Their Lost Daughters (DI Jackman & DS Evans #2)(19)
Jackman slowed down for a red light. ‘Gary, at the moment we are investigating a drowning. A fourteen-year-old, with both alcohol and Foxy Methoxy in her bloodstream. We suspect she was taken to a deserted beach and dumped. The fact that she drowned must have been an added bonus for whoever drugged her. Any chance there is a connection?’
Gary nodded. ‘I’d say so. If this new girl turns out to be Toni Clarkson, and she has a date-rape drug in her system, that could be connected too.’
‘Then we’ve got to find this club and get inside it.’
‘Easier said than done.’
Jackman accelerated towards the town. ‘No offence, but we have better resources than you, Gary. I’m willing to bet we can crack this. What would you say if I managed to swing a temporary transfer? Get you on our team for a while?’
‘I’d welcome it, Inspector Jackman, really I would.’ Gary sat back and took a deep breath. ‘Actually things have been pretty shitty over the last year. I lost my sister a few months back, and although the guys at the station are not a bad bunch, the atmosphere and the working environment is bad. I’ve been thinking about a change of scenery, but I need that club to be closed down and our kids safe from their clutches before I consider my next move.’
‘Then I’ll put some wheels in motion. I think Saltern-le-Fen Division could do with a man like you, PC Pritchard.’
Gary gave a broad smile.
They drove the rest of the way in silence. Jackman feared that this was turning into something far nastier than he had ever imagined.
*
They found Rosie waiting for them in the hospital foyer. After a brief introduction she rushed them through to where the teenager was being treated. A doctor greeted them and they waited anxiously while he made sure that she was ready to be seen.
‘She’s still very confused, and we are concerned because we have no idea what she has taken.’
The doctor looked about twelve. His shirt was untucked and he appeared exhausted.
‘Toni doesn’t take drugs,’ said Ellen Clarkson in a very small cracked voice.
And neither had Shauna. Jackman wondered how many times he’d heard that empty statement. The parents were always the last to find out.
‘That’s as maybe,’ said the doctor gently, ‘but there are drugs in her system, and some pretty powerful ones from the symptoms she is presenting.’ He turned towards the door of the examination room. ‘Let’s just see if you recognise her first, shall we?’
They stood back as the Clarksons tentatively approached the trolley on which the agitated girl lay.
Jackman realised that he was holding his breath. Then he heard a low cry from the mother.
‘Darling! My God! Whatever has happened to you?’
‘Bingo,’ whispered Rosie. ‘Game over!’
Jackman didn’t answer. Something wasn’t right about all this.
Marie and the others moved away, talking animatedly, but he remained looking through the observation window.
The young woman was still hallucinating. One moment she seemed almost comatose, and the next she was throwing herself around, fighting, screaming at anyone who went near her. Her eyes were wide, her pupils contracted to little more than pinpricks. She obviously did not recognise her parents. For that reason, and to spare them further upset, a nurse quickly led them out and took them to a nearby relatives’ room.
‘May I go in?’ Jackman asked the doctor.
‘Sure. But keep well back. We’ve already had a syringe of sedative aimed like a dart at the far wall!’
‘I just want to observe her.’ He looked at the trolley and a large plastic bag beneath it. ‘Her clothes have been bagged for forensics?’ he asked.
‘Yes, they are all there. Although the shoes are separate. They were covered in thick mud.’
As Toni yelled and cursed, Jackman stared at the clear plastic bag holding her footwear.
‘She was alone when she was found?’
The doctor looked across at him. ‘Yes.’
Alarm bells rang in his head.
Toni’s bare feet thrashed and kicked out at the nurse closest to her. Her feet were narrow, very slim with long toes, but clearly no more than a size five. Jackman looked again at the plastic bag and the pair of mud-covered, chunky wide trainers.
‘These are not her shoes,’ he said softly. ‘Why is she wearing someone else’s shoes?’
The doctor blinked. ‘Pass. Although she does keep calling out for someone called Emily. Maybe it’s connected.’
As if on cue, Toni screamed the name several times and whimpered, “Where are you taking her?” Then she began shivering violently and curled into the foetal position.
An icy trickle of fear coursed down Jackman’s spine.
They’d found Toni, and thank God she was alive, but who the hell was Emily?
Jackman left the room, took Toni’s father to one side and asked him if he knew of a friend called Emily. The man looked blankly at him, then shook his head and returned to his distraught wife.
Jackman’s mind was spinning. What did Toni mean by “where are you taking her?” Did they have another girl to find? He swallowed hard. He believed that they did, and considering what had happened to Shauna Kelly, whoever Emily was, she was in grave danger.
CHAPTER EIGHT