enlarging and cross-matching with the plaster cast.
Finally he said, ‘It’s a Cooper. I’m afraid I can’t say more than that.’
‘It’s enough to go on with,’ Challis said.
Back in the Displan room, Ellen said, ‘How do we play this?’
‘Very carefully. There may be an innocent explanation. It may be coincidence.’
‘I don’t trust coincidence.’
‘Neither do I.’
‘Well then…,’ she said.
‘We need to break his alibis,’ Challis said. ‘Go back and question everybody he worked with, neighbours, the usual.’
Ellen said, ‘Groan.’
‘We also need a warrant that stipulates our right to search the house and any other building that Ledwich may own, plus his place of work and all vehicles he or any member of his family may own. And meanwhile we’ll go and pick him up for questioning.’
The phone was ringing somewhere in the incident room. It was distracting. The room itself wore an air of too many dead ends, of long airless days and nights, of cooped-up tempers and hurried meals. What a mess, Ellen thought. She tilted back her head. ‘Somebody answer that, please?’
But there were only three officers in the room, their sleeves rolled, hunched over the telephones or their computer screens, so she crossed to the offending telephone and snatched it up.
‘Destry.’
‘Ellen?’
It was her husband. ‘Alan?’
‘Is Larrayne with you?’
Long afterwards she would remember that her first response was one of irritation. Her husband had been falling apart for days, in a low-level way, often emotional, forgetful, apt to misjudge things. ‘Alan, it’s her tennis lesson.’
‘I know that. I’ve been waiting around to take her.’
‘She’s probably at Kathy’s. She’s done this sort of thing before. Just wait for her.’
Ellen’s tone was: Do I have to do everything?
Her husband said, ‘I rang Kathy. She said she hasn’t seen Larrayne at all today.’
Ellen felt a crawling chill on the surface of her arms. Her heart seemed to shut down. Then she was shouting:
‘Why the fuck didn’t you say so!’
He sounded hurt. ‘It’s school holidays, you cow. Why would I be worried she wasn’t here? I thought I’d understood it wrong and you were taking her to tennis.’
She found herself sniping, ‘Then why did you ring me?’ when she should have been slamming the phone down and taking action.
‘I just thought I’d double-check, that’s all. More than you would do, you fucking bitch.’
This time she didn’t respond. She stood there, frozen, and something in her face and manner must have alerted Challis, for his hand closed over hers and he was taking the phone from her and taking charge of her fears.
Twenty-Four
I’ll kill him,’ she said.
‘No you won’t,’ Challis said.
‘If he’s got her and he’s hurt her, I’ll kill him, Hal, see if I don’t.’
Two sedans and a divisional van. Three detectives, four uniforms and two forensic officers. They were converging on the housing estate where Lance Ledwich lived. Scobie Sutton had taken a fourth car to detain Ledwich at his place of work and take him to the house.
‘Don’t jump to conclusions,’ Challis said. ‘His Pajero was destroyed, remember, so how did he snatch Larrayne?’
She seemed to fill with relief, then immediately tensed again. ‘His wife’s got a car. A station wagon.’
‘Ah.’
She pushed her hands back through her hair. ‘I don’t understand how it could have happened. He must have snatched her on her way to Kathy’s. But how? I mean, the kid of coppers, she’d never willingly go with a stranger.’
Then she seemed to understand the implications of what she’d said and groaned and put her hands over her face.
There were other explanations, but Challis didn’t offer them. Your daughter is a ratty teenager. Your daughter hates you and has run off with a boyfriend. Somehow he knew that there was only one: Your daughter was smacked over the head with a tyre iron.
‘He’s shifted his locus, Hal,’ Ellen said, taking her hands away from her face. ‘All that publicity, we’ve driven him away from the highway. Now he’s preying where people actually live. God.’
Challis heard the rising note in her voice, the fear, outrage and hysteria. ‘One thing we’ve got going for us, it’s daylight,’ he said. ‘Now calm down and think like a copper.’
‘Daylight? How does that help us? He snatched her in daylight and no-one noticed.’
‘But he won’t-’
He was about to say, won’t dump her body in daylight. He said, ‘Ledwich has a job. He’s accountable to people during the day. He won’t do anything until it’s dark.’
‘Keep her tied up all day? God, bad as that is, I hope so.’
They were creeping over speedbumps now. Challis pointed. ‘Scobie’s already here. That was quick.’
The CIB Falcon was parked across Ledwich’s driveway, effectively blocking off the station wagon, which was parked at the side of the house. Ellen was peering at the figures in the Falcon. ‘I don’t see Ledwich anywhere. Don’t tell me he’s done a runner.’
Then Sutton was at Challis’s window. ‘He wasn’t at work, boss. Called in sick yesterday.’
Ellen Destry seemed to crumple. She began to bite on her finger. ‘Oh God.’
‘Have you tried the house?’
‘Waiting for you, boss.’
They got out and approached the house. Challis pushed a button next to the front door, which was a heavy, carven thing, varnish peeling from its daily beating from the sun. Challis itched to pick at the varnish strips. The door opened.
‘Mrs Ledwich?’
‘Yes?’
Challis motioned Sutton and two of the uniformed constables to make for the rear of the property, then pushed through, into the house, followed by Ellen Destry and the other officers.
‘We have a warrant to search these premises and any vehicles that you may own. Is your husband here?’
Ledwich’s wife looked tired and distracted. ‘He’s in bed. Summer flu.’ Then she stared from one to the other. ‘Why don’t you leave him alone? He almost lost his job over you lot coming around and asking questions. Give him a break.’
‘We just need to talk to him,’ Challis said.
Beside him, Ellen was fuming. She pushed forward. ‘Look, are you going to take us through to him or not?’
