Gone Astray (17 page)

He grabbed the remote control and rewound until the moment the dad got to his feet. Pressing play, he watched open-mouthed as anger exploded inside him like a bomb going off. Didn’t he
warn the stupid bitch of a mother that they weren’t to spend any more until he’d got his rightful share?

All he wanted was enough to stop the agonizing pain he was in. There was a doctor in the States he’d found online who was pioneering a new technique to treat his type of spinal injury but
charged the price of a house to do so. If the girl’s parents had just given him what he needed when he’d first asked for it, it wouldn’t have gone this far. It was their
fault.

His injury could’ve been a lot worse, so his doctors said. An act of extreme folly is how the police described what happened. Egged on by his equally inebriated and now former best friend,
he had almost scaled the scaffolding veiling the three-storey building when he lost his grip and fell backwards. Wooden boards that had been fashioned into a platform halfway down broke his fall
and his surgeon said he was lucky not to be paralysed. Instead, all he had to contend with was a lifetime of constant pain. Lucky him!

That’s why he wanted the money, to get his back fixed properly. The steroids could only do so much and while he knew from his own training that working out was important to keep the
muscles surrounding his spine as strong as possible, what was he meant to do when he got older? Wither away? Already it was becoming harder to do his job: he had to turn down clients with more
complicated injuries because his back hurt too much when he had to adopt certain positions.

He burned with fury as he watched the commotion on screen.

‘YOU’RE MEANT TO GIVE THE MONEY TO ME!’

The reporters were on their feet, bellowing questions at Mack, and the noise pinned Maggie to the wall. They all looked as stunned as she was and were all asking the same
thing: ‘Mr Kinnock, are you really offering a million pounds as a reward to find your daughter?’ Then Umpire caught her eye and she propelled herself into action. Rushing to the front
of the room, she practically tipped Lesley out of her seat and guided her out of the room and back into the office while Umpire did the same with Mack. His face claret with fury, Umpire told Maggie
to leave them alone and slammed the door shut behind her. As she walked away, in no mood to contradict him, she heard Mack shouting.

Maggie went in search of Belmar and collared him further along the corridor. He, too, looked dazed. Speaking in a low voice so as not to be overheard – the corridor was filling up with
journalists tapping excitedly on their mobiles and tablets, anxious to be the first to report on what had happened – she asked him if he’d known Mack was going to put up the reward.

‘Not exactly,’ said Belmar, beads of sweat glistening on the skin below his trim hairline. ‘Earlier on he asked if it was usual in cases like this. But it was just a passing
mention.’

‘That’s bad enough,’ said Maggie with a groan.

‘I put him straight though.’

A reporter stopped beside them. He was talking into his mobile but Maggie couldn’t tell if he was faking the call to listen to them, so she pulled an unresisting Belmar further along the
corridor by the arm.

‘How did you put him straight? I need to know exactly what you said to him.’

‘I said it was probably too early to think about that and he should talk to the DCI. I also said that even if the investigation did go down that route there were strict guidelines that
needed to be followed. After that he changed the subject.’ Belmar sagged against the corridor wall. ‘Ballboy’s going to go mental, isn’t he?’

‘He’s not going to be happy, no. A reward that size will have every chancer and nutter from Cornwall to Carlisle crawling out of the woodwork claiming they’ve got information
about where Rosie is and the team will have to check out each one. It’ll slow things down.’

‘What should I say if Ballboy asks if I knew?’

Maggie had to think fast. Mack pledging a million pounds to find Rosie was an unmitigated disaster. It was the biggest reward she could recall anyone offering and now the media focus would be on
that instead of finding Rosie. But right now her priority was also to ensure they weren’t unfairly blamed for it and taken off the case. As the officers entrenched in the family home, people
would assume they must’ve known about it.

‘Did you record the chat in your log?’ she said.

Belmar shook his head. ‘Not yet. I write mine up at the end of the day.’

‘Do it now. Make sure you write down exactly what you just told me – that it was a casual remark by Mack and you told him explicitly there were procedures to follow and that he
should talk to Umpire.’

‘You want me to doctor my log?’ said Belmar, shocked.

‘It’s not doctoring when you’re writing down what was actually said,’ she hissed. ‘I just want you to fill it out now instead of later.’

‘But if the DCI finds out—’

‘If he brings it up, I’ll just say Mack raised the subject and you’ve recorded it in your log as a passing comment but had you suspected for a single second he was going to
pull that stunt, you’d have gone straight to him about it.’

‘You think he’ll buy it?’

‘I’ll make sure he does. Go on, go and do it now.’

Bracing herself, she knocked on the office door then entered before Umpire could tell her to stay out. Suit jacket removed and shirtsleeves rolled up, he leaned over the table, hands splayed out
on its surface like he was doing a press-up, the lean muscles of his forearms taut with tension. He was trying to reason with Mack, whose own arms were crossed defiantly over his chest.

‘The reward you’re offering is not going to help us find your daughter any quicker,’ Umpire was saying. ‘If you won’t withdraw it we’ll have to find some way
to reduce it instead.’

‘No way,’ said Mack. ‘What would Rosie think?’ He affected a voice that was high and shrill, like an old woman’s. ‘“Oh look, love, your dad’s
changed his mind and decided you’re not worth it after all.”’ He shook his head. ‘No, the reward stands.’

Umpire glared at Maggie and she met his steely gaze full on. She’d done nothing wrong and while Belmar was an idiot for not mentioning Mack’s question about a reward sooner, neither
had he. No one could’ve predicted what Mack would do faced with a room full of journalists. Then she glanced across at Lesley and her heart sank.

She looked like she’d aged twenty years. Her eyes were unfocused as they gazed at the opposite wall and her posture was slack, as though her body was being crushed by the enormity of the
situation she faced. Maggie had seen it happen before. Facing the press meant families having to admit the situation was real and not a horrible, terrifying nightmare they would at some point wake
up from. Ignoring Umpire, she crouched down by Lesley’s side.

‘How are you doing?’ she whispered.

Lesley looked at her like she had no idea who Maggie was.

‘She needs to go home and get some rest,’ she said to Umpire. ‘They both do.’

Umpire looked at Mack, who was by the window with his back to the room. The discussion was over as far as he was concerned.

‘Fine. Take them home and I’ll call you after the next briefing.’

‘Did you hear that, Lesley?’ said Maggie. ‘You’re going home now.’

Maggie smiled gratefully at Umpire. He could’ve chosen to hammer away at Mack over the reward until he cracked but instead he’d listened to her. As he said his goodbyes and left the
room, she could’ve sworn he gave her the briefest of winks. Was it further proof of a thaw towards her? After what Belmar had said about them, she didn’t want to think it meant anything
else.

‘Belmar is going to drive you home and I’ll follow in a bit,’ Maggie told the Kinnocks. ‘There’s something I have to do first.’ Neither acknowledged
they’d heard her, so she left them in the office and went to find Belmar. He was in the now-empty conference room, sitting alone on a row of chairs as he wrote out his log. Quickly she filled
him in on the argument she’d interrupted between Mack and Umpire.

‘Mack won’t budge on the reward so the DCI said we should take them home,’ she finished.

‘When he came out and saw me here I thought he was going to ask me about the reward but he didn’t,’ said Belmar, setting down his pen. ‘Thanks for backing me up. I
appreciate it.’

‘If you really want to thank me, you can take Mack and Lesley back by yourself while I run a quick errand.’

‘But we came in your car. Mine’s back in Haxton.’

‘Your insurance covers you to drive other vehicles, doesn’t it? So take mine.’ She gave him the keys.

‘How will you get back?’

‘I’ll cadge a lift from uniform or get a taxi if needs be. I won’t be long – an hour, tops. But, listen, if Lesley’s still in a state when you get back to
Angel’s Reach, call a doctor out to check her over.’

‘Sure. So where are you going?’

She gave him a wry smile. ‘To do a money drop.’

Lou lived in a mid-terrace house on a road on the outskirts of the town centre. It was a fifteen-minute walk from the police station and Maggie texted ahead to say she was
coming. As she approached the front door, it swung open and Lou greeted her with a scowl on her face and Mae balanced on her hip.

‘Have you got my twenty quid?’ she said brusquely.

Maggie sighed. She was too tired to be goaded into a row and clearly Lou was angling for one. Instead of answering she reached over and took hold of Mae, who crowed with delight to see her.

‘Can I come in?’ she said, cuddling her niece to her chest.

Lou stood aside to let her pass. There was no hallway leading from the door, so Maggie stepped straight from the pavement into the small lounge.

‘I’m doing spag bol for tea,’ said Lou.

‘Sounds great but I can’t stay.’

Mae wailed as Lou snatched her back from Maggie’s arms.

‘If you’re not stopping you may as well go now. The boys are down the road at Toby’s playing Xbox, but I’ll tell them you couldn’t spare the time to wait for them.
Let yourself out.’

Lou flounced into the kitchen. Maggie went after her.

‘Hey, don’t you think you’re overreacting?’

Lou ignored her as she lowered Mae into her high chair and gave her a lion-shaped rattle to chew on. She opened the fridge door and took out a sealed tray of raw mince, which she lobbed onto the
counter beside the oven. A foul stench suddenly filled the room.

‘Christ, what’s that smell?’ said Maggie.

‘Nothing,’ said Lou, taking a couple of carrots from the crisper drawer and shutting the door quickly.

‘It smells like something died in there.’

‘Some chicken’s gone out of date and I haven’t had time to clear it out, okay?’ she said testily.

As she looked around, Maggie saw the entire kitchen needed cleaning. Dirty crockery was piled precariously in the sink and every worktop was littered with the debris of a dozen meals: half-f
baked bean tins and packaging for a ready meal shepherd’s pie jostled for position next to a Honey Monster Puffs cereal box and an empty four-litre plastic milk bottle. On the hob was a white
patch where something had spilled and dried out. The mess unnerved her – even with three kids to look after, Lou always kept the house neat. Her own flat was a tip by contrast because she was
rarely there to tidy it.

‘Lou, what’s wrong?’

‘Nothing. I haven’t had a chance to tidy up because you’ve not been here to mind the kids while I do it.’

Lou threw a carrot into the sink, knocking a stack of unwashed mugs over. Then she leaned back against the sink unit, clutching the edge with her hands. It was then Maggie realized that Lou
looked as much of a state as the kitchen. Her bright pink top had unidentifiable stains all down the front and her denim boot-cut jeans looked like they hadn’t been washed for weeks. They
also emphasized how much weight she’d gained in recent months. Already on the plump side before she got pregnant with Mae, Lou had put on at least another stone since giving birth. Her
stomach spilled over the waistband of her jeans and the line of her bra beneath her top revealed it was too small to fully contain her large breasts. Her auburn hair, usually a sleek, graduated
bob, was now an unconditioned cloud of split ends. Maggie felt awful: she spent so much time with her sister and yet somehow she’d become immune to the obvious signs she was struggling.

‘Lou, is everything okay?’ she asked.

‘Rob came round earlier.’

Maggie scowled at the mention of Lou’s estranged husband.

‘What did he want?’

‘He’s asked for a divorce.’

‘Oh, Lou.’

She went over and gave her sister a hug. She wasn’t a fan of Rob’s but she knew Lou loved him and how much she wanted their relationship to work. Their marriage, though rocky at
times, gave her and the boys the stability they needed and Jude and Scotty had missed him terribly since he’d moved out. Rob was the only dad either of them had known.

‘He says he wants a divorce so he can marry
her
,’ said Lou, her deep-set hazel eyes brimming with tears.

‘Her’ was Lisa, Rob’s new girlfriend. They’d met when Lisa began working part-time as a receptionist at the gym Rob was a member of and it wasn’t long before their
flirty exchanges by the front desk had spilled over into a physical affair. Within two months Rob had walked out on Lou to move in with her.

‘I’m so sorry.’

‘I thought you’d be pleased.’

Maggie saw the pain etched on her sister’s face and felt a wave of hatred towards Rob for the callous way in which he’d dumped her. There was no warning: he just got up one Sunday
morning, packed a suitcase and left.

‘Of course I’m not pleased. I hate the way he’s treated you.’

‘It’s my fault though.’

‘Don’t you dare say that,’ Maggie flared up. ‘You didn’t do anything wrong. He’s the one who cheated.’

‘Can you blame him looking elsewhere when he always felt like he was second best? No bloke likes to think he’s not the love of your life. Rob has always felt like he’s in
Jerome’s shadow.’