“Let’s wait and see what happens, Mr Mitten. So you are aware, we have a whole team of people who will be working round the clock back at the police station. They are covering everything in an effort to find out what has happened to your daughters. They will work right through the night. No stone will be left unturned.”
“Thank you, that’s very reassuring.”
“We will need somewhere to work from.”
“Of course. We have a table in the lounge, will that do?”
“Yes, that will be perfect, thank you.”
The two detectives are standing in the lounge.
“Tracy, it’s nearly nine o’clock, could you go up to the girls’ bedrooms with Mrs Mitten and see if she can spot anything out of the ordinary. Check for computers or tablets. Anything they might have kept hidden.”
Tracy walks through to the kitchen.
“Mrs Mitten. I wonder if we could go upstairs and…”
The phone rings.
Diane runs and picks up the handset as the voice recorder and tracing equipment spur into action.
“Hello.”
“Are you alone? No police?”
“Yes, we did as you asked,” she lies.
“What do you want? Where are our daughters? We’ll do anything. Please don’t hurt them.”
“Listen very carefully. Take heed of every word I’m about to say. Do you understand?”
“Yes, yes I do.”
“Good. We’re going to send one of your daughters back to you safe and sound.”
“Oh, thank you. Thank you. But… what about our other daughter?”
“Your other daughter will be sent back to you… in a coffin. All you have to do is decide which daughter you want back alive and which one you want delivered by the undertakers.”
“What? I don’t understand. What do you mean? We’ll pay. We’ll pay whatever you want. We’re not millionaires but we’ll find the money somehow. We just want our daughters back. Both of them… unharmed. Tell me how much you want.”
“You weren’t listening. What did I say? I said take heed of every word. We’ll send one back safe and the other in a coffin. You have forty-eight hours to decide which one comes back alive and which one doesn’t. Otherwise you’ll be getting two coffins instead of one.”
There is a thud as Diane faints.
Her husband Francis, who has been listening at her side, grabs the phone.
“Please, please don’t do this. Name your price. I’ll pay whatever you want. Just return our daughters back safe. Hello, hello, hello.”
The phone line is silent. And so is every single person in the room.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
By 10pm Daniel has been at work for two hours and completed the first batch of visits on his security round. At this point, he would normally park up somewhere for a fifteen-minute break but instead, he drives back and parks up the road from the old car workshop.
His idea is to attach a listening device to a window where the men are. It should be much easier at this time of night when it is dark. He’s taken wire cutters to make a small gap in the fence that runs along the side of the building. He climbs through the gap and creeps around the back.
The listening device has a suction pad and Daniel attaches it to the corner of one of the windows. They are covered in several layers of dirt so no-one will see it.
It is lucky he removed the listening device from the parents’ house about three months ago when the girls moved out to appear on the TV show.
He goes back to his van and drives round to the old phone exchange at the rear of the former car showroom and sets up the Camcorder he purchased online and links it to the motion detector that connects to his phone so that every time there is movement it will send an alert to his mobile.
Daniel has been watching the two men through his binoculars for the past forty-five minutes. They seem ready to settle down for the night. He hopes the girls are comfortable.
In the past, he has proven to be a reliable employee. He doesn’t think anyone will bother to check up on him. As long as he gets back on his nightly route by midnight no-one will know.
This gives him an hour to drive to Erica and Leona’s parents’ house to try and find out what is happening there.
All the time he’s driving over to their house, he’s trying to come up with a plan. To think what Ethan Hunt or James Bond would do.
From what he's seen so far this has all the hallmarks of a classic kidnapping, exactly like the ones he's seen on TV and in films.
The only difference is this is real life. He’s not a real spy. He doesn’t own a gun or know anyone who does. He has no secret friend who is a tech wizard with the skills to hack into the police computers. There is no-one to back him up. It is just Daniel on his own. So it will be even more impressive when he rescues the girls. He might even be awarded a medal.
Daniel drives to Barford and parks his van a few doors down from the Mitten home.
He walks to the house next door and climbs over the fence, creeps across the garden and up to the back of the Mitten house in the way he’s done many times before and across the garden and up to the back of the house to the lounge.
The curtains are drawn. There is a small gap. He peers through and sees Mr Mitten and several men and two ladies he doesn't recognise. He assumes these are the police although none are wearing a uniform.
It is exactly like he has seen a dozen times or more in films
