Chapter Thirty-Six #2
‘I need to look! You don’t know all his hiding places!
’ Cath was on her feet and was running across the room, when the door opened, and Venn was standing there, solid and calm.
Jen, who’d felt her panic building throughout the confused conversation with the woman, was aware of the tension draining from her body.
Cath had been moving so fast that she collided with Venn. She tried to push past him, but very tenderly he took her into his arms and led her back into the room.
‘I’m so sorry,’ he said. ‘What a dreadful time you’re having! I’ve asked Mag to come and keep you company here, and Jen and I will go outside and make sure that we find your son.’
Jen turned and saw that Mag was already there, in the doorway.
Venn handed Cath into her care, before leaving the room and making for the outside stone steps into the garden.
Jen scrambled to her feet and followed, out of balance because of the sling on her arm, worried at one point that she might trip and fall.
They sat in Venn’s car to talk. A search team had been brought in, and were standing in a huddle in the car park, preparing to start.
‘Where’s Ross?’ Venn asked.
‘I sent him to the farm in case Alex went back there. According to Cath, he had a brilliant time there this afternoon. They’re searching all the barns and outhouses.
It’s a long way for a kid of that age to walk, and I can’t imagine him setting off without asking his mum first, but honestly, I can’t think of anywhere else he might be. ’
‘Worth checking, though.’
‘Cath thinks the boy might have gone down to Tide House. Maybe to get a toy or a game from his old room, but that’s been thoroughly checked out.
’ Jen paused, suddenly remembering something important.
Her brain, she thought, had turned to mush.
‘Daniel Miller’s back at work. He’s holding the fort in the bar while the rest of the staff are looking for the boy. ’
‘Is he? The Hoopers relented then and took him back?’
‘I guess.’
‘Interesting.’ It was hard to know what Venn thought about the information, if he believed it was of any significance at all. ‘Tell me what happened,’ he said.
So, Jen retold the story. ‘Cath’s in bits, though. I’m not sure how reliable she is.’
‘Do you really think she saw Elaine Cauldwell?’
‘I don’t think she could mistake the woman for anyone else. She had all the detail. The driver. The car. She even described the dress Cauldwell was wearing. And why would she make it up?’
‘Why indeed?’ Venn sat for a moment apparently deep in thought. ‘I had an interesting call from Appleyard earlier this evening. Jim Hooper has something of a history.’ Jen listened while he described the social media posts. ‘Apparently, he has quite a following among the crazy dispossessed.’
Jen was going to call Venn out on the term crazy: Is that a bit of a chip on the shoulder you have there, sir? But she realized in time that he wouldn’t find it funny. Not with a child missing.
‘You think Elaine Cauldwell might share some of Hooper’s views?’
‘It hadn’t occurred to me,’ Venn said. ‘It seems a little far-fetched. I suppose it’s possible.’
‘I don’t know.’ Jen was sceptical. ‘Are we considering that our killer might have political motives after all? That Lottie was collateral damage?’
‘I’ve been considering scenarios,’ Venn said. He was silent for a moment. She could tell that he was ordering his thoughts, but she willed him to hurry. Time was passing. How could they find the boy, even if he’d wandered down the combe, tripped and twisted a leg, broken an arm, if it was dark?
‘There might have been a kidnap attempt on Hannah,’ he said at last. ‘Or perhaps some sort of confrontation that was less serious. Honestly, I don’t think Jim Hooper or any of his associates would plan to kill her or cause her real harm.
They don’t have a history of direct action.
It seems more like a fantasy, a game. A performance to replay online to impress his followers.
But perhaps Lottie came across any encounter between Hooper and Hannah on the path outside Tide House.
Some sort of argument and Lottie threatened to expose him.
We know from the post-mortem that her death could have been accidental.
A push that smashed her head on the side of the pool. And if Hannah was a witness …’
‘And now they’ve taken Alex?’ Jen was struggling to believe any of this. It was too far-fetched. Like a very bad thriller. ‘And they’re out there, covering their tracks, pretending to look for him?’
‘At the very beginning of the investigation, you did talk about some stranger lunatic. It could be someone on the fringe of Hooper’s group. Someone we haven’t even met yet. All along, we’ve been looking for a personal motive, not a political one.’
‘What do we do then? Just wait for a ransom demand?’
‘If this is a political abduction, I suspect the demand won’t be for money, but for some kind of gesture. Armstrong is a minister in the Department of Health. Maybe our abductor has a grievance. But that’s all speculation.’
‘And in the meantime?’
‘We carry on searching. And hope that the boy wasn’t taken by someone with a vehicle. I suppose this place has CCTV?’
‘Yeah, Vicki’s on it. Cath described a big SUV parking between her car and the pub entrance.
I wondered if it could be the Kinzalows’ rental.
I asked her to check.’ Jen thought for a moment.
‘Jim Hooper’s leading the search party down the valley.
Should we pull him back? Bring him in for interview? ’
Venn shook his head. ‘Let’s not show our hand. We’ve no evidence. And he knows this place. If he’s not involved, he might be our best chance of finding the child.’