Little Girl Missing by J. G. Roberts

Author:J. G. Roberts [Roberts, J. G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, police procedural, General, Thrillers, Crime, psychological
ISBN: 9781786819178
Google: 5AKWDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2019-06-13T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-One

12.35 p.m. – Saturday

After dropping his mum back at her house, Charlie walked round to Beechwood Avenue. He decided against letting himself in, reasoning that he didn’t want to upset Naomi again, if in fact she had calmed down after her outburst that morning. He rang the bell and waited, exchanging pleasantries with the young constable on the doorstep. The remnants of the shattered pumpkin had been swept to the side of the small front garden, underneath the camellia bushes with their shiny evergreen leaves. There was rain in the air again, which meant the temperature was milder, but that was of little consequence now that the police believed Cassie was not out in the open.

Before leaving the police station, Charlie had been called into DCI Hart’s office.

‘Take a seat, Charlie. I wanted to talk to you about the possibility of doing a press conference with you and Naomi this afternoon.’

‘I’m not sure whether that will be possible. She had a bit of a meltdown this morning after you guys arrested my mum. She got it into her head that we’d conspired to hide Cassie away somewhere. After screaming and shouting at me, she locked herself in the bathroom and she was still there when I left to come here. If she’s in that frame of mind, I don’t think she would want to be in the same room as me.’

‘It was unfortunate that we had to bring your mum in for questioning, but we wouldn’t be doing our job properly if we didn’t follow up on all leads. The interview with Jessica Toland was inconclusive. I think we need to release the news of Cassie’s disappearance to the press today. The sniffer dogs didn’t come up with anything definite, but after leaving your house as though they were hot on Cassie’s trail, they stopped and barked a little way along the street.’

‘What do you think that means?’ Charlie asked, fear evident in his voice.

DCI Hart’s response was measured. ‘I don’t want to speculate, but I think the appeal should be for any witnesses to come forward who may have seen a child fitting Cassie’s description being bundled into a car.’

It was the stuff of nightmares. Someone had his little girl and could be doing unspeakable things to her at that very moment.

‘Perhaps if you ring the house and speak to Kate, she’ll be able to tell you whether or not Naomi is up to doing an appeal. If not, is it something I can do on my own? It feels like we’ve wasted precious time questioning Mum and Jessica when we could have appealed for witnesses earlier.’

‘I know it must be very frustrating for you, Charlie, but trust me, once this gets out, we will receive all sorts of false information. Some of it will be malicious and some will be from genuine callers who think they’ve seen something they haven’t. It takes a lot of manpower to answer all the phone calls we’ll get from all over the country.

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