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

one day, she went walking in the tunnels under the house. The RAF had a bunker under the green house in the business park, from back in the day when it was an RAF base. She knew about it, and the tunnel that led to their house was a fire escape. She lived there alone before she met Marshall. After the crash, she moved down into the bunker. It was like a huge house underground with everything she needed. She wanted to stay where people couldn’t see her hideous features. So we let her. And told other people she had died with the kids in a car crash. Mike and I knew there was a fire escape tunnel that led from the green house to our garage. Mike’s parents left him that house, and Yvonne got the cottage. Their father told them about the bunker and the tunnels.’

‘She lived there all the time?’ Harry said. ‘In the bunker?’ It was after two in the morning and he felt he should have been tired, but he was wired instead.

‘Yes. She felt safe, but she was missing the kids. So we decided to do something about it.’

‘We, meaning?’ Dunbar asked.

‘Me, Mike and Marshall. We had no intention of ever hurting the kids. We didn’t know how to abduct children, or who to take, then Mike thought about the drivers who had daughters. And the mechanic. It was easy after that. They went to the school I taught at. Three of them at the same school. Who would have thought?’

Harry felt sick to his stomach. Sitting across from this monster.

‘Then what?’ he said.

‘They knew Marshall too, of course. He approached Sandra at Portobello, got talking to her – asking her for help or something; I can’t quite remember. I had the minibus waiting. We took her. And little Alice Brent. I slipped away from my class, who were just about ready to come out, and I waved Alice over in the car park of the leisure centre.’

‘You didn’t have a dog with you?’ Dunbar asked, thinking of Vern’s reasoning that the abductor might have had a dog with him.

‘No. I told her a friend of mine had one with her, though, and it had slipped off the lead. Marshall was waiting with the minibus and he took her away. She went willingly.’

‘And Zoe Harris, who went missing in Burntisland?’ Harry asked.

‘She was running about. Don’t let her parents fool you when they tell you they kept their eyes on her. They weren’t paying attention at all. I met her, and Mike was waiting with the minibus. She came willingly too. Then we had three kids who were the same age as Marshall’s when they died.’

‘And they lived happily ever after.’

‘There were some extreme times, but after a couple of years, they settled down. They came out at night. We helped, but sometimes Yvonne would bring them up, and once or twice a driver spotted something. There was rumours going about that the place was haunted. Nobody believed anything.’

‘Then they died?’ Dunbar said.

‘Yes. I thought it was an accident, but you said Mike got Sandra pregnant and how could that be explained away? Dirty bastard. I never knew he was touching them. He was always going down to help. He fixed the boiler in that room but he obviously tampered with it. He said he’d accidentally killed them, so he put them in the walk-in freezer until he figured out what to do with them. He wanted to put them back where they were taken from, to try and throw the police off the scent. To confuse you lot. Fat lot of good that did.’

‘Why did he take Ashley and Simone?’ Harry asked.

‘He thought he was just replacing Sandra and Alice, but now I think he wanted them older so he could have sex with them. I complained about taking older girls, and he took little Abi. He was at Silverknowes with the service van and he got her away from her friends and told her that he had a puppy.’

‘And you were quite happy with that?’ Dunbar said.

‘It was for Yvonne.’

‘You went up to take the girls, but you had a rope. You were going to strangle Ashley,’ Harry said. ‘Only it wasn’t Ashley.’

‘I knew I wouldn’t get away. When I was running from you, I thought it would be better to end it for us all. I didn’t realise it was one of your officers there.’

‘Were any of the parents involved?’ Harry asked.

Agnes shook her head. ‘No. None of them.’

After a few more questions, they had her taken away by uniforms.

‘At least some families get their kids back,’ Dunbar said.

‘Aye. Silver linings.’

Forty-Four

They were the last ones in the dining room. It was the older woman who was on duty again, and she was only too pleased to accommodate them all. An extra twenty let Sparky lie in the corner.

‘Here, hen –’ Stewart said, but the woman just smiled.

‘I already got him to do extra tattie scones.’

‘Ye’re a doll. You’ll be looked after, sweetheart.’ Stewart looked at Lillian and Vern. ‘What? I’m old. I can get away with calling a woman sweetheart. I draw the line at you two, though. I wouldn’t want to be written up.’

‘Like you could care,’ Dunbar said.

‘Oh, I forgot,’ Stewart said, reaching into his inside pocket. He brought an envelope out and handed it to Harry. ‘Add something to the pot. We all chipped in for Katie for putting up with us all. There’s over a hundred quid there. Make it swell.’

Harry took his wallet out and added to it, very generously.

‘Here’s your coffee, sir,’ Evans said, putting the mug down.

‘You must be after a promotion or something.’

‘Not at all, sir. Just being helpful.’

‘Lying wee sod,’ Stewart replied in a low voice.

‘I’m no’ deef,’ Evans said.

‘You were meant to hear that.’

Alex came in. ‘I feel a fraud, coming over here for breakfast when I didn’t work the case.’

‘Don’t be daft. I’ll get you a chair,’ Stewart said.