CHILDHUNT: A Mystery & Suspense Thriller in the Bestselling Diana Rivers Series (The Diana Rivers Mysteries Book 5) (21 page)

He was careful to keep his phone switched off because he didn’t want Yvonne calling him with her cries of panic, and he stayed away from his university room and telephone. After establishing a reasonable enough time for his alibi, he told a colleague he was leaving for the day. The drive was less than ten miles from where he worked and lived. Inside the wood, it was completely silent. He had already decided where he would bury the bodies; under the wide oak, the ground was still soft from recent rain and hadn’t yet frozen. The grave would be shallow but adequate for two small bodies.

He was pleased with himself. History was about to be repeated. He recognised danger and seized the moment; he would not be thwarted. He walked around the perimeter of the house until he returned to the garage. “Charlie, where are you? You can come out now. It’s time to take you and Hannah back home.” He waited and listened in the silence of the falling snow. He lifted his lantern, and as the wind blew, the flame rose and fell against the glass. There was no place to hide in the garage or the garden. He was hardly likely to have gone into the house either. Bolton couldn’t make out any small tracks through the snow. So where the devil was he hiding? “Charlie, where are you? Don’t you want to go home with Hannah and see your mummy? She’s waiting for you, she’s not ill, I was mistaken. She’s all better.”

He heard nothing but the soughing of the wind through the trees. He didn’t panic. There was plenty of time to find him, and he knew the boy would never find his way home. He realised that if he was about to start a proper search of his property, he had to get rid of his interfering neighbour, quickly and immediately. It would soon be daylight, and that would bring back the hapless police with their search teams. The well was lightly covered with a hinged wooden board and a piece of mesh. It was a simple task to remove both and pitch the body into the water. As he heaved Roger up onto the wall, he heard him utter a low moan.
He wasn’t dead
! How thrilling! Philip Bolton didn’t hesitate. Instead, he allowed himself a satisfied smile when he heard the splash forty feet below. His neighbour would either die of his injuries or drown. He imagined him tumbling and turning in the underground river on its journey to the reservoir.

Then, he could concentrate on finding the boy.

Chapter 27

The search had begun. Starting from the Frost household, each group began the painstaking hunt for the two small children. Diana was relieved after discovering that at least six members of the hashers were either ex British army or policemen. They had either past experience or knowledge of search and rescue, and a couple remembered manoeuvres on Dartmoor and the mountains of Wales. Adam was quick to place a veteran with two willing amateurs, ensuring the teams were more or less equal. Everyone had a stick, a mobile telephone, food and coffee or at least some water in a backpack. A few simple medical supplies completed their kit. If they had carried more weight, the snowy conditions would have hampered their work even more.

Within half an hour the teams had fanned out across the surrounding countryside and already a couple had disappeared down into the nearest deep valley. Everyone wore walking boots, and many were lucky enough to possess waxed leg gators, which they wore over their waterproof trousers. They would help keep the wet out of their footwear.

Diana was searching with two hasher friends, Wee Willy and Randy, who, although experienced hashers, didn’t know the area as well as she did. Just as they were leaving, Clare joined them. Diana waited until they were a little behind the other two before voicing her surprise.

“I thought you were staying with Debbie?”

Picking her way over a low stone wall, Clare took her time in replying. “I was, and then I thought better of it. Debbie’s fast asleep from her sedative. William’s staying with her, and your friend, Geraldine, is on hand in case anything’s needed. If the children are still near here, I hope to have better luck with them.”

“Don’t you want to walk with Adam?” Diana was curious. Adam wasn’t known for his patience, and he had been rather terse with Clare the night before.

“I think you know the answer to that. Adam is still pooh-poohing my impressions. All I know is that I can’t shake a very real sensation of water from me. It’s as if it’s…all around me, choking, cold, so cold, roaring and seething and rolling. It feels so tangible.” She shivered.

“I can’t imagine.”

“It’s not as if these sensations are all visions or words…nothing definite like that, but there are colours and feelings.”

Diana thought she did understand something of what Clare meant, and she nodded while running her stick along the length of the lower part of the wall where the snow was thickest. If a tiny body had fallen there, it would have been hard to locate it. Clare glanced over to the other two in their party before continuing.

“The children are alive…and I know the person who has them doesn’t really know them.”

Diana had to make an effort to stop herself glancing around. The day suddenly felt decidedly abnormal, and the weak sunlight falling over them seemed to thicken and pulsate.

“You’ve communicated with them?” she asked in a whisper.

Clare seemed vague despite her smile. It was not an unkind smile, but neither was it the kind of smile much used between friends or equals. Diana thought she saw exasperation and almost pity in it, too. “Well, I didn’t exactly sit down and have a chat with them, Di,” she replied. “But they were there, or rather the little boy was. I felt him. And I’m sure that if he’d known who it was who held them, he’d have let me know. But there was something else…the water…it was almost as if another person was involved.”

“
Two
abductors?” Diana whispered in an incredulous whisper. “But even if he didn’t know them before, he must be able to tell you more now.”

“Maybe not two abductors, I didn’t say that exactly …perhaps it’s someone else who interfered,” she said dismissively. “Anyway, I didn’t mean he could have given me a name, though that’s not impossible. All I meant was, I
felt
him here, and he, poor little mite, felt puzzled. He was uncertain, not like he would have been if he knew who it was and why. I think that’s what I mean. He’s also extremely cold, and again I sense water plays a part in this.”

“I see. If what you say is true, I wonder who it is. And why water? Maybe we should be searching near the river?” Diana finished sweeping the area with her stick and moved further on towards the far left of the field they were searching. “Clare, I don’t know much about Romanies, but is it unusual to be a true medium? Aren’t tarot cards and crystal balls more the usual area?”

Clare swished her stick in anger. “That’s how gorgios have always portrayed us. But in truth, very few chovihanis
actually use a crystal ball more than as a simple prop. Or even as something bright to induce hypnosis.”

“Chovihanis. That’s a sort of witch, isn’t it?”

Clare smiled. “You know more about our people than you admit. I thought so. I did wonder last summer when we were together in Cheltenham.”

“Ah! You mean when Isabelle and Caroline were murdered. You did say a few things back then which I thought odd at the time, almost as if you had inside knowledge. You seemed to know about Sebastian and Caroline, despite no one ever having told you. I never took it
further, though, because things suddenly got rather heated, and everything moved at a rapid pace.” Diana felt unsettled. As much as she wanted to believe Clare and her powers, so far nothing really positive had been gleaned from her time spent with Debbie.

“Mmm, they certainly did for you. Anyway, chovihanis often do odd things. Look, we’ve finished this field. Where are we supposed to look next? I wasn’t there for Adam’s briefing.”

“We’ve been working on a grid pattern, which is supposed to be very effective when searching over a large area. Each team has been assigned to a particular area to search. Then each team spreads out over that area—as now. We search one way then do a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn slightly to our right and come back and repeat it as we sweep the field. Then we do this at right angles to how we first started. That way the whole area is carefully searched. I think we’re supposed to carry on keeping to the left and search further afield. Other groups are off to our right, in front and behind the house area. It is slow going but thorough, and we wanted to get as much done as possible before others arrive to get in the way. I was surprised not to have found Cyprus Mail and The Times on our doorstep this morning.”

“I remember now. Adam explained it to me, but understandably, my mind was elsewhere. Changing the subject, who lives there?” Clare asked pointing to the nearest hill. On the summit, the sun had just reached the house, bleaching any colour from its honey-coloured stone.

“That one? It belongs to a Cypriot. Costas lives down in Limassol and rents it out. It’s been occupied for some years now by the same person. Philip Bolton. I don’t know much about him, as he keeps himself to himself, but he’s always polite on the rare occasions I bump into him in town or Agios Mamas. Anyway, he’s a keen birder, and I’ve often seen him out and about in the fields and woods. But we’re not going in that direction, we’re going further down the lane.”

Clare gazed at the house for a long moment before turning back to Diana. “Are you sure we’re not to go and search in that direction?”

“Positive. Why?”

“I just wondered. I…oh, it’s nothing. Okay, lead the way. We’d better catch up with the others”

Diana studied her friend. “Are you all right? We’re not supposed to stray from the area Adam allotted to us. Don’t worry. Another group will be covering the hill over there this morning. Actually, this way takes us to Roger’s place. If he doesn’t put in an appearance before we get there, we’ll call in and check he’s all right. He was diagnosed with cancer last year, poor chap, and the chemotherapy really knocked him for six. I hope yesterday’s trauma didn’t set him back. He was first on the scene after William arrived home, and he looked quite shocked when I saw him.”

Clare cast one more look back at the lone house and then followed Diana. “Roger…he persuaded Adam to come out here?”

“That’s right, I know. Why do you mention it?”

“I was just wondering if he could be involved in any other way in all this.”

“In any
other
way? Roger? Don’t be daft, he’s an old man. You’ve seen how he is.”

“I know, but I have—”

Diana stopped on the track. Her boots were covered with thick snow, and despite being fit, she was finding it difficult to move in some of the deeper falls of snow. She was distressed over the missing children, worried because Clare intimated another person might be involved, and now she was on the point of accusing Roger of something underhand. Apart from getting hot from all the extra layers she had piled on that morning and having to take extra deep breaths, everything was far from peachy. In fact, she couldn’t remember a shittier day. “Don’t tell me…you have a feeling,” she snapped.

Clare took a step back in surprise. “I’m sorry. I thought you understood. You obviously don’t. I misinterpreted what you said earlier.”

Diana bit back a sigh and shook her head. “No, it’s me who should apologise. Forget what I just said, I truly didn’t mean it. I’m just hot and bothered and feeling really miserable over the kids. Let’s just do the job and hope someone, anyone, finds something positive.”

After two hours, they decided it was time for a five-minute rest with a cup of coffee and a pasty. The two hashers accompanying them, Wee Willy and Randy, joined the girls as they brushed the snow from a low wall and sat down. Diana pulled out her mobile and tried to make a call. Wee Willy unearthed a hip flask from his inside pocket and offered the snifter around.

“No thanks. Too early for me,” Diana said, between sipping her coffee and replacing her phone in her pocket. “I wonder how the others are getting on.”

“Sounds like the police are on the move. Look, on the top road, there are a couple of patrol cars. The new shift must have come on duty. We’d better get a move on. The
superintendent will be expecting us to have begun on our next area. He said he wanted us to cover as much as we could before the Cypriots showed up. I got the impression Adam isn’t exactly over-impressed with the local force,” said Randy, pointing towards the main road.

Diana and Clare exchanged looks. “Something like that. He sets very high standards and expects everyone around him to follow. He can be maddeningly right, too,” Clare said with a half smile.

“Well, if he or anyone else had anything for us to go on, they’d have phoned. Come on, let’s move. But before we start the new area, I’d like to call in on Roger. I’ve just tried to phone him, and there’s no answer from his mobile. Not even a ring.”

“Right-oh. You lead the way.”

*****

Roger’s house looked shut up and forlorn in the shadow from the neighbouring hill. Diana looked down at the drive leading off the road and up to the garden. Everything was hidden under a thick blanket of snow. No tracks could be seen anywhere, even to his chicken coop. The hen house was still locked up, and she presumed the chickens were still inside. She paused and looked at the others.

“You look puzzled,” Randy said. “Is anything wrong?”

“I’m not sure. When Roger left us at the Frost house, it was quite late last night. He said he was coming home for a short while. I presumed he came back for his medication. Now I know the snow only stopped a few hours ago, but even so, I would have thought there would be some indication of his footprints. You know, some indentation, but the snow lying round Roger’s house and garden looks deep and fresh. It’s as smooth as the icing on a Christmas cake.”