Into the Darkness Read online

  I swung around in the front seat, reaching for my equipment daysack in the rear footwell. My pistol, mags and taser were secured and hidden in my covert compartment in the pick-up. The other daysack and Maya’s rucksack filled with clothes could stay in the car until I knew what I was dealing with.

  I got out of the car, locked it, and looked up and down the street. The houses were well maintained but small. The properties had no driveways so vehicles were parked on the road. Average cars. Not a rich and affluent area but comfortable and cosy.

  As we walked up the pathway of Corinne’s house the door swung open, stopping me short as I saw her again. She wore the last eighteen years well. Her once-blonde hair was darker now, pulled back into a loose ponytail. Her forehead was a bunch of tight wrinkles, but that was due to stress and anxiety. Her eyes were swollen and red. She had no make-up on, but in better circumstances, she could easily pass for someone in her late thirties, instead of a decade older.

  Tears filled her eyes and her knees seemed to sag. Her voice cracked as she said, ‘Thank you for coming.’

  I strode towards her and wrapped her in a hug. She clung on tight to me as I breathed in her perfume. The years melted away between us and a picture formed in my head – me hugging her on her and Tony’s wedding day, inhaling the same perfume, just before I’d given my best man’s speech.

  I cleared my throat so the emotion in my voice wouldn’t give me away and released her. ‘Come on. Let’s go inside and you can tell me everything.’

  Corinne looked at Maya uncertainly. Back to me.

  ‘This is Maya. A good friend of mine.’

  Corinne blinked and nodded and turned around, leading us into a kitchen that overlooked the small patch of paved front garden and the rest of the street. She went to the window above the sink and stared out through the net curtains, her neck turning right and left as if scanning the road for any signs of Toni. ‘I didn’t know who else to call.’ She whipped around to face me, her trembling fingers touching her lips. ‘I’m sorry. I know after . . . Well, it’s been a long time. I got your number from one of the other Regiment wives. I kept in touch with a few people, but I . . . I had to get away from that environment, from the memories, and start afresh.’

  ‘You did the right thing contacting me.’ I sat at the kitchen table. ‘I’m going to do everything I can to get Toni back, but I need as much detail as you can give me about her.’

  She clutched her arms around her waist. ‘I know she wouldn’t have just run away. There was absolutely no reason to. She was fine.’

  ‘You hadn’t argued about anything?’ Maya asked.

  ‘No. We . . . I mean, we did have arguments, naturally. But nothing lately. It’s completely out of character for her to disappear.’

  ‘OK. Tell me the facts first,’ I said. ‘What happened when she disappeared? When was the last time you saw her?’

  Maya sat quietly next to me as Corinne started to speak.

  ‘She went missing yesterday. She’s due to start her uni course next week so she’s still on summer holidays and was at home when I left for work.’

  ‘Where do you work?’ I asked.

  ‘At Jones and Co, a local accounting firm. I’m a bookkeeper there. Toni had made breakfast but she wasn’t eating it. She seemed distracted. She’d been acting weird for a few days, actually – moody and jumpy and just . . . I don’t know, out of sorts. I put it down to worrying about starting her uni course even though she was excited about it.’ Corinne rocked herself slightly as she spoke. ‘But now she’s disappeared, I keep thinking maybe something was troubling her that was more than just her being nervous about uni.’ Corinne sniffed. ‘Anyway, the last time I saw her, she was standing in front of the window, just watching the street.’ Corinne pointed outside. ‘Like she was thinking, or looking for someone. I asked her if her friend Laura was coming round – I thought maybe that’s who she was waiting for – but she just snapped at me and said no and then told me to stop suffocating her and hassling her all the time and stormed off up to her bedroom and slammed the door. She’s not usually a sulker or a door-slammer. But . . .’ She blew out a breath. ‘She’s an adult now. I have to give her space. So I didn’t push it.’ Corinne picked at the skin around the edge of her thumbnail. ‘Anyway, when I got back from work about half five she wasn’t here. I didn’t think too much about it at first. I thought maybe she’d gone to see Laura. I texted her but she didn’t reply, which is unlike her. She knows I worry. We’re really close, you know. It’s always been just us two, really.’

  The knife of guilt twisted deeper in my chest. If it wasn’t for me it would’ve been three of them.

  ‘I left it a bit, then called her, but her phone was turned off. It went to voicemail straight away so I left a message. I thought at first she was still in a mood. But then I called Laura who said she hadn’t seen Toni for a few days. About quarter to seven, and with no contact from her, I started getting a bit concerned.’ Corinne chewed on her lower lip, her eyes filling with tears. ‘I didn’t know where else to try because Toni doesn’t really have any other friends. She’s a bit of an introvert, really. A loner. I suppose Toni’s what people would call a geek. Ever since she was a kid she’s always had her head buried in a book – mostly true crime, or stuff about profiling or psychology. She’s going to be studying criminology with psychology for her degree. She’s mad about delving into people’s heads. Or if she wasn’t reading, she’d be on her laptop.’

  ‘She doesn’t have a boyfriend?’ Maya asked.

  Corinne shook her head. ‘No, like I said, all she’s interested in are books and psychology. She’s not a typical young woman, wanting to go to parties and go clubbing.’ She walked to the corner of the room, extracted her phone from her bag on the worktop and sat down, tapping at the screen. She scrolled through the phone then handed it to me. On screen was a picture of a beautiful girl with long, dark, wavy hair, brown eyes, and a thin nose, fresh-faced and looking younger than eighteen. She was so much like Tony that I had to take a breath to hold the emotion in check.

  I handed the phone to Maya.

  ‘And what about you? Is there a boyfriend in the picture?’ I asked. If something had happened to Toni, the threat could’ve been close to home.

  ‘No. I mean, there have been people in the past but . . .’ She shrugged. ‘It’s never worked out. My last relationship ended about two years ago.’

  ‘Was it an amicable split?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes, although he was the one who ended things. He was moving to Saudi to work. He asked if Toni and I wanted to go but, well’ – she raised her eyebrows – ‘it’s not the kind of place I wanted either myself or Toni to live. He’s still out there, met another ex-pat and got married. There’s been no one since then.’

  ‘Has anyone that you know taken an unhealthy interest in Toni?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘You mentioned Toni being on her laptop,’ Maya said. ‘Was she going on teenage chat rooms or social media or . . .’ Maya glanced at me, her mouth twisted with worry.

  I knew what she was thinking. An alarm bell was ringing in my head, too. A stunning young girl online was a prime target for grooming by sick men. Maya and I both had devastating, first-hand knowledge of that. I didn’t want to tell Corinne that yet, though. Didn’t want her to imagine a parent’s worst nightmare unless I was sure. I knew how it could rip someone into shreds. And falling apart wouldn’t get her daughter back.

  But Corinne must’ve guessed from our expressions what we were thinking. ‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘Toni’s an intelligent girl. She’s streetwise, too. Not naïve. After studying killers and criminals for so long, she knows what people are capable of. She’d never fall for some online grooming. She’s not the sort of girl to get herself into trouble like that.’

  There was obviously trouble now, though. But what kind? ‘So, Toni didn’t mention any problems she was having? Or anything that was worrying her?’

  ‘No. But . . .’ Corinne�
��s face crumpled, as if she was about to cry again. She blinked a few times to hold the tears at bay. ‘Like I said, she was acting a bit . . . I don’t know, tense, I suppose. She kept staring into space, chewing her fingernails. Then when I’d come into the room and find her like that and ask her if something was bothering her, she’d jump a mile. It was as if she was scared about something.’

  ‘Did she mention anyone strange hanging around or following her? Anyone hassling her?’ I took another look at Toni’s image on the phone which Maya had put in the centre of the table. ‘Or did you see anyone or anything suspicious recently?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘OK. So what did you do next? After you couldn’t get hold of her by phone?’

  ‘I drove around town, seeing if I could spot her, but there was no sign of her. When I got back an hour later she still wasn’t here so I asked my immediate neighbours if they’d seen her at all. The couple next door are at work all day anyway so they weren’t here.’ She pointed to the left wall of the kitchen, indicating which neighbour. ‘And the other side are on holiday. I asked the old guy who lives across the street, too. He’s like the equivalent of a one-man neighbourhood-watch committee. He’s in a wheelchair and doesn’t get out much, and he’s always at the window or in his front garden, watching the street. He said he saw Toni leave the house at one o’clock but he never saw her return.’

  I looked out of the kitchen window to the house directly opposite. There was an elderly man with short grey hair and glasses in his front garden, sitting in his wheelchair, reading a newspaper. ‘Is that the guy you asked?’ I pointed to him.

  Corinne twisted around. ‘Yes. Bert Williamson. The police spoke to him, too. He said Toni was carrying her rucksack when she left.’

  ‘What do you know about Bert?’ Maya asked.

  ‘He’s a sweet old guy. I often get him food at the shops when I go to the supermarket. He was a lorry driver who was involved in a terrible accident about five years ago that left him paralysed from the waist down. Why? You don’t think he could be involved, do you? He’s just a harmless old man.’ She frowned at Maya.

  ‘At this stage we can’t assume anything,’ I said. ‘Anyone could be suspicious.’ Malevolence could live in the most innocuous of people. But again, I didn’t convey the thought to Corinne. ‘Until we know more, we can’t discount anything.’ I leaned forward and rested my hands on the table. ‘So what happened when you called the police? Why did they just assume she’d run away, especially as it was out of character?’

  She clenched her hands together and glanced down at them. ‘It got to about nine o’clock and I called them. But they’ve got it in their heads she’s a runaway. They said she’s eighteen so she’s an adult, and since she’s not vulnerable, they only seemed to do the bare minimum.’

  ‘Not vulnerable?’ Maya said. ‘She’s an eighteen-year-old girl!’

  ‘That’s exactly what I said.’ Corinne’s nostrils flared with anger. ‘They meant because she wasn’t physically disabled or didn’t have mental health issues.’ She shook her head. ‘They said hundreds of thousands of youngsters run away each year and she’d probably come back in a few days. They checked there’d been no accidents involving anyone of Toni’s description, so I know she’s not lying in a hospital somewhere. They had a quick check of Toni’s bedroom. They asked a few of the neighbours if they’d seen anything. And after Bert told them he saw her leaving the house, they said she’d probably just gone to stay with a friend for a few days. They spoke to Laura briefly, who said she had no idea where Toni was.’ Corinne paused for a breath. ‘I explained to them there’s no way Toni would’ve run away but they said it was the most likely explanation because her rucksack was missing, along with her laptop and phone. They said if I hadn’t heard from her in a few days to get back in touch with them. It’s like they’re not even interested.’ She shook her head vehemently. ‘She wouldn’t just . . .’ Corinne swiped at her eyes. ‘I know my daughter. Something’s happened to her. She’s been taken by someone or . . . she’s been attacked or something.’ She glanced up at me, all the fear evident in her eyes.

  I reached out and took her hand in mine. ‘Is there any reason why someone would want to target Toni to get at you? What about your bookkeeping job?’

  ‘No. We do work for small businesses mostly. We’re not dealing with huge corporations or anything dodgy.’

  My gaze strayed to a silver laptop on the worktop. ‘Is that your laptop, then?’

  ‘Yes. Toni’s is black.’

  ‘Did she usually take her laptop out of the house?’

  ‘Only to college sometimes, if she needed it for her work. But apart from that, no.’

  ‘Did she take anything else?’ I asked. ‘Clothes? Her passport?’

  ‘I looked in her wardrobe and drawers and don’t think any of her clothes are missing, but I can’t be sure. Her passport’s still here with mine. And I keep trying her phone all the time, just in case, but it’s still switched off.’

  ‘Did she take any money from the house?’ I asked.

  ‘I only keep a few hundred quid in the house for emergencies but that’s still here. She’s got a bank account, but since she’s not working, she doesn’t have much in it. I give her a small allowance and she does jobs round the house but I give it to her in cash. It’s only thirty pounds a week. She wouldn’t get far on that.’

  ‘What about your parents? Or Tony’s? They haven’t heard from her?’

  ‘Tony’s parents are both dead now.’

  ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t know.’ I stared at my hands on the table.

  ‘And my parents are up in Scotland, as you know. They haven’t heard a word from Toni.’

  ‘Were there any signs someone else had been in the house when you got back from work that day?’ I wondered if Toni had returned at some point and been abducted from inside. It was unlikely, with Bert as a neighbour, and in broad daylight, but not impossible, especially if someone had come in via the rear.

  ‘No. The house was all locked up. There were no signs of a disturbance or anyone else being inside.’

  ‘How tall was Toni?’ I asked.

  ‘Five foot.’

  ‘Weight?’

  ‘About seven stone.’

  I sat there for a moment and thought, my gaze wandering back to Bert in his garden. The newspaper rested on his knee now and he was watching the house. He seemed to be looking straight at me.

  Corinne clutching my hand drew my attention back to her. ‘I know something bad has happened to her. That’s why I called you.’

  I stared into her desperate eyes. A missing teenage girl sounded pretty bad to me.

  Where the hell was Toni?

  THE MISSING

  Chapter 10

  I’m cold. Freezing. And scared. Terrified of what’s going to happen. I’ve seen some of the things they’ve done and it’s worse than any imaginable horror story.

  I touch my face with hands that won’t stop shaking and feel the caked snot and dried tears. The blood, too, where he punched me in the face before he dragged me into the van.

  It happened so quickly I didn’t even hear the footsteps before someone grabbed me from behind. Never saw the punch coming that knocked me off my feet. No time to cry out or make a sound. I remember falling to the ground. Dazed. Disorientated. Then the sound of an engine. Being picked up in his strong grip. Struggling. Kicking. The hand over my mouth keeping my scream silent. A pinprick of pain in my neck. Something stabbing into my skin. And then I was thrown into a van, the doors slamming shut. A loud click in my ears. Then . . . the edges of my vision fading to darkness.

  They’d drugged me with something. My head still feels woozy, my stomach lurching up and down. They left two soggy sandwiches wrapped in a paper bag on the floor, along with three cartons of orange juice. I still can’t face eating with my stomach like this, but I’m down to one carton of OJ now.

  My nose has only just stopped bleeding. My whole face throbs in time with m
y racing heartbeat. I flinch from the pain of my fingertips on my skin and drop my hands to the concrete floor, the hard coldness of this prison engulfing me, swallowing me whole.

  I thought he was going to kill me right there and then. And maybe that would’ve been better. If he’d just strangled me or snapped my neck in two, it would’ve been quick. I know whatever they’re going to do to me will be worse. So much worse.

  My throat is scratchy and raw. I’ve tried screaming. Tried begging. But I don’t think anyone can hear me in here. My voice just echoes in my ears, and I’ve said the words please help me so many times they don’t even sound like real words any more. Pleasehelpmepleasehelpme. Just one long, mashed-up sentence. A blur of letters.

  And I’m certain they won’t help me, but I don’t know what else to do. I wish that I’ll die of dehydration and starvation long before they come back and then I won’t know anything any more. Maybe I shouldn’t drink the last carton of juice, after all.

  I don’t know what to call this place, but I know I have to take notes in my head. Remember every little detail so that when someone finds me – if someone finds me – I’ll be able to tell the police everything.

  I glance around. It’s dark but there’s a sliver of light coming from underneath the door. My eyes have adjusted to the blackness and I can see it’s a small room. A cell.

  Oh, God! A cell!

  My heartbeat rages beneath my ribs. Sweat oozes through my pores. I glance down at myself. At least I’m still fully clothed. I don’t think they’ve raped me. Yet.

  Back to the notes, Toni. Concentrate on that.

  OK. Right. Don’t fall apart. Breathe. Being strong is the only way you can survive.

  THE DETECTIVE

  Chapter 11

  I drove along the country lane, past Simms Livery Stables and house, past the Jamesons’ farm, until I came to the neighbouring property belonging to Bill Graves. More tall fields of rapeseed welcomed me to the right of the long driveway before it opened up on to a whitewashed farm building.