when she’d changed window cleaners the year before.
‘You don’t think you’re going to need her help getting through the rest of the treatment? She’s been a real rock.’
Scarlett reached into her bag and pulled out her water bottle. She took a long drink, then smacked her lips in satisfaction. ‘It’s not been as bad as I thought it was going to be,’ she said. ‘Yeah, I feel like shit after I’ve had a session, but I can cope with it. I’ve got Marina looking after the cooking and taking care of Jimmy and running the cleaners.’ She reached over and patted my thigh. ‘And you’ve been fantastic. I couldn’t have got through this without you, Steph. But the last thing I need at the moment is for somebody to see Leanne out and about in Tesco looking like a healthy version of me. All it takes is one happy snapper to post a pic on Twitter or a few seconds of video on YouTube and suddenly the red-tops’ll be asking all the wrong questions.’ She pulled her hat off and scratched her head. ‘I’m not up to handling that,’ she said. ‘No way.’
She had a point. And it wasn’t as if Leanne had any grounds for complaint. She’d done what was asked of her, no question about it. Even when she’d had a drink, even in the small hours when the freelances were pretending to be her friend, even in the ladies’ rooms in the VIP areas when the Colombian marching powder was on offer, she’d kept her mouth shut and never so much as hinted that there was a dark secret lurking in the closet.
But on the other side of the equation, she’d lived a life she could only have dreamed of when she was scraping along the bottom on a scummy Dublin satellite housing estate. She’d been housed and fed, she had money in her pocket for clothes and make-up and spa treatments. She’d been to every cool party and hip club that she fancied and, unlike most of the bimbos on the circuit, she hadn’t had to shag anyone to earn that access. The upside of the childcare she’d provided had been the chance to spend time with Jimmy, a kid who was generally more rewarding to be with than most toddlers.
And it wasn’t as if Scarlett was planning to cast her adrift without a bean. Leanne had already visited the villa in the Spanish hills that Scarlett had bought for her. Scarlett had organised the conversion of the pool house into a nail bar where she could do manicures, pedicures and reflexology. Leanne would walk into a home of her own with a readymade business literally at her fingertips. Really, she could have no grounds for complaint.
And yet. And yet . . . I couldn’t help thinking it wasn’t going to be smooth sailing. But Scarlett clearly shared none of my misgivings.
‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘I think I’ll give it a couple of weeks then tell her it’s time to start making plans.’
A lot can happen in a couple of weeks. By the time Scarlett’s notional deadline rolled around, getting rid of Leanne was the last thing on her mind.
33
Stephanie paused to drink from her water bottle. Vivian glanced at her watch. She’d missed lunch and it looked like dinner was going the same way. ‘You weren’t lying when you said it was a long story.’
‘I’m sorry. But you did say you wanted to know everything that might have a bearing on Jimmy’s disappearance.’
‘It certainly sounds like he’s had an exceptional run of experiences.’
‘Sorry to interrupt,’ he said. ‘But I need to speak with Agent McKuras.’
Vivian was on her feet before he’d finished talking. She took his arm and steered him back into the corridor. ‘Sorry, but I need to eat,’ she said, leading the way down the hallway towards the concourse. ‘I can’t concentrate for five more minutes unless I get some food in me.’
‘OK,’ Abbott said, trailing in her wake. He was a married man; he knew better than to argue when a woman displayed all the signs of low blood sugar. Vivian strode through the crowds of passengers, making straight for the Burger King on the food court. Once she had two cheeseburgers and a large coffee in front of her, he decided it was safe to speak.
‘We’ve tracked the boy and his kidnapper from the security area. They took the first available exit and emerged on to the landside concourse. They didn’t go near baggage reclaim. Instead they made straight for the parking garage across the way from the arrivals hall. Interestingly, the guy didn’t go to the payment machines. He didn’t seem to have a parking ticket to validate. He just walked straight in with the kid and they got into an elevator. And that’s where it gets interesting. They don’t show up on any of the footage of the elevator exits.’
Vivian frowned but couldn’t say anything through a mouthful of food.
‘Ask me how that could possibly be. I know you’re dying of curiosity,’ Abbott said.
Vivian swallowed and humoured him. ‘How could that possibly be?’ He was doing the scut work on the case, after all. He deserved a little slack.
‘At twelve fifty-seven, somebody sprayed black paint over the lens of the camera that covers the elevators on the thirteenth level. There weren’t many vehicles up there, so there wasn’t anyone around to witness what happened. Or if there was, they didn’t give a shit about somebody knocking out a CCTV camera.’
‘What images are there before twelve fifty-seven?’
‘Not much. There’s no sign of anyone approaching, which means they likely came up on the camera from behind and sprayed it kind of up and under. The control room noticed the camera was out of action about forty minutes later and reported it for routine maintenance. It was only when I started asking questions that they checked it out and discovered it hadn’t simply malfunctioned – it had been vandalised.’
‘To stop us seeing them emerging from the elevator,’ Vivian said. ‘Judging by the look on your face, we’re not about to cut to the good news.’
‘There is no good news. Not at this point. We don’t know what happened after they left the elevator. The presumption would be that they got into a vehicle. But which vehicle? We have no idea when they left the parking garage. They could have sat there for half-hour in the back of a panel van, for crying out loud. We have no way of knowing.’
‘What about the exit footage? Whatever vehicle they were in, they had to leave at some point.’
‘It’s a waste of time, Vivian. We don’t know what the guy looks like. It’s starting to look like he has an accomplice but there’s no telling whether that’s a male or a female. We are totally pissing into the wind.’
Vivian suddenly lost her appetite. With every lead that frittered away to nothing, the chances of recovering Jimmy alive grew smaller. It had been over five hours since he’d disappeared. The shrinking window of opportunity for his recovery left a bitter taste in her mouth that no amount of fast food could take away. She pushed her second burger away, then, on second thoughts, she picked it up. If she’d been starving, Stephanie would be too. ‘Thanks, Don. I appreciate you chasing this.’ She stood up. ‘I need to get back to the witness.’
‘Sure. The control room’s got a whole bunch of staff tracking back through the concourse cameras to try and get a fix on where he came from. I’ll let you know as soon as I have anything. None of the no-shows matched our guy, by the way. An elderly Hassidic Jew, a middle-aged black woman and a female student from Northwestern. So your witness was on the money with her suggestion.’ He followed her back down the concourse. As they grew close to the interview room, he put a hand on her arm. ‘Don’t take this too personally, Vivian.’
‘If you’d sat listening to that woman for as long as I have, you’d be taking it personally too, Don. Sometimes that’s the only acceptable route to go down.’ She shook off his hand. ‘I know you’re working your ass off on this,’ she added, softening her tone not because she was bothered about hurting his feelings but because she was happy to do whatever it took not to jeopardise Jimmy’s chances. ‘And I totally trust you not to leave a CCTV pixel unturned.’ She delivered her best smile but her head was already back with Stephanie, ready for the next instalment.
34
