Daisy in Chains(67)

‘She thinks there’s a connection between the Wolfe case and what happened last night. She thinks her taking an interest in that couple of walkabouts could be what got them killed and, frankly, I think she has a point. Who else would want to hurt them?’

Pete looks at his nails. They need cleaning. One of the tree’s needles might do the trick.

‘OK, well, if there’s nothing else.’ Latimer turns and puts his hand on the door.

‘Actually, there is. I don’t agree that the murder last night is connected to Hamish Wolfe, but if you’re right and I’m wrong, there’s one thing you’re all forgetting. If Odi and Broon were killed for what they knew, whoever killed them will know they talked to Maggie hours before they died. She could be next. We need to keep an eye on her.’

Latimer nods. ‘I’ll see what I can do. Course, we’ll have to find her first. Are you sure she didn’t say where she was going?’





Chapter 60


THERE IS DOUBT about whether the plane will take off, more about whether it will be able to land. The cold spell gripping the UK seems to tighten its hold the further north she flies. Maggie spends almost the entire eighty-five minute flight staring out at a frozen, grey ocean of cloud. More than once, she wishes the plane need never have to land, that she can continue flying north, into the vast white emptiness with its promise of oblivion, but sooner than she feels ready for, a tightness in her ears tells her the plane has begun its descent.

Hamish Wolfe, who is now in a position to give her instructions, wants her to find Daisy. He wants her to track down a woman who disappeared years ago and who may not even be alive any more and he wants this, not because it will help his case, particularly. It won’t. He wants it because he and Daisy have unfinished business. For some reason, even though his entire future is on the line, he is fixating on a woman who hasn’t been in his life for nearly twenty years.

Thirty minutes late, the plane touches down on to tarmac slick with de-icing fluid before taxiing to the gate.

She can do it. Probably. She has before, more than once. The trick is to approach the problem in the right way, to ask the right questions, and the first question isn’t: how would you find someone who has disappeared? It is: how would you disappear?

The Maggie Rose step-by-step guide to disappearing:

Step one: physically remove yourself. Move away from the place you are known, from where you have friends, family, a history. Choose a new home at random, this is most important, somewhere no one will think to look for you. Move there and keep your head down, because you never know who is looking.

Aberdeen, the most northerly of important British cities, is snow-bound, but the road from the airport has been cleared. The city centre, when Maggie catches glimpses of it, looks like a silver city from childhood dreams, as the famous mica crystals of the granite buildings gleam in the clear, northern light. She has never been to Aberdeen before, never been this far north. She reaches the ring road and heads towards a residential district on the city’s southern edge. It is already late afternoon and the light is fading.

Step two: choose a new name and change it by deed poll. The good news is that this is easier, and much less official, than you might imagine. Most people envisage a court appearance, solicitors, the signing of a formal document, inclusion on an official register, with both new name and old viewable by anyone so inclined. Whilst the change can be done with this level of formality, most people simply don’t bother.

The reality is that only around one name change in two hundred is ‘enrolled’ and thus available to searches and inspections. Most people make their own deed polls, comprising very simple forms, completed and signed by them, witnessed by two adults. Once in possession of a ‘deed poll’, official documents, such as driving licences and passports, can then be changed to your chosen new name. Of course, the Passport Office, the DVLA, the administrators of any other official documents will keep records of your old name, and if requested to do so by a court, would almost certainly reveal these details. But lay people searching for the ‘old you’ will first of all have to know the new name you are going by. And they won’t.

Maggie pulls up in a street of large, grey-stone Edwardian houses. Number 20 is two houses away on the opposite side of the road and flat 6 is probably on the first floor. She isn’t in the least bit surprised when nobody answers the doorbell. She gets back into the car.

Step three: change your job, if you can. This is particularly important for people working in the professions, which nearly all maintain registers of those entitled to practise. A professional body will allow for a change of name, but will keep records of that name change. Anyone staying in the same profession will be traceable through their professional body, even if they choose to work overseas.

Starting the engine again, Maggie drives around the corner and parks near to a row of shops. McDonald’s always has free Wi-Fi.

Step four: change your appearance. It’s a small world, wherever in it you choose to move. Changing your hairstyle and colour, swapping spectacles for contact lenses, dressing differently, can all reduce the chances of an unexpected recognition.

On her second cup of McDonald’s coffee, Maggie has finally finished her search. She checks the car can be left in its current parking spot and sets off walking.

The first place she stops at is a dead end. So is the second, and the third. The fourth is bigger, smarter, decorated in retro-Regency style with elaborate, white-painted wooden furniture and pink tasselled lampshades. The reception desk has a stencilled portrait of Audrey Hepburn, her cigarette holder held gingerly between highly manicured nails. Each nail is a different colour and pattern. This salon offers very sophisticated manicures.