Gasnier stepped towards her. ‘Please, try not to jump to any conclusions.’ He maintained a respectable distance. ‘And try not to panic. Can you tell me everything that’s happened?’
Lizzy nodded. She felt sick as he shepherded her to the kitchen table and made her sit down. ‘I shouldn’t have left her alone, I should have said that I couldn’t make the meeting. Or I should’ve insisted that she come with me. And now that monster Peter Myers has got her. Despite all the warnings, I let it happen!’ She realised she was beginning to panic and took a deep breath to try and calm herself.
‘What makes you think that he’s taken her?’
She looked at him as if he had just said the most ludicrous thing imaginable. ‘Well, of course he’s got her.’
‘Lizzy, we work on evidence. Do you have any evidence?’
‘Well . . . no,’ she admitted. ‘But I know that’s what has happened.’
‘So you tried to call her and there’s no answer?’
Lizzy nodded.
‘I tried to call too,’ Gasnier said. ‘I got the same response. Could she have gone out, and maybe her phone is out of battery, or she just can’t hear it?’
Lizzy shook her head. ‘She said she wanted to go for a run, but I don’t think she did.’
‘But it’s a possibility?’
‘Maybe. But I just don’t think so. Oh my God, what are we going to do?’
Gasnier held her stare for a couple of moments. ‘Are any of her possessions missing? Phone, purse, coat, trainers? Anything you might expect Emma to have on her person.’
‘I don’t know. I haven’t had a chance to look.’
‘Take a look now,’ he said.
Lizzy nodded and searched hurriedly through the flat, while Gasnier looked on.
‘I can’t find her purse or phone,’ she said, looking at Gasnier expectantly. ‘I think her winter coat is missing too.’
Gasnier didn’t give any reaction. ‘There have been some developments,’ he said finally.
‘Developments?’
‘With Peter Myers. That’s why I came here, to tell Emma.’
Lizzy’s hopes rose. ‘You’ve recaptured him?’
‘I’m afraid not.’
‘Then what?’
He seemed to be thinking about how much to tell her. ‘We now believe that Peter Myers planned his escape.’
‘But you said you thought it was probably just a spur of the moment decision!’ Lizzy looked at him, wide-eyed.
‘These things often are. But we’ve got evidence that this isn’t the case here.’
‘What evidence?’
‘Peter Myers was admitted to hospital after being attacked by a fellow inmate. We’ve now had information that it was planned. Peter Myers asked the prisoner to do it, so that he would be transferred to hospital.’
‘So he let himself be attacked?’
‘It appears so. And it was a pretty nasty assault. Which it had to be really, to require a hospital transfer. Otherwise it could have just been dealt with by the prison’s medical team.’
‘He’d go to those lengths?’ Lizzy asked, disbelievingly.
‘It appears so. Although the attack may have been more severe than he’d planned. It’s often the case when this sort of thing is set up.’
Lizzy was thinking of Emma.
Where is she? Is she okay?
‘You’ve got to help Emma. You’ve got to do something! Can’t you call your colleagues, let them know what’s happened? They could start looking for her.’
‘There’s something else first.’
‘But every minute you wait, something could happen to her!’
‘It’s not as simple as that.’
Just then Dan burst into the flat. ‘Emma, Lizzy?’
‘We’re in the kitchen,’ Lizzy shouted, before realising that Dan would interpret the ‘we’ as being Emma and her.
Dan pushed through the door. ‘Thank goodness you’re—’ He stopped dead at the sight of Gasnier. He looked at Lizzy, his voice cracking. ‘Oh my God, no.’
‘She wasn’t here when I got back,’ Lizzy explained. ‘And the front door was open.’
‘It can’t be,’ he said, shaking his head. He turned and strode towards the other rooms. ‘Em! Emma?’
Lizzy glanced at Gasnier. They could hear doors opening and closing.
‘Dan, can you please come back in here?’ Gasnier sounded a little as though he was ordering him.
Dan staggered back in. He was crying. He looked over to Lizzy. ‘He’s got her, hasn’t he?’
‘I hope not,’ she said. ‘I really hope not.’
Dan let out a wild, swinging kick at the kitchen bin, shouting, ‘I shouldn’t have left her!’
It toppled over and crashed to the floor, spilling its contents.
‘Dan, you’ve got to calm down,’ Lizzy said.
He’s in danger of doing himself, or someone else, harm
. She’d never seen him in such a state before, although in the circumstances it was totally understandable.
Gasnier stood up and took him by both shoulders. Dan fought against looking at him, but eventually fixed his eyes on the officer’s. Only then did Gasnier speak. ‘Dan, please, just breathe deeply, and take a seat,’ he said in a calming, steady voice.
Dan nodded, and did as requested. But although he was now quiet, Lizzy could see that he was only just keeping a lid on his raging emotions.
‘Right,’ Gasnier said. He recapped the first piece of news, for Dan’s benefit. Dan didn’t react, but as he listened he appeared to be calming down. And then Gasnier moved on to the next revelation. ‘Peter Myers had someone on the outside, helping with the escape.’
‘It was all so well planned,’ Lizzy said, shocked.
‘Yes, it was. The CCTV from the hospital revealed that there was another person involved – they were driving the car that Peter Myers used to escape from the hospital.’
‘Could you see what they looked like?’ Lizzy asked.
‘Not particularly well,’ he admitted. ‘The camera was at a distance, and the driver was wearing a baseball cap, so their face was shielded. They knew what they were doing.’
Lizzy caught her breath.
A baseball cap? Could it be—?
‘Do you know what colour it was?’
Gasnier seemed surprised by the detail of the questioning. ‘What, the cap or the car?’
‘The cap.’
‘Dark. Possibly blue, but difficult to say.’ He appeared suspicious. ‘Why do you ask?’
Lizzy looked across at Dan. He nodded. ‘Because there’s something we haven’t told you.’
Chapter 31
Gasnier’s eyes narrowed. ‘I’m listening.’
Lizzy hesitated. Was it really possible that the person who helped Peter Myers escape was the same individual who had been sending the messages?
After all, the fact that they both wear a dark-coloured baseball cap could just be a coincidence.
It certainly wasn’t anything like proof.
Gasnier didn’t hide his impatience. ‘Please, Lizzy.’
She nodded. She wasn’t sure that this was all connected, but he needed to know, in case. Emma’s life might depend on it, and for the police to do their job properly, they had to have the facts. ‘Someone has been following us, and leaving us messages. It started while Emma and Dan were on honeymoon, just over two weeks ago.’
‘And how is this relevant to Peter Myers?’
‘It might not be,’ Lizzy replied. ‘But this person, I’ve seen them – they were in the downstairs entrance of the apartment building, hand-delivering a letter. They were wearing a dark baseball cap. Just like the person in the car.’
‘You didn’t see their face?’
‘No. I ran after them, but they were too fast, so I didn’t get a proper look.’
Gasnier didn’t give away whether he thought that this was relevant or not, but his continued questioning did signal that he was taking Lizzy seriously. ‘What was the nature of the messages? Were they threatening?’
‘Not particularly,’ she replied. ‘They were warnings, telling me not to trust anyone.’
‘Anyone in particular?’
‘My friends.’
‘By which you mean Emma, Dan . . .’ He trailed off, letting his expression ask the question.
‘Yes.’
‘And have you kept the messages?’
‘They’re back at my flat.’
‘I’d like to see them,’ he said. ‘Did anything else happen with this person?’
‘They posted a photograph to me. It was an old photo, showing Dan with Stuart Harris. It must have been designed to cause trouble between Emma and Dan. An attempt to destabilise their relationship.’
‘I knew Stuart Harris before I met Emma,’ Dan explained. ‘But I never told her about it.’
Gasnier nodded his understanding. ‘You said the photograph was old?’
‘Yes,’ Lizzy said.
‘Several years old,’ Dan confirmed. ‘Before Emma and I got together.’
‘And whose photo was it?’
‘Stuart’s,’ Dan said. ‘It was taken with his camera.’
‘So he would have had the image in his possession?’
Dan nodded. ‘I assume so.’
‘So this person, who sent the photograph, must have had access to Stuart Harris’s possessions, either before or after his death.’
‘That’s what we thought,’ Dan said.
‘Did you?’ The question dripped with sarcasm as Gasnier fixed Dan with a stare. ‘Tell me more about your thoughts.’
Dan looked a little intimidated by the tone of questioning. ‘Well, we thought it might be Sally Thompson. She was Stuart’s fiancée, so she would have had access to his things, especially after he died. And she has the motive and the recent history of trying to hurt us.’
Gasnier listened. Lizzy could see him thinking it over. ‘Did you do anything about your suspicions?’
‘No,’ Dan said.
‘Good. We can question her. I agree that it sounds logical, but I’d caution against jumping to any conclusions. And I don’t want you getting involved. You know what happened the last time you took things into your own hands – Edward Holden was extremely lucky to escape a jail sentence for shooting and wounding Peter Myers. And both your lives were put at risk by the actions taken by him and William. It could easily have turned out very differently.’
Dan nodded, but Lizzy bristled. She fought the urge to say something, but couldn’t hold it in. ‘We took action because you refused to believe that Dan had been kidnapped! You didn’t take our concerns seriously. You thought Dan was the villain.’
‘That’s not the case at all, Lizzy,’ Gasnier replied, looking at her. ‘We have to work with the evidence, and keep an open mind. There were many angles to the case, and we had to consider all possibilities. A man had been brutally attacked, Dan was missing and we had sufficient concern to believe that he may have been responsible.’
Lizzy shook her head. ‘It was more than that. You dismissed our concerns. You made us feel as if we had something to hide.’
‘Lizzy . . .’ Dan said, trying to rein her in, but she was undeterred.
‘Your indifference pushed us into taking action.’
‘I understand that you have strong feelings, Lizzy, about what happened. But—’
‘And now,’ she interrupted, ‘you’re doing it again. Emma has been taken, by
that
man, and instead of getting out there and looking for her, you’re telling us that we shouldn’t take action. Well, how about a little action from you and your colleagues by getting out there and finding my friend, instead of lecturing us?’
‘Lizzy, it’s clear that you’re upset—’
‘Every minute that goes by is a minute lost.’
‘Look,’ Gasnier said, seeming to lose patience, ‘every minute you argue with me is a minute lost too. I assure you, our concern is to get to the truth, and to solve each crime that we are presented with. That’s what we do. But when you’ve been in this job for as long as I have, you learn that sometimes the best thing to do is to just pause, and challenge your instinct.’
‘He
has
got her,’ Lizzy said, calming. ‘I know he has. Do you think that?’
‘I’d like to take a look around the flat,’ he said, evading the question, much to Lizzy’s disgust. ‘You don’t mind, do you?’ Gasnier asked Dan.
‘Go ahead,’ he replied.
As Gasnier moved into the passageway, Dan flashed Lizzy a warning look and spoke to her in a low voice. ‘You’ve got to stop attacking him, Lizzy. We need their support. I know you’re upset. So am I. But we don’t want to turn them against us. You’re going to have to put up with him.’
Lizzy just shook her head.
‘There are no signs of a struggle,’ Gasnier said, re-entering the room. ‘Lizzy, you said that the door was open when you got to the flat?’
‘Yes. It was ajar.’
‘I might be wrong, but if Emma did leave with someone else, then it looks likely that she went willingly. The fact that her purse and phone are missing points to that. Do you have any idea whom that might be? Was she due any visitors?’
‘No,’ Dan said. ‘There weren’t any pre-planned visits.’
‘And I don’t think Emma would have gone off with someone else,’ Lizzy added. ‘I mean, she knew the situation, and she wouldn’t have risked that.’