such a cruel and deliberate and spiteful way.
‘Do you know many of Nadine’s friends?’
Faith looks up at her then shakes her head.
‘Do any of them have a van? Any sort of vehicle that might have been the one you were taken in?’
Another tiny shake of the head; the tears have started again. She’s begun to rock gently, her hands gripping tighter round her knees.
‘I’m sorry, Faith, but I had to ask.’
Jess slides down next to Faith on the sofa and puts a hand gently on her shoulder. ‘I’ll put some food on in a bit,’ she whispers. ‘Mac and cheese, your favourite.’
There’s no acknowledgement from Faith, but she doesn’t push the hand away.
When Somer stops at the front door a few minutes later and turns back to look at them, they’re still sitting there, in the same position; the only sounds the patter of rain against the windows and the soft hiss of the gas fire.
* * *
Sent: Mon 08/04/2018, 21.55Importance: High
From: DCVerityEverett@ThamesValley.police.uk
To: DIRuthGallagher@ThamesValley.police.uk
Subject: Ashley Brotherton – URGENT
Something’s been bugging me about the whole Nadine thing so I just went over and spoke to Ashley’s grandfather again. He told me Ashley had a girlfriend he was teaching to drive. In car parks, places like that. Mr Brotherton doesn’t know her name and only has a vague description but from what he said, it could definitely be Nadine.
So just because she’s only 15 and doesn’t have a licence doesn’t mean she couldn’t physically drive that van. And if she was his girlfriend she’d know about the spare key by the back door too.
I think it’s possible Nadine got a bus down there the morning Faith was attacked and ‘borrowed’ the van while Ashley and his grandad were at the funeral. The timing is really really tight but I think she could just about have done it. And Mr Brotherton said Ashley parked the van in the next street that day, to make sure there was room for the funeral cars, which would have made it a lot easier for someone to take it without anyone noticing.
I know it’s a crazy long shot, but it is feasible. Remember what that witness said about the van driver having their cap pulled down low over their face? That would make sense, if it was Nadine. She wouldn’t want anyone to clock how young she is.
And it would also give us a v. good reason why she’s refusing to tell us who her accomplice was: she can’t do that, because she never had one.
VE
* * *
‘DC Everett? It’s Ruth Gallagher – I just got your email.’
Gallagher is on her hands-free in the car, at the traffic lights in Summertown. Everett is only a hundred yards away, if she did but know it, upstairs in her flat, tipping a can of cat food into a bowl with her free hand.
‘That was a damn good hunch of yours – well done.’
‘Thanks – it just suddenly came to me – if someone borrowed Ashley’s van, why not a girlfriend? Why not Nadine?’
‘You’re right about the timing though – she’d need miraculously good bus connections. And both ways: she didn’t just have to collect that van from Blackbird Leys, she had to get it back there too, and get back to school.’
‘I know, but it’s only five miles – it could be done. Just.’
‘Well, it may be we’ll have to put that to the test ourselves, but first things first. Have you spoken to Ashley?’
Gallagher can hear a vague wailing noise in the background; not a baby though, more like a cat. A particularly insistent cat.
‘I tried,’ says Everett, raising her voice a little, ‘but since he can’t work with his cut hand he’s gone up to Blackpool with some mates. I’m afraid he’s not picking up his phone.’
‘Did you ask his grandad to have a go? Ashley’s more likely to answer him than some number he doesn’t recognize.’
‘Yes, I did, but it just went to voicemail. But don’t worry, he’s promised to try again first thing tomorrow. And if I have to, I’ll go over there and watch him do it.’
* * *
Adam Fawley
9 April 2018
08.25
Alex is still asleep when I get to the hospital. But she stirs a little when I take a seat next to the bed, and opens her eyes. She smiles, that delicious slow first-thing-in-the-morning smile of hers that makes my heart turn over.
‘Shouldn’t you be at work by now, Detective Inspector Fawley?’
‘I think community outreach can do without me for a while.’
Yesterday it