“Missing,” he said, taking the piece of paper from me and placing it back into the file. “Or at least I can’t find the rest of it. But I have found some more paperwork which I thought you might find interesting.”
“How come?” I quizzed.
“Okay,” Vincent said, taking several more sheets of paper from the file. “You’ll notice that at the end of Jonathan Smith’s letter he mentioned that police had seen his daughter walking along the Buckmore Road.”
“Okay?” I said, trying to figure out where he was going with this.
“Well, there were four officers crewed up in a van that night out on patrol,” he said, looking at me. “One of them was your father. He was still a constable at the time. He was one of the officers who saw Molly Smith walking along the road that night.” Handing me some sheets of the paperwork, he added, “This was your father’s statement.”
I took the paperwork from him, which had gone an off-white colour with age. Across the top of the first piece of paper, written in thick black ink, were the words: WITNESS STATEMENT. Just below this was my father’s name and signature. Holding my father’s statement in both hands, and feeling as if I were spying on him, I read what he had written all those years ago.
Chapter Twenty
WITNESS STATEMENT
Police Constable Richard Hart. 14th February 2003.
I am currently employed as a police constable at Cliff View Police Station, Blake Road, Cliff View, Cornwall. On Thursday the 13th February 2003, I was on duty and in company with Police Constable McDonald, Police Constable Woodland, and Police Constable Lee. About 22:00 hours, myself and the above mentioned officers started our nightshift. At 22:30 hours we were crewed in police vehicle Romeo 45, which is a marked police van. We left Cliff View Police Station and went on patrol for the evening. There had been a spate of burglaries on local farms, so we had been tasked by Sergeant Skrimshire to undertake high profile patrols in the surrounding area, to act as a deterrent, and to offer the public reassurance.
About 23:05 hours the same day, we were on patrol on the Buckmore Road, Cliff View, Cornwall. Constable Lee was driving. The road was dark as there is no street lighting along that particular stretch of road, and it was raining, so visibility was poor. I was sitting in the passenger seat next to Constable Lee, and Constables MacDonald and Woodland were both seated in the back. Suddenly Constable Lee swerved the vehicle away from the curb and braked sharply.
“I nearly hit that girl,” I heard Constable Lee shout.
“What girl?” I said.
“There was a girl walking alongside the road. Didn’t you see her?” Constable Lee asked me.
Once the vehicle had stopped, all four of us climbed out. It was then I saw a young girl standing beside the road in the dark. I walked towards her. I now know this female to be called Molly Smith. I would describe Molly as being about eighteen years old, and about five foot and four inches in height. She was of slim build, with long black hair and wearing a thin black dress. I noticed her feet were bare, which struck me as being odd, as the night was cold and it was raining. I recognised this girl to be part of a small family who had recently moved to the town of Cliff View. As I approached Smith, I could see that she was in a distressed state. She was crying and shaking uncontrollably.
“Are you okay?” I heard Constable McDonald ask her.
The girl made no reply, but just stood beside the road, with her hands covering her face while crying.
“What are you doing out here all alone?” I heard Constable Lee ask Smith.
“He hates me,” I heard Smith reply through her sobs.
“Who hates you?” I asked Smith. I was confused as I couldn’t see anyone else nearby and didn’t know who she was referring to.
“Come with us and we will give you a lift home,” PC Woodland said.
“No. I need to go and tell him I love him,” Smith said.
I then saw Smith turn and run into the wooded area beside the road. At this time I lost sight of her. Constable Lee ran back to the police van and returned a short time later with two large dragon lights. He gave one of them to me and kept the other.
The four of us then made our way into the thick crop of trees beside the road in search of Smith. Even with the powerful dragon lights, it was dark inside the woods and we became easily disorientated. The ground was wet and slippery and made our progress slow as we made our way up the hill which leads to the Grayson farm. We must have been searching for Smith for at least ten minutes or more, when I heard a scream from the distance.
Together, me and my colleagues headed in the direction of the scream until we reached the crest of the hill where we found a well. I saw Constable Lee run to the side of the well and aim his dragon light down into it.