The Long Call (Two Rivers #1) - Ann Cleeves Page 0,107

used to dealing with people with a learning disability. He was impatient.’ He paused and Jen saw that he was trying to gather his thoughts. ‘We know too that there’s a link between the abductions and the Walden murder because Christine was held in the man’s flat in Braunton. The flat’s sealed off and crawling with CSIs so Lucy won’t be taken there. I hope someone’s got an idea about what might be going on here, because I don’t. And Maurice Braddick, her father, is going through hell.’

He looked out at them, wanting them to know that this was important, more important perhaps than finding Walden’s killer.

‘There’s another connection between this abduction and our murder victim. Walden sat beside Lucy on the bus to Lovacott in the week before he died. I’m still not sure how that might be relevant. Anyone got any ideas?’

Jen stuck up her hand. ‘Could Walden have told Lucy something that might implicate the killer in the murder?’

There was a moment of silence and Jen felt the room waiting for the boss’s response. They were like kids in a classroom not sure of their friend’s answer and unwilling to commit themselves.

‘That might work,’ Matthew said. ‘But why snatch Christine too?’

Another silence. He looked around the room and then continued:

‘In the end, motive is less important than finding Lucy. We’ve got people checking the countryside around Lovacott pond, where Christine was released, but they’ve found nothing yet. Ross, you’ve been looking at CCTV covering the high street. Can you help us out here? Give us something to work on?’ Jen thought she’d never heard him sound so desperate.

‘Nothing yet.’

‘I was talking to a shopkeeper,’ Jen said. ‘She saw Lucy looking in at her window display. Apparently, someone tripped on the pavement. I wonder if that could have been a deliberate diversion. Could Lucy have been taken while everyone else’s attention was on the person who’d fallen? Or if it was someone Lucy knew, perhaps she could have been persuaded to help them to a nearby car.’

Matthew nodded. ‘Can you see if there’s a CCTV recording of the accident, Ross? At least it’s somewhere to start.’ He paused. ‘We need to check the alibis of all the people involved in the investigation – the women in Hope Street, the Salters, Christopher Preece.’

‘What about the Marstons, the couple in the toll keeper’s cottage?’

‘Yeah, them too. I know Gaby Henry was in Barnstaple this morning. I went to see her in the Woodyard about her relationship with Walden. The timing would have been tight but she could have been involved.’

Jen stuck up her hand again. ‘I wonder if I should go back and talk to Christine Shapland? She’ll have had another night to calm down a bit and she might have some snippets of information that could help. She and Lucy were friends. If Lucy was scared or worried about something, she might know.’

‘Yeah,’ Matthew said. ‘Sure. Good idea.’

This time, he didn’t suggest that Jonathan go with her. Jen wondered if he’d heard the muttering around the station. Gossip had been spreading. Word was that Matthew was far too close to the case, even that Jonathan should be considered a suspect. After all, he’d been on the coast when Walden had died and he knew both of the women who’d been abducted. He was right at the heart of the investigation.

Chapter Thirty-Four

MATTHEW SENT AS MANY OFFICERS AS he could spare back into the town, to ask questions and to show Lucy’s picture. He told Ross to go with them. The DC had been scanning the CCTV for hours and would have lost concentration. It would need a fresh pair of eyes and someone with more patience than Ross to pick up any detail. He knew he’d have to repair his relationship with the man, but this wasn’t the time.

Matthew had already been on the phone to Jonathan. ‘Can you think where Lucy might be? I’ve phoned Rosa’s family and they haven’t seen her, but is there another friend who lives close to the town centre? If she suddenly found herself alone, Lucy might have looked elsewhere for help.’

He’d called Jonathan for moral support as much as for practical information. He couldn’t believe in the coincidence of Lucy disappearing too; he didn’t expect her to be at a friend’s house waiting to be found. Jonathan had always been there for him, ready with sympathy and encouragement, in the middle of difficult cases. But this time, he’d been the person who needed