Against the Clock by John Carson (best mobile ebook reader TXT) 📕

Harry wondered if Stewart had been the victim of a gobbing campaign at one time.

‘People, this is DSup Calvin Stewart from Govan, Jimmy Dunbar’s boss,’ Harry said. ‘He’s here working the case with us because of little Alice Brent being found in Glasgow yesterday. She’ll be brought through here after her post-mortem, which is being carried out today.’

The door opened once more and Muckle, Vern and Shug walked in.

‘Where were you this morning?’ Dunbar whispered to Evans.

‘I told you, I got up early and –’

‘Don’t talk pish. You never get up early. Did you spend the night at Katie’s house?’

‘No. I was there late, but we went back to the hotel. I had to get up early to sneak Vern out.’

‘I knew it. You had your manky paws all over her.’

‘I think I’m in love, boss.’

Vern smiled over at Evans.

‘You’re like a fucking half-shut knife.’

‘Trust me, I’ve never felt so awake.’

‘Aye, well, at least she’s around your age, no’ got one foot in the grave. What will all the old dearies at your maw’s bingo think? No more taking them to the pictures or the dancing. No more eating dinner with them at three o’clock in the afternoon.’

‘You’re hilarious. I’m sure they’d like to meet you.’

‘Hey, I’m a happily married man. They’re too old for me anyway. Just right for you, but too old for me.’

‘Right, we’re all here,’ said Stewart. ‘DCI McNeil is in charge of this case, but us lot from the west are here to give you input regarding our investigation into the disappearance of little Alice Brent. It went cold quickly, and now we know he’d kept her alive until it was time to dispose of her. We’re thinking that her death and Sandra’s were accidental, but now our line of thinking is this: is Zoe Harris alive, or did she suffer the same fate?’

One of the phones rang and Lillian picked it up. She spoke to somebody on the other end as Stewart kept talking, then she hung up.

‘Sorry to interrupt, sir,’ she said to Stewart, ‘but a DI Matt Keen from Fife just called. Zoe Harris has just been found. Same condition as the others. Wrapped up. Near the beach in Burntisland, outside a leisure centre.’

‘Aw, shite,’ Stewart said as the others all looked on, feeling deflated as any hope of finding the girl alive dissipated.

Harry walked up to the whiteboard and looked at the photos of the three girls when they were taken five years ago. He felt his heart sink. Photos of the two teenage girls who had gone missing a couple of weeks previously were stuck on another whiteboard, along with details about them. Ashley Kirby and Simone Santana. He turned to face the others.

‘I requested details of the missing girls from CID, because I wanted to make a comparison between them and the girls we now have back. There are a few differences here, but there’s one thing that jumps out at me.’

‘What’s that, Harry?’ Stewart said.

‘Their ages. Sandra Robertson was twelve when she got taken. She’s now seventeen. Alice Brent was ten when she got taken. She’s now fifteen. These two girls who were abducted are seventeen and fifteen. Is it just a coincidence?’

‘I’m not sure what you’re getting at,’ Stewart said.

‘I know this is a long shot, but hear me out. Whoever took those three little girls wanted to keep them. He kept them for five years, but then something tragic happened and they died of carbon monoxide poisoning. So what if he wants to replace these girls with the ones who just died? The timeline fits. The girls have been dead for a few weeks. What if he realised he wanted two different girls and went out and abducted Ashley and Simone? They went missing three days apart. They’ve been gone for two weeks now, and suddenly his previous girls are being dumped.’

Stewart nodded. ‘That’s one theory, especially if he’s a sick bastard. Could be. We won’t dismiss it, but we can also work other angles, if anybody has an opinion.’

‘They might not be connected at all,’ Dunbar said. ‘Three different pervs. That’s another angle we have to look at.’

‘Agreed,’ Harry said. He looked at Lillian. ‘Can you find out if Walter Scott Travel is open on a Sunday?’

‘I’ll get on it.’

‘If so, tell Mike Morton, the owner, that we’d like to speak to him again. And get a list of all his drivers and run a background check on him.’

‘Got it.’

‘The post-mortem on Sandra Robertson is being done today down at the mortuary. Ronnie and Eve, I’d like you to be in attendance. You can go now. They’ll be expecting you.’

Vallance and Eve Bell nodded and left the incident room.

‘DCI Dunbar and DS Evans can come with me to Burntisland. I want to see the scene for myself. Muckle, can you keep in touch with Jimmy’s DI, Tom Barclay, and see if he’s going to Alice Brent’s post-mortem. I’d like to compare notes on both girls.’

‘No problem.’

‘I’d like to come to Burntisland as well,’ Stewart said and it didn’t sound like a request. He turned round to his detectives. ‘Which of you is going to have the pleasure of driving me around?’

‘I can take my Cortina, sir,’ Evans ventured.

‘Cortina? What the fuck is that?’

‘It’s an old classic Ford –’

‘I know what the fuck it is. I was saying out loud what everybody else in the room was thinking. We’ll take my car and you can drive. If you break it, you bought it.’

Nineteen

Stewart sat in the front passenger seat. ‘So you won’t fuck up my radio stations,’ he told Evans.

‘Trust me, sir, I don’t think we have the same taste in music.’

‘Why? What do you like? All that loud squealing shite that you jump around to when you’re reeking and nobody can tell if you’re dancing or needing a pish?’

‘Not exactly. I like a bit of country.’

‘Country?’ Stewart said, spluttering out the word. ‘Songs about a guy driving off in his truck with his dug