Daisy in Chains(68)

Step five: keep a low profile. Especially avoid activity that will attract the attention of the media. Staying away from social media is probably a good idea too. Remember, it’s a small world.

‘Good afternoon, that is great hair.’ The woman behind the counter is young with polished red lips and shiny black hair cut short. The very sharpness of her is at odds with the soft, feminine lines of the rest of the salon. ‘How can I help you?’

‘I’d like to book an appointment for next Saturday.’

The woman opens up a screen on her desktop computer and Maggie edges around the desk so that she can see the names that appear. Becca, Sophie, Rikki, Ashlyn. Others too. The salon employs a lot of people. All women. She sees the name she is looking for. Finally.

‘Eleven fifteen OK?’

‘That would be fine. Can I have a card in case I need to change anything?’

Step six: you have an Achilles’ heel and you mustn’t forget it. Your National Insurance number. Consisting of two prefix letters, six digits and one suffix letter, a National Insurance number is allocated at birth to every UK citizen and mailed to them shortly before their sixteenth birthday.

NI numbers are changed in only the most exceptional circumstances, which means your old name and your new will always be linked by your NI number.

Take heart, though. The existence of the link is one thing, being able to access it quite another. No ordinary citizen has the right to request the NI number of another. If you’re hiding from an abusive husband, for example, he cannot request that HM Revenue and Customs reveal your new identity. The police might have more success, but only in exceptional circumstances after gaining a court order. So, unless you’re wanted in connection with a serious criminal offence, it is highly unlikely that a court order would be given.

The bottom line is, if you work legally, in the UK, you can always be traced, but not easily, and not without good reason.

So, that’s how you disappear. Finding the disappeared? Well, that follows on naturally.

Back in the car, now parked outside the salon, Maggie waits. Using her phone, and claiming a forgotten meeting, she cancels all four manicure appointments that she has just made.

Finding the disappeared depends upon how successfully they’ve adhered to the six-step plan. Where do most of them fall? At the first hurdle, of course. Finding the disappeared depends upon their failure to adhere to step one.

Five o’clock comes and goes, two of the employees exit the salon and walk hurriedly off to nearby bus stops or parked cars. The clock ticks round to five thirty and one more young woman leaves. Six o’clock, half past six. A tall, well-built woman with dark, shiny hair and a prominent nose leaves the building. She is wearing an emerald green coat and shiny black boots. Her make-up is perfect, but a little too heavy, as though it, too, must play a part in keeping out the northern chill. She walks with confidence, looks smart and well kept, but Aberdeen employers pay well.

The failure of step one. Most people, when forced to choose a new place to live, simply cannot do so at random. Try it. Imagine you have to leave, suddenly, without explanation or planning. Think of where you might go. You’ll almost certainly zero in on a place of significance: the home of a friend or relative, the town where your mother was born, the seaside resort you stayed in as a child. We are homing animals. We flock to the familiar, and almost everyone who disappears deliberately, and who doesn’t have the professional help of a witness protection programme, will be traceable through their location. Of course, some will be easier to find than others.

The dark-haired woman’s face is pinched against the cold as she strides off down the street. Maggie leaves her car and crosses the road. She walks towards the young woman, who won’t know her, will have no reason to be alarmed, and only at the very last moment does she sidestep to bring them both on to a collision course. The woman, whose eyes have been down on the pavement, looks up. Those eyes are not hostile at first, certainly not scared. Just puzzled.

‘Hello, Zoe,’ says Maggie.

Now she looks scared.





Chapter 61


‘AND NOBODY’S RECOGNIZED her? Seriously? Her face was all over the news for weeks.’ Hamish pushes his chair back and gets to his feet. In the small private interview room he seems taller than ever.

‘She’s lost a lot of weight,’ Maggie says. ‘Grown her hair, darkened it. She looks quite a lot like her older sister, Stacey, now. And you need to sit down, or the next time someone looks through the window, you’ll be cuffed again. If they don’t terminate the interview.’

He glances round at the door and rubs his wrist.

‘Zoe is a very different young woman now,’ Maggie says. ‘I liked her.’

Hamish is still standing. ‘Was it mutual?’

‘Both she and Stacey were pretty hostile at first. Wanting to know who’d sent me, what I was going to do.’

He folds his arms and leans back against the door. ‘And what are you going to do?’

It is the first time he has properly challenged her. ‘I’m going to think about it,’ she says. ‘Talk to you about it. I told them I’m working on your case. That you’re my priority, not them, or the police hunt for Zoe. Now, come and sit down, calmly, or I will bring this to a close and in future we go back to meeting in the hall during normal visiting hours.’