Lost Souls by Jenny O'Brien (android e book reader txt) 📕

a few words would ease any concerns his brother might have about his missing clothes. Although, if he knew Caleb as well as he thought he did, it would probably take him months to notice their loss.

Chapter 20

Gaby

Monday 3 August, 4.55 p.m. St Asaph Police Station

‘If you’re trying to make me believe that I’m bad at my job …’

‘Oh no, Detective. You’ve managed that without any help from me. The mammoth cock-up in Swansea should have told you that as a copper you suck. You couldn’t find your way out of a paper bag let alone find the missing girl. Enough already! When I get the job, you’ll find yourself at the end of a very long dole queue, which is only what you deserve,’ Bill said, lumbering to his feet.

‘Only time will tell, or do you include crystal ball gazing and palm reading on your short list of attributes?’

Gaby had never felt more like thumping someone than she did Bill Davis. She’d spent the last twenty minutes or so listening to him slating off the members of her team while her fingernails dug deep crescents into her palms. And yet as soon as the clock ticked its way to five, he lurched to his feet and headed for the door, all the while talking about the leisurely meal and early night he intended in preparation for his interview in the morning. He was just the man they didn’t want in charge of the MIT but the only way she could block him was by finding the time to submit her own application.

She made a mental note to download the job application form before turning her attention back to her phone. The longer the silence around Ellie’s disappearance hovered, the increased likelihood of an unsavoury result and there wasn’t a thing that she could do to change that statistical inevitability. They’d pulled in extra police from across the Welsh network, teams of highly trained professionals who were currently walking side by side as they searched the numerous green fields and beaches that flourished in the area. She’d even managed to secure a sniffer dog and all they’d got for their efforts was a possible hit on the Great Orme, a trail than ran cold as soon as her handler had followed her to the traffic-filled street of North Parade.

PC Diane Carbone had been given a desk and access to the CCTV camera footage in and around Colwyn Bay and Llandudno, a herculean task that she embraced with a large steel coffee mug at her elbow. There was a lot of hope residing in these images but apart from a single shot of Ellie Fry’s blurred outline as she’d walked along Greenfield Road at 3.01 a.m. there’d been no other sightings. The thought was that she’d headed for Colwyn Bay beach, a CCTV camera black spot. From there, if the dog handler was right, she must have followed the shoreline around to Llandudno, a huge ask for an adult let alone a ten-year-old. Doable if she was desperate enough and that’s where Gaby’s thoughts were leading her, a pencil in her hand as she worked out the average walking speed on the top of her A4 pad.

Gaby dropped her pencil on her desk and placed her hands on either side of her head, staring at the numbers in front of her. With sunrise not till 5.30 it would have still been dark, a daunting prospect at the best of times but a young child must have been scared witless. If Gaby had been in her position she’d have run most of the way, not that her fitness levels were up to it. But Ellie was reed-slim in her photos and used to running about at school not to mention undertaking all those ballet lessons. No, she’d have arrived at her destination before most of North Wales had even filled their kettle for their morning cuppa. And that’s where Gaby’s thoughts stopped because she couldn’t for the life of her think of what her plan had been. To hole up in the Great Orme with a rucksack stuffed full with tins of baked beans. What then?

Pushing back from her desk, she crossed over to the window to stretch her legs. She’d been thinking about the problem on and off all day but was no further forward. But then again she wasn’t a scared ten-year-old, which was probably the main difficulty.

Gaby had a tendency to place herself in the shoes of whichever person she was investigating. It was a trick she’d learnt during her job as a PC in Liverpool and something that had stood her in good stead over the years. But now the common-sense application of standard principles behind human behaviour didn’t apply. She could rationalise that Ellie must have been scared but after that? Nothing.

Instead of returning to her desk, she looked up at the sound of knuckle against wood.

‘Come in.’

‘Hi, Gaby, sorry to interrupt you but it’s those old women again about their missing friend, Barbara Matthews,’ Clancy said, propping up the doorway. ‘They’re not prepared to let it rest and are even threatening to take it to the media.’

‘Are they now?’ Gaby’s eyes glittered. ‘Look, Sergeant, I have too much on my plate already. The only way I could possibly squeeze even a modicum of interest, this early in her disappearance, would be if it turns out she’s had a hip replacement.’

‘Ma’am?’

‘Just ignore me, Clancy.’ She lifted a hand to her neck briefly to try and stem the building tension. ‘For one thing the timing is out. What was that about the media?’

‘Apparently one of them knows the editor of the Llandudno Chronicle.’

‘Really. How interesting.’ Gaby might sound offhand but the very last thing she wanted was some nosy journo upsetting Sherlock not to mention Chief Superintendent Murdock Winters, who prided himself on his long association with the press. It would also be a black mark if she ever found the time to complete that blasted