Free The Disappeared by M.R. Hall

arranged for late morning.
    He
said, 'Wow. Is that true? Can you really throw people in prison?'
    'If
I have to.'
    'Have
you ever?'
    'Last
summer. Two witnesses in the same inquest. Caused quite a stir.' She glanced
over with a smile, but he was already plugged back in, his head bouncing to the
music.
     
    Alison
greeted her with the usual stack of paperwork and a clutch of requests from
other families with missing daughters wanting to look at the Jane Doe.
    'What
about the lab tests from the last lot? Shouldn't we rule them out first?' Jenny
said.
    'If
I know anything they'll take at least a fortnight. Don't worry, I'll fix a
viewing for later in the week. Probably have them queuing round the block by
then.'
    Jenny
skimmed through the list of requests. It was unbelievable how many apparently
well-adjusted young people there were who had vanished from their previous
lives. Where did they go? Alison assured her there were hundreds if not
thousands of cases every year, mostly people who'd had breakdowns or who were
escaping from debts or bad relationships. The good news was that all but a
fraction turned up eventually.
    Jenny
handed Alison a letter she had written to the Bristol and Avon Chief Constable.
It requested that she be given access to all their archived files relating to
the boys' disappearance and their observation of the A1 Rahma mosque and
Marlowes Road halaqah.
    Alison
glanced at it dismissively. 'You'll be wasting your time, Mrs Cooper. They
haven't got them any more.'
    How
do you know?'
    'I
spoke to Dave Pironi last night. A couple of suits came up from London
yesterday afternoon with a certificate from the Minister and took them away.'
    'Do
we know who these people were?'
    'He
can't tell me that.'
    'He
must have given you some idea.'
    Guardedly
Alison said, 'I didn't get the impression they were police.'
    'Then
they'll have been MI5.' Jenny clicked onto her internet browser and started to
search for a phone number.
    Alison
stood watching her from the doorway.
    'What?'
Jenny said.
    'I
wouldn't normally say anything like this, Mrs Cooper, but Dave doesn't think
you should get involved.'
    'Oh,
really?' She found the number for MI5's central switchboard and scribbled it
down. 'What's he got to hide?'
    'Nothing.
The fact is the police got pushed aside more or less straight after they went
missing. The people who do know, if there are any, are so far up the food chain
it's pointless even trying to go after them. All you'll do is make trouble for
yourself.'
    'He
told you this?'
    'Not
in so many words, but if he says don't go there, it's for a reason.'
    'Maybe
he'd like to share that with my inquest.'
    Alison
sighed in frustration. 'I'll grant you there wasn't much sympathy around for
those two boys, but even in CID they weren't happy with the way the
investigation ended. I know you think all the police are closet racists, but as
far as they were concerned they had a major investigation stepped on. For all
they knew at the time, those lads could have disappeared to a safe house to
strap bombs to themselves. They weren't even allowed to put pictures—' She
stopped herself mid-sentence, realizing that she had said too much.
    'They
weren't allowed to put pictures where?'
    'It
doesn't matter. Just canteen gossip.'
    'Are
you telling me that Pironi's people were ordered not to carry out a normal
missing persons investigation?'
    'He's
never said that.'
    'Maybe
you should be giving a statement. What else were they saying in the canteen?'
    'I
wish I hadn't said a word. You won't even be allowed to hold this inquest
anyway.'
    Jenny
looked up from her computer screen and sensed in Alison something approaching
mild panic. 'Pironi's asked you to try to steer me away from this, hasn't he?'
    'He
would never ask me to do such a thing. But we all know how blame gets shifted
downwards, and Dave's a year away from retirement. He paid for his wife's
treatment out of his own pocket and he needs his pension. If you have to get
into this,