Free Dark Flight by Lin Anderson Page B

‘“The bones signify the chosen one. A previous human sacrifice supplies the bones that attract the next sacrifice.”’
    ‘Jesus!’ McNab muttered beside her.
    Sitting next to DC Clark, Rhona felt her flinch and stiffen. When Rhona turned to comfort her, Janice’s eyes were wide with fear.
    ‘It is, of course, nonsense,’ Sissons’s clipped authoritative voice shattered the sense of unease.
    ‘To us it is,’ Bill went on grimly. ‘But to whoever took Stephen, it is not.’
    ‘There’s one bit of good news.’ The rest of the team looked at Rhona as though they needed it. ‘I examined the shorts taken from Abel. One of the pockets had plant material and soil in it not dislodged by its time in the water. The soil is a type of coal dust.’
    They waited while she went on. ‘We’re still analysing the dust. Mines can have distinctive components in their coal seams. If Abel was kept in or near a coal shaft, we might be able to locate its whereabouts.’
    Bill was already going over in his mind how many old mine workings there were in the central belt of Scotland. Dozens in Glasgow alone, most of their locations long forgotten. It was only when housing estates showed signs of subsidence that old mine workings were suspected.
    Rhona went steadily on. ‘The plant material checks out as two types of trichomes from a plant called
Echium vulgare
or viper’s bugloss. It’s rare and is found on Glasgow bings, the spoil heaps found near former mines. Picking the plant or even brushing against it is painful and causes a rash.’
    ‘Okay. So we think Abel may have been kept near old mine workings.’
    ‘Or in one?’ McNab suggested.
    ‘How does that help us find Stephen?’ Bill asked.
    ‘I think Stephen was lifted over the wall into the back alley,’ Rhona explained. ‘The other SOCOs found partial tyre prints. When we lifted these we found coal dust, of a similar make-up, in the tread marks.’
    ‘Eureka!’ McNab’s exclamation echoed Rhona’s own thoughts when she’d found the match.
    Bill was thinking out loud. ‘If there was a van someone must have seen it. How can you bundle a kid into a van and not be seen?’
    ‘The alleyway has eight-foot walls either side,’ Rhona reminded him. ‘Only someone in an upper flat would see over the wall.’
    ‘Okay, we go back. We ask again.’
    It was Janice’s turn to report. She produced the school jotter and flipped it open at the page with the drawing of the man. ‘Stephen’s teacher insists a father wasn’t mentioned either by Carole Devlin or Stephen.’
    ‘Whoever the man in the drawing is, Stephen doesn’t like him.’ Rhona’s use of the present tense brought them all up sharp.
    ‘Stephen had . . . has one friend at school, a little girl called Yana.’
    ‘And?’
    ‘I went round to their house but there was no answer. I’ve tried twice since. When there was no reply on the number the school gave me, I contacted the university. Dr Olatunde is on leave. He is visiting his family in Nigeria.’
    ‘Did he take his daughter with him?’
    ‘Miss Stuart didn’t seem to know he was away. She was going to phone him, tell him I would be in contact about Stephen.’
    ‘And you let her?’
    Janice looked confused. ‘I thought teachers weren’t allowed to give out information on their pupils without—’
    Bill cut her off. ‘You’re a police officer, DC Clark, in case you’ve forgotten. We don’t warn suspects we’re coming.’
    Janice drew herself up. ‘He wasn’t a suspect, sir.’
    ‘Everyone’s a suspect, detective constable!’ Bill snapped.
    Rhona shot him a look. His eyes were red rimmed, his skin grey. Bill was a boss who led his troops by example, not by ridiculing their mistakes.
    Rhona filled the stunned silence. ‘Is there any chance Stephen was taken out of the country?’
    McNab shook his head. ‘They would need his passport. And he would have to be with a parent or guardian.’
    ‘The guy who professed to be Carole’s