The Girl Who Came Back (21 page)

‘Anton Quentin just rang from Italy,’ he said roughly. ‘Apparently Amelia’s mother died twelve years ago.’

Jules’s heart tripped in shock. This wasn’t making any sense. Amelia had said she’d left … ‘But how can she …? Are you saying …?’

He shook his head. ‘I don’t know what I’m saying, except that it can’t be where Daisy and Amelia have gone.’

IT WAS BOTH
alarming and reassuring how quickly the police came after Kian called them again. At first there was only one uniformed officer, who introduced himself as Barry Britten. Later two detectives arrived, DS Alan Field, an older man with a rugged complexion and yellowish eyes; and acting DC Leo Johnson, a fresh-faced lad with a shock of red hair and sunburned cheeks.

Field began by asking Jules and Kian to talk them through everything, going back to how the two girls knew each other, while Johnson took notes.

Jules made sure to miss nothing out, describing Amelia’s oddness of character, the reasons they’d felt Daisy had needed to cool the friendship, right through to the text Daisy had received that day saying that Amelia had found her mother.

‘But now you’re told that the mother’s dead?’ Field prompted.

‘I called Amelia’s father,’ Kian replied, ‘and when I explained about the text he said that couldn’t be possible because Amelia’s mother died twelve years ago.’

Jules said, ‘I’m afraid she lies all the time, and in this instance, I think it was a sure-fire way of persuading Daisy to go to her house – and of getting her away from me.’

The detective’s eyebrows rose. ‘Why would she want to get her away from you?’

‘Because she wouldn’t want to discuss finding her mother in front of me. She probably guessed I’d see through her in a way Daisy might not. Our daughter can be very trusting, she likes to see the best in people.’

Field was frowning. ‘Could it be possible that Amelia doesn’t know her mother’s dead?’ he suggested.

Jules started to answer and stopped. The possibility hadn’t even occurred to her.

Appearing just as thrown, Kian said, ‘That still wouldn’t make her alive and able to be found.’

Conceding this with a nod, Field said, ‘Perhaps you could let us have the father’s number.’

After reading it out to the younger detective, Kian said, ‘He’s in Italy at the moment, on holiday.’

‘Perhaps the girls are on their way to join him?’

Jules wanted to strike the man. ‘I just told you, Daisy is due to fly to the States tomorrow,’ she said through her teeth.

Appearing unfazed by her manner, Field said, ‘Another possibility is that the message Daisy received today was some sort of code that only the girls understand.’

Jules stared at him so fiercely it hurt her eyes. Where the hell was he coming from? Hadn’t he heard anything they’d just told him? The girls were estranged, they didn’t have codes.

Moving on, Field said, ‘OK, let’s say it’s not a code and that Amelia Quentin is aware that her mother’s dead – what do you think her real reason could be for wanting to see your daughter?’

Jules’s heart twisted with dread as she looked at Kian. ‘We don’t know for certain,’ she answered brokenly, ‘but I’m afraid she’s planning some kind of punishment for the rejection.’

Field frowned. ‘Does Amelia Quentin have a history of punishing people?’

‘I don’t know,’ Jules replied, ‘but she does have a history of lying and causing trouble and of doing things …’ Her voice caught on a sob. She didn’t want to repeat what she’d heard about the small animals and birds when the girl was a child, but she had to.

Field’s expression darkened as he listened, until finally he said, ‘You’ve already been up to the Quentin family home, you say, and there was nobody there?’

‘We couldn’t get an answer when we rang the entryphone,’ Jules reminded him, ‘which isn’t the same as nobody being there.’

Biting out the words, Kian said, ‘Maybe if you were to go and check we’d know for certain if anybody’s there.’

‘Someone already has,’ Field informed them, ‘and like you they received no reply.’

Kian’s temper flared. ‘And that’s it!’ he cried. ‘Because no one answers the door, you just assume that no one’s there.’

‘Not necessarily,’ Field countered, ‘but we have no evidence at this stage to say that anything unusual or untoward has occurred …’

Jules leapt to her feet. ‘I’ve just told you what kind of girl we’re dealing with. We know she lied to get my daughter to go and see her …’

‘But how do you know that your daughter wasn’t a part of the lie?’

‘What the hell are you talking about?’ Kian demanded. ‘I don’t get why you’re not believing us.’

‘It’s not that I don’t believe you,’ Field corrected, ‘it’s simply that in my experience the parents are often the last to know what their children are up to …’

‘And in my experience of our daughter we are NEVER the last to know,’ Kian thundered. ‘What the hell is it with you? Can’t you see how worried we are? Do you think we’re putting it on for attention, or something? Next thing you’ll be telling us is that she’s been groomed by some jihadi group and run off to Syria …’

‘At this stage I wouldn’t rule anything out,’ Field responded mildly, ‘but given their backgrounds and ethnicity I grant you the jihadi scenario is unlikely. What wouldn’t be unusual is for two girls to concoct a plan to go off and meet a couple of boys together, or …’

‘Daisy has a boyfriend,’ Jules cut across him. ‘His name is Joe Masters, he lives in the United States and as I’ve already told you she is due to fly over there tomorrow morning to see him. There is absolutely no way in the world she would deliberately miss the flight …’

‘And she hasn’t yet,’ Field pointed out reasonably. ‘It is quite possible she’ll come home tonight and be ready to go at whatever time …’

‘What’s the fucking matter with you?’ Kian raged, banging a fist on the table. ‘Instead of sitting here trying to tell us we don’t know our own daughter, why don’t you go up there and break the bloody door down if necessary to find out if she’s in that house?’

Eyeing him with some distaste, Field said, ‘We’d need a warrant to search the place, and at this moment in time we have no grounds for an application. All we know is that you dropped your daughter outside the gates at around three o’clock this afternoon, meaning
you
were the last one to see her …’

Jules reeled as Kian turned white.

‘I hope to God you’re not trying to suggest I had anything to do with this,’ Kian seethed.

Field’s penetrating stare remained on him as he said, ‘I’m simply trying to get the facts straight. You say you dropped her at the gates, but didn’t wait to see if she went in. So, presuming that’s true, for all we know Amelia Quentin came out and they drove off somewhere.’

‘Like where, for Christ’s sake?’ Kian fumed. ‘To see a mother who’s apparently dead?’

‘As I’ve already mentioned, it could have been a ploy …’

Jules clapped her hands to her head as Kian snatched up his phone. ‘We need to get our Danny on this,’ he growled.

‘Who’s Danny?’ the detective enquired.

‘My cousin. He won’t have a problem getting in there.’

‘Illegally.’

Losing it altogether, Kian yelled, ‘For fuck’s sake, she’s been tricked into going somewhere she wouldn’t normally go, on the eve of a trip to the States with her boyfriend, she isn’t answering her bloody phone, what more do you want?’

‘We’re simply trying to establish …’

‘I don’t give a fuck what you’re trying to establish. I want my daughter back here
tonigh
t, and if you aren’t going to make it happen then I bloody well will.’

‘Mr Bright,’ Field called after him as Kian stormed off, ‘I must warn you that taking the law into your own hands can have serious consequences.’

Kian wasn’t listening; he was already charging down the stairs to see Danny.

‘And I must warn
you
,’ Jules hissed at Field as she made to follow Kian, ‘if anything happens to our daughter that could have been prevented,
you
are the one who’ll be facing serious consequences.’

The pub was still crowded when Jules got downstairs, but there was no sign of Kian or Danny.

She found them outside in the car park surrounded by a group of Danny’s cohorts, already planning their break-in at Crofton Park.

‘You stay here, Kian,’ Danny instructed, ‘you don’t want the law coming back on you for this. The rest of us can handle it.’

‘No way am I staying here,’ Kian growled. ‘She’s my daughter …’

‘I’m coming too,’ Jules insisted.

‘Listen, the pair of you …’ Danny broke off as he spotted Field returning to his car. ‘Scum,’ he spat, loud enough for the detective to hear.

Field made no response, simply got into the Ford Focus and headed out to the main road.

‘Mr and Mrs Bright,’ a voice called out from behind them.

They turned to find the younger detective beckoning them over to a marked police car where he was standing with the young officer who’d arrived at the pub first.

Going over to them, Jules said coldly, ‘Yes?’

After glancing at his colleague, Leo Johnson said, ‘Is there a chance, if we call Mr Quentin, that he’ll tell us how to gain access to the house?’

Momentarily thrown after such a hostile meeting with Field, Jules called Kian over. She repeated Johnson’s question and saw his own surprise register.

‘Well?’ she prompted.

‘Yeah, I guess there is,’ Kian replied, clearly thinking it through. ‘I mean, why wouldn’t he?’

‘Precisely,’ Johnson responded, ‘and that way, if we go in, no crime’s been committed because we have the owner’s permission to be there.’

Jules and Kian looked at one another, taking a moment to register that these officers at least were on their side.

‘I’ll make the call,’ Kian stated.

‘No, I’ll do it,’ Johnson interrupted. ‘It’ll have more authority coming from the police.’

Not arguing, Jules and Kian watched him step away, still thrown by this sudden cooperation, but welcoming it nonetheless.

‘What was it with that bloke Field?’ Kian demanded of the uniformed officer. ‘It was like he didn’t believe a word we said.’

‘Let’s put it this way,’ Barry Britten responded, turning down the volume of his two-way radio, ‘he’s been at it a long time and he’s seen a lot of kids get their parents all worked up over nothing.’

Kian snarled, ‘Still no reason to treat us like a pair of liars, or to damn well insinuate that I’m in some way involved in my own daughter’s disappearance.’

‘I’m afraid parents sometimes are,’ Britten reminded him.

‘Well it’s not the case with us,’ Kian barked. ‘I don’t want him here again. No way is he ever crossing my threshold …’

‘Don’t worry, he’s very close to retirement.’

‘OK,’ Johnson announced, clicking off the line as he came back to them, ‘he’s given me a code for the gates and a number for the caretaker who’s got keys to the house.’

‘So what’s the score?’ Danny wanted to know, coming to join them.

‘We’re going up there,’ Kian told him, ‘and the police are going in.’

Danny cocked a look at Barry Britten. ‘That’s my man,’ he muttered, making it plain that this wasn’t the first time the two men had met.

‘I think it’s best if you wait here,’ Johnson cautioned. ‘What we’re doing isn’t strictly official and if …’

‘But you’ve got Quentin’s permission,’ Kian pointed out.

‘Agreed, but it hasn’t been signed off back at the station. If it comes out that we went in there and took a bunch of you with us …’

‘We’ll wait outside,’ Jules told him. ‘We don’t have to go in,’ she explained to Kian, ‘we just need to be there to bring her home.’

An hour and a half later Kian and Jules, along with Danny and several others, were standing in the moonlight outside Crofton Park watching the marked police car coming back along the drive towards them.

Jules’s heart was in her mouth.
They had to have found Daisy, they just had to
. There were three people in the vehicle, but it soon became clear that the third person was the caretaker who’d come to open the place up for them.

Leo Johnson was shaking his head as he got out of the car. ‘No one there,’ he told them. ‘No lights on anywhere, no cars in the drive. The place is deserted.’

Desperate and frustrated, Jules turned to Kian, willing him to do something, anything, but he was as helpless as she was.

‘Can you think of anywhere else they might have gone?’ Johnson asked, as Britten saw the caretaker back to his car.

Jules shook her head, her heart jolting as her phone rang. Seeing who it was, she almost didn’t answer. ‘It’s Joe, her boyfriend,’ she said brokenly. ‘He’ll be wondering why he can’t get hold of her.’
Oh dear God this wasn’t happening. Please, please, it couldn’t be real
.

‘I’ll talk to him,’ Kian told her, taking the mobile.

As he walked away from the group, Johnson said to Jules, ‘If you haven’t done it already you should contact Daisy’s friends to ask if they can shed any light on where she and Amelia might have gone.’

Jules nodded. ‘Of course, but I can promise you, if they knew they’d already have spoken up.’

Danny said, ‘Are you going to start a search for them? We can get the girl’s car registration number from her father …’

‘We will,’ Johnson assured him, ‘but at the moment this still isn’t official …’

‘You’re kidding me,’ Danny cried. ‘What the hell does it take …?’

‘They’re seventeen and twenty-one,’ Johnson reminded him.

‘And one of them got the other here under false pretences. Surely to God that means something.’

‘I’m on your side,’ Johnson broke in, ‘but we haven’t seen the text …’

‘Are you saying we’re lying?’ Danny exploded.

‘No, of course not, I’m just trying to explain how it’s looking back at the station, especially with Field on the case. Kids are taking off all the time without telling anyone where they’re going … If Daisy was younger, or mentally or physically challenged in some way, or if Amelia had a history of violence …’

‘Maybe she has,’ Jules cut in forcefully. ‘We’ve heard things … We need to check. She might even have a police record.’