Mortal Crimes: 7 Novels of Suspense (79 page)

“Donna kept shivering. I mean visibly trembling I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Gypsy’s, but that place gets hot really quickly. So to see my sister shuddering like that was kind of unnerving. When I asked her what was wrong, she told me she felt like someone had just walked over… her grave.” Cheryl stumbled over her final words and wiped away a stray tear.

“Did she go into detail why she felt like that?”

“No. Although, I took a quick look around and saw this weird bloke watching us. I asked if she knew him, and Donna just shrugged. Then she dragged me out onto the dance floor. I didn’t think anything more about it after that.”

“Did you get a good look at this guy? Could you pick him out in a line-up, perhaps?”

“He was in a darkened alcove and sank back into it when I looked his way. Having thought about nothing else over the past two days, I think Donna knew this man. How or from where, I have no idea. I wish I had.”

“Can you give me any clues at all to go on, his height, build, the colour of his hair, anything?”

“All I can tell you is that he was stocky.”

“Bulky like your brother-in-law?”

“Come to think of it, yes. But it wasn’t Will. I know it wasn’t.”

“I’m not saying it was. He was in America anyway, wasn’t he?”

Cheryl tutted, annoyed with herself. “Yes, of course he was. My mind is all over the place at the moment. I’m scared about what Donna is going through.”

“No need to apologise. I completely understand. So are you sure this guy wasn’t outside when you left? Hanging around on a corner or something?”

“If he was, I didn’t see him.” She went quiet for a second or two. “But by then, we were a little worse for wear.”

Ellen nodded her understanding. “How did you get home that evening?”

“We got a taxi from the rank up the road from the club. The driver dropped me off first, and then—oh my God!”

“What? Have you remembered something?”

“The taxi driver. I should never have let Donna go home alone like that.”

“The taxi driver? I’m not following you.” Ellen frowned and stopped taking notes.

“What if he abducted her? Saw that she was drunk and took advantage of her?” Cheryl went out into the hallway. She returned with a business card in her hand.

Ellen took the card from her. “I’ll make this my next call. I’m sure the taxi driver will come back clean, but I’ll check him out all the same.”

The local press had reported a recent spate of women accusing taxi drivers of touching them up. So Ellen was keen to get to the taxi firm’s office to ask some questions. First, she needed to wind things up here with Cheryl. “Anything else you can think of? Anything strange occurred in the past few months that could trigger Donna wanting to get away? Was she stressed about anything? Work or the fact that Will goes away?”

“No. We told each other everything. If she was in the slightest bit of trouble or worried about anything, she would have mentioned it.”

Hmm… and yet Donna never mentioned to you about the bloke causing her to shudder!
“Damn, I forgot to ask Will what type of job he did.”

“He’s a long-distance lorry driver.”

“With a local firm?”

“Yes, Scott’s Haulage. Quite a small business. They’re just starting out.”

“Has he always been a lorry driver?”

“That’s right. He used to work for an export firm before that. I can’t remember the name offhand—oh, wait a minute—Locke’s Exports I believe it was.”

“That’s really helpful, Cheryl. I’ve got enough information here to be getting on with for a few days. Try not to worry too much. I’ll do what I can to track your sister down.”

“Thank you. I know Will is employing you, but do you think you could keep me informed with what you find out also? I’m worried sick about her.”

“Sure.” Ellen packed her pad and pen into her bag and stood up. “If you think of anything else, anything at all, ring me day or night. Okay?”

At the front door, Ellen gave Cheryl a business card and waved farewell.

Tiredness was quickly creeping up on her, but she had one more place to visit before heading home. Rain had started to spatter the windscreen, and when she turned on the wipers, they had a strange hypnotic effect on her as she drove through the narrow lanes on the way back into town. Her concentration snapped back into focus when the car nearly ended up in a hedge. “Hey, concentrate, you,” she reprimanded herself. She had reached the edge of town and wasn’t far from the taxi firm.

Entering Taxi4Hire’s office, Ellen had to fight through the blanket of smoke saturating the tiny room to get to the rotund man sitting behind the desk.

“Where do you want to go to, love?”

“Sorry, I’m not here for a cab. I wondered if I could speak to one of your drivers, if that’s possible?”

“Which one? Copper, are you?” He stopped slouching and sat up straight.

“No, I’m not the police. I run a missing persons hotline. One of your drivers dropped a lady off last Friday, and she hasn’t been seen since.”

The rotund man was quick to respond. “What are you suggesting? That my guy had something to do with her disappearance?”

Ellen stayed quiet intentionally for a moment or two, then shook her head. “I’m not saying that in the least, but I need to talk to him, all the same. If you’re not willing to help, I have a contact in the force who’d be interested in what I found out.”

“I don’t want any trouble, lady. We run a clean firm. Any dodgy goings on, and the guys know I wouldn’t hesitate in giving them the boot. Who are you after?”

Ellen gave him the time and location of the pick-up and drop-offs and waited patiently as he searched through the Friday-night dockets that had been filed away in a shoebox.

“Ah, here it is. Car Nine picked the ladies up. Hold on a minute. He’s on duty now. Base to Car Nine?”

The radio crackled, and static, along with a man’s voice, filled the room. “Car Nine here. What’s up, Den?”

“After your next fare, call into the office, will you? There’s someone here to see you.”

“Just dropping off now. I’ll be there in ten minutes. Who is it?”

“You’ll find out when you get here. Make it snappy, mate.”

“Will do.” The man’s voice sounded unsure come the end.

Ellen sat down in one of the plastic chairs and glanced up at the TV on the wall.
Bloody soaps! What the heck anybody sees in them is beyond me.
She reached for the evening paper from the small table and was engrossed in the headline story about objections to a new housing estate on the outskirts of Worcester when a bearded man came marching through the front door. She noticed the troubled look that travelled between the two men and stood up. The man on control introduced her to the driver. “This is Stan, the driver you were after.”

“Nice to meet you, Stan. I’m Ellen Brazil from the Worcester Missing Persons Hotline.”

The man frowned, then threw himself into the chair Ellen had just vacated. “What can I do for you?”

“Last Friday, you picked up a couple of ladies around one in the morning. I suppose you’d class that as Saturday, to be fair. One lived out at Norton. The other—”

“Over at St. John’s. That’s right. What about it?” He shoved his hands in the pockets of his jacket and looked at her through narrowed eyes.

“One of the women went missing that night.” Ellen didn’t say anymore, just tested the water to see what his reaction would be.

“And?”

“And I wondered if you could throw any light on the woman’s disappearance.”

The man leapt out of his seat and rushed toward her. “What the fuck are you accusing me of, lady?”

“Take it easy, big man,” Den warned the driver.

“All I’m asking is whether you saw anything suspicious? Anyone hanging around when you dropped the last woman off at home?”

“No. I wasn’t looking for anyone, though. She was bloody drunk. I don’t suppose the other girl told you that, did she?” His lip curled into a snarl.

“Yes, I’m aware of that. Did you see the woman go in her house?”

“What am I, a bloody babysitter now? It’s not in my contract, lady, to make sure anyone gets home safely. Especially if they’re drunk.”

“I know it isn’t. Please, I’m not accusing you of anything. I’m simply building a picture of what happened that night. Why are you being so aggressive?”

“Why? You have the gall to ask me
why
. I know when I’m being interrogated.” His voice trailed off.

Ellen proceeded with caution. “I wasn’t aware I was interrogating you, Stan. I’m merely asking you a few questions.”

His head hung down in shame, and he admitted, “Well, the coppers came ’round, questioning all of us drivers after those attacks on them women a couple of months back. I guess I overreacted.”

“That’s okay. I’m just doing my job. Donna has been missing since that night, and as you’re probably aware, the longer someone is missing, the less hope there is of bringing that person home safe and well.”

“Yeah, I know the statistics, but, lady, you have to believe me when I say I dropped her off and then drove away.”

“Did you happen to see any other vehicle in the road? I went to the address. It’s fairly quiet around there. I’m sure you would have noticed another vehicle pull up the same time as you did.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t,” he said without hesitation. “I wish I had. Why do these girls get so paralytic? Why? Maybe, thinking about it, maybe I should have seen her to the door. The trouble is at that time of morning, the jobs are stacking up. Aren’t they, Den?” He glanced at the other man for corroboration.

“They are indeed. Busiest time of the day for us, really. I urge all the drivers to drop off and get away and onto the next job as soon as they possibly can. You’ve got to make the money while it’s there. Times are hard, after all.”

“I understand that. Okay, I’ll leave you a card, and if you can think of anything or hear any rumours that you think might be of interest to me, will you ring me?”

“Of course,” the two men said in unison. They both looked relieved that she was leaving, but that might have been her imagination working overtime.

She left the taxi firm and ran back to the car, where she called her brother, Jim. “Hey, you, I’m in the area. Can I call around to see you?”

“Of course you can. Suzie’s just bathing the kids. I’ll put the kettle on.”

“Be there in five.”

She smiled, knowing that her brother would take pity on her for not having eaten all day and rustle up one of his scrummy cheese-and-ham omelettes.

Ellen’s brother was waiting for her on the doorstep when she pulled into the narrow driveway. She got out of the car and trotted up the pathway beside her brother’s car and into the house. “Bloody weather!” She offered her cheek for her brother to kiss and slipped out of her jacket, which she hung up on the coat rack inside the front door.

“Come through to the kitchen. It’s warm in there.”

She followed him through the house, smiling when she heard Jim’s sons whooping for joy and splashing around in the bath. “Sounds like they’re having fun up there.”

“I’ve never known two kids who love bath time as much as those two. What are you doing out so late?”

“Working, as usual. You know I don’t seem to achieve much during the daytime in this line of business,” she grumbled as she slumped wearily into the cushioned dining chair in her brother’s newly fitted kitchen. “This is looking great. Are you almost done now?”

“I have a bit of tiling to do in the corner and the grouting to finish at the weekend before Suzie starts painting the walls, if she ever picks out a suitable colour, that is.” He pointed to a patch of wall that had several splotches of different shades of red on it.

“I like the one in the middle, at the bottom. I think it’ll go well with the black-and-white theme. Which do you prefer?”

He raised his hands and dropped them again to pour hot water on the instant coffee he’d already spooned into the mugs. “I’m keeping out of it. We’ve had more arguments about this kitchen than we’ve had in seven years of marriage. I’m aware of when to keep my mouth shut for the best.”

“Hey, you can’t argue with Suzie’s design skills. She’s done wonders with the rest of the house.”

“No argument there. What are you working on at the moment?”

Ellen sensed her brother wanted to talk about anything other than the renovations they’d been carrying out for the past year. The two-month mini-schedule they had set at the outset had lengthened during the work into an eight-month total revamp of their 1930s semi. Both he and Suzie looked exhausted by their continuing efforts.

“It’s too soon to tell if I’m going to make any headway on this one or not.”

“Come on, share. I’ll see if I can add any wisdom.”

Jim had been a detective with the Worcester police for nearly ten years. He’d stuck with it even though Ellen herself had quit. But then, it was easy for guys in the force. Every serving policewoman would back her up on that.

“Here’s a quick summary. Husband is out of the country. He’s a bodybuilder attending a contest. The wife goes out for the night with her sister, gets drunk, catches a taxi home. Next day, hubby comes home to find Donna, the wife, missing.”