Someone You Know (12 page)

‘So, we know the mother started up with the new fella,' Lucy said. ‘Maybe the girl was struggling with it a little.'

Fleming nodded. ‘Follow up on the partner, Seamus Doherty. See if his work has a way of contacting him.'

‘He has another place,' Lucy commented. ‘The clothes in the wardrobe upstairs look like spares he keeps for when he stays over. He's living somewhere else.'

‘Check again with Sinead Finn, see if she knows where else he might live.'

‘And one of them is using heroin. I found works in their bedroom.'

‘Of course you did,' Fleming said, shaking his head. ‘That might explain why she didn't even notice if the wee girl hadn't come back last night. We'll do a sweep around of the local shops, see what people have to say. And try to find out whereabouts on the road to Manchester Mr Doherty is at the moment.'

T
hey drove across to the small shopping area to the left of the local primary school. The block comprised a hairdresser's, post office, supermarket and chip shop. They decided Lucy might have best luck in the hairdresser's. Fleming volunteered to take the chippie.

As she approached the shops, she noticed a gang of teenagers standing on the corner of the block. She thought she recognized some of them as having been with Gavin Duffy when she saw him standing opposite Gene Kay's, but she couldn't be sure.

As she approached them, she realized that one of them was slightly older than the rest. The group fanned out behind him in a semicircle.

He raised his chin slightly at her approach and she recognized him as the one who had shouted and winked at her when she and Fleming had left Kay's house.

Lucy scanned the group behind him for Gavin but could not see him.

‘I need some help,' she said.

The boy at the head of the gang smirked. ‘Do you now?'

Lucy produced the picture of Sarah Finn and showed it to him. ‘Do any of you know this girl? She's a local lass. She's missing.'

The youth shook his head.

‘That's Sarah, Tony,' one of those behind him said, earning a scowl for the comment from the youth whom Lucy now took to be Tony.

‘You do know her?'

Tony nodded. ‘I know of her. She goes to the youth club times. That's all. We've not seen her in a while though.'

‘We?'

Tony nodded towards those behind him. ‘If they'd seen her, I'd have seen her.'

‘Will you let someone know if you hear anything of her whereabouts?' Lucy asked. She pulled out her card, which Tony looked at but did not touch.

He nodded. ‘We hear anything, we'll pass it on,' he said, then turned from her, indicating that, for him at least, their discussion was concluded.

As it turned out, Lucy was finished much sooner than she expected in the hairdresser's too. There were only two customers in there, neither of whom knew Sarah Finn. Like Tony and his gang, the girls working in the place knew her, but hadn't seen her in a few days. They did promise to keep an eye out for her. Similarly, the post office next door was quiet, with only two people in the queue ahead of Lucy.

The man behind the counter knew Sarah well, he said. She often came in on messages for her mum. She was a very sensible girl, he said. A little awkward, maybe. A little shy.

‘Have you see her today?'

‘No,' the man said. ‘Not since yesterday afternoon. Why?'

‘She's not come home,' Lucy said. ‘Her mum's asked us to look out for her. If she comes in at all, can you give me a call?' Lucy handed the man the card Tony had refused to take through the gap at the bottom of the glass partition between them.

‘Of course,' he said. ‘You know the mother then?'

Lucy nodded. ‘Mrs Finn contacted us about Sarah. She's very worried.'

‘Mmm,' the man replied.

Lucy waited a beat to see if he would elaborate, but to no avail. ‘What was Sarah in for yesterday?'

‘She was taking money out for her mother,' he said. ‘Her card account. She withdrew two hundred pounds from her child benefit account.'

‘You've a good memory,' Lucy said. ‘A police officer's best friend.'

‘I remember that,' he said. ‘Normally you wouldn't let a child withdraw that kind of money, but Sarah did a lot of that type of stuff for her mother.'

‘I see,' Lucy said.

The man leaned closer to the glass. Lucy noticed his name tag resting against the partition. Ian Ross.

‘Have you met the partner?'

‘Seamus Doherty?'

Ross nodded. ‘He's a strange one. Quiet. He's away a lot.'

Lucy nodded, leaning closer in the hope that Ross might elucidate, but the man simply nodded knowingly.

‘Thank you, Mr Ross. That's very helpful.'

The man sank back to his stool. ‘I'll call if I see Sarah,' he promised. ‘I'll ask about too, with the customers.'

‘That would be very helpful, Mr Ross,' Lucy said.

She headed back out to the car again, but there was no sign of Tom Fleming. The people in the corner shop must have been more talkative than he expected, she thought.

Ian Ross's comments had reminded her, however, that she was to follow up on Seamus Doherty.

She took out her phone and googled H. M. Haulage. The first result gave the contact details and a Google map of the office location in Coleraine.

A friendly sounding girl with a broad Ballymena accent answered the call almost immediately.

‘Can I speak with Mr Martin, please?' Lucy asked, having introduced herself.

‘With what is it in connection?' the girl asked.

‘With a missing person inquiry,' Lucy replied tersely.

She was put on hold without further comment and for almost two minutes Lucy listened to an electronic version of ‘Greensleeves'. Given the choice, she'd rather have listened to silence while she waited.

Finally she heard a click and Harry Martin introduced himself. His voice was deep, gruff, his accent a little closer to home, as best Lucy could tell.

‘Yes, Inspector Black,' Martin said. ‘You needed to speak to me.'

‘It's Sergeant,' Lucy said. ‘Thanks for your time. I'm trying to contact one of your drivers, Seamus Doherty. His mobile phone is out of network apparently. I was wondering if you might have some kind of system where I could contact him in his lorry.'

‘We do,' Martin said. ‘But I'm not sure how much use it will be. Seamus isn't out today.'

‘His partner told us he left at five this morning for a trip to Manchester.'

‘Not for me, he didn't,' Martin said. ‘We don't have any contracts in Manchester.'

F
leming appeared out of the chip shop a few minutes later, carrying two small brown bags in his hand.

‘Lunch,' he said, tossing one of them to Lucy.

‘It's gone three, sir.'

‘Dinner, then,' Fleming said.

‘Bit early for chippie grub, sir,' she commented, opening the bag. A floury bap sandwiched sausage, bacon, egg and potato bread. ‘Mind you, I did have an early start.'

Fleming had already started into his own, chewing happily, his cheeks dimpled with dollops of tomato ketchup.

‘Seamus Doherty's not in Manchester,' Lucy said, opening her own bap and peeling the rind of fat off the bacon, before replacing the upper part of the bread and taking a tentative bite.

‘Where is he then?' Fleming managed through a mouthful of food.

Lucy shrugged as she chewed. ‘Not where he said he would be.'

‘And not answering his phone. Get the details of his lorry and organize a Be On Look Out.'

Lucy nodded. ‘I'll have to ask Mrs Finn.'

‘What did the boss say about Doherty? Anything useful?'

Lucy shrugged. ‘Not much. Just they don't have contracts in Manchester. He said if he was going there, it wasn't for his company.'

‘So either he's driving for someone else, or he's been lying to Finn every time he's told her he's doing a Manchester run. Sound her out on that too.'

‘Yes, sir,' Lucy said. ‘I spoke to the fella in the post office too. Sarah withdrew £200 from her mother's child benefit account yesterday afternoon.'

Fleming slowed in his chewing. ‘Check if the mother knew. If not, the wee girl's run away.'

Lucy nodded agreement.

‘The shop was useless,' Fleming added. ‘But the chippie proved more useful. And not just for these. The owner's daughter was working in the place. She's a friend of Sarah's.'

Lucy understood why Fleming had bought food now. It gave him an excuse to stand longer, encouraging the girl to talk while the food was prepared.

‘Sarah wasn't at the youth club last night. She had to go out with her mother and Seamus Doherty for dinner. Because he was headed away for the week today.'

‘A week to go to Manchester?'

Fleming raised his eyebrows as he popped the final mouthful of his bap into his mouth. ‘So she lied to both her mother and her friends. Plus she got herself a new phone a few weeks back. The girl has given me the number. Compare with the one the mother has and see if she knew about the phone,' he added, handing her a torn corner of a brown paper bag on which the number was written.

Lucy's mobile phone rang. It was the desk sergeant in Maydown, confirming that a team of uniforms had been dispatched to Finn's house to begin house-to-house inquiries.

‘Best head back and meet the team,' Lucy said.

T
hey met the teams outside Sinead Finn's house. Fleming split the uniforms into pairs and divided up the local housing estates around Fallowfield Gardens into six blocks, one for each pair. One of the men had brought copies of the picture Lucy had sent into the station.

‘Meet back here at 5.30,' Fleming said. ‘And call either myself or DS Black if you find anything. I'm going to call down to the youth club just to double-check Sarah definitely wasn't there last night.'

As the pairs dispersed, Lucy called back in with Sinead Finn. The woman opened the door, then hobbled back into the living room. She still had on the white dressing gown she'd worn earlier.

Lucy closed the door and followed her in. ‘Any word?' she asked Sinead Finn's retreating back.

‘Nothing,' the woman said. ‘I've called all her friends. And her mobile, too,' she added. ‘Nothing. No one's seen her. Her friends said she wasn't with them last night.'

‘Can I check what number you're calling her on? Only one of her friends said she got a new phone a while back.'

‘Not that I knew of,' Finn answered, opening her phone and checking the listing, before reading out the number. It did not match the one Lucy had been given by Fleming.

‘I need a second,' Lucy said, calling ICS. She recognized Dave Cooper's voice when he answered, felt a little surprised at the pleasure it brought her.

‘We've a second missing person,' she explained after introducing herself. ‘The girl has a new phone ...'

‘Like Karen Hughes?' Cooper asked.

‘Maybe,' Lucy began. ‘If I gave you the number, could you try tracing it?'

‘No problem. I'll be quick as I can.'

Lucy thanked him after reading the number off the scrap of paper, then hung up. ‘I've a few more questions,' she said, addressing Sinead Finn. ‘Has anything like this ever happened before?'

Finn shook her head as she lowered herself into her seat. She pulled a pouffe across and raised her feet onto it. Lucy noticed balls of cotton wool between each of her toes. Her nails were freshly painted, having progressed on from doing her fingers.

‘Never. She stayed out late at times, but she's a good girl. I never have no bother with her.'

‘She went to the post office for you yesterday, is that right?'

Sinead struggled to remember. ‘She might have. She ran jobs for me all the time. I've problems with my legs, you see.'

‘I see. Sarah withdrew money from a child benefit account using your card yesterday,' Lucy said.

‘Did she?' Finn looked towards the ceiling, trying to remember. ‘I didn't ask her to do that.'

‘A significant amount, Mrs Finn. Two hundred pounds. You're sure that wasn't for you?'

‘Two hundred pounds?' Finn snapped. ‘The wee bitch.'

Lucy bowed her head. ‘You didn't—?'

‘The post office shouldn't have given it to her. It's my account.'

‘Apparently she did this for you a lot,' Lucy said.

Sinead gave a non-committal grunt.

‘She told her friends she was going out with you and your partner for dinner last night, too,' Lucy added.

‘We weren't going for dinner. I told you already – we ate here.'

‘I know,' Lucy said. ‘I'm just trying to be certain we have all the facts.'

‘Well, where the hell is she then?' Sinead Finn said, her eyes glistening, as if, for the first time, she had begun to realize the seriousness of her daughter's absence.

‘Did she have a boyfriend or anything?'

‘She was fifteen for Christ's sake!'

Lucy wasn't sure how she was meant to interpret that and rephrased the question. ‘Was there anyone she might have run off with? Taking the money and that suggests she might have had plans to go somewhere.'

‘She'd mentioned the odd boy or two at the youth club, but no one special. Not that I remember.'

Lucy nodded. ‘What about Facebook or Twitter? Did she have any friends on there?'

Finn shrugged. ‘I don't know.' She leaned forward and picked up her cigarettes. Her dressing gown sleeve drooped over her hand and she slid it quickly up her arm with her free hand. For a second, Lucy caught sight of a network of small red scars on her inner forearm, then the sleeve slipped down and covered it again. Finn followed her line of sight, sniffed loudly, then wiped her sleeve across her nose.