What time was this? asks Judy.
About nine. I was having an early night.
Judy looks at her watch. Ten forty-five. Poppy has been missing for less than two hours. Theres still hope.
Did you search the house?
Yes. I went into the boys room, just to see if theyd taken Poppy for some reason, but they were both asleep. Patrick searched downstairs. When we couldnt find her, we called the police.
Were the doors locked? asks Judy.
Donna and Patrick look at each other. No, says Patrick. But thats not unusual. I was still up. I always lock all the doors when I go to bed.
Back door and French windows were open, says Tim. SOCO are looking at them now.
Judy looks at the little family on the sofa. Shed like to talk to them separately but knows thats not possible yet. She takes a seat next to Donna and leans forward, wanting to establish some sort of connection.
Donna, can you talk us through this evening? What happened when you gave the children their tea, put them to bed. Try to tell us everything, however trivial.
Donna looks away. For a moment she appears almost embarrassed.
Well, Justine was here. The nanny, you know. I dont normally have her on a Saturday but it was a bit hectic and Patrick was working and … Her voice trails away.
Its OK, says Judy. So Justine was here? (In the background, she can hear Nelson saying to Tim, Justine Thomas. Get hold of her. Tim leaves the room.)
Yes, Justine made tea for the kids and she played with the little ones. I helped Bailey with his homework. Judy looks at the older boy. Surely he isnt old enough to have homework? Then Justine bathed Poppy and put her to bed. I watched TV with the boys. Total Wipeout.
Judy smiles. My son loves that. This is patently untrue – Michael is far too young for Total Wipeout – shes just desperate to create a bond with Donna.
It works because Donna smiles wanly. Then the boys had their bath and I put them to bed. Poppy was already asleep when we got upstairs.
When did Justine leave?
About half past seven.
Then what did you do?
I said goodnight to the boys, then I had a bath and got into my night things. I was so tired. I went downstairs to watch some TV.
What did you watch?
The Wire. We get it in box sets.
Of course they do. Families like the Grangers dont watch TV with everyone else, they have box sets.
But I was falling asleep in front of the TV so I decided to go to bed. I looked in on the boys and Bailey was still awake, so I told him to go to sleep and then I looked in on Poppy and … Without warning her face crumples and she starts sobbing violently. The child on her lap – Scooter, Judy supposes – slides off and goes to play with some bricks on the floor. Patrick reaches over and starts patting his wifes shoulder. Ineffectual, thinks Judy. She notes that Patrick Granger took no part in the bedtime routine.
Its OK, says Judy. Its OK. Well find her.
Theres a timid knock on the door and a young policeman appears. Judy knows him by sight, she thinks he might be from the Norwich station. Where is Clough, she wonders. She suspects that hes hard to track down on a Saturday night.
Weve found something, Boss.
The constable tries to keep his voice down but his words electrify everyone in the room. Patrick jumps to his feet, Donna lets out a cry thats almost a groan.
The policeman is handing Nelson a piece of paper in a plastic folder.
We found it pinned to the Wendy House.
Wordlessly, Nelson shows the paper to Judy and the Grangers.
Shes safe with me. The Childminder.
Donna slumps forward as if shes about to be sick, Bailey and Scooter both start to cry. Judy and Nelson stare at each other as the door opens again to admit Clough, panting and tucking in his shirt.
The Childminder. Bloody hell, whats all that about?
Your guess is as good as mine, Cloughie.
The boss sounds tired, thinks Judy. Its two oclock in the morning and theyre back at the station. The streets around The Rectory are closed off and sniffer dogs are due to search the house and grounds again at dawn. Try to get some sleep, Judy said to Donna and Patrick, knowing that this would be impossible. When she left the Grangers, Scooter and Bailey were both asleep on the floor but the parents looked as if they would never sleep again. What did you think of the parents? asks Nelson now.
I think theyre in shock, says Judy. I cant believe that theyre involved in any way.
Nelson looks as if hes about to remind her of the statistics but thinks better of it.
What about the actual childminder, asks Clough, Justine Thomas. Anything on her?
A voice from the door says, Shes got an alibi. They look up to see Tim with a tray of coffees from the machine. Hes brought chocolate too.
Have you spoken to her? asks Nelson.
Tracked her down at a nightclub in Lynn. Shes got an alibi for the whole evening. He looks at Nelson and then away again. She was with Maddie Henderson.
Maddie? Nelson sounds shocked.
She still staying with you, Boss? asks Clough, unwrapping a Mars bar.
No. She said she was going to friends.
Well, apparently shes been staying with Justine, says Tim. She says she was with her from the moment that she got back from the Grangers.
Do you really suspect Justine? asks Judy. I thought she was meant to be the perfect nanny.
I dont know, says Nelson wearily. He rubs his hand over his eyes. Its just … when we spoke to her, Cloughie, do you remember what she said about David, Liz Donaldsons baby? "He was a sweetie, not a grizzler like Scooter here. But then he had his mummy at home with him. He had nothing to grizzle about." There was real bitterness in her voice, as if she hated her employers for not staying at home with their children. I wondered if she could have taken Poppy to teach them a lesson.
But then where is Poppy now? asks Tim.
I dont know, says Nelson. But I think we should get a search warrant for Justines flat.
Do you really think that shed leave the baby there and go out clubbing? asks Clough.
Nobody says anything but theyre all thinking the same thing – if Poppys dead she can be left alone with impunity. And, if shes not dead, where is she?
Its a classic locked house situation, says Tim, taking a swig of coffee.
What the bloody hell does that mean? asks Clough.
I was thinking of that famous Victorian case, says Tim. He never seems to get wound up, which irritates Clough even more. The Road Hill House murder. Little boy taken from his bed in the middle of the night. Everyone in the house, all the family and servants, were under suspicion.
Judy knows the case he means. She read a book about it, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher. Thinking of how the book ended, she voices something that has been in the back of her mind ever since she saw Donna, Patrick and their sons sitting on the sofa.
The baby in the Road Hill House case was murdered, she says. They found his body in an outhouse. And his sister did it.
They all look at her. Clough blankly, Tim sceptically, Nelson with slowly dawning comprehension.
The Grangers other children are tiny, he says. Are you saying one of them did it?
No, says Judy. But Donna said that the boys were asleep when she went into their rooms looking for Poppy, and a minute earlier shed said that Bailey was still awake.
Baileys five, says Nelson, thinking of the little figure in the purple blazer. Do you really think that he abducted his sister, hid her, maybe even killed her, and then kept quiet about it?
He could have resented her, says Judy stubbornly. Youngest child and all that.
Im the youngest child, says Nelson. My sisters were jealous of me but I dont remember either of them trying to do away with me.
Stranger things do happen, says Tim mildly. Maybe we ought to talk to Bailey.
We wont be able to talk to him without his parents present, says Clough.
Then well talk to all three of them.
Judy is grateful for Tims support but she finds his calm, rational tone irritating.
What about the note? she says. Anything on the handwriting? We can compare it with Justines for a start.
Well get it analysed first thing, says Nelson. I think it was significant though that it was stuck onto the Wendy House. Makes you think that it might be someone who knows the house and garden.
Mind you, says Clough. That Wendy House is visible from the road. Its bigger than my flat.
Whoever wrote it was well prepared, says Judy. The note was in a plastic folder. They must have known that it was going to rain.
You dont think the toddler wrote the note then, Judy? asks Clough. Precocious little fellow is he?
Hes not a toddler, says Judy between gritted teeth. Hes five and at school. And I never said that he abducted Poppy, just that he might know something about it.
OK, says Nelson. Thats enough for now. Go home all of you and get a few hours sleep. Well meet here at seven. The pressll be onto it by then so well have to issue a statement. Ive already spoken to the Super.
Whitcliffe is on holiday in Tuscany but Nelson wouldnt put it past him to be on the first plane back. As his team leaves, Nelson starts to draft a press release but his mind keeps going back to another case, something that happened nearly fifteen years ago.
Poppys disappearance doesnt remind him of a classic Victorian closed house murder, it reminds him of the abduction of Lucy Downey, the case that nearly killed him.
CHAPTER 21
Nelson had been in Norfolk just three years when Lucy Downey disappeared. According to Michelle the move down south represented promotion, more money, the chance of a better life (unspecified) for their daughters, two and four at the time. All the same, Nelson had to be persuaded. He liked Blackpool CID, his mates, football on a Saturday. The south seemed alien and somehow untrustworthy. London would have been all right but when he first looked at Kings Lynn on a map he had felt a twinge of real foreboding. Norfolk looked worryingly remote out there to the east. It was nearer to Scandinavia than to France. And was it his imagination or was there really no motorway? No, looking closer, he saw that there were only two A roads and they seemed to meet in Kings Lynn. The rest of the county was veined with winding single carriageways that meandered their way to the coast. No-one would ever visit Norfolk on the way to anywhere else. Its a one-way street, he had thought, trying to drown out Michelles talk of private schools and swimming lessons, a road to nowhere.