In looking upon John Dresser, Ian, Michael, and Reggie would have been gazing at the very antithesis of their own past selves. At the moment of his abduction, the child was dressed in a new, azure snowsuit, with yellow ducks marching across the front of it. His blond hair was freshly washed and had yet to be cut, so it fell round his face in the sort of cherubic curls one associates with Renaissance putti. He had bright white trainers on his feet and he was carrying his favourite toy: a small brown-and-black dog with floppy ears and a pink tongue partially torn from its mouth, a stuffed animal later found along the route the boys took once they removed John from McDonald’s.
This removal was apparently accomplished without difficulty. It was a matter of moments, and the CCTV film that documents John’s abduction makes for chilling viewing. In it, one clearly watches the three boys enter the McDonald’s (which, at the time, did not have closed-circuit filming of its own). Less than one minute later, out they come. Reggie Arnold emerges first, holding John Dresser by the hand. Five seconds later, Ian Barker and Michael Spargo follow. Michael is eating something from a conical container. These appear to be McDonald’s French fries.
One of the questions relentlessly asked after the fact was how could Alan Dresser have failed to notice that his son was being taken? Two explanations exist. One of them is the noise and the crowded conditions of the takeaway, which covered any sound John Dresser might have made when approached by the boys who took him. The other is a mobile phone call that Dresser received from his office as he reached the till to place his order. The wretched timing of this call kept him with his back turned from his son longer than he might otherwise have had it turned, and as many people do, Dresser lowered his head and maintained that position as he listened and responded to the caller, likely to avoid distractions that would have made it more difficult for him to concentrate in the raucous atmosphere. By the time he had concluded this phone call, paid for his food, and returned with it to the table, John was not only gone but likely had been gone for nearly five minutes, more than enough time to get him out of the Barriers altogether.
Dresser did not at first think that John had been taken. Indeed, with the takeaway so crowded, that was the last thing on his mind. Instead, he thought the boy-restless as he’d been in Stanley Wallingford’s DIY shop-had climbed down from his seat and wandered off, perhaps attracted by something inside McDonald’s, perhaps attracted by something just outside the takeaway but still well within the arcade. These were vital minutes, but Dresser did not see them that way. Not unreasonably, he looked round the take away first before he began asking the adults therein if they had seen John.
One wonders how it is possible. It is midday. It is a public place. It contains other people, both children and adults. Yet three young boys are still able to walk up to a toddler, take him by the hand, and make off with him without anyone apparently noticing. How could this happen? Why did it happen?
The how of it is, I believe, contained within the age of the perpetrators of this crime. The fact that they were children themselves made them virtually invisible because what they did was beyond the imagination of the people present in the McDonald’s. People simply did not expect malevolence to arrive in the package in which it was presented that day. People tend to have predetermined mental pictures of child abductors, and those pictures do not include schoolboys.
Once it became clear that John was not in the McDonald’s and had not been noticed, Dresser widened his search. It was only after he had checked the four nearest shops that he tracked down the arcade’s security force and an announcement was made over the public-address system, alerting the patrons of the Barriers to be on the lookout for a small boy in a bright blue snowsuit. An hour passed during which Dresser continued to look for his son, accompanied by the shopping arcade’s manager and the head of the security team. None of them considered looking at the CCTV tapes because none of them at that point wished to think the unthinkable.
Chapter Five
BARBARA HAVERS HAD TO USE HER ID TO CONVINCE THE constable that she was a cop. He’d barked at her, “Hey! Cemetery’s closed, madam,” as she’d approached the main entrance, having finally found a place for her decrepit Mini just behind a skip, where a building was being renovated in Stoke Newington Church Street.
Barbara chalked it up to the outfit. She and Hadiyyah had managed the purchase of that staple of all women’s wardrobes-the A-line skirt-but that was it. After returning Hadiyyah to Mrs. Silver, Barbara had donned the skirt in a hurry, had seen it was several inches too long, had decided to wear it anyway, but had done nothing else about her appearance other than to loop the necklace from Accessorize round her neck.
She said, “The Met,” to the constable, who gaped at her before he managed to gather his wits enough to say, “Inside,” and to offer her the sign-in sheet on a clipboard.
How bloody helpful, Barbara thought. She replaced her ID in her shoulder bag, fished out a packet of fags, and lit up. She was about to make a polite request for a wee bit more information as to the precise location of the crime scene when a slow-moving procession emerged from beneath the plane trees just beyond the cemetery fence. This comprised an ambulance crew, a pathologist with professional bag in hand, and a uniformed constable. The ambulance crew had a body bag on a trolley, which they’d been carrying like a stretcher. They paused to lower its legs. They then continued towards the gates.
Barbara met them just inside. She said, “Superintendent Ardery?” and the pathologist nodded vaguely in a northern direction. “Uniforms along the way,” was the limit of the guidance she gave although she added, “You’ll see them. Fingertip search,” to indicate there would be enough of them to give Barbara further directions should she need them.
She didn’t, as things turned out, although she was quite surprised she managed to find the crime scene at all, considering the maze that constituted the cemetery. But within minutes, the spire of a chapel came into view and soon enough she saw Isabelle Ardery with a police photographer. They were bent over the screen of his digital camera. As Barbara approached them, she heard her name called. Winston Nkata was emerging from a secondary path near a lichenous stone bench, flipping closed a leather notebook in which, Barbara knew, beautifully legible observations would be written in his maddeningly elegant cursive.
She said, “So what is it?”
He filled her in. As he was doing so, Isabelle Ardery’s voice cut in with a “Sergeant Havers,” which was spoken in a tone that indicated neither welcome nor pleasure, despite her orders that Barbara was to come posthaste to the cemetery. Nkata and Barbara turned to see the superintendent approaching. Ardery stalked, no walking or strolling here. Her face was stony. “Are you trying to be amusing?” she asked.
Barbara knew her expression was a blank. She said, “Eh?” She glanced at Nkata. He looked equally mystified.
“Is this your idea of professional?” Ardery asked.
“Oh.” Barbara gave a look at what she could see of her kit. Red high-top trainers, navy blue skirt dangling a good five inches below her knees, T-shirt printed with “Talk to the Fist Cos the Face Ain’t Listening,” and necklace of chain, beads, and a filigree pendant. She saw how Ardery might take her getup: a bit of I’ll-show-you. She said, “Sorry, guv. It’s as far as I got.” Next to her, she saw Nkata lift his hand to his mouth. She knew the lout was trying to hide a smile. “Really,” she said, “God’s truth. You said to get out here so I came on the run. I didn’t have time-”
“That’s enough.” Ardery gave her a once-over, her eyes narrowed. She said, “Remove the necklace. Believe me, it does nothing to improve.”