Missing Believed Dead

Book 3: Dundee Crime Series

by Chris Longmuir

Genres: Mystery; Traditional Mysteries; Crime & Mystery; British Thrillers; Psychological Thrillers; Suspense; books set in Scotland; Tartan Noir; Scottish murder mystery; Scottish fiction; Scottish thriller

Synopsis

Missing children! Internet predators! Dead bodies!

She crossed his arms over his chest and placed the jade beads in his eyes. "To remind you of me," she said.

Jade was 13 when she disappeared five years ago, and DS Bill Murphy suspects someone from her family is responsible for recent Dundee murders. But is it her mother, Diane, who now suffers from OCD? Or Emma, her twin sister, who was catatonic for a year after Jade's disappearance? Or Jade's brother, Ryan, who enjoys dressing in women's clothes and is going through a life crisis, unsure whether he is gay?

What happened to Jade? Is she alive or dead? Or has she returned to wreak a terrible revenge on male predators?

Chris Longmuir is an award-winning author. Night Watcher, the first book in the Dundee Crime Series, won the SAW Pitlochry Award, and Dead Wood, the second book in the series, won both the SAW Pitlochry Award and the Dundee International Book Prize.

Release date: June 27, 2013

Publisher: Barker & Jansen

Print pages: 312

Sample

Chapter One

Friday, 9 March

He checked the van for the last time.

He was a few miles from Dundee and would be there in less than half an hour.

The long drive from Manchester had been more exhausting than he had anticipated so he’d pulled off the road and kipped down in the van late last night. But excitement had made sleep impossible and, when he did doze, he’d had glorious wet dreams.

Jade. That’s what she called herself. He wondered if it was her real name or her chat room moniker.

It didn’t matter. What mattered was she was twelve and eager to meet him.

He tucked the rope out of sight beneath the mattress and tested the iron rings embedded in the floor of the van. The small bottle of chloroform nestled in his jacket pocket along with a gauze pad.

Giving a nod of approval he climbed over the back of the seat into the front of the van.

The engine started when he turned the key.

He always kept the van tuned up, knowing how disastrous it would be if he had a breakdown when he was carrying cargo.

The rain, spotting his windscreen, suddenly turned into a downpour and he switched his wipers to their highest speed.

Lorries rumbled past drenching the van with spray, and tailgaters annoyed by his slow speed, flashed their lights at him.

Oblivious to them all he whistled through his teeth while he drove, imagining her reaction when she found out he was not a fourteen year old boy but a man nearing his fortieth birthday. It wouldn’t matter, he would think up a story to con her into coming back to the van with him and the adventure would begin.

* * * *

They had arranged to meet at the Overgate Centre, the busiest shopping mall in Dundee, and she got there early so she could look him over when he arrived. If he was a fourteen year old boy, she would walk away. But she doubted that. No boy would be willing to come from Manchester to meet a girl. She was convinced he would be a man.

The food court beside the escalators was busy, but she bought a coffee and found a seat against the partition at the back where she would have a clear line of sight to the servery and all the tables.

The coffee scalded her tongue, and the taste and smell turned her stomach. She placed the cup back in the saucer and cradled it in her hands to stop them trembling. Her breathing became forced and she struggled for air. She thought she was going to choke.

Closing her eyes she battled the panic attack and gradually her breathing returned to normal. She could not afford to chicken out now, not after all her preparations. She had rehearsed everything in her mind over and over, and now she did it again. It would work, it had to. Her planning had been impeccable and the time was almost here. But would she be able to follow through? Would she be able to do it?

* * * *

The multi-storey car park was almost full but he managed to find a secluded corner. Most folks avoided these spaces unless nothing else was available, but he welcomed them. There was less chance of nosey parkers checking him out.

He waited a few minutes while a woman at the other end of the parking level loaded her car and drove off, then he pushed the van door open and got out. A quick look around reassured him it was safe to go and, leaning into the van, he grabbed the Harry Potter book, tucked it under his arm, and headed for the exit leading to the mall.

The lower level was busy with lunch-time shoppers. He hesitated. Crowds made him nervous, but the girls usually picked somewhere like this and he had developed coping mechanisms.

Breathing deeply, he pulled the brim of his baseball cap forward to partially mask his face, focused on a point above the heads of the moving mass of people, and forced himself to join the stream. He ignored the jostling and pushing, the jab of an umbrella, the heel of someone’s shoe digging into his foot, and concentrated on what he would say.

‘Kyle,’ for that was the name he was using, ‘tripped getting out of the van and he’s hurt his foot.’ He could imagine her frown. ‘It’s OK,’ he would say. ‘I’m his dad.’ The frown would lessen but she might still be reluctant. ‘Silly blighter was keen to meet you. He talked me into driving him here. I was going to have a look round Dundee while you two got together, but . . . ’ and here he would shrug and look embarrassed, ‘I didn’t reckon on him being clumsy. What d’you think? D’you want to come to the van to meet him?’ He would wait a few minutes while she considered, and add, ‘I’ll understand if you don’t want to, but he’ll be disappointed.’ Yeah, that should do it. These young girls were gullible. They would believe anything.

* * * *

He was easy to spot, and she watched him join the cafeteria queue. She guessed he must be in his forties although he dressed younger and was attractive. Thoughts of what he would want from her flooded her brain. Anger surged through her. She was in danger of losing her self control, so she closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Anger wouldn’t help when it came to doing what she had to do.

His eyes scanned the tables but she had not produced her Harry Potter book yet. He probably thought she hadn’t arrived. She placed her coffee cup on a nearby table and dug the book out of her knapsack when he reached the till.

He finished wrestling with his copy of the book, his wallet and the small tray with teapot, cup, saucer and Danish pastry, and turned to look for a table. She saw his start of recognition when he spotted her book. This was the crucial moment when she would have to convince him she was a young girl. But that was not the only problem. She had to make sure she could not be identified after she completed her task.

CCTV cameras were all over the shopping mall, in the ceiling and high up on the wall. But she had taken precautions. The hoodie she wore masked her face and, as long as she kept it up, the cameras would be unable to show whether she was young or old, male or female.

His tray wobbled as he picked his way through the tables. A tall, thin man with a hesitant smile, wearing grubby jeans and denim jacket, and a cap with its brim pulled low over his eyes.

‘Jade?’ His voice was pleasant and reassuring.

She pulled her hood closer to her face. ‘Go away. I don’t know you.’

He placed his tray on the table. ‘Kyle sent me.’

‘Why would Kyle send you? Why didn’t he come himself?’

‘He did come. But he had an accident getting out of the van. The silly sod tripped up over his own big feet and he’s sprained his ankle.’

‘I don’t believe you.’ It wouldn’t do to make it too easy for him or he would suspect something.

‘Cross my heart, it’s true. I’m his dad, I should know.’

‘Why would he bring his dad with him?’

‘He couldn’t drive himself from Manchester, could he? He’s not old enough for a licence.’

‘I suppose.’ She made her voice sound grudging, as if she was starting to believe him.

He sat down and poured his tea. ‘Can I get you something? Coke maybe? And then I’ll take you to Kyle.’

‘Yeah, OK. Get me a coke.’

‘Don’t go away,’ he said, ‘I’ll be right back with your coke.’

As soon as he joined the queue at the counter she tipped the pill into his cup then held her breath until she was sure the tea wasn’t going to turn blue. But it was all right, it was just as her supplier had said. The pill was one of the older ones produced before they added the blue dye to cut down on date rapes.

‘D’you always wear your hood up?’ He set the glass of coke in front of her and sat down.

‘Some of my mum’s pals might be shopping here,’ she mumbled. ‘If they see me they’ll tell my mum I’ve bunked off school.’

‘I see.’

Luckily, he did not push it and she knew she was one step nearer her goal. She felt him watching her and she lowered her head, pretending to drink the coke.

‘It’s a pity Kyle couldn’t meet you here. I bet he’s sitting in the van feeling sorry for himself.’

‘If you say so.’ She could not afford to agree to go with him yet. He hadn’t drunk his tea.

‘He was keen to come here. I couldn’t refuse to drive him.’ He took a bite of his Danish pastry.

‘Yeah,’ she mumbled, willing him to drink the tea. She would never be able to do the next bit unless the drug started to work on him. He was too big for her to overpower without it.

‘Please say you’ll come back to the van with me. Kyle will be disappointed if he has to go home without seeing you.’ He lifted the cup and swallowed.

‘Sure,’ she said, ‘but I’d like to finish my coke first.’

Ten minutes would be sufficient, she thought. And by the time they walked to the van, he would be more than ready for the final injection.

* * * *

He smiled at her. She had taken the bait. Pity he couldn’t see her face, but once he got her back to the van he would see far more than that. He was euphoric, thinking what he would do to her, the gifts he would give her. She would never be the same again.

He watched her lift her glass and put it on the tray. ‘You ready to go now?’

‘Yeah,’ she said, stuffing the Harry Potter book into her knapsack and slinging it over her shoulder. ‘Let’s go.’

The crowds in the mall had increased but they did not bother him. He swayed with them, walking on air. He was more relaxed than he had been for a long time.

He was vaguely aware of her holding onto his arm. ‘Nice,’ he said, patting it. ‘Kyle’s going to love you.’

He floated out of the mall into the parking garage. It seemed to be shimmering and swaying.

‘Where’s your van parked?’ Her voice came to him from a distance.

‘Top level,’ he slurred, ‘the far corner.’

‘We’re here,’ she said, although he had no recollection of moving.

‘Which one?’

He blinked, refocused, and pointed.

Her hands searching his pockets sent delicious shivers through him.

‘Wow,’ he heard her say. ‘This is better than I imagined.’

The mattress felt like a cloud, the ropes like silk scarves, and the injection sent him floating to a higher plane.

 

 

Chapter Two

Saturday, 10 March

He laid the girl on the rug he’d spread out on the dirt floor. She was beautiful. Her blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail, although a strand had escaped and fallen over her face.

There had been another girl, a long time ago. He had loved her. She had been the light of his life, and he had thought she loved him in return.

He’d brought her here, to his special place, but something had gone wrong. She’d fought him, pummelling him with her fists, and he had held her tight. He could still feel her in his arms.

Then she started screaming, on and on. It tore a hole in his heart, and he couldn’t bear it. He pressed her face into his chest, and the woolly jacket he wore muffled her screams. He pressed harder until the sound stopped. They stayed that way for a long time, the feel of her body in his arms so comforting he never wanted to let her go.

It was when she went limp he realized what had happened. He shook her, but she was like a rag doll. He tried the kiss of life, but there was no life left in her.

He cradled her in his arms, rocking her and crying. Tears ran down his face, wet and salty, splashing on her lovely face.

A long time later, he gently dried her face with his handkerchief. He would have to do something with her body, but he didn’t want to put it in the cold ground where the worms would get her.

The oak, cabin trunk in the corner, where he stored his tools would make an ideal resting place. He emptied it, padded the bottom with pillows he’d taken from his bed and covered them with a piece of red velvet. Then he laid her out gently, placing her so she looked asleep.

He closed the lid and left, taking one last sad look at the trunk, before closing the door and locking it.

The trunk was still here and he rested his hand on it, closing his eyes and picturing her all over again.

He looked at the girl lying beside it and, reaching out, he stroked the strand of hair behind her ear with a gentle touch. Her face, so lovely, so innocent, reminded him of the girl whom he had loved with all his heart.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, binding her wrists in front of her, ‘but it wouldn’t do if you ran off, and we are going to have such a good time.’

Once her ankles were bound, he placed a bottle of water and a loaf of bread within her reach, and stood up.

‘I have to leave you,’ he murmured. ‘They’ll be looking for you and I need to be back home for the time being. But I’ll be back before long.’

* * * *

Megan stirred and opened her eyes. She didn’t know where she was, and it was so dark she couldn’t make out whether the place was large or small. The rope binding her wrists and ankles bit into her skin, and when she moved it seemed to tighten. Maybe he was here watching her? She held her breath, listening for sounds that would indicate she wasn’t alone, but heard nothing. At least she wasn’t gagged, although her mouth was so dry she had difficulty swallowing, and her tongue felt too big.

At first when she screamed the sound was slight, but it gained in intensity, and she screamed and screamed, until her throat felt full of razor blades. No one heard her, and she knew that must have been why he didn’t gag her.

Her head ached now, and the shivering wouldn’t stop. She tried, yet again, to loosen the rope round her wrists, but they were chafed and sore, and she had to give up. Cramps attacked her limbs and the itch on her leg intensified. Maybe it was a spider, she hated spiders. She opened her mouth to scream again, but all that came out was a croak.

The darkness felt oppressive, pressing in on her and bringing with it strange smells of decay and mould. She shifted her foot and it struck something solid. She seemed to be wedged between it and the wall. There was hardly room to move in the confined space, but she managed to pull her knees up. They cramped again and she stretched her legs out on the cold damp floor, squirming to relieve the tightness in her muscles. The floor beneath her felt strange on her legs, it didn’t feel like wood or any other floor covering and she strongly suspected it might be bare earth.

She shuddered. If it was earth, that meant there would be creepy crawlies, and she couldn’t stand them.

Tears trickled down her cheeks, plopping off her chin onto her neck. She wriggled her shoulders, trying to reach the damp patches, but it was no use and her cheeks and neck remained wet and sticky, contributing to the chill in her body.

She wondered if her ma would miss her. If she would look for her. But she’d run away too many times, maybe her ma wouldn’t bother. Maybe she’d shrug her shoulders and expect her to return once she was ready. But she couldn’t return this time.

More tears slipped down her cheeks.

She’d been a fool, no doubt about that. It all started after she met Robbie on Facebook. His photo had been dishy, lovely dark hair, and eyes so blue they made her insides all funny. He was eighteen, he’d said, and she’d told him she was seventeen, even if she was only fourteen. He made her laugh with his comments, and he never said anything out of place, so she thought it safe to meet him.

He suggested the entrance to the Eastern Cemetery because it wasn’t far from where she lived. She’d thought it a strange place but he said it would be easy for them to recognize each other there, because loads of folk wouldn’t be hanging about, and once they’d met up they could go downtown to the city centre. So, she’d gone there, and waited and waited, but he never came.

A car had driven up and she recognized the guy who got out, he lived in the same block. She turned away hoping he hadn’t seen her. He leaned into the back of the car and brought out a bunch of flowers before vanishing up one of the paths. Ten minutes later he returned, without the flowers. She saw him hesitate before he got back in the car. He reversed until it was level with the gate then started to drive out. The car stopped when it reached her. He wound down the window and leaned out. ‘You’re May’s lass, aren’t you?’ he’d said. ‘Your mum was looking for you. I think she was annoyed.’

She shivered. Her ma could be a dragon when she was in a paddy.

‘I could give you a lift if you like . . . it would get you home quicker.’

‘OK,’ she said, and got in the car.

‘There’s a bottle of coke on the back seat if you want it.’

She reached over, took a drink of the coke, and that was the last thing she remembered before waking up here in the dark and the cold.

No one came when she screamed. And now she knew no one ever would.

 

 

Chapter Three

Sunday, 11 March

Detective Inspector Kate Rawlings sorted the papers on her desk into a neat pile and deposited them in the out tray which she lifted and placed in a steel filing cupboard. Tomorrow she had to report for duty at Dundee Police HQ, and there was no way she was going to leave a mess behind at the Forfar office for her detective sergeants to clear up.

Removing her spectacles and laying them on the desk, she massaged her eyelids with her fingers. It had been a long day. She shouldn’t have been in the office, because this was supposed to be her Sunday off. But there had been so much to sort out and tidy up before she left. Her brow wrinkled into a frown and she worried whether all the loose ends of her team’s many cases had been tied up. But everything had been allocated and her team was a good one, well able to work on their own. She shouldn’t have any need to worry.

‘Seeing you’re still here . . . ’ Jan came in and laid a folder on her desk. ‘I thought you might want a look at this before you go.’

Kate replaced her spectacles, leaned back in her chair, and sighed. ‘What is it?’

‘The surveillance report on the Asian guys we were watching. We may have a lead on the location of their cannabis factory.’

‘Are we ready to raid it?’

‘Just about, but we want to make sure first because it’s a bungalow in a fairly classy residential area. Don’t want to make a mistake and upset the neighbours.’

Kate combed her fingers through her short fair hair. ‘These guys always seem to pick the expensive private housing estates to set up their factories. Maybe they think we won’t catch them there.’

Jan laughed. ‘They should be so lucky.’

‘Anything else on the go?’

‘Not really, I think you’ve tied most things up.’

‘Let me know when the raid is arranged,’ Kate said, closing the folder and handing it back to Jan. ‘I want to be in on it.’

‘Won’t you have your hands full in Dundee?’

‘Probably.’ Kate shrugged. ‘But I don’t want to miss this, we’ve been waiting long enough to catch them.’ She stood up, tucked her white shirt into the top of her trousers, buttoned her cardigan, and pulled her jacket on. ‘Well, I’d better make tracks if I want to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when I meet my Dundee team tomorrow.’

‘Time for a last cuppa before you go? The kettle’s on in the staff room.’

‘Sure, why not?’ Kate was finding it increasingly difficult to leave the Forfar office where she had been happy, and this would put her departure off by a few more minutes.

Jan pushed the door of the staff room open and Kate was greeted by a resounding cheer.

Detective Sergeant Adam Strachan stepped forward. ‘Just wanted you to know we wish you every success in this new undertaking, and let you know how much you’re appreciated here, ma’am.’

‘But it’s temporary and I’ll still have a foot in this camp.’ Kate blinked back tears. At least half the people here had been off duty and must have made an effort to come in. It was at times like this she felt appreciated.

‘Yes, but it’s a great career opportunity and we wanted you to know how we felt.’ He smiled at her. ‘We think you’re the best DI we’ve ever had.’

‘I hope they think the same in Dundee,’ Kate said, thinking she didn’t want to go and head up the Dundee team.

* * * *

‘You again!’ Mad May Fraser stood in the doorway of her flat. She was a large woman with an ample chest and wild red hair. ‘You found the little bitch?’

Bill Murphy shook his head. ‘Not yet Mrs Fraser, but I’ve brought Detective Constable Cartwright to have a look at your daughter’s computer. You said she was always on it.’

Mad May glared at Jenny. ‘She’s nowt but a wee bit lass,’ she said. ‘What’s she know about computers?’

‘More than I do, that’s why I’ve brought her.’

Mad May grunted and folded her arms.

The wind, gusting down the walkways in front of the flats, was vicious three floors up. Bill reckoned it must be blowing straight in from the River Tay.

‘You going to let us in,’ Bill said. ‘It’s freezing out here.’

May grunted again and reluctantly stood aside.

Bill strode up the hallway into the living room. The dog on the sofa growled, showing yellow teeth.

‘Don’t mind him,’ May said. ‘He wouldn’t harm a fly.’

The teeth, the growl and the red flecked eyes didn’t seem to go with that statement, and Bill gave the dog a wide berth.

The small man, lounging in one of the armchairs and watching television on a massive flat screen telly, lowered his beer can to the floor. ‘You found her then?’

Bill shook his head. ‘Afraid not, Mr Fraser.’

‘Fuck’n useless,’ the man snorted, ‘couldnae find yer ain arse if ye were lookin for it.’

He reached for his beer can and turned back to watching the television.

‘Where do you have the computer, Mrs Fraser?’ Jenny Cartwright was staying safely behind Bill. He didn’t blame her, she probably didn’t like the look of the dog either.

‘Oh, you’ve got a tongue, have you? Well, I hope you’re more civil than him.’ May jerked her head in Bill’s direction. ‘He’s a waste of space. A proper detective would have found my lassie by now. But not him. All he can say is that she’s gone out on the randan, and her only fourteen. What the fuck would he know about it?’

‘The computer?’ Jenny reminded her.

‘Here lass, in the bedroom.’

Bill followed Jenny into a bedroom even more dishevelled than the living room. The bed looked as if it had never been made, clothes everywhere, and Bill could swear his shoes were sticking to the floor.

Jenny crossed the room to the computer desk which was the only comparatively tidy thing in the room. She switched it on, waited for it to power up and then clicked on the internet icon. A page unavailable came up. She frowned. Turning to Mrs Fraser, she said, ‘You did say Megan was always on the internet, didn’t you?’

‘Yes.’ May folded her arms across her chest.

‘There is no access to the internet on this computer. How does she connect?’

‘Oh, that. She has one of those wee dongle things she sticks into it.’

Jenny sighed and looked at Bill. ‘I think we’ll have to take it in. I need to get access to the sites she’s been using.’

‘You’re no taking that thing out of here.’ Mad May’s eyes flared and she stood with arms folded in the doorway.

‘I’m afraid we have to,’ Bill said in the most soothing voice he could manage. ‘We’ll give you a receipt for it and make sure you get it back.’

‘So you say. I know you polis, the biggest set of thieves around.’

Jenny crossed the room and laid her hand on May’s arm. ‘I’ll take good care of it, and it would help us to find Megan. You do want her found, don’t you?’

‘Damned sure I do.’

‘It’ll only be for a few days.’

‘Aye. OK. But just a few days, mind. And make sure you find my Megan.’

‘I’ll carry the tower,’ Bill said, ‘you take the monitor.’

‘I won’t need the monitor, just the processing unit, and I’m used to humping them around.’

Bill looked at her. Jenny was small and thin with a cap of short brown hair and oversized glasses that gave her an owlish look. She looked more like a schoolgirl than a police officer.

‘And what kind of a man would I be if I let you carry it?’

Bill hoisted the tower into his arms. ‘Lead on Cartwright. The sooner we get this back to headquarters the sooner we’ll have some idea what has happened to Megan.’

 

 

Chapter Four

Monday, 12 March

Diane Carnegie closed her eyes. She wanted to go back to sleep and return to the dream world where Jade was still part of the family. Without a return to sleep, Jade would slip back into the abyss, with only fragments of the dream left to torture her. But no matter how hard she pressed her eyelids shut, sleep wouldn’t come.

Diane couldn’t remember a time when she’d slept a whole night. Always she woke in the early hours of the morning. And always she felt compelled to get up and do something. That was the only way to get relief from the pain that never left her. The pain that had been with her since Jade walked out the door and never returned.

She opened her eyes again, letting them grow accustomed to the darkness of her bedroom. When the vague outline of shapes appeared, she slipped out of bed and moved her feet over the carpet until she located her shoes. Her skirt and sweater were draped over the back of a chair and she pulled them on in the dark, on top of her nightgown.

The house was silent, and she was careful to make no noise when she opened the door and slipped out into the corridor at the top of the stairs. Emma and Ryan would be sound asleep, but she crept silently past their bedroom doors, just in case. She paused for a moment outside Emma’s door, her remaining daughter, and mourned for the missing one, Jade.

Sighing, and with wet cheeks, she crept down the stairs and into the kitchen where she filled a bucket with scalding water and headed to the front door. She would give the doorstep a good scrub before Emma and Ryan awoke.

Water slopped from the bucket when Diane set it down to pick up the green envelope from the hall carpet. She turned it over and saw it bore no stamp. It was probably a birthday card. Who could have gone out of their way to hand deliver it? Shrugging, she tore it open, wincing when the paper caught the edge of a hack on her reddened fingers.

She pulled the card from the envelope and stared at the picture of red roses on the front. Happy Birthday to a Special Mother, it said. But she already had cards from Ryan and Emma. Her breath caught in the back of her throat. It couldn’t be. Not after all this time. She was afraid to open it and read the signature. But she had to. She had to know.

Diane opened the card with shaking fingers, and read the inscription. A low moan gathered in her throat. The signature she wanted to see was there. She stopped breathing, her chest tightened and a wave of dizziness engulfed her.

She hugged the card to her chest, gasping until her breath returned. Maybe she was imagining it. Maybe she was hallucinating. But they had changed her pills when she started seeing things. So it couldn’t be that.

She opened the card again, to read the words written inside through eyes blurred with tears. She dashed them away with the back of her hand and looked at the name again to make sure she was not imagining it. But there it was in a clear upright script – Jade.

She took a deep breath that was half sob. She had always known Jade would come back, that she was not gone forever. When everyone else said she shouldn’t hope, she knew what they were thinking. They were thinking Jade was dead. But Diane had never believed that, and now she had proof. Jade was alive, and she had sent her mum a birthday card.

It had been over five years since her daughter disappeared. Diane remembered it as if it were yesterday.

On that nightmarish day in February Diane came home late, delayed at the university by one of her students. The girl was struggling to locate a problem in the source code of the computer programme she needed to complete in order to pass the module, and Diane, always reluctant to fail someone with promise, stayed behind to help her.

Jade came rushing down the stairs as Diane dumped her briefcase on the hall table.

‘What’s the hurry?’ Diane said, blocking the bottom of the stairs.

‘Aw, Mum, let me past. I’m meeting Julie, and I’m late.’

‘Homework done?’

‘Course it is.’ Jade jiggled her feet. ‘C’mon, Mum, let me past, I’m late.’

‘Home by nine, mind. You’ve school tomorrow.’

‘Yeah, yeah!’ Jade waved a hand and ran down the front path.

And that was the last time Diane ever saw her daughter.

* * * *

Emma wasn’t sure what had wakened her. She turned her head and peered at the illuminated face of her alarm clock – ten-past-five – too early to get up. She closed her eyes, but it was no use, something had wakened her and she had to find out what it was.

She tried not to look at the empty bed next to her own. It was too much of a reminder of her twin sister, but Mum wouldn’t hear of her getting rid of it. ‘Jade will need it when she comes back,’ she always said, and no matter how much Emma and Ryan tried to convince her Jade was not going to come back, Mum just blanked them and refused to believe. It was as if she were living in a time warp and it was yesterday Jade had left, not five years ago.

The cold wind hit her when she opened the bedroom door. The hall light was on and the front door wide open. Mum was probably outside scrubbing the step. Emma sighed and passed a worried hand through her fair hair, her mum’s fetish for scrubbing and cleaning seemed to have grown worse over the past few weeks.

She grabbed her dressing gown and shrugged it on, although she was tempted to return to her room and slide under the duvet. But the vision of her mum, down on her knees, scrubbing the step, seared into her mind. Her mum would catch her death out in that wind. She had to do something. Persuade her to stop scrubbing? Hopeless! But maybe she could persuade her the kitchen floor was more in need than the front doorstep.

The stair carpet shifted under her bare feet and the stair-rod on the step below loosened and bounced to the bottom, clanging against the bucket before coming to rest. Emma stopped and grasped the banister. Mum couldn’t be scrubbing the step if her bucket of water was sitting in the hall. Where was she?

‘Please! Don’t let her have done something stupid.’ Emma’s throat tightened with fear.

Mum had started acting even more strangely than usual after reading a news item, a few weeks ago, in the Dundee Courier about a missing schoolgirl from the Greenfield estate. Her obsessions had intensified, and her anxiety had gone through the roof.

She hadn’t needed to remind Emma and Ryan the girl was not much older than Jade when she disappeared, but it was obvious to them what was in her thoughts.

Emma had breathed a sigh of relief when the girl was found a few days later at a friend’s house. But that relief had been short-lived because it intensified her mother’s belief that Jade would be found.

She was barely conscious of leaping down the last few steps, nor running out the front door until the coldness of the stone chilled her feet.

The street was dark, but there, under a streetlight, was her mum. A slight figure with rumpled hair, wearing a skirt, and sweater with the sleeves rolled up. Emma breathed a deep sigh of relief and ran down the path, through the gate and over to her. Grasping her arm, she said, ‘What are you doing out here, Mum?’

‘Jade?’

‘No, Mum, it’s Emma, not Jade. Jade’s gone, remember?’

A confused look passed over Diane’s face. ‘Yes, yes, of course I know it’s you, Emma.’ She held something out to her daughter. ‘But Jade’s sent me a birthday card.’

Emma caught her breath. ‘That’s not possible. You’re imagining things again.’

‘I am not!’ Diane’s voice was taut with anger. ‘Have a look at it. You’ll see.’

Emma took the card, opening it at an angle so the streetlight shone on it. ‘It’s someone having a sick joke,’ she said. ‘Let me see the envelope.’

Diane handed it over.

‘There’s something inside.’ Emma shook the envelope, a small object fell into her hand. She stared at it. ‘It’s . . . it’s a green bead. A jade bead.’ Her heart thumped. ‘But it can’t be.’

‘Let me see.’ Diane snatched it from her hand. ‘It’s Jade’s. It’s part of the necklace she got on her eleventh birthday. D’you remember? I gave her a jade one and you a coral one.’

‘Of course, I remember.’ After Jade disappeared Emma could not bring herself to wear her coral necklace. It reminded her too much of her sister, and now it had been years since she’d last seen it. ‘It doesn’t mean anything though. Anyone could have got hold of it.’

‘But don’t you see? She always wore it. She was wearing it when she left.’ Diane never used the word ‘disappeared’.

Emma’s heart stopped thumping. Jade was gone and there was only one person who could have her necklace.

‘Mum, it has to be a sick joke. It can’t be Jade. I’d know if it was.’

Diane stared at her blankly and didn’t answer.

‘But Mum, don’t you remember how we used to feel each other’s pain even when we were apart. When she broke her arm I couldn’t use mine either, and nothing was wrong with it. When she fell and bruised her knee, I felt the pain. When she was in trouble I always knew it. We were always two halves of the same coin.’ Emma paused, thinking of the times they had changed places. It was fun when they fooled their teachers.

Diane nodded.

‘Well, I haven’t felt anything for five years.’ Emma was careful not to mention the intense sensation of suffocation she had felt the day after her twin sister’s disappearance. ‘There’s nothing there. It’s just a big void. Believe me, Mum, I’ve told you so many times, I would know if she were still alive. Now let’s go back in the house and get you warm.’

* * * *

Diane sensed Emma did not believe her, but that wasn’t important. As long as she, Diane, believed Jade had sent the card that was all that mattered. Tightening her fingers on the jade bead and pressing the card to her breast, she followed her daughter into the house.

‘You’re shivering,’ Emma said. ‘You shouldn’t have gone outside without a coat, and I’ll bet you haven’t eaten anything yet.’

‘I’m fine.’

‘No you’re not. I’ll make porridge. Oatmeal’s great for building up warmth.’

Diane opened her mouth to protest and closed it again. Emma meant well, and she knew she had this awful habit of putting her daughter down. Emma never said anything but Diane could always tell by her expression she was hurt.

Emma took a clean pot from the cupboard and scoured it, then washed all the utensils before she started to make the porridge. ‘See, I know how you like things spotless,’ she said, before ladling some into a plate for her mother.

‘You were always the thoughtful one.’ Diane forced herself to pick up the spoon and eat.

Three hours later, the house had been cleaned, scrubbed and disinfected. Emma had left for university, and Ryan was slopping about in the bathroom.

Diane collapsed onto the stool in the hall. She lifted the phone book and extracted the business card stuck to the back page. She had always known it would be needed someday, so the card had been moved to each new directory. Rubbing the phone with a disinfectant wipe she dialled the number she knew by heart.

‘Detective Inspector Michaels, please.’

‘I’m sorry. He’s not available at the moment,’ the voice replied. ‘Can you tell me your name and the nature of your call?’

‘It’s in connection with the investigation into the disappearance of my daughter, Jade. Can you let me speak to the detective inspector? He knows what it’s all about.’ Diane’s chest tightened and she found it difficult to speak.

‘I’m afraid Detective Inspector Michaels won’t be available for some time. Is there anyone else I can connect you with?’

Diane struggled for breath. ‘There’s been a development,’ she gasped. ‘Just get him to call me as soon as he’s available.’ Dizziness overcame her and, leaning back against the wall, she carefully replaced the phone in its cradle.