Read Before It's Too Late Online

Authors: Jane Isaac

Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, #Thrillers & Suspense, #Crime, #Suspense, #Crime Fiction

Before It's Too Late (3 page)

BOOK: Before It's Too Late
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He’d spent the last twenty minutes sat quietly as Keane questioned Tom on Min’s disappearance, although the interview was proving fruitless. Tom had been with friends all yesterday evening and maintained he had no idea where Min would go. It seemed she rarely ventured anywhere but the college.

Jackman leant forward and waited until Tom met his gaze. “Why don’t you tell me about Min?”

Tom dug his fingers into his hair in a comb-like motion. “What do you want to know?”

“How long have you known her?”

“She started at the college in September. Came over to do the access course.”

“What does she study?” Jackman already knew the answer. But Tom’s uncomfortable body language, the way he repeatedly touched his hair, scratched the back of his neck, fidgeted in his chair, fascinated him.

“She’s doing a foundation course in business, hoping to go on to study at a British university.”

“When did you meet?”

“During Freshers’ week, around the campus. She’s very easy to get to know.”

“In what way?”

Tom narrowed his eyes. “She’s different to the other Chinese students. Most of them stick together, form their own little clan and rarely mix with the rest of the college. Min loves England: the music, the culture, the clothes, even some of the food. She often says she’s not looking forward to going back home.”

“Why?”

“China’s not without restrictions. Her parents sent her over here to get a better grounding in business, a solid education. But she wants to stay when she finishes her access course. Maybe even qualify to be an accountant and get residency.”

Jackman leant back in his chair, “Doesn’t she miss her family?”

“I guess so. She talks about her mother. I think they’re quite close. She calls her a lot. Her father has a factory that manufactures tooling.”

“Can you tell me anything about her father’s business?”

Tom bit his lip and shifted in his chair. “Not really.”

“Anything you can tell us might lead us closer to finding Min.”

Tom hesitated and then leant forward. “He started off working for one of the big foreign companies in the nineties and now makes his own range of tools and exports it to the West. But she says the Chinese are very suspicious people. They don’t trust the authorities. The government don’t actively encourage free enterprise, instead they turn a blind eye to people like him because their business operations boost the economy. But she said his position is always precarious. It seems it’s all about who you know, whose palm you grease.” Tom sighed. “She also said that accountants are low paid in China. Over here she can earn a reasonable living, have more security, maybe even bring her parents over eventually.”

For a moment neither of them spoke. The faint whir of the light bulb in the ceiling filled the room. Jackman surveyed Tom. Earlier he’d watched him struggle to fold his gangly frame into the chair. The photo Jackman had been shown of Min indicated a petite young woman. The contrast between Min’s shape and Tom’s might have seemed comical in other circumstances.

Jackman rolled his shoulders. “I understand you had an argument with Min before she went missing. What was it about?”

Tom was quiet for the shortest of seconds. He cleared his throat. “Her parents. They are coming over in June when we break up. I wanted to meet them, but she doesn’t want to introduce me.” Tom grimaced. “I guess I was being a bit unreasonable. She’s an only child and her parents have high expectations for her career.” He cut off awkwardly.

“And those expectations don’t include a boyfriend?”

Tom shook his head. “She’s worried that if they find out she’s seeing someone they’ll take her back home. Put an end to her studies, her life in England.”

“How did you leave it?”

“She got angry, dug her heels in. I’d been drinking. Not too much, but enough to engage mouth before head. I told her if she couldn’t be bothered to tell her parents, even to introduce me as a friend, then it was over.”

“Was she upset?”

“A bit. More angry. She got up, screamed something at me in Chinese and stormed out. Actually, it was kind of embarrassing. The whole pub turned to look at me.”

“And you let her go? A young woman? To walk through the streets of Stratford on her own?”

Tom peered up beneath hooded eyes. “It was my birthday. I thought she was testing me. That she’d gone outside to cool down, to see if I went after her. I really thought she’d come back after a few minutes.”

“And she didn’t?”

Tom’s face folded. When he spoke, his voice was barely a whisper. “No.”

“Is there anywhere she might have gone? To calm down, maybe?”

“The other officer asked me that. We’ve called everyone.”

“How much had she drunk?”

He shrugged. “She doesn’t drink much. She certainly wasn’t drunk if that’s what you’re implying.”

Jackman narrowed his eyes. “Okay. What about money?”

“She has an account. Her parents give her an allowance, but it’s not huge.”

“Is there anyone she might have upset recently?”

“No.” He sat up in his chair. “She’s just a sweet girl. A little strong-headed, but nice. She’s popular at the college.”

Jackman stood. “I’ll need names of all her associates both inside and outside the college, all her close friends, and everybody that was at your party last night. DC Keane will take a note of them.” He moved towards the door. Just as his fingers touched the handle he turned back, “Tom, as far as we are aware, you are the last person who saw Min last night. Please think very carefully about her recent behaviour and her actions at the pub. If anything comes to mind, however insignificant it might appear, I urge you to give me a call.” He crossed back towards him, dug his hand in his pocket and produced a business card.

“What do you mean?” Tom asked.

“Anything. Perhaps someone she has spoken to recently, an odd phone call, a strange place she has visited, an unusual email or text message, something out of the ordinary. I need to know everything.”

Jackman rubbed his fingers down the shadow of stubble forming at the side of his chin as he wound up his briefing. “Let’s think this one through,” he said. While he’d been busy interviewing the boyfriend and meeting the press, Davies had made a reasonable attempt at turning the only empty office in the building into a makeshift incident room complete with a pin board containing a map of the locality, a white board for briefing and priorities, emergency designated phone lines installed and a team of detectives, albeit crammed into the tight space.

He glanced across at the map of Stratford centre on the board beside him. Coloured pegs marked the location of the college and the Old Thatch Tavern. Red marker indicated Min Li’s movements up to where she was last seen. Next to the map was a photo of Min herself, a headshot taken off Tom’s phone. She had quite obviously posed for the photo, tilting her head and looking directly into the lens, and it gave the impression that she was now staring back at Jackman. Her mouth was slightly parted to reveal crystal white teeth. She had a clear complexion, long dark hair. But what really struck Jackman were the eyes. An unusual hazel.

“The cameras track her as she turns the corner of Rother Street, then nothing. We know she was dressed in a long skirt and heels. She couldn’t have walked far.” Jackman rubbed his chin. “We’ve appealed for witnesses. If she’s staying with anyone close by, then surely they would have come forward by now?”

“Unless she’s hiding away from someone or something?” Davies’ voice shot up from the side of the room.

“I think we need more from the parents,” he said. “Uniform spoke to them briefly, but… ” His eyes scanned the room until they found DC Russell perched on the corner of a desk. Her red hair was pulled back tight from her face and wound into a bun at the back of her head. “Kathryn, I want you to be a point of contact for Mr and Mrs Li. Update them on where we are with the investigation, try to establish a relationship and keep the lines of communication open. Does Min have a secret email address, another phone, a confidante? I believe the father speaks reasonable English, not sure about the mother. Get an interpreter on board if you need one.”

Russell looked up from her notes and nodded as Jackman paused, “Get onto the Chinese consulate as well. See what you can find out about their family background. The officer who spoke to them earlier said they have no other family or close friends in this country, but we’ll need to get that verified. Find out as much as you can about her father’s business interests. Is there anything unusual there? We can’t rule out the possibility of kidnap, although there’s been no ransom call yet.”

Silence echoed around the room as Jackman continued, “According to her boyfriend she is a popular girl, grade A student. No reason for anyone to hold a grudge against her. We haven’t located a body. Is that because we haven’t found her yet or because she is still alive somewhere?”

“I spoke to the college nurse this morning,” Davies piped up from her makeshift seat on the edge of a desk, which was bowing slightly. “No record of mental health issues, not being treated for depression.”

Jackman nodded his thanks. That made another line of enquiry less viable. Depressed people sometimes took desperate measures. The possibility of suicide seemed unlikely here, although they couldn’t rule out a history of mental illness. They’d have to rely on the Embassy to dig up that information and goodness knows how long that would take.

“Any news on her phone?”

Davies shook her head. “We can’t site it. Been switched off since 10.50 last night. We’re just going through billing at the moment but it’s not throwing up anything exciting.”

“Okay, let’s see what the appeal for witnesses brings in and what we can put together ourselves regarding Min Li’s movements yesterday. The local news will put out an appeal on their hourly bulletins and the
Stratford Mail
have agreed to publish the details on their website within the hour. I want a team sent down to the college to interview anybody who had anything to do with her and another team to go through every ounce of CCTV footage from the pub. We need to reach everyone who was in there last night, for whatever reason.”

“The town cameras are covered and we’re awaiting enhancements on the vehicles that passed through between 10.30 and 12.30pm. There’s at least two that are of interest, a BMW and a white Volkswagen van. We shared those with the press so hopefully the drivers will come forward.” He turned to Davies, “Get that fast-tracked, will you?”

She tucked a stray dark curl behind her ear and nodded.

“Right, that’s it. Thanks, everyone.” As he made to go, a thought pushed into Jackman’s mind and he whipped around. “I’m sure I don’t need to say it, but this is a very sensitive case that will likely attract international press attention. Undoubtedly, there will be links made with Ellen Readman, speculation that we have another murder, maybe even a serial killer. We have no evidence to suggest this, although its early days and we can’t rule anything out at the moment. So, everything we discuss, every phone call, every tiny piece of information stays in this room, unless either me or DS Davies says otherwise. Agreed?”

He leant into the screen, pressed rewind and then clicked play. The detective was tall, athletic. Not smooth, but there was a rugged handsomeness about his military stance and chiselled jawline.

He watched the thirty seconds of footage intently, hanging on every word. As the detective said, ‘If anybody thinks they have seen Min Li, or have any information about her whereabouts we urge them to ring the incident room immediately,’ a smile curled the edge of his lip. No mention of any witnesses. They had no idea where she was. And he’d make sure they didn’t find her either. Not until the time was right.

Chapter
Seven

A damp smell curled my nostrils, pulling me out of my slumber. It wasn’t a dream. This isn’t a dream
.

I folded my body in, bringing every warm fibre together. My skirt felt wet. The stench of ammonia followed quickly as realisation clawed at my insides
.

The sound of the wind caught my attention. Distant branches creaked as they shunted about. It reminded me of the bamboo bending and creaking in the wind back home
.

BOOK: Before It's Too Late
4.7Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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