The Smuggler’s Daughter

Chapter 2
Phoebe
London, February 2019

I yawned and stretched at my desk, glad to be clocking off and not working the night shift. Saturdays were always challenging and I was pleased I wasn’t back in the police station until Monday morning now.

‘I’m heading off,’ I said to no one in particular, just as my colleague and friend Stacey – DC Maxwell – who sat next to me in the CID office, put the phone down and made a face.

‘Do you have to go now?’

‘What have you got?’

‘Missing teenage girl. Probably nothing, but uniform are all tied up with that brawl after the football.’

‘Where?’

‘Hanson Grove.’

I pulled my coat from the rack and put it on. ‘I’ll go on my way home,’ I said. ‘Who called it in?’

‘Her mum. But according to PC Malone, she sounded a bit funny.’

‘Funny how?’

Stacey shrugged and I groaned. ‘Give me all the details, and I’ll check it out.’

‘Will you be all right on your own?’

‘I’ll be fine.’

As I walked to my car, I read the paperwork Stacey had given me. The missing girl was called Ciara James, and she was sixteen years old. I frowned. She’d probably just gone off with her boyfriend somewhere. This was a job for the neighbourhood PCSO, not CID. Still, it was on my way and it would only take five minutes.

My car was iced up when I got to it. I had no scraper, obviously, so I had to improvise with my Tesco Clubcard and when I finally got inside, I had to peel off my wet gloves, and use them to demist the windscreen so all in all it took me ages to get to Ciara James’s house. It was gone 10 p.m. when I finally pulled up outside. There was a light on in the front room, though, so I knocked on the door.

A man looked out of the window, frowning. He was wearing a thick jumper and he had reading glasses on his nose.

‘Mr James?’ I said through the glass, showing him my warrant card. ‘DS Bellingham.’

He looked worried as he dropped the curtain and a few seconds later, the front door opened.

‘Is everything okay?’ he said. ‘What’s wrong?’

That was strange. ‘We had a call from your wife? She said your daughter Ciara is missing.’

A shadow crossed his face, but then his expression changed to look more confused than annoyed. ‘Ciara’s not missing,’ he said.

‘Where is she?’

‘Cinema, I believe.’ He looked at his watch. ‘Her friend’s dad is dropping her home. I don’t like her getting the bus this late. I worry about her being out on her own. There are some dodgy people around. I’d have picked her up myself but I don’t like staying up late on Saturday because I have to be at church early in the morning.’

‘But your wife said …’

‘She gets muddled,’ he said quietly. ‘She takes pills to help her sleep and sometimes they make her misunderstand things.’

I looked at him. He seemed totally genuine. And yet, there was something niggling at me. ‘Have you seen Ciara this evening yourself?’

‘No, I’m afraid not. I’ve been at my choir practice.’

‘At church? Which one?’

‘St John’s.’

I nodded. ‘And your wife was here?’

‘I assume so. When I got home she was in bed. Perhaps she took a pill and couldn’t remember where Ciara had gone.’

‘Can I speak to her?’

He made a face. ‘If she’s taken a sleeping tablet, I won’t be able to wake her.’

‘Could you try?’ I smiled at him. ‘I really should speak to her, or my boss will give me grief.’

I was still standing on the doorstep, and the evening was bitterly cold. I didn’t wait to be asked, but just stepped inside. He looked like he was going to say something and then changed his mind.

‘Wait here.’

I had a good nose round the hall while I waited. It was very ordinary. Dull, in fact. Neat and tidy. Ciara’s school photo on the wall, showing her to be a pretty but unremarkable teenager. Boots stacked neatly in a rack and three coats hanging from pegs. Three coats. I frowned.

‘Does Ciara have another coat,’ I asked as Mr James came downstairs again.

‘Pardon?’

‘Does Ciara have another coat?’ I gestured to the coat rail. ‘I presume that’s hers? But it’s very cold outside.’

He screwed his nose up. ‘No idea, sorry. I don’t pay much attention to what she wears.’

‘Right. Is your wife awake?’

A noise upstairs made me look up. A middle-aged woman was coming downstairs, wearing pyjamas and looking pale and sleepy.

‘So sorry to disturb you, Mrs James,’ I said. ‘We had a call that Ciara was missing.’

She rubbed her eyes like a toddler. ‘Ciara is at the cinema.’

‘That’s right,’ her husband said. He looked at me and I saw a flash of something in his eyes – triumph? ‘You get back to bed.’

Obediently, Mrs James turned and went back upstairs before I could stop her.

‘Terribly sorry to waste your time,’ Mr James said with a smile. ‘I trust my wife isn’t in trouble.’

‘Not at all.’

We stood in the hall for a second. I looked at him and he looked back at me. All my instincts were telling me that something was off, but I had nothing. I wished Stacey had come with me. Another pair of eyes on this outwardly normal family would be useful.

‘If Ciara doesn’t come home, please call the station,’ I said.

‘Of course, thank you so much, Constable.’

I forced myself to smile instead of correcting him about my rank. ‘Call us if you need to,’ I said again, more sternly this time.

My car was already icing up again, so I blasted the heater and drove a little way down the road, before I parked up and called the station.

As I waited for someone to answer, I thought about calling uniform out. Being a bit forceful with Mr James. Pressing him. Checking Ciara did come home later. But then I shook my head.

‘Have a word with yourself, Phoebe,’ I said out loud. He was a boring bloke wearing slippers and corduroy trousers, who went to bed early on a Saturday night so he wasn’t tired at church. Uniform would probably laugh at me if I asked them to come round.

And so when my call was answered, I asked to speak to Stacey. ‘She’s not missing,’ I said when she answered. ‘She’s at the cinema.’

‘Okaaaay.’

‘The mum got confused, apparently.’

‘Fine,’ Stacey said. ‘Good.’

‘Can you flag the name?’ I asked. ‘And ring me if anything else comes in.’

‘I thought she was at the cinema.’

‘Just in case.’

‘All right,’ said Stacey amiably. ‘See you Monday.’

It was Monday morning when I got the call to say that Ciara James was gone. I felt my stomach plummet into my shoes, leaving me with a sick feeling that stayed with me for days and days as we searched fruitlessly for the missing teenager.

‘There’s definitely nothing on the parents?’ my boss, DI Blair, said on the Friday evening, fixing me with his steely glare across the room.

I shook my head. ‘I’ve been over it and over it,’ I said. ‘They’re just … normal.’

I twisted my hair into a ponytail in my hand and pulled it over my shoulder, the way I always did when I was thinking. ‘But it was all just misunderstandings. The mother – Molly – she can’t even remember phoning us last weekend. She’s in a state. Blaming herself. And the father – Steve – he’s the same. They were up early for church and it wasn’t until the evening that they realised Ciara was gone.’

DI Blair nodded.

‘I should have searched her bedroom,’ I said. ‘I should have pushed the mother more.’

‘You had no cause to search the house, and the mother sounds like she didn’t know whether she was coming or going,’ DI Blair pointed out.

I said nothing. I knew he was right, but I felt completely awful.

‘Do you think it’s the parents?’ DI Blair asked, looking at me intently. ‘What’s your instinct telling you?’

I shifted in my chair, feeling uncomfortable under his glare.

‘I just don’t know,’ I admitted. ‘My heart said they were to blame, but my head says no. They’re so …’

‘So?’

‘Nice.’

He sighed. ‘You know as well as I do that bad things happen in nice families, too.’

I bit my lip. He was right. Of course he was.

‘We should speak to them again,’ I said, firmly.

‘Sure?’

I shrugged. I really was at a loss. I’d spoken to everyone in Ciara’s life. She was a happy sixteen-year-old girl growing up in the suburbs of south London. Her teachers had no concerns. Her parents were normal. Her friends were sweet. There was nothing suspicious about the family whatsoever. Her mother didn’t sleep well but apart from that she was ordinary and her father – well, stepfather actually though he’d brought her up since she’d been tiny – was an all-round nice chap. But her parents being to blame was the only thing that made sense. Wasn’t it? I had no idea any more.

‘Focus,’ DI Blair said. ‘And let me know when you’re ready to decide on a next step. I might even come with you.’

He marched off towards his office and I sighed. He’d never been this bolshie or unpleasant to work with before, but I understood the strain he was under. Ciara’s picture had been on the front of every newspaper today. She smiled out at me on every news website, her drab school uniform unable to dull her youthful prettiness.

The rest of the team were looking at me, waiting for a decision, so I forced myself to focus.

‘Right,’ I said to two uniformed PCs who were helping with the door-to-door inquiries. ‘Benny and Joe, can you go through the information from the neighbours and friends?’ They nodded and I turned to another colleague. ‘Stacey, you double-check the reports from her school, and I’ll reread the parents’ statements. We must be missing something.’

There was a bustle of activity. Stacey – DC Maxwell – squeezed my arm as she walked past me to her desk, letting me know she had my back. I gave her a grateful smile. Eventually everyone settled down and silence fell as we all read through every bit of information we had about the girl’s disappearance.

Ciara’s mother, Molly, was a nursery school teacher, and the stepdad, Steve, had his own business doing accounts. He rented a desk in an office near the station and everyone there said he was always pleasant. As I already knew, they were both fairly religious – regular churchgoers. Upright. Moral, even. Steve, I’d heard, had turned down the contract to do the accounts for a local betting shop because he didn’t approve of gambling. Molly was sweet-natured and kind. No criminal records. Not so much as a speeding ticket. Nothing.

Ciara had been messaging a boy online – someone from a nearby school – and we’d originally thought she might have gone to meet him. But he’d been playing football the evening she disappeared, and he admitted – slightly sheepishly – that he’d never met her.

I put aside the statements from Ciara’s parents. This was getting me nowhere.

‘Phoebe, I spoke to the dad’s mates at his golf club,’ Benny said, appearing at the side of my desk. ‘I just uploaded the statements.’

‘Anything worthwhile?’

He shrugged. ‘Just what a nice bloke he is.’

‘I’ll have a look,’ I said half-heartedly.

I scanned the statements. This was so hard. There was just nothing to go on at all. Gut instinct went a long way in police investigations, even though lots of my fellow officers would deny it and claim it was all legwork and asking the right questions. But just now, my gut instinct was switched right off. I had unfounded doubts about the dad and that was it. All I could see was that Ciara was a nice, normal sixteen-year-old. In fact, I thought, she was even nicer than her parents made her sound – but that wasn’t unusual. I had friends who claimed their babies were absolute nightmares while smothering them with kisses. Maybe parents of teens did the same?

I sighed, looking at the statement from Steve’s friend. ‘Steve’s one of the nicest blokes I know,’ he’d said. ‘We all thought he was really good to take on Ciara as his own.’ Yawn. I rested my head on my hand, and scrolled on. ‘Considering,’ the friend had added. I sat up straighter. ‘Considering,’ I murmured to myself. What did that mean?

I pulled my phone to me and dialled the number on the bottom of the statement. The friend answered straightaway.

‘Sorry to bother you,’ I said. ‘This is DS Bellingham from Lewisham police station. I just wanted to double-check something in your statement.’

‘Right,’ the man said, sounding nervous.

‘When you said Steve was good to take Ciara on as his own child, considering … What did you mean? Considering what?’

The man laughed. ‘Well,’ he said. ‘You probably know more than me. But she sounds like a right handful. Always in trouble. Last I heard, she was messaging some lad. Steve was worried about it. Sounded like she was sending him all sorts, if you know what I mean?’

I had no idea. We’d found Ciara’s phone in her very tidy room – another odd thing about her disappearance. What teenager went anywhere without their phone? There had been the messages to the football-playing boy, and to her friends, and that was it. Nothing dodgy. No sexting, or inappropriate photos. Just a few sweet words saying how much she wanted to see the lad she’d been getting to know.

‘Is Steve a strict father?’ I asked.

‘He has to be, by the sound of it,’ the friend said. ‘That girl would be on the streets if it wasn’t for him.’

I thanked him for his time, and hung up the phone, shouting for Stacey as I pulled on my coat. We had to go and see the parents again.

From there on, it all unravelled. It turned out, Steve was more than just strict. He regularly punished poor Ciara for any perceived misdemeanour, from not stacking the dishwasher properly, to a poor mark on a test. And the messages from her new friend had tipped him over into disgust.

‘She was messaging some filthy little turd,’ he hissed at Stacey and me, his lip curled. ‘I check her phone, of course, and she didn’t even try to hide it.’

I thought about how innocent the messages were, and how I’d been mildly surprised by their chaste tone, and winced. ‘What did you do then?’

He lifted his chin up, looking pleased with himself. ‘I said to Molly that she needed to be punished and Molly agreed.’

Molly, sitting next to him, looked alarmed. ‘We hadn’t agreed on that,’ she said. ‘I felt a bit of a hypocrite. I had boyfriends at her age.’

‘And look where you ended up,’ Steve spat at her. ‘Pregnant.’

Molly stayed quiet after that, as Steve explained how he wanted to teach Ciara a lesson, so he’d taken her to his allotment on Saturday afternoon and left her in the shed.

‘It’s freezing,’ Stacey said. ‘And her coat is still here. She must have been so cold.’

The thought of poor Ciara in the icy shed made me shiver. I shook my head. ‘But we searched the shed,’ I said. ‘And the allotments. She’s not there.’

‘I just wanted to give her a scare,’ Steve said. ‘But when I got back to the allotment after church, she wasn’t there.’ He shrugged, not looking remotely worried. ‘She’ll be with that lad,’ he said. ‘Getting up to all sorts.’

‘She’s not with him.’ My voice was cold. ‘They never met up.’

Molly gave a little gasp and he patted her hand. ‘She’ll be fine,’ he said. ‘They’ll find her.’

We did find her. In the woods, behind the patch of allotments, that skirted the railway line. She’d obviously found her way out of the shed, but in confusion from the cold, she’d curled herself into the roots of a tree, gone to sleep and never woken up. The freezing February weather, and the vest top and thin leggings she’d been wearing made sure of that.

‘She wouldn’t have suffered,’ the pathologist reassured me.

But I kept thinking about how scared she must have been, and how cold, and how if I’d followed my instincts right at the start, we might have found her sooner.

‘It’s not your fault,’ DI Blair said over and over, as we watched Steve being put into a police car and Ciara’s mother wailing from inside the house. ‘The only person to blame, is that bugger. This is not your fault.’

But somehow I felt that it was.

Chapter 3
Phoebe
Three months later

‘I’m popping to the shops,’ Mum said, poking her head round the living room door. ‘Why don’t you come with me?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘Phoebe …’ Her voice went from being overly perky to concerned. ‘Sweetheart.’

‘I’m fine.’ I dragged my eyes away from Homes Under the Hammer. ‘I just want to watch this.’

Mum raised an eyebrow but she didn’t push me further. ‘I’ll put the kettle on,’ she said.

‘I thought you were going out.’ I knew she hadn’t been going anywhere really. She just wanted to get me off the sofa and out into the world. But I didn’t want to go out because I didn’t want to risk bumping into Ciara’s mother. She was thinking of selling up, I’d heard. Moving on. I couldn’t blame her. But for now, I worried I’d see her in the Post Office queue, or at the self-checkout in Sainsbury’s. And I couldn’t deal with her sorrow and her guilt on top of my own, selfish as that sounded.

Mum gave me a look that suggested this wasn’t over and went off to make tea. I pulled my knees up to my chest and watched the bouncy blonde woman over-enthuse about a chimney breast. I watched a lot of daytime television these days because I had nothing else to do. I’d been signed off from work after it became apparent I wasn’t coping with what had happened. I’d become frozen with indecision at work, incapable of choosing tea or coffee from the canteen, let alone making choices that affected people’s lives. I felt like I couldn’t trust myself. I’d ignored my instincts and Ciara had died. So now I suspected everyone of having some ulterior motive, or of hiding some awful secret, even when they weren’t doing anything wrong. I couldn’t function at work so I had some counselling and the counsellor, Sandra, gently told me I needed some time away to heal. And I was now on sick leave, and I had no idea when I’d go back.

I couldn’t afford my flat-share on my reduced pay, so I’d slunk home to my parents’ house to hide. It wasn’t the best place for me. My parents lived just a stone’s throw from the allotments where Ciara had died. Where she’d have lived, if I’d been more thorough. If I’d asked the right questions. It had been a miserable few months, no question. Though, I told myself whenever I felt myself descending into self-pity, not as miserable as it must have been for Ciara’s poor mother.

The doorbell rang, jolting me from my thoughts. I listened to make sure Mum had gone to answer, and turned the volume up on Homes Under the Hammer when I heard voices in the hall.

‘What’s this bollocks?’ said a voice. I raised my head to see my oldest friend Liv standing in the doorway.

‘This couple think they can do up a house and sell it in six weeks,’ I told her, turning my gaze back to the screen. ‘But Dion Dublin thinks they’re putting too much pressure on themselves.’

‘I agree with Dion,’ Liv said. She sat down next to me and finally I looked up at her. ‘You look like shit, Phoebe.’

‘I know.’ I shrugged. ‘So?’

‘So, it’s my job as your best friend to help you.’

I rolled my eyes. ‘I’ve got a counsellor.’

‘What I can offer you is better than any counsellor.’

‘What?’ I sighed. ‘What can you offer me?’

Liv grinned at me. ‘First, tell me how great I am.’

‘No.’ She was great, of course, but I really wasn’t in the mood for Liv’s games.

She frowned, and then her expression softened. ‘Look, Phoebe, I know how hard it is when things go wrong.’

I felt guilty. She wasn’t exactly having an easy time of it right now herself. She was still recovering after breaking up with her long-term boyfriend, Niall. What a pair of losers we were.

‘But you’re wallowing.’

‘I’m not.’ I looked at her. ‘Honestly, Liv, I’m not. I’m just not ready to get back to work.’

‘I don’t want you to go back to work.’

I blinked at her. ‘Really?’

‘Really.’

‘So what do you want?’

‘I want to take you away from all this.’

She picked up the remote control and turned off the TV. I tried to grab it back but she held it out of my reach.

‘I was watching that,’ I complained. Liv ignored me.

‘I’ve got a proposition for you,’ she said.

I sighed. Liv and I had been mates since primary school and I’d had a lifetime experiencing her propositions.

‘No,’ I said.

‘Hear me out.’ She waved the remote control at me. ‘And then I’ll put your house programme back on.’

‘Fine.’

‘I’ve been offered a job for the rest of the year,’ she said. I managed to raise a smile. That was good news. Liv was the quintessential rolling stone. She worked for a pub chain, parachuted in to take over. She’d done new openings, brand launches, big events like running the pub in the Olympic Park in 2012. She’d worked in Glasgow and Manchester and all over Wales, and down in Brighton for a while. I always joked she was institutionalised – she never had to find a flat or pay rent or even go to the supermarket. She just lived on site in each pub, ate pub food, drank pub drinks. She’d had a brief stint in head office when she’d moved in with Niall, but I’d never thought she’d been very happy staying in one place.

Since they’d broken up she’d been back at her mum’s too. She’d not had a proper job for a while and I knew she was beginning to worry about it. I’d enjoyed having her nearby though. It was reassuring to know that while I may have been in my early thirties, single, jobless and living with my mum, I wasn’t the only one.

‘Where is it this time?’ I asked.

‘Cornwall.’

‘Nice,’ I said.

‘Bit remote.’ Liv screwed her nose up. ‘But beautiful location. Right by the beach. Amazing views.’

I nodded, wisely. ‘A good view can add as much as £10,000 on to the value of a property.’

‘No more house shows for you,’ Liv said. She threw the remote control across the room on to the battered old armchair my dad sat in to watch the football. ‘It’s just a temporary manager job. Nothing fancy. So I’ll be bored to tears.’ She paused. ‘Come with me.’

‘Where?’

‘Cornwall.’

‘I can’t go to Cornwall for the rest of the year.’

‘You don’t have to stay the whole time. Just come for the summer.’

‘No.’

‘Why not?’

I thought about it, but actually I couldn’t think of a reason why not. I opened my mouth and then closed it again without speaking and Liv gave me her best gimlet stare.

‘It’ll be good for you to get away,’ she said.

That was true. But I didn’t feel strong enough to start again in a new place, with people I didn’t know. I liked being at home with my mum and Liv round the corner.

‘It won’t be like starting again in a new place,’ Liv said, reading my mind. ‘Because I’ll be there the whole time.’

‘You’ll be busy,’ I said. I could well imagine how frantic a beachside pub could be at the height of summer.

‘I’ll need help.’

‘I’m not a barmaid.’

‘So you can collect glasses. Or if you don’t want to work, you can sunbathe. Or learn to surf.’

It was beginning to sound more appealing. Liv sensed weakness. ‘You might meet a new man,’ she said. ‘A posh boy in chino shorts and deck shoes.’

I wrinkled my nose up.

‘Fine, a surfer dude with long hair and a great tan.’

‘Better.’

Liv bounced on her seat. ‘Or that Poldark bloke. With the hair. You could meet someone like him.’

I smiled despite myself. ‘That would be worth the trip,’ I said. ‘But I don’t know, Liv. I’m not in a good place.’

‘That’s why you should come. You can be in your bad place in a great place.’

Mum came into the lounge carrying two mugs of tea. She gave one to Liv and put the other on the table next to where I sat. ‘Where’s a great place?’ she asked.

‘Georgie, tell Phoebe she needs to come to Cornwall with me,’ Liv said. Mum looked at her adoringly. She thought Liv was marvellous and the feeling was mutual. But I didn’t mind, because I thought the same about Liv’s mum, Patsy, and her gran, Jada. Liv had adored my noisy chaotic house growing up, bickering with my two older brothers as though they were her own. And I’d spent hours in the peaceful house Liv called home, helping Jada cook the Jamaican dishes Liv had no interest in, and watching Patsy studying for her degree at the kitchen table.

Mum sat down on the sofa next to me and beamed at Liv. ‘A holiday in Cornwall is a wonderful idea.’

‘It would be for the whole summer,’ Liv said. ‘I’ve got a job down there.’

Mum looked thrilled and, I thought, a bit relieved. ‘Even better.’

I made a face. ‘I’m not sure, Mum,’ I said. ‘It just seems a bit much.’

‘Rubbish,’ said Mum briskly. ‘It’ll do you the world of good. Get some sun on your skin. Really relax and put all your troubles behind you.’

‘And you’ll be doing me a favour,’ Liv said. ‘You know what these remote places are like for people like me.’

‘Cornwall’s not remote,’ I pointed out. ‘It’s a couple of hours down the motorway and full of stockbrokers from Surrey.’

‘When I took that job at that country inn, someone asked me every single day where I was from,’ Liv said, scowling. ‘And believe me, they didn’t look satisfied when I said Lewisham.’

‘That was shit, but I’m sure Cornwall’s not like that,’ I said, not unsympathetic because I’d seen first-hand the casual racism Liv had put up with over the years, but not convinced she really needed me as much as she said she did. Liv was more than capable of standing up for herself.

‘Please come,’ Liv pleaded. ‘Please, Phoebe. You can collect glasses and flirt with the Poldarks and arrest all the racists.’

‘I can’t arrest anyone in Cornwall,’ I lied, but my arguments were getting weaker.

‘I think it’s just what you need,’ said Mum. ‘And in Cornwall you know you won’t have to run the risk of bumping into Ciara’s mother.’

I shrugged. ‘I think she’ll be moving soon anyway.’

Mum reached out and took my hand. ‘I wanted to talk to you about that. I walked past the house the other day and saw the for-sale sign had gone so I spoke to Mrs Morrison at the Post Office – you know what she’s like for knowing everything. And it seems the mother has decided to stay.’

I felt sick. ‘She’s staying?’

‘For now. She doesn’t want to leave all her memories behind.’

‘Doesn’t want to leave her husband behind, more like,’ I said in disgust. Ciara’s stepfather had pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was serving his sentence at Belmarsh prison – not far from where we lived. Her mother had stood by him, convinced he’d just made a terrible mistake.

‘Come with me, Moon Girl,’ Liv said, using the nickname she’d given me when we were kids and we’d found out that Phoebe meant “moon”.

I thought about spending the summer trapped inside the home where I’d grown up, not venturing out for fear of seeing the woman whose daughter I could have saved. And then I thought about spending the next few months in a seaside town. All the space and the fresh air. I’d be able to breathe properly for the first time in months. I could go running on the beach, I thought. Get my fitness back.

‘Fine,’ I said to Liv. ‘I’ll come.’

She clapped her hands and exchanged a look with Mum that told me her visit and her invitation had been planned, and that today was definitely not the first time Mum had heard about Liv’s new job. Somehow, though, I didn’t mind them colluding behind my back. I quite liked someone else taking responsibility for my life. It stopped me having to make decisions.

I gave Liv a weak smile. ‘When do you have to be there?’

‘Friday.’

Two days away. I was glad I didn’t have too much time to think about it. With a fair amount of effort, I dragged myself to my feet.

‘I suppose I should go and pack,’ I said.