Snatched (26 page)

‘Me, too,’ Sue admitted shyly. ‘But I was scared.’

‘I’m not like Terry,’ Dave told her softly, thinking that she meant scared about getting into a relationship after being hurt. ‘If you give me a chance, I’m not going to ruin it by taking off with the first bird who gives me the eye. But there’s no pressure. If you want more, you can have more. If you want to just stay mates for now, we’ll just stay mates. Your call.’

Sue was about to say that she’d meant scared of the trouble it would cause, when Carole’s voice suddenly blared out, ‘Get the fuck out of my way, you moron!’ from the other side of the car park.

‘Oh, great!’ Sue groaned. ‘That’s all I need.’

Glancing around and seeing his ex arguing furiously with the driver of a car that was blocking her path in the gateway, Dave said, ‘Don’t panic, she hasn’t seen you.’

And it was true, Carole hadn’t seen Sue, because Dave was so broad that he was shielding her from view. But she’d spotted
him
.

‘What’s going on over there?’ she yelled, her head bobbing up and down as she tried to see if he was with anyone or alone. ‘Don’t ignore me, Dave, you know I can see you!’

‘I’ve got to get out of here,’ Sue said, pushing Dave off her. ‘I can’t handle her today.’

Saying, ‘Leave her to me,’ Dave turned Sue around and gave her a gentle push in the opposite direction, calling after her in a loud whisper to meet him at The George at ten for a lift home.

Dave was alone by the time Carole reached him. Face white with rage she swung her hand out and smacked him across the face, screaming, ‘Who was the bitch, and where have you hidden her? Come on, you stupid bastard, don’t deny it. I
saw
her!’

Grabbing the front of her baggy T-shirt, almost lifting her off her feet, Dave said, ‘Who the
fuck
do you think you’re talking to like that?’

His face was so close that Carole could feel the warmth of his breath on her skin –
and
smell the scent of the other woman on his. Bringing her arm up, she lashed out at him again, yelling, ‘I’m talking to
you
, you two-timing piece of shit! And I’m gonna fucking
kill
her when I get my hands on her!’

‘You’re off your head,’ Dave sneered. ‘There was no one here. You’re imagining things –
again
.’

‘Don’t try and lie your way out of this one,’ Carole hissed, her breath ragged as she struggled to free herself from his grip. ‘I saw her running away. And it won’t take a genius to pick her out once I get round there, knowing what you usually go for. Blonde, was she? Big tits, no brain?’

Laughing, because it was a fair description of Sue, apart from the no-brain bit, Dave let go of Carole and stepped back. Dusting himself off as if she’d tainted him, he said, ‘Never change, will you? Always got to go in with all guns blazing.’

‘Believe me, if I had a gun it’d be blazing in your fucking face right now,’ she snarled. ‘You treat me like shit and think I’m just gonna sit back and take it. But you’re wrong, mate. Very, very wrong. And God help you if it was Sue,’ she went on furiously. ‘Because I’ll kill you
and
her if I find out you’ve been seeing her all along and lying about it.’

‘Do yourself a favour and go home before you make a show of yourself,’ Dave snorted, unfazed by her anger. ‘I left you months ago, so even if it
was
Sue – which it wasn’t – it’s got nothing to do with you.’

‘You might have left me, but that don’t stop you coming round whenever you fancy a shag, does it?’ Carole reminded him tartly. ‘Last night not good enough for you? Thought you’d come and pick up a bit of rough to finish the job, did you?’

‘Last night was shit,’ Dave said coolly. ‘But don’t worry, I won’t be making that mistake again any time soon.’

‘Oh, right, ’cos now you’ve picked yourself up a slapper you think you don’t need me, is that it?’

Saying, ‘Since when did I ever need you?’ Dave walked away, ignoring her when she screamed after him that she’d find out who he’d been with just now and make sure he never looked at the bitch again.

Leanne had looked everywhere for Terry, but he was nowhere to be found. She knew he couldn’t be inside, because the doors were locked, but he wasn’t out here either.

Standing outside the centre now, she was just scanning the faces in the crowd for the umpteenth time, cursing him under her breath and thinking that he’d better not have gone home without telling her, when her dad strolled around the corner, followed seconds later by her mum.

Glaring after Dave as he headed off across the field to find his mates, Carole spotted Leanne and made a beeline for her.

‘You see anyone run out of the car park a minute ago?’

Shaking her head distractedly, Leanne said, ‘I wasn’t looking that way. Why?’

‘’Cos I just caught your dad in there with some slag,’ Carole spat. ‘And the bastard as good as laughed in my face when I pulled him about it. But you wait till I find out who it was. I’m gonna kick her fucking head in.’

‘Thought you’d split up,’ Leanne reminded her irritably. ‘So what you going on with yourself about it for?’

‘Whose side are you on?’ Carole demanded, scowling at her.

‘Mine,’ Leanne snapped. ‘And I’ve got better things to do than stand here listening to you obsessing about someone you claim to hate most of the time.’

Grabbing her arm when she started to walk away, Carole said, ‘You seen him with Sue while he’s been here?’

‘No, he’s been with his mates.’

‘Which mates?’

‘Fucking hell, Mam,
I
don’t know,’ Leanne hissed, yanking her arm free. ‘Them guys from Terry’s works he hangs about with. Noxy and Stu, and that. Anyhow, I’ve got to go.’

‘Got any money on you?’ Carole called after her.

‘Why?’

‘’Cos I’ve only got enough for a couple of drinks, and your brothers will be here in a minute, so if you see them can you slip ’em a couple of quid to keep them off my back?’

‘If I see them,’ Leanne said, having no intention of giving either of them a penny, because the thieving little bastards probably had more money than she did.

Terry was still sitting at the table in the corner when Jay and the man came into the hall. Glancing up as they walked towards him, he nodded at Jay.

‘I’d like to introduce you to Detective Inspector Hilton,’ she said, her eyes sending out a clear message of apology. ‘He’d like to have a quick word, if that’s all right?’

Looking at the tall, thin man now, Terry didn’t speak. He didn’t trust coppers, but he especially didn’t trust ones like this man, who wore their suits like badges of superiority and looked down their noses at those they considered beneath them. And he might have a smile on his lips, but Terry could read the contempt in his eyes as clearly as if it had been written there in black marker pen.

Reaching across the table to shake his hand, Hilton pulled out a chair and sat down, saying, ‘Pleased to meet you at last, Mr Day, and I’m sorry I haven’t got around to you sooner, but we’ve all been up to our eyes with this case of yours. Anyway,’ he said now, looping his hands together on the table top. ‘That’s why I’m here now – to tell you about an idea we’ve had.’

‘Oh, yeah?’ Terry murmured, sensing from the look on Jay’s face as she hovered behind the man’s chair that he wasn’t going to like whatever Hilton was about to say.

‘In light of how long it’s been since anybody saw or heard from your daughter,’ Hilton said. ‘I think it’s time we considered a televised appeal.’

‘What, you mean like on the news?’ Terry was already frowning.

‘Exactly,’ Hilton confirmed, the smile still not reaching his eyes. ‘You see, we’ve always found media coverage to be an extremely effective tool for jogging memories that might not yet have been stirred. Maybe someone who hasn’t really been paying attention to the newspapers will see you and your wife asking for help, and suddenly remember that they saw something suspicious that day.’

‘Nah, I don’t think so,’ Terry said coolly, folding his arms. ‘For starters, she’s not my wife, she’s my ex. And we’re not exactly on the best of terms, so I can’t really see it helping if we went on TV together. People will be so busy watching us trying to avoid looking like we hate each other, they won’t have a clue what we’re talking about.’

‘Oh, come now,’ Hilton drawled, drawing his head back and giving Terry a disbelieving look. ‘You’re an intelligent man, so I’m sure you’re not going to allow a little tiff with your ex-wife to deter you from participating in something which might well make all the difference as to whether or not we find Nicky.’

‘With respect, sir,’ Jay cut in, catching the look of rage which had sparked in Terry’s eyes at the DI’s patronising tone, ‘I’ve been working very closely with Mr and Mrs Day, and he’s got a point. They’re really not in a good place at the moment, and it would be wrong to try and persuade them to do something they’re uncomfortable with.’

‘We’re all grown-ups here,’ Hilton shot back flintily. ‘And I’m sure Mr Day doesn’t need babying into putting his personal feelings aside and doing his part.’

‘Even if
I
was willing to do it,’ Terry interrupted, disliking the man even more than he already had for the way he was speaking to Jay, ‘Sue wouldn’t. She hates me so much she won’t even let me see my own son.’

‘I’m sure it’s very difficult for you both,’ Hilton said breezily. ‘But sometimes all it takes is for somebody with a little sense to mediate.’

Knowing full well that he was having a dig at her for failing to bring them together, Jay raised her chin proudly. Catching the movement, Terry’s frown deepened.

‘Do
you
think it’s a good idea?’ he asked, directing the question solely to her.

Inhaling slowly, Jay gave a small, apologetic shrug. ‘Honestly? I’d have to say that the public are generally more receptive to TV appeals than the less visual forms of media. And, if you could bring yourselves to do it, I think it would be helpful. Apart from which,’ she went on quietly, ‘you really need to consider Nicky’s age.’

‘What’s her age got to do with anything?’ Terry asked, confused now.

‘She’ll be sixteen in three weeks’ time,’ Hilton answered for her, taking the blunt approach to get the man to see sense. ‘And once she hits sixteen, she’ll no longer be classed as an at-risk minor. As it’s a pretty fair bet that she ran away voluntarily after starting the fire, the emphasis of the search will shift to that of a general missing person.’

‘Which means what, exactly?’

‘Which means that there will be no urgency for us to find her,’ Hilton said flatly. ‘If she’s spotted, she’ll be picked up. But if she decides that she doesn’t want to come home, that will be her choice and we’ll have to respect it.’

Glancing up at Jay, and seeing from the look in her eye that the DI was telling the truth, Terry exhaled tensely.

‘So, basically, you’re saying this might be our last chance to get her back home?’ he murmured. ‘That if we don’t do this telly thing and jog people’s memories, you’ll give up on her in three weeks – unless you happen to bump into her one day?’

‘Regrettable, but correct,’ Hilton confirmed.

‘You can’t do that,’ Terry said quietly, disgusted by what he’d heard. ‘You can’t just assume she’s run away and give up on her. What if something’s happened to her?’

‘Chances are we’d have found her by now if it had,’ Hilton told him, sneaking a surreptitious glance at his watch. ‘But in all honesty, there’s no evidence to suggest that she left the house under duress, otherwise the door probably wouldn’t have been locked. And we’d have found her by now if she’d wandered out injured. And we already know she was deeply unhappy about the situation between yourself and her mother. Add that to the bullying she’d been subjected to at school, it pretty much looks like a simple case of her having run away, from a police point of view.’

Biting his lip, Terry stared down at the table and mulled everything over. He’d rather have stuck a red-hot poker up his own backside than share the same breathing space as Sue after everything that had happened recently. But this wasn’t about her. Or him. It was about Nicky, and he owed it to her to do whatever he could to try and find her before the police brushed her under the carpet and forgot about her.

‘All right,’ he said, looking up at last. ‘If Sue will do it, so will I. But can you make sure we don’t have to sit together? Because I really can’t bear to be that close to her.’

Saying, ‘Good man!’ Hilton was practically rubbing his hands together as he stood up. ‘Right, well, just leave it with me, and we’ll have it up and running within the hour.’

‘That fast?’ Terry gasped.

‘Sooner the better,’ Hilton told him, reaching across the table to shake his hand again. ‘There’s a team already lined up at Granada just waiting for the go-ahead.’ Turning to Jay now, he said, ‘Do I need to speak to Mrs Day, or do you think you can handle that?’

Knowing that he was asking if she was capable of getting Sue to agree, as he obviously considered that he had managed to do with Terry, Jay forced herself to smile. ‘I’ll speak to her, sir.’

Nodding, Hilton said, ‘Make sure you prep them about the kinds of things we want them to say. And talk to your woman over there.’ He waved his hand in Pauline’s direction. ‘Get her to have a word with the locals, because I want them in the hall showing their support. But no drunks or troublemakers, because it’ll be my reputation on the line if this doesn’t go smoothly.’

‘You’re coming back, then?’ Jay asked, praying that Hilton would say no, that he had something more important to be getting on with – like playing golf with the Super, which was where he could usually be found while the rest of them struggled on with their heavy workloads.

‘Of course I’m coming back,’ Hilton said, as if it were a thoroughly stupid question. ‘You don’t think I’m leaving it to
you
to speak on our behalf, do you?’