Lost Girls Read Free Page B

get there. My car wouldn't start – and then I got the message.’
    â€˜Do you have any CCTV on your house?’ Kim asked. She had to assume that the car trouble was deliberate and had been achieved by access to the property.
    Karen shook her head. ‘Why would we?’
    â€˜Don't touch the car again,’ Kim ordered. ‘Forensics might be able to lift something.’ It was possible but not probable. ‘The kidnappers knew your routine well.’
    Elizabeth lifted her head. ‘More than one?’
    Kim nodded. ‘I would think so. Your girls are nine years old. Not easy to handle together. A struggle would have been difficult to contain with one adult and two children. There would have been noise.’
    Elizabeth made a small sound but Kim couldn't help that. Crying would not get their children back. If it would, she'd summon a few tears herself.
    â€˜Have either of you noticed anything strange recently? Familiar faces or cars turning up; perhaps the feeling of being watched?’
    Both women shook their heads.
    â€˜Have your girls mentioned anything different, perhaps being approached by a stranger?’
    â€˜No,’ they said together.
    â€˜The girls' fathers?’
    â€˜On their way back from golf. We managed to contact them just before you arrived.’
    That answered all her questions. Clearly both fathers were in the picture so any kind of custody battle was unlikely. It also told her that the two families were very close.
    â€˜Please be honest with me. Have you contacted anyone else, friends, relatives?’
    They both shook their heads but Karen spoke. ‘The officer we spoke to told us not to until someone had been in touch.’
    It had been good advice, and given because the snatch was confirmed. They were not missing. They’d been taken.
    â€˜What should we do, Inspector?’ Elizabeth asked.
    Kim knew that their natural instincts would prompt them to be searching, moving, walking, acting, doing. The girls had been gone for around an hour and a half. And it was going to get a whole lot worse than this.
    She shook her head. ‘Nothing. We can now assume this is a planned kidnap by people who know what they're doing. They know your routines and have watched you closely. The girls will most likely have been lured away from the entrance of the leisure centre in one of three ways. The first is by a person they know. The second is by a person they perceive to be trustworthy and the third is with a promise.’
    â€˜A promise?’ Karen asked.
    Kim nodded. ‘Your girls are too old to be persuaded by sweets, so more likely a puppy or a kitten.’
    â€˜Oh, Lord,’ Elizabeth breathed. ‘Amy has been begging me for a kitten for months.’
    â€˜There are few kids that can resist the temptation,’ Kim offered. ‘That's why it works.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Listen, there's going to be a media blackout on this.’
    At this point they didn't need to know why. The less they knew about the previous case the better.
    Kim continued. ‘So, there'll be no search. There's no point. We're not going to find them in a manhunt. The crime has been planned and they've already made contact. Your girls are not in a field somewhere waiting to be found.’
    â€˜But what do they want?’ Karen asked.
    â€˜I'm sure they'll let you know but until they do you have to keep quiet. Not even family members are to be told. There are no exceptions. If the press get hold of this it will make a difference to the investigation. Hundreds of people scouring the area is not going to get your girls back.’
    Kim could see the indecision on their faces and that would be someone else's fight soon but for now she had to urge them to remain silent. At least until she got back to the station and it became someone else’s problem.
    â€˜It may be your natural reaction to want everyone you know on the lookout, just as you'd like to