Page 21 of Stolen Ones
‘Of course it was too late to get that kind of timeline so long after the event, but the case was reopened after Shannon Matthews.’
‘They thought the family had done it for money?’
Stacey nodded. ‘There was a willingness, almost an eagerness, from Lyla Jones to get on the telly and make appeals, so the new investigating team thought maybe Melody had been hidden by the family to make some money before they’d then produce her all safe and sound like Shannon Matthews, but that something went wrong.’
‘Did the initial investigating team suspect the same?’ Kim asked.
‘If they did it wasn’t noted, but that team also paid a lot of attention to family members of Melody. Whether it was just to rule them out I don’t know.’
Kim knew she was never going to get anywhere with this bits-and-pieces approach. There had been too many fingers in the pie since Melody had gone missing.
She fought down her annoyance that Steven Harte’s words had sent her in a direction where there appeared to be something to find. She would have been happier to find a cut-and-dried case of outside interference. She had wanted to find a believable and credible family who had alerted no suspicion. She had wanted to focus her entire attention on Steven Harte and his involvement; find proof and search his house, find Grace Lennard and return her home in time for bed.
She hadn’t wanted to find the ‘offness’ about the family, but she had. She was now filled with more questions than answers, and she knew she had to dig deeper. The only way to do that was to go right to the source.
‘Who was the first SIO?’
Stacey’s face crunched with dread. ‘DI Wrigley.’
Kim groaned again. Nicknamed Gum, for obvious reasons, there was no worse name Stacey could have said.
‘Okay, Stace, that’s enough for today. Get off home now.’
‘Do you want me to try and track down…?’
‘Nah, it’s fine,’ Kim said, getting her coat.
She knew of Gum, and at eighto’clock at night she knew exactly where she’d find him.
Twelve
It was almost nineby the time she pulled into the car park of The Dog in Tipton. It was a double-fronted establishment sandwiched between Midland Tool and Design and a chippy. She’d had just enough time to get home, shower, change, walk and feed Barney and throw a couple of essentials into the boot for her shift of the stakeout.
‘Okay, let’s do a check call before I go in,’ Kim said, turning towards Barney, who was seat belted into the back seat.
She pressed on Penn’s number, and he answered immediately.
‘Thank God,’ he said.
‘Problem?’
‘Nope, just someone to talk to.’
Well, that answered her first question.
‘No movement at all?’
‘Not a thing. Gates closed behind him at five thirty, and there’s been nothing in or out since.’
‘Can you see anything?’
‘Stretched my legs about an hour ago, but didn’t go out of sight of the gate in case I missed him leaving the property.’
‘Okay, Penn, if I can get to you any earlier I will.’
The guy had to be tired and starving.
‘I’m all right, boss. I found a six-month-old protein bar in the back of the glovebox.’
