I walk towards the kitchen just as a head pops round the door. Faye, from the theatre group.
‘Oh, Jo, we were utterly devastated to hear your news. You were so brave on the television that we decided we could at least bring you round something to eat. I know you probably don’t feel like food, but we thought it might help. What happened?’
Over her shoulder I see Shona’s shining blonde ponytail. She’s wearing my favourite kiss the cook or she won’t feed you apron, wiping down the Aga with rubber-gloved hands, and she turns to give me a sympathetic smile.
It’s kind of them, but I don’t want to have to tell my story again; I want to be left alone, to crawl upstairs and lie on Millie’s bed – to think about her, to smell her sweet scent on her sheets, her pillow, her clothes. I turn to gaze at Zoe, then at Becky.
‘Nousha said they were friends, and it would be okay to let them in,’ Zoe says quietly with an apologetic frown as she sees the dismay on my face.
I close my eyes in an attempt to stop the tears that are never far from the surface from flowing down my cheeks. It all feels so hopeless.
Tessa’s arm is still round my shoulders and she steers me away from the kitchen towards the sitting room. Behind me, I hear Becky’s voice.
‘I’m Detective Inspector Becky Robinson. It’s kind of you to prepare some food for Jo, and I know how much she’ll appreciate it. If you’re done, though, I think she needs to get some rest. She’s not slept, and she’s physically and mentally exhausted. I’m sure you understand.’
I thank God for Becky.
Faye does her best to whisper, but she doesn’t know how. When she’s prompting a theatre production, you can hear her at the back of the auditorium, just as I can hear her now.
‘What happened? Can you tell us anything at all?’
There’s a note of suppressed excitement in her voice, as if it’s a thrill to be involved, however remotely, in such a drama. It’s all I can do not to turn round and let rip. Tessa’s arm tightens, and she leans her head towards mine, her lips next to my ear.
‘Jesus! Can I tell her it’s never too late to shut the fuck up and mind her own business?’
I would smile if I had a smile in me.
Becky saves the day. ‘I’m sorry. We can’t say any more. We can only repeat what you saw on the TV. But it’s good of you to go to this trouble.’
I hear Shona’s voice – quieter, calmer than Faye’s. ‘Come on, Faye. We’ve done what we can, so let’s leave her be. Inspector, could you please tell Jo that we’re here if she needs us? For anything at all.’
It’s good to have friends who care, but I’m glad they’re going.
As the door closes behind them I breathe a sigh of relief. Now I only have Tessa to explain to, and she is showing a surprising level of empathy for a woman who usually prides herself on speaking her mind and doing her own thing.
‘You don’t have to talk. If it helps, then I’m listening. Otherwise I’ll go and see what those two have been up to in the kitchen. If I’d seen them arrive, I’d have stopped them. Faye’s a nosy cow who doesn’t normally lift a finger to help anyone.’
I try to smile, but it’s a weak effort and Tessa reaches out to touch my shoulder.
Becky crouches down next to where I’m sitting.
‘I’m going back to the office now, Jo. Zoe will keep you up to speed with anything that happens, and if you think of anything – no matter how trivial – tell her.’ She turns to Tessa. ‘Miss O’Hanlon, that’s right, isn’t it? You live directly opposite, I understand, and it’s quite possible that you might have witnessed something unusual – people watching the house, cars you didn’t recognise. I know you saw Jo’s car leaving, so perhaps you saw others parked at the front of the house? Please, if you think of anything, pass it on to Zoe here.’
Tessa looks directly at Becky. ‘I can’t think of a single thing, but I’ll do my best. The trouble is that I decided to have a quiet night in with a bottle of wine and a good book, so apart from once – when I was checking if the weather was as bad as it sounded – I didn’t look out of the window at all. That was when I saw Jo leaving.’
I lift my head to look at Becky. Last time Tessa said she was closing the curtains. Becky knows, as I do, that she is lying.
50
Tom’s fear for Millie’s safety was growing. Ash’s escape may have royally buggered things up for the kidnappers. What would they do with Millie now? And why had they wanted Ash at all? Had he been taken solely as a blind to cover Millie’s abduction? If so, she must have been specifically chosen, and Tom didn’t like that thought at all.
Why Millie?
Was she to be trafficked for illegal adoption or sexual exploitation? Or even – as Jo had suggested – organ harvesting, rare though that was in the UK?
They had multiple lines of inquiry running simultaneously, and all the ideas and hypotheses were making him dizzy. Much as he didn’t want to take a break, he knew both he and the team had been pushed to their limit.
‘Okay, everyone, can I have a moment, please,’ he shouted. The room fell quiet. ‘Most of you have put in a lot of hours since this kicked off, and you need some rest. We have a team working through the night and we’re not going to stop until Millie is found. But you’ll all work better – and I include myself in that – with some sleep. So let’s have a run-through of where we are, and then those of you who are not working overnight should go home. Lynsey, how are you doing with Steve Allman?’
‘His mobile appears to be switched off, sir. I’ve contacted other people in his team, and I went to see them at the arena where they’re setting up for tonight. Allman hasn’t shown his face all day. Apparently he’s visiting some woman who lives out in the wilds to the east of Manchester. No one knew more than that. I told the most sensible-looking guy to call me as soon as Allman appears.’
‘Thanks, Lynsey. I’m not sure we’d get approval for tracking his phone, even if he switches it on. We’ve nothing on him other than the fact that he’s Millie’s biological father and he’s suddenly shown an interest in his daughter. We do need to find him and talk to him, though. Where are we with CCTV? Rob, you’ve been pulling together everything we’ve got.’
Rob leaped to his feet and cast his wide smile round the room. ‘Based on Rajavi’s description of the car he was in – a dark blue Audi saloon – and the fact that he thinks at one point he was in Patricroft, we’ve checked the CCTV we can access along Liverpool Road to pick up possible cars. But we have to consider that Rajavi might have been wrong about Patricroft. Given where he was found, they could have taken him along the East Lancs Road – the A580.’
‘Doesn’t look much like Patricroft along there,’ Tom said. ‘However, he was very stressed at the time, and the weather was foul, so we can’t rely entirely on his identification of the location. I’ll leave you to get the vehicles checked out. Anything on the searches of Cadishead Moss?’
‘Nothing as yet. And there’s no saying Millie will be there. They may have been en route to somewhere else and taken a detour away from CCTV and ANPR to stuff him in the boot.’