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

I’ve also taken the liberty of contacting the coastguard. The lifeboat crew has been assembled and are about to launch. They mentioned contacting Caernarfon Search and Rescue in case you want to mobilise the helicopter?’

‘Good idea. What else?’

‘Well, I thought I’d set about interviewing the neighbours, if that’s okay?’ he added. ‘It’s unlikely that they’ll have seen anything but we might get lucky.’

‘Don’t forget CCTV, Jax. There can’t be that many ten-year-olds roaming the streets in the middle of the night for her to have gone unnoticed.’ She matched his serious look with one of her own, their minds working in tandem. ‘Okay, you crack on. I’m heading back to the station after I’ve finished here. If she doesn’t turn up soon, the DCI is going to have to cough up additional coppers to help with the search.’

She watched him turn on his heel and head out the open front door and around to the next house, not that he had to walk far. The houses were terraced, each with an excuse of a front and back garden and little else. It was places like this that often turned up the most interesting facts. The residents, living in such close proximity, often knew more about their neighbours than was healthy. If they knew anything, DC Jax Williams would hopefully weed it out.

Ellie’s bedroom was a box of a room with little space to fit anything alongside the small divan and matching wardrobe. There wasn’t even room for a chair or a desk but that hadn’t stopped her from filling nearly every available space with books. There were shelves piled high, the sight of which struck dread in Gaby as each one would have to be flicked through to see if they held any secrets between their pages. But that wasn’t her job, she reminded herself, pulling her mobile from her pocket and placing a quick call to Jason, the senior CSI back at the station. Anita wouldn’t thank her for having her home invaded by a team of strangers but if there was one clue here that would lead them to discover the child’s whereabouts then they had to find it, and sooner rather than later.

Phone back in her pocket, Gaby turned her attention to the bed, not that she could see much of the plain pink duvet cover, piled high as it was with so many cuddly toys to the extent that there was barely room for a child to sit let alone lie down. Pulling on the pair of disposable gloves that she always carried in her pocket, she opened the wardrobe. Mainly jeans, tops and leotards. The shoes tucked in the bottom were the usual black lace-ups she’d anticipated, along with two pairs of ballet shoes and a pair of wellies. All in all, apart from the books and teddies, there wasn’t much but everything was clean and tidy, obviously cared for by a loving hand.

Bending down, Gaby peered under the bed. It was amazing what people hid in the most obvious of places but in this case there was only a shoebox stuffed with what were presumably Ellie’s precious belongings. A broken silver bracelet with a dangling star. A pile of shells and another of stones. A feather. A photo of an elderly couple, probably grandparents. She removed the picture before returning the lid to the box and pushing it back out of sight with the tip of her shoe.

Ms Fry was sitting where she’d left her, Amy by her side. Gaby retook her seat, keeping her voice soft as she held out the photo.

‘I have a couple more questions, if I may. Firstly this couple. I take it they’re known to Ellie?’

‘My parents.’

‘And are they close? Would they be people she’d run to?’

‘Hardly.’ She pressed a tissue to her face, mopping up the tears. ‘My parents are both dead, Detective. It’s only Ellie and me. No one else.’

‘Okay.’ Gaby laid the picture on the table with a steady hand though she felt far from steady. She’d had a premonition when she’d taken the call earlier that this wasn’t going to be a straightforward case. Finding Ellie holed up around at her gran’s after a row with her mum was a scenario that wasn’t going to be played out. Ellie had run away for reasons unknown and currently there were no clues as to her whereabouts.

‘And the other thing?’

‘Pardon?’ Gaby looked up from where she’d been studying the photo, meeting Ms Fry’s red-rimmed stare head on.

‘You said there were two things?’

‘Ah, yes. Of course,’ she said after a moment, managing a smile of sorts. ‘You said in your initial phone call that your daughter had run away as opposed to gone missing. How did you make that distinction? It’s not always an obvious one to—’

‘Because she planned it. She must have, to know what to take.’

‘And what did she take?’

‘I’ve just been telling her everything that’s missing,’ she said, jerking her head in Amy’s direction. ‘A rucksack for starters and—’

Amy patted Ms Fry on the shoulder. ‘It’s okay, Anita. I’ll take it from here. Ms Fry did a quick recce of what was missing while she waited for the police to arrive, ma’am. Really it was to prove to herself that something untoward hadn’t happened. So, apart from a pink rucksack, one that Ellie normally uses as a school bag, there’s a sleeping bag. A few clothes but not much. There’s also a torch and a few tins of food. She’s also taken her birthday money; it was in a tin in her room.’

Gaby’s look of concern mirrored that of her friend. Ellie Fry had taken all the things necessary to start a new life, except the most important. The common sense needed to realise how vulnerable a ten-year-old was out on the streets by herself.

Chapter 5

Ronan

Monday 3 August, 7.50 a.m. Church Walk, Llandudno

It didn’t take long for Ronan to make his way to the large, detached property situated on a small clos off