‘DI Winter, take PC Mills and go through the outbuildings,’ Ruth instructed. ‘Mr Surtees, give DI Winter the necessary keys.’
Surtees fussed and fumbled and handed over three keys. ‘That’s for the shed, that one opens the store room and that one is for the Sunday School room.’
Winter took them, nodded at Crinson and headed out with Mills in tow.
‘Now, Mr Surtees, let’s see what we have here in the church.’ The main body of the church had already been searched, which left a couple of meeting rooms, the office and a bathroom. With Mills and Gray occupied, Crinson directed the two remaining officers to search the meeting rooms and the bathroom, and she and Surtees headed for the office.
Ruth went through the desk, emptying drawers, flipping through files, she checked the safe, the filing cabinet, and found absolutely nothing that suggested any of the missing people had been anywhere near. Seething with frustration, she returned to the church. The other searchers were already there. She looked round the group and one by one they shook their heads: nothing.
One of the young people sniggered at their frustration. ‘What?’ she demanded, out of patience with these people.
‘Oh, nothing,’ he said, still clearly amused.
‘Do you want to answer that question at the station, sonny?’
He looked at her and the grin slid from his face as he realised she wasn’t joking. ‘No,’ he said. He dropped his eyes and folded his hands in his lap.
Crinson wasn’t going to be put off so easily. ‘Well?’ she asked again. ‘What’s so funny?’
‘It’s just—’
‘Yes?’
‘Well, if we had—’
‘Had what?’
‘If we had been involved in the disappearances of the people you’re looking for, do you really think we’d be stupid enough to have anything incriminating here? I mean, we haven’t done anything bad. But we aren’t stupid, either.’
‘Interesting. Does the church have any property elsewhere?’ The boy had gone back to looking at the floor. Crinson thought she detected a change in the air, a hint of concern in case he said too much, perhaps. ‘I asked you a question,’ she said. ‘Does the church have any property elsewhere?’
‘Not that I know of,’ he said, eventually, looking as though he regretted speaking in the first place.
‘Mr Surtees,’ Ruth said. ‘Does the church have any property elsewhere?’
‘No,’ he answered, his eyes on the floor.
‘Okay,’ said Ruth, ‘let’s get this wrapped up.’
***
‘So nobody found anything at all that might help with this investigation?’ Hardcastle asked when they were back at the station. He was calm on the surface, but Ruth knew him well enough to read his moods: he was anxious, disappointed, no doubt worried sick about Karen Fitzgerald. Coppers didn’t just vanish into thin air. Not coppers like Karen, anyway.
‘Everyone was very accommodating,’ Gray offered. ‘But I honestly think we found nothing because there is nothing to find.’
Ruth snorted. ‘We’re being played. Despite Surtees’ denial, I’d put my pension on them having some other property somewhere. If we could find that—’
‘But these people are Christians,’ Gray protested. ‘I don’t believe you realise how important telling the truth is to them.’
‘Don’t be naïve,’ said Winter.
‘Tell that to a few thousand kids with sore arses,’ muttered Webb.
‘Okay, enough,’ said Hardcastle. ‘Any suggestions as to what to do next? Have we overlooked anything? Is there anything that made anybody’s antenna twitch? Anybody we should be taking a closer look at?’
‘I’ll see if I can find any additional property in the names of the pastor or the church,’ said Webb.
‘I’d like to take another look at Karen’s house, sir,’ said Ruth. ‘Just in case I missed something.’
‘Okay, go to it, people. Ruth, take Rob Winter with you. Go over the whole place again.’
‘God, I hate this,’ said Ruth as she put the spare key they had got from Karen Fitzgerald’s mother into the lock.
‘I know. It feels different when it’s a mate’s house. More personal. More wrong.’
Once inside, Ruth dumped her bag on the couch. ‘How’s about you take upstairs this time and I do down here?’
‘Then we can swap and a do a walk-through of each other’s search areas.’
Ruth nodded. ‘Good idea. Then there’s the shed and the garage.’
Ruth was going through a pile of papers she’d found on top of a bookcase when she heard Winter call her name. ‘Ruth? You got a minute?’ She put the papers down and headed upstairs.
‘Have you found something?’
‘No, the opposite. Didn’t you say all Karen’s stuff was here when you checked?’
‘Yes. Nothing had been taken, no toiletries, no clothes.’
‘And you said there was still a suitcase under the bed?’
Ruth nodded. ‘There were a couple.’
‘Well, they’re gone now.’
Ruth looked, then went through the chest of drawers, opened the wardrobe and looked in the bathroom. ‘It’s like she packed for a holiday or something. It’s not all gone, just some of it.’
‘Let’s see what else is missing,’ said Winter.
Ruth went back downstairs and, on instinct, took the spare key to the garage door from the kitchen windowsill and went outside. There, safe and snug in the garage, was Karen Fitzgerald’s car.
Within a very short space of time, Karen’s house had turned into a hive of activity. Fingerprint teams were busy inside the house and out, uniformed officers were going door to door, questioning the neighbours about what they might have seen or heard, and whether anyone had a security camera that might have caught something useful.
Forensics took the car away to conduct a thorough search of the vehicle. It would be taken apart; every aspect of it, every surface, every nook and cranny, examined and tested, and by the time the team had finished, any secrets it held would have been given up. One thing had been discovered already: the things Karen had bought the previous Saturday were in the boot.
***
‘It makes no sense,’ Gray was saying to Rob Winter. ‘Why would she bring the car back and take her clothes and toiletries?’
‘I don’t think she did,’ said Rob. ‘I think someone else did, someone who’s keeping her locked up somewhere.’
‘As for the car, anyone would know we’d be looking for it and it would be dangerous to keep it. Safer all round to just put it back where it belonged. We’d already searched the house and garage. They probably didn’t think we’d go back,’ said Ruth.
‘Let’s face it,’ said Rob, ‘it was just luck we went back so soon. It could have been days, weeks, even.’
‘Did the door to door crew find out anything?’ Hardcastle asked.
‘They’re still out, but they haven’t alerted us to anything. They should be back soon, they’re just doing the houses where they got no answer earlier,’ said Ruth.
‘Here we go,’ said Hardcastle, as he saw the uniformed officers come back into the station. ‘Right, people, what have we got?’
‘I think I have something,’ said Mills. ‘Mrs Johnson, who lives diagonally opposite, says she thinks she remembers seeing a couple of young lads cleaning Karen’s car yesterday afternoon.’
‘Did you get a description?’
‘Nothing conclusive: youngsters, dark clothes, baseball caps.’
‘Could be the young people from the church,’ said Winter.
‘Could be anybody,’ said Hardcastle.
‘Mr Dobson down the street on the same side says he had some God-botherers at the door the other day. He couldn’t remember exactly when. He assumed they were Jehovah’s Witnesses, but he didn’t ask.’
‘Yeah, I got that from Mrs West,’ said Mills. ‘She didn’t open her door. She says when people she doesn’t know or isn’t expecting come to the house, she hides in the downstairs loo until they go away again.’
‘These religious door-knockers didn’t leave any literature, by any chance, did they?’ asked Hardcastle.
‘None that was mentioned, sir.’
‘God almighty, we’re going to have to talk to Cotter and Surtees again.’
‘Let’s pull Surtees in, sir,’ suggested Ruth. ‘So far we’ve questioned him on his territory. Let’s get him in the interview room and see how he likes that.’
‘Good idea, Ruth,’ said Hardcastle. ‘DI Webb, would you and DS Evans go and pick Mr Surtees up?’
‘Sir.’ Webb and Evans headed for the door.
‘How do we know it was them?’ asked Gray. ‘That church isn’t the only one in the area.’
‘No,’ said Hardcastle, ‘you’re right, it’s not. But it is the only one with a church member who had one of the abducted children that DI Fitzgerald was looking for in his car. DCI Crinson and DI Winter, my office, now, please.’ He turned on his heel and walked off at speed.
***
‘Bloody Gray,’ he said as soon as the door was closed behind them. He ran his hand through what was left of his hair. ‘At first I thought he’d bring some balance to the investigation. It’s not like the rest of us are churchgoers. But he’s really getting on my tits.’
‘He seems to be blindsided by the fact that these people proclaim themselves to be Christians. It’s making him careless about the facts, like if they say they didn’t do something, then they didn’t do it, but simply because they said so, not because we got an alibi and it checked out,’ Winter observed.
‘We’re going to have to be careful. Check and double check.’ Hardcastle sat down. ‘Does anyone know what church Gray goes to? He’s not a member of Surtees’ church, by any chance?’
‘I don’t know, sir. I’ve never asked him.’
‘Well, will you find out, please, before too much more time passes? I’d hate to think those bastards had a man on the inside.’
‘They do always seem to be one step ahead of us.’
‘Yes, but let’s not get paranoid. He’s got a conflict of interests in this case, but he’s still one of our own. Now, about Surtees. I’m inclined to take the gloves off, go in hard. Thoughts, people?’
‘I agree, sir,’ said Ruth. ‘I feel like we’ve been played from the start. He knows a damn sight more than he’s letting on, in my opinion.’
‘I agree he’s keeping things from us, but do you think the hard approach will work?’ Winter sat back and folded his arms. ‘I’m just thinking about Cotter. The tougher things got, the harder he prayed. He’s not exactly made from stern stuff and he didn’t crack.’
‘Well, we’ve tried being nice and that didn’t work. What would you suggest?’ Ruth asked.
‘Appeal to his … Christianity. Ask him to tell us the truth. Tell him how hurt and upset the kids’ families are. Tell him about Karen’s mum, ill and in her sixties, how she cries herself to sleep because her daughter’s missing. Make him feel important.’
‘Flatter him … that might work,’ mused Hardcastle.
‘Does Karen’s mum cry herself to sleep?’ asked Ruth.
Winter shrugged. ‘No idea, but it’s an emotive image. It would take a cold-hearted bastard not to care about the quantity of human misery the missing kids’ and Karen’s families are coping with.’
‘Might be worth a try,’ Ruth said. ‘But look at the Catholic church and their abuse scandals. They were pretty resilient when it came to human misery, most of it that of children.’
‘True, but the way I’m thinking is, if we go in hard and it doesn’t work, we’ve got nothing left. If we take this approach and it doesn’t work, we can always change tack and nail the bastard to the wall after that,’ said Winter.
‘Good enough, people, let’s give it a go.’ Hardcastle nodded to the window in his office, where Webb and Evans could be seen escorting John Surtees through to the interview room. ‘Here’s our man now. Good luck.’
***
‘Mr Surtees, thank you for coming in,’ said Ruth, holding out her hand.
Surtees rose and took her hand, shook it almost before he had realised what he was doing, even though he was annoyed at being pulled in to the station.
‘DCI Crinson and DI Winter. How nice to see you both. Again.’
‘Please, Mr Surtees, have a seat.’ Ruth ignored the barb in Surtees’ comment. She didn’t want to display any overt hostility. Not yet, anyway. Bester knocked, then brought in a round of teas. He put the tray on the table and Ruth dished them out.
‘Thank you,’ said Surtees. He still looked huffy, but the civil greeting and the simple act of taking tea together, even the disgusting stuff the machine spat out, seemed to make him feel more at ease.
‘We invited you here because we need your help,’ Ruth told him.
‘Whatever I can do.’ Surtees was visibly expanding, more confident of where he stood by the minute.
‘We told you about our colleague, DI Karen Fitzgerald, going missing.’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, not only was she missing, but so was her car, although none of her things had been taken. We searched her house again today, however, and we found something very strange.’
‘Oh?’ Surtees raised his eyebrows as he sipped his tea.
‘Her car has been returned, but some of her clothes and other possessions have disappeared.’