‘Do you have his address?’
She shook her head as she grabbed a tissue and wiped her nose. ‘I know he was looking at a place on Beech Street but I don’t know the number. He hasn’t properly moved in yet.’
Jacob scribbled the street name down. Beech Street, that wasn’t far from Damson Close and Gina knew they were looking for a connection to Beech Street from the information on Susan’s notes. Had Ronald Halshaw been hanging around Susan’s car on the night of her disappearance? He could have easily taken her. Her mind flashed back to the moment she passed him in the hallway and when she heard Howard and him talking on the phone. He had very little hair. Had his address been the last one Susan went to that day, thinking she was going to see a new client? Maybe that’s why she parked in Damson Close, it was between the two addresses.
‘Did he ever mention the Cleevesford Youth Club?’
She nodded. ‘He used to be a volunteer there, mostly doing the office work. Accounts and admin, that sort of thing, organising trips. Everyone loved him and Howard idolised him. Said he was a local hero. Always raising money, helping disadvantaged kids, arranging days out to the beach. What has this all got to do with Susan and Howard?’
‘I’m sorry to say we are investigating a case of historic child abuse and we think it has something to do with Susan and Phoebe’s disappearance.’ She couldn’t hold back this detail any longer. Mary needed to know how important it was that they located Howard.
Mary’s lips quivered. ‘No, no he wouldn’t…’ She collapsed into a chair at the dining table and began to sob. ‘No, no, no. How could I have missed that?’
‘I’m so sorry, Mary.’ Gina sat beside her as the woman sat deep in thought. Susan had run away. Susan had been secretive. Susan was troubled. She already knew this and now, the reasons for Susan’s behaviour were all clicking into place.
‘Howard wouldn’t do anything like that. Susan has known him for years. This has nothing to do with Howard.’ Mary ran out of the room and shut herself in the downstairs toilet.
‘You okay, Mum?’ Clare called from the top of the stairs.
Someone tapped at the front door. Gina peered through the letterbox, hoping that it wasn’t the media and she saw Kapoor smiling. ‘Everything okay?’
‘We have access, guv. To the old youth club. The contractor is meeting us there now, with the keys and hard hats.’
‘Ask one of the PCs to come inside until we can arrange for a family liaison officer to be here.’
‘On it, guv.’ Kapoor dropped the letterbox.
Gina’s phone rang. It was Briggs.
‘Harte. The contractor has arrived and he says that there is a broken door and some of the fencing has been cut out around the back of the building. I need you there, now.’
‘Arrange for backup. We have to assume that Susan and Phoebe might be in there. If that bastard has hurt them…’ Her muscles tensed as Briggs agreed and ended the call.
‘We have to go, right now,’ Gina whispered to Jacob.
Mary came out of the toilet, bleary-eyed and pale. There was another tap at the door. Gina let the police constable in then led Mary to the kitchen. There would be plenty of time to get a formal statement later and she knew a search warrant was in process for the Hudsons’ house. Mary stomped over to Howard’s office and began tipping his drawers out and smashing his furniture up. ‘I hate him. I trusted him with my children and my grandchildren.’ She flung a pile of paper into the air followed by another and as the stapler hit the mouse, his computer came on. She gripped the mouse and began searching through his open screens, one after another. Gina hurried over and watched over her shoulder until an email came up.
Get here now or this will be all over Facebook. What’s up Cleevesford, here we come!
A photo of Howard unbuttoning an unconscious sixteen-year-old Stephanie’s shirt almost made Gina heave. Mary crumpled into a heap amongst all the paper. Screaming and screwing it up. Gina kneeled down and the woman gripped her arms. ‘We’re going to get him, Mary. I need to go now, but I’ll be back.’ She loosened Mary’s grip and left a young officer with her. Clare ran over to her mother with her screaming child under her arm.
Blood pumped through Gina’s body. Her stab vest was in the boot and she was going in. She wanted to be the one to arrest Ronald Halshaw and Howard Hudson, they were hers, all hers. She swallowed the lump in her throat as all her muscles tensed. She had to get to Susan and Phoebe and hope that she wasn’t too late. Too late – that didn’t bear thinking about. She shivered.
Sixty-Seven
Gina fidgeted until her stab vest shifted to a more comfortable position. With her ribs being crushed and adrenaline pumping away, she could barely hear the hum of people talking and gathering outside the old youth club gate. ‘We could well be walking into a hostage situation and not only that, this building is a deathtrap. I know it goes without saying, but safety first.’
‘You have to wear these,’ the contractor said as he passed them all hard hats. ‘As you can see, the roof has started to cave in, there’s glass and debris everywhere. Don’t even try to go upstairs, half of the staircase is down and tread gently.’
‘How long has it been like this?’ Jacob asked.
‘As long as I can remember and I’ve been around here for ten years. I don’t know if you read the local papers. There is some ongoing dispute over the land. The building has always been used as a community centre, privately owned but generously given use of to the local authority. It’s been left to rot by whoever inherited it after the owner’s death. At the moment the building is sitting under a company name and that company pay us to keep it safe, hence the locks and boards. Nothing is happening with it any time soon. That much I can tell you.’
Gina wondered if anyone would still want it when its dark past came out. ‘When did the boards and fences go up?’
He rubbed his chin. ‘About a year ago, at least. I just drive by once a month to check the perimeters.’
‘You reported that there had been some activity here.’
