Изменить стиль страницы

Jessica stepped back towards the room, crouching to pick the weight up.

The door didn’t swing shut.

She could hear Sharon shuffling on the stairs. Jessica remembered a time when they had gone on a school trip to a local castle. One of her teachers had tried to measure how deep the moat was by tying a similar weight to a string. As the children sat in a circle and watched, the teacher had slowly lowered the object into the moat before offering a quick ‘oops’ and pulling out the string with no weight attached. Jessica still remembered the embarrassed look on the teacher’s face as she realised the piece of school property was in the process of sinking to the bottom.

Jessica knelt and cupped the weight in her hand, bobbing it up and down to feel how heavy it was. She glanced around the room before noticing a hatch on the ceiling, a round hook in the centre. She stood, still holding the weight, and walked over to the bed. The covers were hanging over the side, touching the floor but she pulled them back and reached underneath. As her hands gripped the cool metal of what was undoubtedly a ladder, Jessica knew she was right.

She pulled it out with a clang and looked up to see Sharon standing in the doorway. Any defiance in her face was gone as the two locked eyes. ‘Why did you do it?’ Jessica asked.

Sharon spoke quietly. ‘I just wanted to see him.’

21

The change in the atmosphere around the station in the days since Lloyd Corless had been found was remarkable. No one thought Sharon had anything to do with the other disappearances and the fact Lloyd’s name had been on the list found in the allotment shed seemed to be a coincidence. The senior members were delighted the boy had been found alive and well – and the subsequent media coverage was very positive. Jessica thought a lot of the internal relief was because they had somehow managed to keep news of the list’s existence in-house.

From her point of view, Jessica was still frustrated because they had only solved one mystery which it now seemed wasn’t even connected to the wider one they were supposed to be looking into. Plenty of people around the station were happy to offer her a ‘well done’ and give the proverbial pat on the back but she didn’t share their enthusiasm, instead retreating to her office.

Meanwhile, everything was being hampered by the weather. At least when it had been wet, they could get on and do things. As the winter freeze had taken hold, the ground where they’d discovered Toby Whittaker’s clothes was becoming almost impossible to work on. They were no closer to finding the identity of the driver either.

Jessica was sitting at her desk when there was a knock on the door and Izzy entered. Jessica welcomed the constable in, who sat on the corner of DS Cornish’s empty desk.

‘Are you all right?’ Izzy asked.

‘Not too bad.’

‘Something else has happened, hasn’t it?’

‘What, with the case?’

‘No, it’s more than that. I can tell by the way you have been smiling to yourself the last few days when you think no one’s around.’

‘It’s just because we found Lloyd.’

The constable laughed. ‘There’s a man involved, isn’t there?’

Jessica tried to keep a straight face but cracked within a second, laughing out loud in a way she knew really wasn’t like her. ‘Maybe.’

Izzy started to laugh too. ‘My detecting skills are really coming along. Who is it?’

‘No one you’d know.’ Jessica was trying to be overly evasive but she didn’t want to talk too much about Adam either.

Izzy nodded and spoke with a big smile. ‘Like that then, is it?’

‘How’s the peanut?’

‘Getting bigger. I think I’ll start to tell people next week.’

‘Peanut’s a good name. You should think about using it. Pretty for a girl, solid enough for a lad. I’ll let you have it for free.’

‘I’m not that mean. Anyway, you seem to be at the top of everyone’s Christmas card list at the moment.’

Jessica shrugged. ‘This was the simple part. We still don’t know who killed Isaac Hutchings. Everything’s going so slowly. I’ve been tidying up the stuff with Sharon Corless. She’s pleaded guilty but says her son was nothing to do with the abduction. The super isn’t convinced but we don’t have anything to prove differently.’

‘How’s Lloyd?’

‘I spoke to Esther from the kidnap team earlier. She said that when Rachel and Lloyd were reunited, the son seemed all right and the brother was pleased. But rather than being overjoyed, Rachel was apparently really angry, saying Adrian would never see his kids again and all that. Her mate was trying to calm her down but she wasn’t having any of it. To be honest, there’s something not quite right with them all. The grandmother was giving some sort of drug to Lloyd to make him stay quiet and not cause trouble. When I found him, he was asleep, even though it wasn’t that early. She let me look around the house but I think that was because she knew her grandson was out like a light and wouldn’t make any noise. She came quietly in the end but it’s all a bit odd.’

‘How did she manage to take him without anyone noticing?’

‘We’re not really sure but, if you know the area, you could figure it out. The cameras only covered the school gates so if she parked away from them, she was unlikely to be seen. There are so many kids getting into so many cars on roads outside schools, who would really notice someone going voluntarily?’

‘I guess. And a result’s a result.’

Diamond was trying to be cheery but Jessica wasn’t particularly in the mood. While things were moving slowly, she wanted to get away from the office to spend the evening with Adam. For the past few nights, with Caroline still staying at hers, she had been stopping at Adam’s house. Caroline had sensed something wasn’t quite right and sent Jessica a text message saying she had a new flat lined up but wouldn’t be able to move in until the new year. Jessica told her friend not to worry and that she could stay for as long as she wanted. In truth, she was practically living with Adam in any case, even though they had only been back together for less than a week. They had slotted straight back into the way they had been, as if nothing had happened in between.

Jessica’s ambivalence seemed to spur the constable into action. ‘I do have one thing for you. Your teacher guy, I might have found out who he is.’

‘Ian Sturgess?’

‘Sort of. I stumbled across a “Benjamin Ian Sturgess”. “Ian” is the guy’s middle name. He’s more or less the right age and lives fairly locally. If he taught using his middle name, he could be the right person – and it would explain why we didn’t find him before because we were searching for the wrong name.’

Jessica stared at her colleague. It wasn’t the first time she had spotted a piece of information everyone else had missed.

‘Have you told anyone else?’

‘Not yet, it could still be the wrong person. I’ve been busy too.’

Izzy reached across and handed over a sheaf of papers that had details of the man she had found. Jessica skimmed through the pages. She knew roughly where the area was.

‘Do you want to come for a drive?’

‘Sorry, Jason’s got me following some things up. He says that digital artist’s impression of the driver is finally due today. It’s cost them tens of thousands, apparently. Something to do with “3D digital remodelling” according to Jason. It’s no wonder it took so long. Dave’s probably free.’

‘Yeah, but he’s so loved up he’ll be talking about learning to play the guitar or something stupid.’

‘He did say he was writing a song.’

‘Oh for . . . you’re joking?’

Izzy laughed. ‘I am actually. He’s not been too bad with the whole Chloe thing this week.’