being pumped through clear tubes that were wedged into her nostrils, and her pale face had a clammy shine to it. Knocking, Gina waited for Ruth to see her before entering.

‘Hello, Ruth. I’m DI Harte. How are you feeling?’

Ruth shakily placed the plastic cup on the bedside drawer. ‘I can’t stop thinking about Luna, and no one seems to know how she is,’ she replied with a croaky voice. After barking out a couple of coughs, she continued. ‘Please tell me she’s okay?’

Jacob stood at the end of the bed. Gina walked over to the bedside chair and sat. ‘I’ve just been with her and she’s doing well. She’s asleep at the moment.’

‘I thought we were both going to die.’ Ruth sniffed back her tears. ‘You found us.’

‘And you are both doing really well right now.’ Gina paused. ‘Can you remember how you got to the bunker? You called us when you recognised the scarf. Then we couldn’t contact you again. We found some of your items and your car by the nature park after tracing your phone.’

She scrunched her brow and grabbed her drink again. While gently holding her cup she began to speak slowly. ‘I got these messages. Someone knew things about Elissa and they were going to tell me what happened to her.’ She looked up, as if trying to remember. ‘They said that I had to meet them there if I wanted to find out the truth, so I dropped everything and headed to the nature park. I actually thought the person who was messaging me was in some sort of trouble and I wanted to help. Anyway, when I arrived, there was a white van parked up. I just remember being attacked and bundled into it. I was hit over the head and I passed out. A while later, I woke up in a tiny room, which I now know was a bunker. At first, I was in an end room that had a mattress and bucket in it, then the door unlocked and I went through to this small kitchen. That’s when I found that poor little girl.’ She began to half sob, her chest heaving.

Just as she was about to spill her drink, Gina took it and placed it back on the bedside drawers.

‘When I was hoisted out, there were two bodies. They were covered up, but I know what they were.’

‘I’m sorry you had to pass those, but we needed to get you out and to the hospital.’

‘He was talking to me in the bunker, through some sort of microphone.’ Her mouth downturned. ‘He wanted me to be with Luna, to be her mummy. She was all alone. I kept wondering if Luna was my granddaughter.’ She sniffed and wiped her eyes. ‘Is she?’

Gina tilted her head. ‘We don’t believe she is.’ She wasn’t ready to share the news about the graves with Ruth, as it would take a lot of explaining. Gina wondered if Keeley had been Albie Hathaway’s choice of mother for Luna. He would have met her at the Moores’ property and he paid attention to her and her children. Gina also wondered if Albie had told Eric that he wanted a mother for Luna and that Eric had just been trying tocarry out Albie’s wishes, but after failing to kidnap Keeley, he decided to take Ruth instead. Maybe Ruth was the backup plan. Either way, both women were being watched or played by Eric and Albie, all as a part of their sick game that Albie could no longer bear to be a part of in the end.

‘I can’t believe Gary could ever do this to me. Did he take Elissa? Was it him?’

Gina exhaled. ‘We are still investigating, but what we can tell you is that Gary was one of the people we found dead at the scene. We believe that Eric Hathaway murdered him.’

‘No, you’ve got this wrong. I haven’t known Eric that long. We were seeing each other and he’s a cheating toerag, but murder? Why?’

‘I’m really sorry.’

‘So, was he the one messaging me?’

‘Once we’ve had a chance to look into everything, we’ll have more answers, but it’s looking likely. I’m so sorry that I don’t have anything more concrete for you. We have officers at the scene now.’

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