On A Dark Sea (The DCI Dani Bevan Detective Novels Book 2) (19 page)

Chapter Forty

H
aving drawn a blank with their investigations in the seaside town of Whitley Bay, DC Clifton drove further up the coast to Blyth. Alice gazed out of the window at the attractive countryside passing by. The day had been a mixture of sunshine and showers, but it felt good to be next to the sea.

Alice Mann had grown up in Largs, a pretty place on the Firth of Clyde, with magnificent views of the hills of Arran and Bute across the water. Her parents were well into their forties when she was born and Alice remained an only child. Her home had been a quiet and unexciting one, where books took precedence over real life experiences. As soon as Alice graduated from university, she craved the challenge that a career in the police force would bring. She knew her parents were secretly horrified by her decision to join the police graduate programme. They had slowly come around to accepting her new lifestyle. Although, she suspected that her mum and dad worried about her a great deal.

Alice had bought herself a travel guide in one of the service stations on the way down. She discovered that Blyth was a town which once had a burgeoning shipbuilding industry. It had long since gone into decline but the docks were still thriving, largely because of the shipping of paper from Scandinavia, which was used in the newspaper trades of England and Scotland. This knowledge had given Mann a flicker of hope that this was a place where a boat may have set sail for Norway.

Dan Clifton guided the car slowly through the town centre, heading for the docks. As they approached the quayside and scanned the roads for parking spaces, Alice caught sight of several huge wind turbines, on the opposite side of the river, looming ominously over the town. The detective imagined they must be visible from miles out to sea. She wondered if Maisie had seen them on the night she tried to find a boat to take her to her father. Alice thought how terrified the girl would have felt and how her resolve must surely have been tested by the idea of the terrible voyage which lay ahead.

Dan had parked by the harbour wall. The pair got out of the car and pulled their jackets up to their ears, the cold northerly wind making their faces turn immediately numb. They strode towards the commercial docks first, asking questions at the offices of several shipping firms, all of whom denied seeing the rag-tag band of individuals who were desperately trying to leave the country that night.

As they strolled back past the harbour, Alice suggested they try the owners of the myriad fishing boats tied up at the moorings down there. Dan remained sceptical, but they’d come all this way and it made sense to be methodical. Quite a few of the boats were in. It was getting late in the day and the wind was gusting fiercely. Waves had begun to swirl into the semi-circular harbour, licking up at the stone wall which enclosed it.

A man in a bright orange life jacket was carrying plastic trays filled with fish onto the landing stage next to his boat. The vessel was rising and falling in the strengthening swell. ‘Excuse me,’ Alice called over, holding up her warrant card. ‘May we ask you a couple of questions?’

The man nodded. ‘Just give me a minute to get my catch onto dry land.’

As they drew close, the smell of raw fish was extremely potent. Alice could see that Dan was scrunching up his face in distaste, but she actually rather liked it. So when the fisherman finally finished hauling the pallets out of the hull of the boat and held out his hand, she didn’t hesitate to take it.

‘I’m Mick Burdis. What can I do for you?’

‘My name is DC Mann and this is my colleague, DC Clifton. We are investigating the disappearance of this girl.’ Alice handed him the photo.

He looked at it carefully. ‘I really don’t recognise her from round here. She’s the lass who went missing from Glasgow, is that right? What makes you think she’d made it down to these parts?’

‘There was a possible sighting, at the Port of Tyne. We think she was part of a group trying to gain illegal passage on one of the boats sailing to Scandinavia.’

‘It wouldn’t be easy these days. Cargo is very carefully monitored. It wouldn’t be worth a skipper’s while to take anything illegal on board, unless it was particularly lucrative. What night was this sighting?’

‘The evening of Thursday the nineteenth.’

The dark-haired man paused and then said, ‘come aboard for a second. I’ll take a look in my log and see if anything unusual went on that night.’

The detectives followed him onto the tilting boat, with Dan nearly losing his footing on the slippery deck. They stepped into the wheelhouse and waited, whilst Mick scanned a shelf full of notebooks and directories. ‘Here we go,’ he flicked through the dog-eared pages, until alighting on the correct entry. ‘Aye, I thought that was the same evening.’ He looked up. ‘There was a storm on the nineteenth, out in the sea at about 9.30pm. The lighthouse at Whitley Bay activated the fog horn and the docks went to red alert. My son works on one of the ships over there. It was a bad night, he said.’

‘Did any boats actually set sail on that evening then?’ Dan asked in near frustration.

Mick thought about it. ‘I’ll tell you who I’ve not seen since that day, Tony Howey. He’s got a fishing trawler and it’s usually moored here until the spring. It’s a fairly sturdy boat and he’s got a permanent crew of three or four. If I’m honest, I’d not given it a second thought that he hadn’t been around. I don’t like him very much, so I suppose I was relieved not to have to speak with him.’

‘Does this man have any family nearby?’

‘I think he lives in the town, sure. But whether he has a wife or kids, I couldn’t tell you.’

‘Thank you very much for your help,’ DC Clifton said decisively, making a move back up top, his face beginning to turn a sickly shade of pale green.

Alice stayed for a moment and shook the man’s hand once again. ‘We really appreciate this information, Sir. I’ve got a feeling it’s going to prove very important.’

Chapter Forty One

I
t was the middle of the night when Bevan’s mobile phone began to buzz insistently on the bedside table. Being woken so abruptly was disorientating and it took her a moment to recall that she was in the guesthouse in Stavanger.

              ‘DCI Bevan, is that you?’

              Dani composed herself and replied. ‘Yes, this is Bevan.’

              ‘It’s Kristin Riddell,’ the woman was speaking in a kind of strangulated whisper. ‘She’s outside now! Maisie is coming to get us!’

              ‘Calm down, Mrs Riddell. Please tell me what’s happening.’ Dani used her most soothing voice, glancing at her watch and seeing it was 3am. She ran a hand despairingly through her cropped hair.

              ‘I woke up about ten minutes ago, I didn’t know why exactly, but I thought it might have been because Gabriel had cried out for me. I got up and went into his room. That’s when I saw her – she had her face pressed up to the window. I screamed and she took off. It was
her,
Maisie was coming for me and Gabe, just like you said she would!’

              ‘I didn’t say that, exactly. Is Charles there with you?’

              ‘Yes, we’re all awake now.’

              Dani wasn’t surprised, the hysterical state that Kristin was in. ‘Then make sure all the doors are locked and wait for me and DC Calder. We’ll be there in half an hour.’

It was raining in sheets by the time they reached the Riddells’ property. Charles opened the front door as soon as Andy had switched off the engine. He’d obviously been watching for them to arrive.

              He hustled the detectives through the door. ‘I’ve given Kristin a brandy and settled Gabriel back down to sleep. Now we can go out and search for Maisie.’

              Dani held up her hand. ‘Wait a minute, Mr Riddell. We need to talk to your wife first, about what she saw.’

              ‘But we can’t waste any more time, surely?’ He glanced behind them. ‘And where are the Norwegian police? We need plenty of men on the ground to scour the area, it’s absolutely vast.’

              Andy placed a supportive hand on Charles’ back, leading him gently but firmly towards the kitchen-diner, where Kristin was slumped on the sofa with a half full glass of spirits balanced precariously in her lap.

              ‘Take a seat too, would you, Mr Riddell?’ Dani turned towards Andy. ‘Could you pour another brandy,’ she asked him.

              Charles seemed shell-shocked, but allowed himself to he shuffled into a chair opposite his wife and accepted the glass of brandy that was placed in his hand. Dani sat down next to the woman and said softly, ‘what did you see, Kristin?’

              She was trembling and her eyes were wide with fear. ‘There was a figure pressed up to the glass. I saw the dark hair and her pale, expressionless face. It was Maisie.’

              ‘What was this person wearing?’ Dani asked.

              Kristin shook her head. ‘I don’t know. It all happened so fast. As soon as she saw me, the girl ran away.’

              ‘It’s raining very hard out there. Don’t you think that if Maisie were somewhere in the woods she’d take shelter in this weather? Why would she come to the house if she didn’t want to be allowed in, or to see her father?’

              ‘Because she wants to frighten me, that is why. Maisie wants me to think she’ll harm Gabriel, she’s torturing me!’

              Charles looked confused. ‘Why would she do that, Kristin? This doesn’t make any sense.’

              His wife snapped her head in his direction. ‘Your precious daughter has always hated me. Don’t say you haven’t noticed.’

              ‘It’s been tough for Maisie, surely you understand that? She lost her family when I moved out here.’

              ‘Plenty of children have divorced parents,’ she muttered sourly.

              ‘Perhaps you should tell your husband the truth, Kristin. I think it’s time,’ Dani said levelly.

              ‘What does she mean?’ Charles took a sip of the brandy, as if knowing that bad news was imminent.

              ‘When I took the job at Barents Oil, I was a member of the Environmental Liberation Group. I was in a relationship with Andreas Nilsen and he wanted me to gather information for him.’ Kristin allowed the words to settle between them.

              Charles narrowed his eyes. ‘Just what the hell are you admitting to?’

              ‘I did provide Andreas with material in the first few months, but as I got to know you, I began stalling him. Then I fell in love with you, Charles. After that, I broke off all contact with the group. I’ve had nothing to do with them ever since.’

              Charles turned shakily to look at Dani. ‘What has this got to do with Maisie?’

              ‘We believe that your daughter discovered Kristin’s secret. Some letters that Maisie had written came into our possession and in them she discusses her suspicions about your wife.’

              ‘Why didn’t Maisie come straight to me with this?’

              Andy took up the story. ‘We think that Maisie was worried you wouldn’t believe her. I suppose she felt that your new relationship was so strong it would be difficult to persuade you that Kristin had been disloyal.’

              A flicker of recognition passed across the man’s face, as if this possibility were entirely feasible. ‘Why did she run away?’

              ‘Our theory is that she was trying to reach Norway under her own steam, so that she could gather information against Kristin. She wanted to prove her case to you categorically.’

              Charles leapt up out of his seat, spilling some of the brandy on the pure white carpet. ‘Then that could very well have been my daughter outside tonight! What are we waiting for? Let’s get out there and start looking!’

              Andy stepped across and laid a hand on his shoulder once again, making Riddell immediately suspicious. ‘There’s something else, isn’t there? Something you’ve not told us yet? For God’s sake, Detective Chief Inspector, put me out of my misery!’

Chapter Forty Two

D
ani waited until the man was sitting back in his seat before she carried on. ‘We were going to come and see you this morning anyway, before I got Kristin’s phone call. We received a piece of fresh evidence late last night.’ Bevan’s tone became grave. ‘Two of my team have been checking out the possible sighting of Maisie at the docks in Newcastle on the evening after she went missing. They decided to expand their investigation to include all of the ports within thirty miles of the Tyne. In a town called Blyth, they gained new information. A fishing boat, with a crew of three men on board, set out late on that Thursday evening. As far as anyone can tell, it never came back.’

              Charles gasped. ‘They can’t know for sure that Maisie and these others were on board, or even what happened to the boat.’

              ‘The skipper of the fishing trawler had no family to speak of and his absence wasn’t noticed. One of his crew, however, a young man called Davy Webb, was reported missing on Friday 20
th
March. My officers spoke with his parents. They claimed that the skipper was involved in numerous criminal activities and they’d been trying to persuade their son to end his involvement with the man. Webb’s parents suggested that the other crew member was working illegally, and this was the reason he was able to disappear without trace. These men appear to be just the kind of operators who would agree to accept money to transport illegal immigrants to the continent.’

              ‘What if the crew reached some European port and simply haven’t returned back home yet?’ Charles’ voice was desperate. 

              Dani slid forward in her seat. ‘There was a terrible storm on the night of the nineteenth. Even the big container ships had to return to port. The skipper of the trawler took a huge risk by setting sail in that weather. I suppose the money persuaded him it was a good idea.’

              Riddell looked stricken.

              ‘We’ve checked every European port reachable from Blyth. None had recorded the arrival of a fishing trawler that night, or in the days that followed. I’m very sorry, Mr Riddell. It seems as if Maisie never survived the voyage.’

              The man’s body began to heave with sobs. ‘Has Fiona been told yet?’

              ‘A senior officer will be paying your ex-wife a visit first thing in the morning. Let’s give her a few more hours of peace first.’

              Kristin cast her eyes about the room wildly. ‘What about the girl I saw at the window? How do you explain that?’

              Dani put her hand on the woman’s arm. ‘It’s been a very stressful few days for all of us. It isn’t surprising that sometimes our minds might play tricks. I should never have suggested that Maisie could be in the area, trying to persecute you. All it did was to upset you even further. We’ve found no evidence of Maisie’s presence since we’ve been back here in Stavanger. We jumped the gun.’

              The detectives stood up. ‘We’ll leave you alone now. Please try to get some sleep.’

              Charles slammed his heavy glass onto a side table. ‘Could you take Kristin with you? Give her a lift to her mother’s place, it’s not far. Gabriel is sleeping and I don’t wish to disturb him. I’ll drop the boy off there in the morning.’

*

The sun was rising in a blaze of orange as they returned to their hotel. Dani wondered if there was any point in going back to bed. Andy must have been thinking the same thing because he nodded towards a bakery opposite, where a man in a crisp, white apron was just pulling up the shutters.

              ‘Do you fancy a coffee?’

              ‘Absolutely,’ she replied with a thin smile.

              Within a few minutes, the bakery and café was milling with people, most of them on their way to work. Dani felt the kind of emptiness in her stomach that you only get after being up half the night, and when the last thing you actually want is food.

              ‘Alice and Dan did a great job,’ Andy said graciously, setting two steaming mugs on the table.

              ‘I suspect that DC Mann was the brains behind the operation. I must commend her actions to the DCS.’

              ‘Who is going to inform Fiona Riddell?’

              ‘I really regret not being able to pass on the news to the poor woman myself. I’ve requested that DS Rose do it. But I also called Phil last night and asked if he could be there too. I think Fiona’s going to need him over the next few months.’

              ‘What about Jane?’ Andy asked cautiously, taking a warming sip of his coffee.

              ‘To hell with Jane,’ Dani said unguardedly. ‘It’s bloody obvious she doesn’t need Phil at all. Only to make the packed lunches and provide childcare.’

              Andy nodded, thinking he was in total agreement. ‘Have we failed, Ma’am?’ he added unexpectedly.

              ‘There was never anything we could have done. Maisie was dead within thirty six hours of her going missing. She’d told absolutely no one of her plans. If she’d confided in just one friend, we might have been able to save her.’

              ‘Well, it looks like she’s succeeded in breaking up her dad’s new marriage, even if Maisie never got to witness it.’

              ‘Charles is simply overwhelmed with grief. It will take a long while before he can even contemplate what Kristin has done. I’m sure he’ll forgive her in the end. They’ve got Gabriel to think of now.’

              Andy said nothing, he wasn’t so sure. He knew a little something about male pride. A powerful man like Charles Riddell wouldn’t like having been deceived for all that time.

              ‘When we get back to our rooms, I’ll call the airport and organise a flight home.’ Dani drained her cup.

              ‘Look, Ma’am. It seems a bit silly for you not to see Dieter whilst we’re here in Stavanger. I know I’ve not exactly been approving, but if you want to book a later flight. I wouldn’t mind.’

              Dani felt as if she could lean over the table and kiss him, her chest beginning to flutter with excitement. ‘Thanks Andy. I really would like to drop in on him before we go. I’m not sure when we’ll get another chance like this.’