Where There's A Will

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Burke was already there, waiting for him, when he got to the van that had been used in Alice Keating's kidnapping. Also there was the forensics team, who were waiting for permission to begin going over the van, and a trio of constables, whose job was to keep back the small crowd of interested onlookers. It surprised Stone to see that Louisa Orchard was not a part of the crowd, though he was pleased by her absence, since it meant he could work without being distracted by an endless series of questions.

Stone nodded to his partner as he reached him, and then moved over to check the van. Being careful not to touch the vehicle and disturb any evidence, he peered through the windows; he couldn't see anything in the van that he thought might help to identify the kidnappers, but he didn't expect to – things were never going to be that easy.

"Okay, get on with it guys." At his gesture the four person forensics team moved forwards, so they could start their on-site investigations.

"Have you got anyone going door-to-door?" Stone asked of Burke as he stopped at his partner's side.

"Not yet," Burke admitted. "I've requested a couple more uniforms to help with it, but they haven't arrived yet."

"When they do, make sure they're aware that the kidnappers could be in one of the properties along here."

Burke nodded, and then asked, "Do you really think that's likely?"

Stone looked up and down the street, his gaze settling on the business park up the street for a short while, before he answered his partner's question. "No," he said with a quick shake of his head. "They'd have to be pretty stupid to hold Alice Keating in one of these houses; there's far too many people living around here, not to mention the people working on the business park – that's a lot of people who might see something. If I was them, I'd have dumped the van here and switched to a different vehicle, figuring that everyone would assume the van belongs to one of the companies on the business park."

"They obviously didn't consider the nosey neighbour factor," Burke remarked with a slight smile.

"The old lady with the walking stick?" Stone asked, running an eye over the crowd of onlookers before settling on a likely suspect.

"No, the middle-aged woman holding the baby," Burke told him. "The van's parked right outside her place. Apparently, she noticed it last night, but didn't think much of it until she saw it was still there when she got up this morning, then the description of the van went out on the news and she recognised it."

"I don't suppose she saw the van's arrival."

Burke shook his head, drawing a sigh from Stone. "I thought that might be too much to hope for."