Written In Blood

Chapter Forty-Two

When his phone rang, Mitchell excused himself and moved away from the waiting area, leaving the Wrights: Malcolm, Kieran and Tara, to their wait for a doctor, or nurse, or anyone, to come and let them know what the situation was with Emily. Melissa was there as well, though so lost in her grief over the murder of her cousin she was oblivious to either the Wright family or her superior.

"Have you been able to find the Hawkins, sir?" Mitchell asked once he and the inspector had exchanged pleasantries.

"Yes, but it wasn't easy," Stevens said. "It seems they're away at the moment, which is why they didn't report Daisy missing, they weren't aware she was. I had to get their contact details from a neighbour; they had to leave on a family emergency yesterday, Ursula Hawkins' father had a heart attack. They were going to take Daisy with them, but didn't want her to miss school today, so they made arrangements for her to stay with a friend last night and go to school with her this morning."

"What friend?" Mitchell had a horrible feeling he knew who Daisy was supposed to have stayed with. His eyes strayed to the Wrights in the waiting room.

"Tara Wright," Stevens answered. "According to Frank Hawkins, Daisy couldn't go to the Wright Farm straight away because all the family had things to do. Daisy was to stay at home and make her way to the farm in time for tea, and she was then to stay the night there. I figure it would have taken her about an hour to get to the farm from home on foot, which fits, because the neighbour I spoke to said she saw Daisy heading up the street at about a quarter to five, and the Wrights were supposed to have tea at about six, if I remember what you said Malcolm told you."

"That does fit," Mitchell said, a touch of excitement in his voice, which he quickly got under control as he realised how inappropriate it was. "Wild most likely bumped into her while he was taking Emily away from the house, and grabbed her so she couldn't tell anyone where she had seen him. The last of his excitement drained from him as a thought occurred. "What if Emily is still alive because he bumped into Daisy? What if she's still alive because he was too busy raping and murdering Daisy?" He was struck with horror at the thought. "Jesus! How do I tell Malcolm his daughter's alive right now only because Wild was too busy raping and murdering a second, younger, girl to realise she wasn't dead?"

"I have no idea," Stevens admitted.

"Have you been able to find out anything else?" Mitchell asked of his superior after half a minute or so of silence had passed.

"Not so far, no," Stevens said regretfully. "I've been trying to find out if anyone saw Daisy after her neighbour did yesterday, so we can be certain she was heading for the farm, but no luck yet. I want to look more closely at Wild's alibi as well; I know you've proved his blood-type matches the killer's, and you'll have the DNA results back in the next couple of days, but it will help our case if we can prove he lied about his alibi.

"What's the situation over there at the hospital?" he asked in a change of subject.

"Unknown at the moment. Unless someone has come up with some news while I've been talking with you, we're still waiting to hear what the results of the scans are, and we won't know how good or bad Emily's situation is until we get them."

Mitchell reached out to shake his friend's shoulder, bringing him back to the here and now, as he squatted in front of him. "I need to talk to you about something."

It was a few moments before Malcolm became fully aware that Mitchell was before him, and a similar amount of time before he found his voice. "Wh..." He cleared his throat when his voice died in a croak and tried again. "What?"

"I need to talk to you about something," Mitchell said. "I know this is a difficult time for you, but I need to know; why didn't you tell me Daisy Hawkins was supposed to be staying at the farm last night?"