ABSENT (DS Coupland Book 4) by Emma Salisbury

Author:Emma Salisbury
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Emma Salisbury
Published: 2018-05-18T22:00:00+00:00

Salford Precinct Station

Coupland was reading through a note that had been left on his desk: Airport division confirmed Cheryl Keegan had boarded a plane to Alicante four weeks ago. She’d been travelling alone. They’d tried contacting her on her mobile but it was switched off. She was listed to return on a flight due to land at Manchester at 2.30pm this afternoon.

The phone charging on his desk started to ring. Turnbull’s name appeared across the screen. The DC didn’t wait for Coupland’s terse greeting. ‘The girl’s not in school, Sarge. Hasn’t been seen for the last four weeks. Thing is, I’ve seen a photo of her, and she’s quite a big little girl, if you get my drift, on the at-risk register for neglect and poor diet as well as low attendance. I was wondering though, since she’s so big for her age, how she would have fitted into that bag.’

‘The post mortem confirmed that our girl hadn’t eaten for a while. It’s too early to cross her off our list yet. We’ve tracked down mummy dearest who, by the way, is travelling alone; we’re just waiting for her plane to land.’ This was their best lead yet. ‘Good work,’ he added, before ending the call.

‘Kirsty Walcott’s still unaccounted for,’ he said aloud as he wrote her name on the incident board. ‘Her mother’s flight’s due in this afternoon. Krispy,’ he called out to the young DC, ‘get onto Airport division, I want her arrested the moment the plane lands. That’ll take the wind out of her lilo.’

*

Cheryl Keegan’s arresting officer greeted Coupland and Alex Moreton on arrival at Manchester Airport police station. ‘Happy bunny?’ Coupland enquired as they were shown through to the custody suite.

‘You’ll see for yourself soon enough,’ the PC replied, his dead pan face giving nothing away. The shouting could be heard in the corridor. Righteous indignation interspersed with a rapid-fire round of four letter words that would make a docker blush.

Coupland took his time, wanted the errant mother to stew a bit longer. Did no harm to keep her waiting. He turned to Alex. ‘Want to lead on this one?’

‘Don’t mind if I do. After a morning trying to entertain a group of sullen teenagers this’ll be a walk in the park. Do you think it’s possible that she’s harmed Kirsty? She wouldn’t be the first mother to turn on her own child, even so…’

‘There’s only one way to find out,’ Coupland said, pushing open the interview room door.

‘About bleedin’ time! Are you the one in charge here? I’ve been waiting ages.’

Alex cocked her head as she took a seat. ‘Problem?’ she asked.

The woman stabbed a finger in the direction of the officer who’d escorted them into the interview room and his colleague, a WPC standing against the far wall. ‘I’ve been dragged in here by these tossers, only no one’s telling me anything!’ The woman shouting the odds was older than Coupland expected, the wrong side of forty or spent too much time frowning. He hadn’t realised spray tan came in so many shades of creosote.

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