Deception (34 page)

‘
I didn’t realise your job could get you mixed up in anything like this,’ said Peter.

‘
Neither did I,’ said Steven.

‘
Can’t you ask to be taken off the case in the light of what’s happened?’ asked Sue.

‘
I could but I think I’m in too deep,’ said Steven, ‘and it wouldn’t be fair to a new investigator. I’ve spoken to DCI Grant and he will provide police protection for all of you from now until the investigation is resolved but I do realise that this may all be a bit more than you bargained for . . .’

Sue held up her hand to stop him. She said, ‘Jenny is part of our family too, whatever daft things her father gets up to, so don’t go suggesting anything silly about moving her away. We’ll cope, won’t we, love?’ Sue took Peter’s hand and he smiled his assent.

Steven felt a lump come to his throat. ‘Thanks,’ he said, ‘I appreciate it.’

‘
How would it be if we were to go away for a bit,’ suggested Peter to Sue’s obvious surprise.

‘
What did you have in mind?’

‘
We haven’t had a proper holiday this year as yet so it strikes me that this would be an excellent time. What d’you reckon, Sue?’

‘
Sound good to me. Where?’

‘
We could all go down and stay with my parents in Norfolk without telling anyone where we’re going. What do you think?’

‘
Knowing that all you folks were all away somewhere safe would certainly be a load off my mind,’ said Steven.

Steven said that he would have to let DCI Grant know of the plan but apart from him, no one else need know.

‘
Then it’s settled. Let’s all get some sleep.’

Jenny came out of her shell a little on the following morning under heavy questioning at the breakfast table from Sue’s children about her experience. ‘Did he have a gun?’ Robin wanted to know. Had she been tied up and blindfolded? Was she put in a sack?

Mary asked about the cottage she’d been taken to. Was it like the witch’s cottage in Hansel and Gretel? Was there a black cat there? All Jenny’s replies seemed disappointing to them. The whole experience had been much more prosaic than they had imagined. Steven was pleased however, he thought that talking about it to the others would be therapeutic for Jenny. She was still very subdued however.

This was even more apparent when they all went for a walk in the village to thank the people who’d taken part in yesterday’s search. Instead of scampering ahead with Sue’s children, as she would normally do, she positioned herself between Steven and Sue and held on to their hands tightly. At one point, when the whole family was laughing at something Robin had said or done, Steven noticed that Jenny wasn’t smiling and that her mind seemed to be on other things. He asked her gently what she was thinking about and she started to cry. ‘I was frightened Daddy,’ she confessed. ‘I didn’t like that man.’

From time to time, Steven tried to steer the conversation back to the man who’d taken her away and anything he might have said or done but he did it as casually as possible, so as not to encourage any post-event trauma. He stopped immediately when Jenny grew restless of his questions. They then talked about what children did at nursery school instead – Jenny’s favourite subject in recent weeks.

There was a bad moment when the time came for Steven to return to Edinburgh and Jenny decided for the first time ever in this situation that she wanted to come with him. She clung to his sleeve in determined fashion until he eventually managed to reassure her that she’d be safe and that no one would try to take her away again. The moment passed but Steven could see that Jenny’ view of the village and her life in it had been coloured, perhaps indelibly and forever, by the events of the last two days.

As he drove back he found himself becoming increasingly angry over what Sigma 5 had done. True, they hadn’t harmed Jenny physically but the experience was going to stay with her and it would always be there in nightmares. It seemed likely that the confident little girl he’d known would never be quite so confident again.

The description of the man that Jenny had given could have fitted either Childs or Leadbetter – both were tall, athletic men with dark hair, but he recognised that such a description would fit a great many other men, simply because of the lack of distinguishing detail. Jenny was too young to give a better description. While he thought about it, Steven remembered that he had spoken to DCI Brewer on Saturday morning when the policeman was returning from a visit to Crawhill Farm where he had learned of Khan’s destruction. If Childs and Leadbetter had been around to answer his questions about the fate of Rafferty’s dog, then it clearly could not have been either of them who’d been involved in Jenny’s abduction. But had
both
of them been around? It was possible that Brewer had only spoken with one of them. He decided that this was something worth checking so he pulled into a lay-by and phoned him.

‘
No, I only spoke with Leadbetter,’ replied Brewer. ‘Why d’you ask?’

‘
You’re sure you didn’t see Childs at all?’ asked Steven, ignoring Brewer’s question.

‘
No, these two are usually joined at the hip but not on that occasion, or the night before for that matter.’

‘
What d’you mean?’

‘
Childs turned up at Trish Rafferty’s place after you asked us to put a guard on it. He said he wanted to express his sympathy over Tom’s death and find out Trish’s plans for the farm. The officer on the door pointed out that it was very late and suggested he leave it until the morning. Childs agreed and left.’

‘
I don’t suppose your man reported what kind of car Childs was driving, did he?’ asked Steven.

‘
It wasn’t on his report but I could ask him.’

Steven thanked Brewer and continued his drive. He had reached the southern outskirts of the city when Brewer called back. ‘It was a blue Range Rover. Does that help?’

‘
It does,’ replied Steven and clicked off the phone. Coincidences didn’t stretch that far. It had been Childs who had taken his daughter.

Steven drove to his hotel and made contact with Sci-Med for the second time that day - he’d been in touch before he left Glenvane to make the official request for police protection for Jenny and the family. It was already there in practice - he’d noticed the dark Ford Escort with two men in it on their walk round the village, but DCI Grant would need the official paperwork. At the time of his first call, Sci-Med had not had anything back from the lab so he thought he’d ask again.

‘
The report’s just come in,’ said the duty officer. ‘Do you want me to read it out?’

‘
Shoot.’

‘
All submitted samples of glyphosphate and glufosinate weed-killing chemicals contained exactly what was stated on the container labels and in the same proportions. A search for contaminating traces of other chemicals was negative in all cases.’

‘
Shit,’ murmured Steven as his theory caught fire and turned to ashes. ‘What about the rat?’

‘
Toxicology report on animal ref. 23567, male rat. The animal’s body contained no trace of toxic chemicals.’

Steven felt utterly dejected. He was so silent that the duty man had to ask if he had heard. ‘I heard,’ he murmured.

‘
The lab want to know if they can destroy the chemical samples and ditch the rat’s body or do you want them kept?’

‘
They can chuck them. Wait! No, tell them to hang on to the rat for the time being. They can lose the chemicals though.’

‘
Will do.’

Steven remembered his conversation with Sue and Peter when he had said that he couldn’t give up the investigation because he was ‘in too deep’. The lab had just told him that, far from being in too deep, he had actually failed to scratch the surface of the affair. The GM crop on Peat Ridge Farm had not been poisoned and neither had the rats. He had no idea what was going on.

He gazed out of the window while he tried to salvage something from the situation. The threats to his and his daughter’s life had been real enough and Rafferty’s and Binnie’s deaths were a sad matter of fact. There was also little doubt that the rats’ behaviour had changed so where did that leave him if chemical poisoning was no longer in the frame?

He thought again about Sweeney’s reaction to being questioned when he’d spoken to him at the Vet school and took comfort from that. Sweeney wouldn’t have behaved the way he had if all he had been asked to conceal was a completely negative report. In fact, there would have been no reason to pressure him into doing so in the first place. But there had been a reason. Either the rat Binnie had examined was in some way different from the one he had sent to Sci-Med or . . . Or what? Could it be that he had asked the lab to look for the wrong thing?

Steven reckoned that it was difficult to see what other test he could have asked for in the circumstances. Toxicology would cover the presence of all known noxious substances including those which damaged DNA and would therefore affect future generations . . . but it wouldn’t have entailed a check for infection, he reminded himself. Maybe the crop or the rats or both had been infected by a bacterium or virus, although he couldn’t see how someone like Rafferty could have engineered anything like that. It was a long shot but it was worth checking out, Steven decided - if only because he couldn’t think what else to do for the moment. He contacted Sci-Med again and asked for bacteriology and virology reports on the rat’s body.

Eve called to say that she’d been in touch with Trish Rafferty again.

‘
Any progress?’ asked Steven.

‘
She’s coming home to Crawhill tomorrow,’ said Trish. ‘She has to sort out various things and make arrangements for Tom’s funeral so I said I’d give her a hand whenever I could.’

‘
Well done.’

‘
I didn’t do it for you. I did it because she’s my friend.’

‘
Understood,’ said Steven in such a way as to make Eve feel guilty that she’d said it. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I didn’t mean to jump down your throat. It’s just that I feel so guilty about all this. How was your daughter? Did you have a nice day with her?’

‘
I’ll tell you about that when I see you,’ said Steven.

‘
When will that be?’

‘
Dinner this evening?’ suggested Steven.

‘
I can’t. I’m working at the hotel.’

‘
Pity.’

‘
I’ll get off about ten. Maybe we could meet then?’

‘
See you at ten.’

Steven returned to thinking about Childs and what he should do. This, he saw as a test of his own character. What he really wanted to do was confront Childs, put the automatic in his mouth and blow his head off for what he’d subjected Jenny to, but years of training had drummed into him the fact that letting things get personal could be the kiss of death. He must remain cold and dispassionate or at least as cold and dispassionate as he could manage. He was still human and in this case, that meant bloody angry.

The obvious thing would be to inform the Dumfriesshire police. He felt sure that Jenny would identify Childs and the fact that he drove a blue Range Rover, which the other children had seen, would seem to be the clincher. There would be a lot of satisfaction to be gained from seeing Childs put away for what he’d done but there was a bigger picture to consider. Steven recognised, albeit reluctantly, that Childs had done what he’d done to protect his own assignment. The question he had to ask himself was, would seeing him in court bring him any closer to finding out what that business was all about or who was really behind it?

After a few minutes thought, he could see that the only chance of that would be if Childs spoke out at his trial in order to save his own skin. The chances of that, he concluded – even in the face of a long prison sentence, were remote. Childs and Leadbetter were both ex-Special Forces not a couple of cheap crooks on the make. If they had been selected for the assignment at Blackbridge it was because they were the best. They would keep their mouths shut. There was also the strong possibility that the establishment would find some way of not bringing Childs to court if it suited their purpose and it obviously would. The whole thing could end up with himself and a lot of policemen down in Dumfries feeling very bitter about nothing having been achieved. He would bite the bullet and do nothing for the moment.

He called Jamie Brown to see if he’d managed to speak to Gus Watson.

‘
I didn’t get very far, I’m afraid,’ said Brown. ‘He’s worried about his job right now so he’s not inclined to rock any boats. I think he hopes that Trish Rafferty will keep on the plant-hire business and do something about his working conditions, which he says are pretty bad, but, as he put it, jobs in this area are about as common as flying pigs. Mind you, if the GM people get their way, flying pigs might become a bit commoner!’

Steven felt in no mood for humour. He asked, ‘What about the organic farm plan? Does he see himself fitting into that at all?’

‘
I don’t think so. Gus didn’t understand Rafferty’s interest in organic farming any more than anyone else around here.’

‘
So what’s bugging him about his work conditions?’ asked Steven.

‘
He reckons that the condition of the machinery is much worse than it would be if it were housed properly. He’s fed up repairing damage caused by exposure to the elements. Most of the storage sheds have leaking roofs.’