‘I don’t like this; let’s wait for back-up to get here.’
Anna nodded, then checked her watch. ‘Unless she’s gone to pick up her kids from school… Do we know if she’s living with anyone? Changes her name often enough.’
‘They didn’t have any details.’ Brandon walked over to look at the greenhouses and huts behind the bungalow then rejoined Anna. ‘Bloody good place to hide out though, isn’t it? Christ, this stench is disgusting. How can she live here with kids?’
She nodded; the place did have a desolate feel. Like Brandon, she now started to look through the windows.
‘Let’s go round the back,’ she suggested.
Brandon shook his head. ‘Nope, we wait.’
‘No dog.’
‘What?’
‘I said, there’s no dog. Usually in a place like this, they have some scraggy dog loose, or chained up. It’s the silence that’s freaky.’
‘Yeah,’ he sighed. ‘Okay — I’ll take a look round the back, you stay out front. They should be here any minute.’
Anna nodded, and couldn’t help but smile as she saw Brandon roll up the bottom of his trousers to head down the muddy pathway. He was only just out of sight when Anna heard a soft mewing sound; at first, she thought it could be a cat, but listening harder, she was sure it was a child.
At the same time, two patrol cars headed into the drive. Anna hurried across and gestured for one car to head round the back to join Brandon and the second to come with her to the front door.
‘There’s been no answer at the front door, but someone’s inside. I think you need to give a big loud bang on the door and make yourselves obvious. If still no one opens up, break it down.’
Brandon was relieved to be accompanied by one officer; the other began sloshing through the mud towards the outhouses. Closer, the stench of the pigs made him feel sick. He heard the loud banging at the front door just as he reached the back one.
‘Police! Open the door! Police!’
Brandon tried the back door; it too was locked. He stepped back, put his shoulder against it and gave a strong push, then another, but it took both him and the officer with him to burst it open.
At the same time, Anna, with her two officers, had broken down the front door and entered the hallway.
‘Police! Come out and show yourself! Police!’
A terrified little girl wearing a pair of pyjamas toddled out of the back bedroom. Anna bent down and opened her arms.
‘It’s okay, little one. Come here — come on, come to me.’
The child seemed rooted to the spot, so Anna had to walk very slowly towards her. She turned to the officers and quietly told them to search the front room where she thought she had seen the curtain move.
Anna bent down to be on the child’s level. ‘Where’s your mummy?’
She began to cry.
‘What’s your name? I’m not going to hurt you. Why don’t you just come to me and tell me your name?’
The child started to scream as the officers came out from the front room. ‘No one in there.’
Meanwhile, Brandon was looking around the kitchen; piled with dirty dishes and used pans, it looked as if a meal had been prepared and left on the table. He walked into the hall.
‘Nobody’s in the kitchen, but someone left in a hurry.’
Anna had by now calmed the little girl, and was carrying her in her arms. ‘I don’t know if she can talk, but she’s soaking wet, and we’ve no one in the front room.’
Brandon nodded and then opened a bedroom door: dirty sheets and three unmade beds, plus a child’s cot. Toys strewn everywhere.
‘Empty; let’s try this one.’
This was the only room they had not yet looked into. He eased the door open very quietly and then hung back, before he slowly pushed it wide open.
This was the main bedroom: a double bed, again with unmade sheets and very untidy, but no occupant.
‘Where’s your mummy?’ Anna again asked the little girl who was now silent; she smelled strongly of urine and possibly more. ‘Is your mummy outside?’
It was at this point that the officer who had been looking around the outhouses and huts appeared at the back door.
‘Nobody out there, but we’d need more men to have a thorough search. Place is really run down; there’s some hens in a pen and pigs and a goat, but nothing else moving.’
Brandon shrugged. ‘What do you make of this?’
Anna carried the little girl into the children’s room, and sat her down on a small child’s armchair.
‘Do you know where your mummy is?’ she tried again.
No reply. Anna sighed; the child was totally mute, staring at her with wide, terrified eyes.
Brandon stood in the doorway. She looked at him.
‘Listen, should I change her, put her in dry clothes? She’s soaking wet and she stinks.’
‘I wouldn’t — it’s up to you.’
‘Can I get you some nice dry clothes?’
The child shrank back from her.
It was then they heard a jeep driving up, an old Shogun that sounded as if the exhaust had fallen off. By the time Brandon had reached the front door, a woman had jumped out of the Shogun and was running towards the bungalow, screaming.
‘What’s going on? What the hell is going on?’
She was tall and skinny, wearing jeans and Wellington boots, with a man’s jacket tied round her waist over a stained T-shirt.
Brandon blocked her at the front door. ‘Gail Sickert? I am Detective Inspector Brandon.’
‘What the fuck has happened?’ She tried to push past him, shouting out, ‘Tina! Tina!’
‘Just calm down, love. Is this your little girl?’
‘What’s happened? Let me in — get out the fucking way!’
Brandon blocked the door. ‘Your kid’s fine. Just stay calm. We need to talk to you.’
Anna carried out the little girl.
Gail was allowed to go to her. She held out her arms and hugged her tightly. ‘Fucking coppers, you broke me door. What’s this about?’
Brandon cleared the officers out and told them to wait in the patrol cars.
By now, Gail had changed Tina, and her other daughter, Sharon, had been brought out of the Shogun. Sharon was seven years old, a thin waif-like child with lank blonde hair and red-rimmed eyes.
‘I only went to get her from school and take my Keith round to his mate’s house to play. I weren’t gone for longer than twenty minutes, for God’s sake. You’re not going to report this to the bloody social services, are you?’
Anna asked Brandon to give her some space as Gail was in such a state, rocking the still-silent Tina in her arms and keeping Sharon close to her.
‘Gail, I’m really sorry we’ve frightened you.’
‘You just bloody broke in here — you got no right to do that, she’s terrified. You got no right to break into the place.’
‘Gail, we do have every right. We’re looking for your brother.’
‘He’s not fucking here. I wouldn’t let him cross the bloody doorstep, he’s a lunatic. I’m gonna make an official complaint about this.’
‘Your brother is wanted in connection with a murder.’
‘That’s got nothing to do with me. You lot have had him in the nick more times than I’ve had hot fucking dinners and you just let him out; he’s sick, sick in his head. I’ve not seen him for years and if he did come here, my bloke’d take a shotgun to him.’
Gail started to sob. This upset the little girl, Tina, and she began to cry. This started Sharon off and she clung to her mother, crying too.
Anna put the kettle on. It was greasy to touch and the sink was full of filthy dishes. The kitchen was disgusting.
‘Where is your husband?’ she asked.
Gail sniffed and wiped her face with the back of her hand. ‘He left just after I moved in here; bastard just pissed off.’