Abigail: Chapter 49

Less than twenty-four hours later and Rob and I were pulling into the car park outside Barnstaple police station. When I’d told the girls what had happened they were brilliant. I wasn’t keen to leave them alone yet again, especially so close to Christmas, so this time we agreed together that we’d enlist their father’s help. They were staying in his house with Tricia for a few days. School had broken up at the end of the previous week so that made things easier and, as much as they liked to complain about Tricia, I knew Jonathan would show them a good time. With the girls organised there’d been nothing left to do, so as soon as Rob phoned to say he’d had the leave granted, I got packing and we hit the road. The only minor sticking point had been transport. I’d wanted to drive us in my van but Rob had point blank refused.

“If we need to organise a stakeout your van will be rubbish!”

I had to agree that he had a point, Ryan knew my van far too well, so after making him promise that he’d drive nice and smoothly, it was agreed we’d go in his car. The journey had been a piece of cake. Less easy was finding somewhere to park. We drove round and round in circles before eventually finding a space.

“I don’t think we’re allowed to park here,” I said to Rob.

“Don’t worry about it. Worst case, I’ll just flash my badge at them.”

I laughed. “That only works in films.”

“First time for everything. Besides, we’re not going to be long. Come on.”

He jumped out of car, locked up and started walking in the direction of the prison-like building.

“Why do they have to make them look so scary?” I complained. The police-station was a grey box with white soulless windows that I’d put any money on being impossible to open.

“You’d prefer your scroats to have better facilities?” Rob laughed.

“I dunno, it’s just not very welcoming is it.”

I let Rob take the lead as we spoke to a man behind a glass screen. After promising us we wouldn’t have to wait long, he asked us to take a seat. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach starting to quarrel and, not for the first time, I wished we’d gone to see Muriel before coming here. She didn’t even know we were coming and I hated to think of her lying in a sterile hospital bed all alone. It was my fault she was even in hospital in the first place. I’d never known guilt like it.

I looked around the waiting area and read the posters. When I’d read each poster four times I started to get fidgety.

“Relax, I’m sure they won’t be long.”

“But what if they arrest me.”

Rob laughed. “Silly girl, they’re not going to arrest you.”

Finally a door to the side opened and a man in a grey suit came out. He introduced himself as Paul and shook Rob’s hand. They exchanged a few words of policeman banter while I rolled my eyes then Rob turned to me.

“And this is Charlie Diamond. She’s a friend of the victim.”

“Great to meet you,” Paul said. He shook my hand. “How is Mrs Flanagan?”

“We’ve not seen her yet.” I said. “We just arrived from South Wales but we’re off to see her next.”

“Well send her our best wishes. Nasty business this, really nasty. Rob tells me you can give us a description of the perpetrator?”

I nodded.

“Okay, if you’d like to come this way we’ll take a statement.”

I looked at Rob. “You’ll come too?”

“Of course.” He smiled. “Just relax Charlie, it’ll be fine.”

I followed the men through the door into a rabbit warren of corridors, my heart hammering in my chest the whole time. I knew I was being completely ridiculous. It wasn’t like I hadn’t given a statement to the police before, I’d done it dozens of times over the years, but there was something about being in the unfamiliar surroundings of a different police division that was giving me the willies. There was also the none too small matter of my involvement with Ryan. I’d chosen not to tell the police about Ryan stealing my van. I was afraid that if I told them they might start asking questions about Toby and I’d promised Abigail I wouldn’t go to the police about the ransom request. Trying to remember which pieces I was and wasn’t allowed to talk about was getting a little confusing!

Twenty minutes later, we were back outside in the sunshine. Rob turned to me, a big smile on his face. “See? That wasn’t so bad.”

“I suppose not. I can’t say I’m feeling that confident though. The description I gave could match any one of hundreds of blokes.”

“Possibly, but look at it this way … if you hadn’t given a description you’d have felt guilty for not doing everything you could to catch him.”

There was something else bothering me about this whole incident though, something I wasn’t sure I could voice to Rob. If Ryan was caught by the police, what would that mean for Toby and the ransom? I had no firm evidence that it was him behind the demands for money but he had to be involved somehow. Assaulting Muriel like that had been a crazy move. If he was starting to lose the plot I was worried what he might do next. The last thing I wanted was Abigail to wake up to Toby’s body parts in the post on Christmas morning. I shuddered.

“Cold?” Rob asked.

“Something like that.”

“Come on, let’s go and find that hospital.” He held the door open for me. “And Charlie, try not to worry. The police know what they’re doing. I’m sure they’ll catch him.”

I forced myself to smile. “Thanks Rob.” How could I tell him that that was exactly what I was afraid of?