Deadly Lies Page 3

  ‘A dinner party,’ Jack said.

  Alice gave her husband a scathing look. ‘Yes we abandoned our children for a party. I hate those dinners anyway.’

  ‘No you don’t, darling.’ Jack seemed to recover from the news about his father-in-law. ‘The police will get them back. They’ll find them, I promise you,’ he said. ‘Won’t you, officer?’

  False promises weren’t in Grant’s vocabulary.

  ‘I need a list of people who were at the dinner party with you. I also need a list of anyone who might have a grudge against the family or anyone you can think of with a reason to take your children. Can you do that for me? And who knew the children would be here tonight?’

  ‘It’s a regular date every other weekend,’ Jack said. ‘I guess only us and Ronnie and Joan know about it.’

  ‘Don’t be stupid! It’s not just us. What about the old au pair? Inspector, I sacked Sylvie. What if she was involved?’ Alice said.

  Jack took hold of his wife’s hand and he patted it. ‘Don’t be silly, Sylvie was an ordinary girl. She’s not capable of kidnapping.’

  ‘You don’t know that. You didn’t see the look on her face when I asked her to leave.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Jack said. ‘I think my wife’s emotions are clouding her judgem–’

  ‘Shut up! And don’t talk about me like I’m not here. Sylvie isn’t the type of girl we thought she was.’

  ‘When did you last see her?’ Grant asked.

  ‘Three months ago, just after Christmas,’ Jack said.

  ‘I’m going to need Sylvie’s name and contact details please.’

  Jack squared up against Grant. They were about the same height and Jack was clearly used to getting his own way. ‘You’re wasting time. Some maniac has driven off with our children and you want to speak to the au pair? Are you crazy? She’s got nothing to do with it.’

  A wave of alcohol and aftershave came Grant’s way. ‘Let me be the judge of that.’

  Against the weight of Grant’s calm power, Jack backed down.

  ‘We need to set up a centre of operations and I’m wondering if that might be possible at your house, sir?’ Grant asked.

  Alice swayed slightly. ‘Why?’

  There was no point mincing his words and he needed to be straight with Alice, however difficult it was for the mother of two abducted children to hear reality.

  ‘We’re treating this as a kidnapping and I’d prefer to have a permanent base at your house in case the abductor makes contact. It will be disruptive because we’ll have to move in specialised technology and we need officers present twenty-four hours. Frankly, it’s the best place to be if we want to move quickly in response to how this evolves and it means we can keep in continuous communication with you both.’

  ‘Absolutely,’ Jack said. ‘Anything you need.’

  ‘I’m sending out a Child Rescue Alert so as soon as people wake up and switch on this morning, they’ll hear a news flash or see a ticker tape message at the bottom of their television screen. There will be a special police hotline and all information will be collected and sorted and come straight to me.’

  ‘Th-thank you,’ Jack said.

  Police units, border control, council services and especially members of the public via television and radio – they were often the best means of tracking down missing children. Grant would be circulating photographs of Emily and Lisa and the vehicle details within minutes.

  He put his hand on Joan Hardman’s arm. ‘Once again, my condolences.’

  And Joan Hardman gave a small nod, which broke Grant’s heart.

  ‘Shall I go with Mum to the hospital, or should I stay here?’ Alice asked. ‘What if you get news? I don’t know what to do. I don’t know if I should be with Mum or… I don’t want to be away if…’

  ‘I’ll be in contact every step of the way,’ Grant said. ‘If you want to see your father please don’t be frightened because it’s my job to keep you informed and that’s something I take very seriously. I’ll ask DS Collins to take you.’

  He wanted Diane to see how events panned out at the hospital and to get a view on the family dynamics. Family members had to be in the frame of the enquiry. All his sergeants understood the rules of the game and Grant knew he could trust Diane to sniff out any trace of suspicion concerning the parents or even the Hardmans. Better than that, Diane’s cosy image meant people didn’t feel threatened and they tended to let their guard down. Many a suspect had been fooled by DS Diane Collins.

  Daylight was filtering through the sky and soon the sun would be coming over the horizon. DCI Grant borrowed the SOCOs van as a temporary hub and crammed his team into the back of it. They were joined by Grant’s third detective sergeant, DS Steve McGowan. McGowan brought a tray of takeaway drinks with enough for the SOCOs and it got him plenty of slaps on the back. It was a chilly early morning and everyone was grateful for a warm-up and a caffeine infusion, except Delaney who had a herbal tea.

  ‘Sorry I’m late, guv,’ McGowan said.

  Grant scowled because he hated tardiness, especially on a case like this. But McGowan was a veteran and worth his place on the team. Steve McGowan wore his usual open neck shirt, scruffy jeans and leather jacket. He handed Delaney’s cup over without a smirk, and without a jibe about vegetarians or herbal tea drinkers – of which Delaney was both. McGowan was known for his dry wit and he had a sarcastic comment for most people though not many for Delaney. Why not? Because although Steve McGowan was by far Delaney’s senior, he had a respect for their newest recruit, especially since the team’s last case. It had thrown up the suspicious death of Delaney’s father and had put Delaney through the wringer.

  The aroma of coffee filled the van. Diane, Delaney and McGowan sipped their drinks and Grant brought everyone up to speed. He ticked the major points off on his fingers.

  ‘What I want to know is – did the perpetrator have a key to the kitchen door,’ Grant said. ‘Find out. Three sets of keys to the Hardman house have been accounted for and they belong to Joan, Ronnie Hardman and Alice, and each set is where it’s expected to be. Jack has the Hardmans’ front door key on his clip but he doesn’t have the back door one. It’s supposed to be hanging on a board at the Glover house. I’ve sent a constable to check. And if the kitchen door was left unlocked, which is an option, was it deliberate or an accident – keep that in mind.’

  ‘Ronnie Hardman might have made a mistake,’ Diane said. ‘Maybe he thought he locked it but he didn’t.’

  ‘Joan told me Ronnie was scrupulous. But we keep that option open too.’

  ‘Yeah, well Ronnie Hardman can’t give us an update now, can he?’ McGowan said.

  ‘The cleaner is the only other person who has keys and she’s been with the Hardmans for seven years.’ Grant glanced at his watch. ‘It’s four o’clock. McGowan, get over there and wake her up. Find out if she’s left her keys anywhere in the last six months. Find out if anyone has even touched them and if you sense anything, bring her down to the station for further questioning.’

  ‘Right, guv.’

  ‘Uniformed division have arrived and the constables will be kicking off a door-to-door in the area. Delaney, you’ll be our point of contact on that. Our first priority with the public is identifying the vehicle and any witnesses to the abduction. Then any suspicious activity in the street in the last few weeks. On the door-to-door, make sure they check for discarded clothing or a weapon.’

  ‘Yes, boss,’ Delaney said.

  This was the first time Delaney worked a kidnap case. Liaising on the door-to-door operation was a step up in responsibility for his youngest sergeant. They must cover as large an area as possible, efficiently, and in as short a time as possible. The good thing was most people would be home so when the constables went knocking they’d be able to nab people before they left for work. Grant often gave Delaney tasks which would stretch him. It was how he’d learned himself – by working with a senior officer who trusted him and tested him.

>   ‘Collins, once you’ve finished at the hospital, I want you to co-ordinate a trawl of surveillance cameras. Which way did he drive in and which way did he go out? Check with the council’s CCTV and local businesses. We’ve a timing of between two and two thirty for the abduction.’

  Once Superintendent Fox arrived, she’d handle keeping the press under control so he didn’t need to worry about the media frenzy. Grant took sips of his scalding drink. Phone and financial records for Joan, Ronnie, Jack and Alice would be requested and scrutinised. He had already decided his own number one task would be to squeeze the parents to see what came out. Why? Because there was conflict between them and his instincts told him to find out why. After that, he wanted to speak to the au pair.

  ‘We’ve got more information about the blood,’ he said. ‘As well as the hand mark, there were two drops at the bottom of the stairs. We don’t yet know if it matches one of the children but we’ve got to keep in mind it could be a serious wound.’

  ‘Shit,’ McGowan said.

  Grant’s thoughts exactly. A life-threatening wound on a young child was precisely what they didn’t need. Grant held up another high-resolution photograph. ‘Then there’s this.’

  It showed a teddy bear with the stuffing spilling out. The toy had been slashed.

  ‘This was found in the children’s bedroom and it was done with a sharp blade. My guess is the abductor did this to coerce Emily and Lisa to co-operate. Maybe he threatened this would happen to them if they didn’t do as he said. And then someone did get injured.’

  ‘I don’t like it,’ McGowan said. ‘Why bring a knife? That’s reckless. It could have resulted in loss of life.’

  ‘He went through all this planning to get in without being noticed and then he risks a murder? That’s plain odd,’ Delaney said.

  It was what Grant had been thinking and that’s why his team was the best in the business – Delaney was more brilliant than he ever realised, McGowan was hard-nosed and seasoned, and Diane was a cunning detective who could smell a rat from a mile away.

  ‘I don’t get the feeling this is a standard kidnapping,’ Grant said. ‘I can’t put my finger on exactly why but I’m getting odd vibes from the family. We’re going to have to dig deep and I’ve a feeling we’re going to need our colleague Ruby Silver on this one. I’m bringing her in.’

  McGowan groaned.

  Ruby Silver was a top criminal psychologist and Grant had arranged to meet her at the Glover house. Ruby was seconded to the Sussex police force thanks to Grant. He’d discovered Ruby on their serial killer case where her expertise had been the clincher. Her profiling of criminals was second to none.

  ‘Not her again,’ McGowan said. ‘I don’t think I can stomach more of her whiny advice.’

  ‘Shut up, Steve,’ Diane said.

  McGowan hadn’t taken to Ruby, which was a problem. McGowan was a traditionalist. He didn’t like new ideas or new techniques and he didn’t like the young dynamic Ruby Silver. If it came to a choice between them Grant would find it hard – McGowan with his tough-cop image and cynical attitude which cut straight to the bone, or Ruby with her spot-on expert advice? And there was a complication with McGowan. McGowan had come up on Grant’s radar as a possible source of leaked information on their last case, when Assistant Chief Constable Treadgold had been aware of what Grant’s team would do before they did it. Since Grant suspected Treadgold of corruption, it had been a serious breach, though Grant had no means to prove it. Since then, nailing ACC Treadgold had become one of Grant’s personal aims.

  Grant downed his drink and lobbed his cup in the bin. He had more important things to deal with.

  ‘Like Diane said, shut it. Ruby is in and I need your best.’

  ‘You’ve got it, guv.’

  The back door entry was a red flag. Was this an inside job? Did someone close to the children have something to gain? And what about the blood? Did it mean their perpetrator was hot-headed? Because hot was always more risky to deal with than cold. And deep down Grant had a feeling the perp was a clever bastard.

  ‘It’s up to us to bring Emily and Lisa home. Let’s get moving.’

  Grant met the eyes of each member of his team and he saw the fire in them which matched his own. Children always brought out the passion. They practically fought each other to be first out of the van but Grant beat them to it.

  5

  Ruby Silver was a light sleeper. When her telephone rang, she was immediately awake and when she saw it was a call from DCI Grant, her skin tingled. A new case – just what she was waiting for. She listened to the details, tweaking the curtain to peek outside. The sky was dark and the stars sparkled. Grant needed her on a child abduction case which made Ruby both excited and nervous.

  Rolling the names of the missing children around her mind, she pulled on her jeans.

  Grant sent a picture of the children and they were two adorable fair-haired girls. As a psychologist, serial killers were Ruby’s speciality yet profiling worked for any type of perpetrator including child abductors. This would be the first investigation of its type for Ruby and she was eager to get to work.

  She tied back her dark hair and splashed her face with water. Working with Grant was the biggest adventure of her life. She’d come a long way from being a kid dumped in a children’s home. Ruby had lived through plenty of bad times until her passion for understanding the criminal mind had brought her to Himlands Heath. Her first meeting with Grant had changed her life. It had freed her from the bad secrets of her own past and it had put a serial killer, the one from her nightmares, behind bars.

  Ruby felt she’d landed on her feet because Grant was the best mentor she could have wished for and him believing in her made Ruby believe in herself.

  Cramming down a couple of cereal bars, she set up search parameters on her laptop and launched the program. Looking through past cases of abductions would help her find common patterns about the psychological make-up and traits of kidnappers.

  Eerily quiet and grey, the streets were cold and her breath misted in the air. Some nicer weather had arrived for the days but the mornings were chilly and damp and they would be for a long time yet – that was early spring in England for you, and Ruby was glad she had invested in a warm coat.

  The taxi seemed to take an age to arrive at her door.

  ‘Drive as quickly as you can,’ she told the driver. ‘It’s an emergency.’

  Alice and Jack Glover lived in an area full of nice houses. Their property had a picture window at the front and a huge conservatory on the side which looked like a mini-version of a botanical garden. There were swathes of snowdrops and daffodils along the front path and a large well-tended garden. This was a family with a decent income although it seemed they didn’t like to be flamboyant.

  At the door, a uniformed constable checked Ruby’s details.

  ‘DCI Grant is expecting you,’ the constable said.

  Inside the house, Ruby could hear voices, including the chief’s. She walked along the hallway passing a lovely, and probably very expensive, painting of a Sussex landscape. Grant was sitting in the lounge. At the back of the room, technicians were scrambling to set up computers and phone connections. She guessed the equipment must be standard in a kidnap case for if an abductor contacted the family and so incoming communications could be monitored.

  The room looked like something out of a home décor magazine with a white stone fireplace and a cream carpet. Grant was in an armchair. He was facing three people who were sitting side by side on a sumptuous sofa – a blonde woman, then a man in the middle, and next a dark-haired woman. They were all a similar age, probably late thirties, so almost ten years older than Ruby. The children’s mother was easy to spot because she looked as if she’d been smacked into by a bus. She was wearing a green evening dress which complemented her fair hair. The dress must have been elegant at some point but her make-up was horribly smeared and her hair and clothes were a mess. The last couple of hours must have been hell fo
r Alice Glover and it wasn’t over yet. The man in the middle must be the father.

  ‘Hello Ruby,’ Grant said. ‘I’d like to introduce my colleague, Ruby Silver. She’s a psychologist.’

  The man got up to shake her hand. ‘Jack Glover,’ he said.

  Jack had brown eyes which were full of pain. He faltered, so Ruby spoke for him.

  ‘I’m here to assist DCI Grant.’

  The dark-haired woman dabbed a tissue at her nose. ‘You’re very young. I didn’t know the police employed psychologists.’

  Ruby was used to being dismissed because of her age. She’d studied hard and she had a talent for criminal psychology but the real source of her expertise sprang from her upbringing. Which, of course, was something she never discussed. Only Grant and Tom Delaney knew the details.

  ‘It’s more common than you think,’ Ruby said. ‘Are you a friend of the family?’

  ‘I’m Natalie and I live next door. Alice and I are friends.’

  From how Natalie’s leg was pressed up against Jack’s, Ruby wondered if Natalie might be better friends with Jack than she was with Alice.

  Grant leaned forward. ‘I know this is a terrible time but, as I explained, the more information you can give me, the better chance we have of finding Lisa and Emily. Let’s go through this one more time and I’d like to start with where you both were this evening.’

  ‘We’ve already told you everything,’ Alice said. ‘I can’t repeat it all.’

  ‘My wife’s exhausted. Why do you keep asking questions? You should be out there tracking down this maniac!’

  Ah, so Grant was piling on the pressure. Which meant he had his reasons for scrutinising the parents. Ruby sat down quietly. With his hair silvering at the temples and grey eyes, Grant looked polished in his grey suit, though he’d been dragged out of bed in the middle of the night. With victims, Grant had what Ruby called the golden touch, and she could see he’d already won the respect of the family because they were hanging on his every word. This was the man they were pinning their hopes on.