The Missing Girls Read online

  ‘Me neither. I thought we were getting close, and now…’ She marched back to the squad car and threw herself into the passenger seat. She took one more look at the station as they pulled away. She couldn’t shake the feeling that the station held significance. She had to trust her hunch. It was all she had.

  ‘Am I looking at this all wrong, Mitz?’

  ‘No, guv. We just don’t know what we’re supposed to be looking at.’

  She stared into space as Mitz drove back towards the police station. Flint would not give her long. She had to figure out Chambers’s part in this. She shut her eyes. What did they have to go on? Three girls linked by a station and a cryptic message on Facebook. Her eyes flew open. That was it. Mitz was right. She didn’t know what she was looking for. She’d been focusing on Uttoxeter station. There were other avenues still to check. She thought about her bright-green Post-it note bearing the word Facebook. Amber and Carrie had both liked the Fox or Dog Facebook page. It had been a dead end, or so they had believed. She dialled the office. Anna answered.

  ‘Anna, did you go onto the Fox or Dog website at all? No. Okay, take a look for me now.’

  Mitz raised an eyebrow. ‘Fox or Dog?’

  ‘It’s a sort of dating app.’

  ‘I know it is.’

  Robyn raised a hand to silence him and spoke again. ‘Forget that, Anna. I’ll sort it when I return.’

  Mitz continued. ‘I’ve used it. Don’t tell any of the team. I only went on it a couple of times before I realised it’s mostly for youngsters in their late teens or early twenties. It matches you up with people in your area. You create a profile, a little like for Tinder – a photograph and a line or two about yourself and what you’re looking for in a match. The site throws up a list of the girls in your area. It’s not sophisticated. It’s merely a list of names and pictures and it’s up to you to scroll through. If you fancy the look of them you leave them a sign – it’s a fox emoji. If the feeling’s mutual, you can chat through private messages.’

  Robyn nodded furiously. ‘What happens next?’

  ‘I don’t know. I ditched it after a week. It was too juvenile, too cruel. It invited you to insult people just based on their looks. I should have guessed from its name – Fox or Dog. If a person doesn’t like the look of somebody, they leave a dog emoji. I wasn’t too keen on that. I don’t use anything like that now. I listened to my mum, who told me to let nature run its course.’

  She glanced across. A smile played on his lips.

  ‘Your latest date is working out, then?’

  He grinned at her. ‘It is. How did you guess? You should be a detective.’

  The corners of her lips rose. ‘Glad it’s going well.’

  ‘It’s going better than well.’ Mitz waggled his eyebrows.

  ‘About time too. You’ve had too many disasters. Aren’t you going to tell us about her?’

  ‘Not until I know it’s going to work out.’

  ‘Fair enough. If I keep quiet about our conversation can you get me onto it?’

  ‘Are you blackmailing me?’

  She laughed. ‘No. But I could do with you helping me navigate it. I want to see if either of our victims or Siobhan Connors were members.’

  Fifty-Three

  Nobody was in the office when they returned. ‘You can use it on your phone or on your computer,’ said Mitz. He scooted over to the computer and fired it up, typed in the website address and waited for his superior to join him. Robyn pulled a chair over to his. ‘How do we discover profiles?’

  ‘As I said, it works off your location.’

  ‘Both Amber and Carrie lived in or near Derby.’

  ‘I’ll create a new profile and set it for Derby. It should throw up girls who live in that area.’ The keys clattered as he typed in the necessary information. Robyn was amazed that he could set it up in a matter of minutes, and there were no security checks or ID confirmation of any kind. It returned over two hundred results. ‘Ouch! That’ll take a while. I’ll get onto it.’

  ‘No, it’s okay. I’ll take over. Can I assume from what you’ve told me that should our perp be meeting the girls using this app, he lives in the same area as them?’

  ‘Within a radius of twenty miles. The app accesses your location via Google.’

  ‘Can you work out the distance between Uttoxeter and Derby, then do the same for Sandwell?’

  Mitz slid over to another desk and tapped at another terminal. ‘Uttoxeter to Derby is almost twenty miles. Uttoxeter to Sandwell is sixteen miles.’

  ‘Uttoxeter to Tutbury?’

  ‘Ten, almost eleven miles.’

  ‘If our suspect lived in Uttoxeter, and was using this website, he’d be able to connect with Carrie, Amber or Siobhan?’

  Mitz nodded. ‘Or if he lives in Derby.’

  Robyn heaved a sigh. Mitz was right. Then she remembered that Dev Khan’s leaflets advertising his self-storage warehouse had gone out to homes in Staffordshire, which suggested the perp had to come from that area. She hoped she wasn’t wasting more time. The official search for Siobhan had been scaled down. There wasn’t enough information to prove she had gone missing, and work colleagues and friends had suggested she was volatile and an attention-seeker. It was viable that Siobhan had taken herself off for a break, but Robyn couldn’t let go of the message sent to Lauren. Carrie had also run off with a new man, and there were the two messages to Siobhan and Amber that read the same. Robyn trusted her instincts on this. Locating Siobhan was going to be up to Robyn, who was sure the girl was being held captive.

  She scrolled through all the faces of the young women. Everyone on the website used phoney names, which meant she had to spend time clicking onto each profile, enlarging the photo and seeing if it bore any resemblance to any of the girls. Robyn was beginning to lose heart. She’d stared at sixty different faces without success. ‘This would be a lot easier if we’d been able to locate their mobile phones or computers and check them for apps and login details.’

  ‘We had Amber’s laptop but there was nothing on it.’

  ‘Oh hi, Anna. I didn’t hear you come in.’

  Anna waved a hand. ‘You looked too busy. I sidled in. I’ve been going back through the girl’s Facebook page and can’t find anything.’

  Robyn tilted back dangerously on her chair. ‘Does it not strike you as strange that a sixteen-year-old would only have schoolwork items on a laptop? Surely she’d have visited websites unconnected with research. I can’t believe she was so studious.’

  ‘I gathered her parents had only recently bought the laptop. They might have been very strict about its use.’

  Robyn tapped a pencil against her teeth and pondered the situation. She thought about Amélie in her bedroom, chatting on Skype even though her mother would disapprove of her being online at such a late hour. It was natural for youngsters to be rebellious or push the boundaries. She certainly had been when she was in her teens. And Florence. Florence who’d broken away from the quiet, shy, easy-going Florence and was now behaving like a fully grown teenager, engaged in regular online activity. Christine Hallows would probably have no idea that her daughter was online so often. She would talk to Christine about the episode at the cinema and voice her concerns over the fallout with Amélie. Florence could be chatting to anyone online – and it was only right to be concerned about her welfare. She made a mental note to speak to Christine.

  Amber was a teenager. She must have been accessing social websites. Would she only have accessed them from her mobile phone? The fact remained there was nothing on the girl’s laptop. She turned her attention back to the dating app.

  Anna walked across to her desk. ‘Is it okay if I clock off, guv?’

  Robyn looked up. It was almost eight o’clock. ‘Sure. I hadn’t realised it was so late. Thanks for staying on. Mitz, you’d better go too. I don’t want your mum telling me off for keeping you late.’

  He laughed. ‘She’s used to it.’

  Robyn gave a tir
ed smile. ‘Yeah. Well, I appreciate it. Thanks, guys.’

  She hunched over her desk.

  ‘Night, boss.’

  ‘Night, both.’ Robyn wandered over to the window. She ought to go home. She needed fresh perspective on this case, and sitting in the office wasn’t helping. Maybe she’d go for a run. She was about to turn away when she caught a glimpse of Mitz putting an arm across Anna’s shoulders as they walked away from the station. She drew back from the window and smiled.

  Fifty-Four

  DAY ELEVEN – THURSDAY 26 JANUARY

  Robyn walked into the office in a determined mood. She hadn’t been able shake off the idea that Amber was accessing Fox or Dog from a computer. The fact the girl only used her laptop for schoolwork projects had elicited these suspicions. It didn’t sit right with Robyn. Teenagers loved being connected, and although Amber could have used her mobile for that purpose, she would have used her laptop too.

  The flashback had come in the early hours of the morning. Robyn remembered there had been a computer in Chapel’s common room. Deborah Hampton, the houseparent, had commented on the seniors using it while keeping an eye on the junior girls doing their prep. She had also said Amber had been working on the computer when on prep duty, and had got snappy with the girls for talking.

  She rummaged through papers and pulled out the note she’d found in Amber’s room. The three names of gods associated with hunting – Orion, Horus, and Wōden – encircled with hearts, each with curling tails. Anna had pointed out that these were like the doodles she made when talking to somebody on the telephone. Could Amber have been chatting to her killer online during prep time? It made sense. As soon as her officers arrived she would act on this hunch.

  She opened Fox or Dog and began studying each young woman’s face in the hope she’d find one of the three girls there. Mitz and Anna arrived a few minutes later, Mitz throwing himself immediately behind his desk.

  ‘Anna, can you collect a computer from Sandwell School? It’s at Chapel House. I’ll phone Deborah Hampton and tell her you’re coming. Once you bring it back, go through the history on it. I’ll give you specific dates to check, once I’ve spoken to Mrs Hampton. You’ll be searching for the Fox or Dog website.’

  ‘On it.’ Anna picked up her hat from where she’d just placed it, and left.

  Robyn continued scouring the pages. David had had no success in Uttoxeter. He’d shown the photographs of Amber, Carrie and Siobhan at every store, restaurant and pub on Dovefields Retail Park. Elliot Chambers hadn’t rented a van in his own name either, so once again they were left with little to go on. David had gone to Uttoxeter again to try his luck, while Matt was currently dealing with a break-in at a scrapyard and not available to assist her. Not that there was much more they could do at the moment.

  ‘Boss.’ Mitz’s voice was a mixture of anxiety and excitement. ‘I think I’ve found Carrie Miller.’

  The picture of Miss Mischief was a young woman sticking her tongue out, and the description read: I’m up for a laugh. I don’t take life seriously and love a challenge. I’m wild and know my own mind. Think you can handle me?

  There was no doubt it was Carrie Miller. Robyn’s heart began to hammer. ‘Good. Good. We’re getting there. Can you check the profiles of all the guys who liked Carrie’s profile and gave it a fox emoji? Maybe one of them is our killer.’

  She dialled Deborah Hampton’s number and told her to expect Anna. Deborah sounded tired and low.

  ‘The Apple Mac? Of course. I’ll unplug it now and have it ready for your officer. The girls are planting a cherry tree in the garden for Amber tomorrow after a church service. Her closest friend, Samantha Dancer, is going to say a few words and we’ll say goodbye to her properly. I spoke to the Daltons. They’re coming to our little service. I hope it’ll help give them some closure.’

  Robyn doubted they’d ever get closure. She feared they would always blame themselves for going abroad and leaving their daughter behind. She ended the call and reflected that life was unfair. She couldn’t change what had happened but she could try and apprehend the person responsible.

  Time raced by as Robyn and Mitz clicked through web pages. Robyn was so engrossed she didn’t register the phone at first. Amy sounded petulant. ‘You haven’t kept me up to speed at all. I’ve learnt another young woman has gone missing. Is this related to your case?’

  ‘Amy, pack it in. No comment. I’m up to my eyeballs here. Leave me to do my work. Talk to the media department. I haven’t any time for this.’

  ‘I have my work to do too.’

  Robyn slammed the phone down. How did that woman know what was going on? ‘Mitz, is there anything in the newspapers about Siobhan Connors?’

  She continued searching the faces that had all swum into one.

  ‘A paragraph in the Uttoxeter Daily that reads:

  The hunt continues for Siobhan Connors (18) last seen in Uttoxeter on Friday 13th. Police are appealing for any witnesses who may have seen Miss Connors at or around 7 p.m. that evening. Miss Connors, believed to be wearing jeans and a black coat, was headed to Uttoxeter railway station when she disappeared.

  ‘The missing persons department must have made the appeal. I expect that’s where Amy read about it.’

  ‘She on the phone?’

  ‘She never gives up, does she?’

  ‘Sounds like you, boss.’ Mitz gave her a grin. ‘I’ve got the list of all the men who gave Carrie’s profile a foxy sign. There are loads of them. This one might interest you though. He’s calling himself Hunter.’

  Robyn stopped typing. Was this Chambers? Had she finally found the lead she needed? Mitz swivelled the screen around. The young man in the photograph was in his late teens or early twenties, dark-haired with a quiff and very handsome.

  ‘Let’s think this through. The killer would use a fake picture, so that photograph tells us nothing. We need to talk to the people who run Fox or Dog and find out who set up this account. They ought to be able to pinpoint their location or their IP address. Anna will know what to do.’ Robyn suddenly felt drained. All this energy wasted. She needed to get out of the office and clear her head.

  She strode down the corridor and outside into the cold air. She stamped her feet and marched about the car park. Anna pulled the squad car into a space near her. She dragged out the computer and tucked it under her arm.

  ‘Got it, boss. I’ll get onto this immediately.’

  The young woman looked pink-cheeked, flushed with optimism. Robyn’s heart sank. What if she’d got this wrong? She couldn’t allow her team to become deflated. She valued them, their loyalty and trust in her. She hadn’t got anywhere with the railway station theory, and what if this website theory didn’t pan out? It might not unless they could get an exact location for the person calling himself Hunter. Where would she turn next after that? She looked at her watch. It was early afternoon. She hadn’t got long before DCI Flint took her to task and demanded she pulled in Chambers. She ignored the growls coming from her stomach.

  She had to believe her team could pull this together. In the meantime, try as she might, she couldn’t think of any reason Chambers would have had a specially made trunk delivered. Surely it was the trunk containing Carrie Miller’s body. She could ask Mrs Chambers about it. Her son might have brought it back to the family home when he returned from university. The only problem was that if he found out she’d been asking about him, he might flee. What should she do? She had to close the net on Chambers. It had to be him. She slowed her beating heart. She had to ask Mrs Chambers the question. It would be a gamble if she then spoke to her son, but Robyn had no other option. She found Mrs Chamber’s number and dialled. It was a while before the woman answered.

  ‘It’s DI Carter. We spoke yesterday morning. You told me Elliot came home from university and stayed with you for a while?’

  ‘Yes. What’s this about?’

  ‘I’m not at liberty to tell you, Mrs Chambers, but we’d very much appreciate your hel
p.’

  There was a silence at the end of the phone. ‘I don’t understand why you’re suddenly asking about Elliot. It was Charlotte who died.’

  Robyn spoke smoothly, her voice friendly and calm. ‘It seems an odd request, I grant you, but we’re investigating another case and your help would be hugely appreciated.’

  The voice at the other end of the line became colder. ‘I don’t see how asking about Elliot has any bearing on any case.’

  ‘It’s only a simple question, Mrs Chambers, and then I shan’t pester you any more.’

  Robyn waited. She hoped Cheryl Chambers wouldn’t put down the phone on her. Eventually, the woman spoke. ‘Okay. One question.’

  ‘Thank you, Mrs Chambers. When Elliot returned from university, he’d have brought home all his possessions. Did he transport them in suitcases and boxes or in a trunk?’

  There followed yet another silence before the slightly confused reply, ‘Boxes. He had lots and lots of boxes.’

  ‘No trunk?’

  ‘No, I told you. He had boxes of books and kitchen equipment, all labelled. He’s a very tidy person. There wasn’t enough room in his old bedroom for everything so he kept them in one of the old outbuildings until he moved, then he took them with him to his new flat.’

  ‘And how did he fetch all the boxes home, Mrs Chambers?’

  ‘That’s another question, and I don’t understand why you’re asking them.’

  ‘Please bear with me. It’s important.’

  ‘He borrowed the old car. I hardly drive it these days. He couldn’t travel down on a train with it all, could he? I lent him the car. It was large enough to fit everything in. It’s an old Vauxhall Zafira. Used to belong to my husband.’

  ‘Thank you very much, Mrs Chambers.’

  ‘Elliot’s not in any trouble for borrowing it, is he?’

  ‘No, not at all. Thank you again.’