The stale smell of alcohol coming from Doug’s mouth as he spoke made Gina recoil. She turned her head a little and inhaled the air outside. ‘Where’s Cally? We need to question you about your daughter’s disappearance.’ Gina saw that Wyre had reached the outside of the kitchen door. She gestured to tell Gina that she was heading back round the front.
‘Cally,’ Doug called with a gravelly voice. ‘She’s in bed, probably fast asleep. Come in.’ He fully opened the door, turned on the upstairs lights and wandered upstairs. ‘Milo, shut up. He’s going to wake her.’ With the opening of a door, the dog bounded down the stairs and straight into Gina’s legs at the bottom.
She moved aside as Wyre stepped in, closing the door to prevent the dog escaping onto the street.
‘She’s not in bed. Cally?’ The man opened and closed all the doors, calling his granddaughter.
Gina hurried upstairs.
‘Cally?’ The man was on his knees, checking under the bed. ‘Where is she? What’s happening?’
‘We need to ask you the same thing. How can your granddaughter not be here?’
He ran his fingers through his grey hair, every line on his face emphasised by the stark lighting. ‘I was asleep on the settee. I put her to bed about two hours ago and put the telly on. I don’t know where she is.’ His fingers began to tremble.
‘Any sign of a break-in?’
‘I don’t know, I haven’t checked. I was in such a deep sleep before you woke me up.’ He began to hyperventilate. ‘Cally.’
‘Here, sit.’ He balanced his bottom on the end of the single bed. The magnolia-painted room was bland except for the teddy bear on the chest of drawers.
Cally’s iPad lay on the bed. ‘She was watching her programmes when I put her to bed. Where is she? Where’s my granddaughter?’
‘Do you have a photo of Cally?’
He reached under the bed and pulled out a box. He threw a pile of photos onto the floor and continued to rummage. ‘This one was taken last Christmas.’ Gina took the photo of the little girl wearing a red dress and reindeer antlers, with a big smile on her face. She watched Doug, the man with the past, a man who could very well have been like her ex-husband, Terry. She wondered if people could change. The expressions he’d displayed seemed genuine but could he have done something with his granddaughter and then come back to the house. They needed one thing only and that was to establish where Cally was.
‘Have you seen or heard anything out of the ordinary?’
‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘I feel so alone at the moment with all that’s going on. Where’s Cally? I’ve lost her.’
‘I’m really sorry, Mr Latham. We are doing all we can to get Cally back.’
‘That’s working really well for Annabel. I’m scared that I’ll never see them again. I was looking after Cally and she’s gone. That’s on me. How could I sleep through whatever happened especially with the dog barking? I didn’t shut the dog in the bedroom, which means someone was in my house. Cally wouldn’t shut Milo in my bedroom, he’s been sleeping in her room.’ A puzzled look washed across his face. ‘I’ve failed my daughter and granddaughter. I failed my wife too. I hit her once. I’m not a good person. Maybe this is karma.’
O’Connor poked his head into the room. Gina stepped back. ‘Could you please sit with Mr Latham while we take a look downstairs? We have a missing child and I want to know how she got out. It appears that someone has been in the house. We need to minimise foot traffic through the house and get forensics to examine the scene. We need to know who came here and who took Cally.’
O’Connor gave Mr Latham a sympathetic smile and stood by the bed. Gina hurried back down. Wyre followed her into the kitchen. The back door was locked and the keys were in it. The windows were closed too. She headed to the dining room next door which was stuffed full of rubbish and old furniture. That too was well locked up. She headed to the lounge. ‘That’s why Mr Latham didn’t hear anything.’ She pointed to the almost empty bottle of whisky next to the empty glass. A stale smell hung in the air, one that only occurs when a drunken person has been festering in a room. She parted the curtains, already knowing that the window was closed. ‘Cally walked out of here voluntarily. She had to have opened the door, which can only mean that she knew the person who took her. Could Mr Latham have taken her somewhere or have done something to her earlier this evening, then come back and got hammered? We still need to consider that. Who shut the dog in the bedroom? It’s all so calculated. Alert the station that we have a missing child and get Cally’s photo over to them.’
‘Guv.’ Kapoor leaned against the door frame as she got her breath back. ‘We’ve found something. Hurry.’
Gina and Wyre followed Kapoor down the road, passing several houses until she stopped by a drain. Gina saw the white toy lying there, his happy snowman face looking up at the sky. ‘Cally has a toy the same as this.’ Gina avoided the temptation to pick it up, leaving it exactly where it was. ‘We need to get this area cordoned off along with Mr Latham’s house. Get him to the station and organise a search. A little girl’s life is at risk. Something isn’t adding up here.’ She glanced up at all the houses. As they’d arrived, all the curtains had been shut but now, people were peering out and standing on their doorsteps.
A man came out of his house. ‘What’s happening?’
‘We have a missing child.’ Gina pulled the photo from her pocket. ‘Have you seen her?’
He took the photo and held it closer to his face. ‘Yes, that’s Doug’s granddaughter. I saw her with him earlier today.’
‘How did they seem?’
‘Okay, I guess.’
‘You guess.’
‘Cally was playing up, screaming for her mother and Doug was telling her off. I think looking after her is a lot for him. I saw the news. I know what’s happening. He’s under a lot of pressure at the moment.’
‘How has Mr Latham seemed?’
