The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike) Part 1358 by Angharad Copyright © 2011 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

“If her phone is on the Isle of Wight and a text was sent to me, it must be from someone who knows enough about her to send it–I mean it could be that she has Home marked on her address book–but even so, if a casual thief had it, why would they call me?” I mused, my Sherlock Holmes impression was never that successful–couldn’t stand pipes.

“So you think the bad guys sent it?” Jenny asked sipping her tea.

“I suspect so.”

“Which would mean they have her also–oh, Jenny; I’m really worried for her.” I felt like crying and we hugged.

“Why would anyone want to take her?” sniffed Jenny.

“I don’t know,” I said my eyes moistening, “the last time it was for ransom.”

“It’s happened before then?” gasped Jenny.

“Yes, twice.”

“Twice? My God.”

“We did think about having a tracker implanted in all of the children, but we decided it would be a breach of trust on our part.”

“I’ll bet you wished you had, now?”

“I dunno, Julie would have played hell with me if we had.”

“Cathy, she’s been kidnapped or abducted or taken.”

“Yes, I know.”

The doorbell rang–I ran to it hoping it was Julie–it wasn’t it was a man in a suit who reeked of tobacco and police. “I’m Detective Superintendent Carlyle, this is Detective Sergeant Hughes, he introduced the woman with him. It appears you have an abduction if the text wasn’t from her.”

“You’d better come in,” I held open the door.

I took them into the kitchen and Jenny set about making fresh tea while they questioned me about the circumstances leading up to Julie’s disappearance.

“So this is the fourth time she’s been taken–becomin’ a bit of a habit, isn’t it?”

“Fourth time?” Jenny gasped.

“Yes, including the time her birth father seized her.”

“I’d forgotten about that.” I must be losing my marbles.

“We did try to check them out–the Kemps–but they no longer live at the previous address.”

“Oh, they didn’t notify Julie as far as I know–or she didn’t say.”

“Did she have any contact with them?”

“Not that I know about–you know she’s transgendered?” I said quietly.

“Yes, Lady Cameron, it seems since you arrived the population of transgendered people in Portsmouth has doubled.”

“I beg your pardon?” I blushed.

“It don’t make no difference to us, people are people and we’re here to protect you all.”

There were a number of things I could have said but I decided I needed his help and the resources he could bring to bear on the case. At least he’d done some homework, which was almost encouraging.

“At the moment, we’re checkin’ the ferry registers, see if her car went across as well as the phone. There may also be some CCTV cameras which could help. We’re lookin’ into that too.”

“Thank you, I appreciate it.”

“It’s what we do,” he said gruffly. “Now did she describe this man at all?”

“Not really, just said he was fifty and celebrating his birthday and he invited her to his camp on the Isle of Wight. We deduced from the leaflet that he was priest of some sort called Myers. Though we couldn’t find any mention of his parish anywhere.”

“It doesn’t exist–neither does Stanley Myers–it’s an alias. This is the leaflet you gave my officer?”

He held up a clear plastic file in which was the leaflet Julie had shown us. I nodded.

“Sadly, any fingerprints or DNA are so contaminated we can’t identify them, so we’ll have to find her and work backwards.”

“Is there anyone she could have gone to stay with?” asked the woman detective.

“Not that I can think of–she’d only have had to ask, and we’d have let her go–so she wouldn’t need to disappear.”

The woman’s mobile chirped and she excused herself to take the call. I continued answering some quite pointed questions from her boss.

“And she had no reason to run away–no rows or arguments?”

“No–not recently–she’s a teenager and we do have differences of opinion, usually over clothing.”

“Got a daughter myself, Lady Cameron, know the feeling.” I’d have though he’d have smiled when he said this but he stayed poker faced.

“Sir, could I have a word?” she said finishing her call. They excused themselves and went outside where he lit up a cigarette and puffed away as they talked.

“He’d hardly win prizes in the personality stakes would he?” said Jenny and we both smirked.

“I don’t really care if he can find her safe and sound and bring her back to me.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

My mobile pinged and I answered it while the two coppers were still talking or he was still smoking.

“Hi, Cathy, my sources tell me the plod have found her car on the IoW.”

“So d’you think that’s where she is?” I asked Jim.

“Not necessarily, but we’ll let them look–they can do it faster than we can. I’ve got one or two other lines of enquiry open.”

“Jim, her parents have moved from their previous house–you couldn’t find them as well, could you? I mean if anything happens to her, we’ll have to let them know.”

I gave him the old address and he rang off. I boiled the kettle again and the police returned.

“Are you sure she doesn’t know anyone on the Isle of Wight?”

“No, I can’t be sure, but she’s never mentioned anyone–why?” I asked knowing why the question was asked.

“We’ve found her car–she has no relatives or anything there?”

“Not as far as I know.” I answered.

“Could I have a look at her room?” asked DS Hughes and Jenny showed her up to it.

It was at this point that Puddin’ woke up and yelled the place down waking Catherine. I excused myself from the policeman and went to try and sort them out. Puddin’ was wet–I changed her and gave her a drink and a biscuit. Catherine, I took down to the kitchen and began to breast feed her. The Super’s eyes nearly came out on stalks.

“I didn’t know you could do that–I mean bein’–um–you know?”

“Being what, Superintendent?”

He actually blushed and I began to think he might be human after all. “According to our records, you’re transgendered.”

“Am I now–according to my birth certificate–I’m female.”

“So–can you get pills to be able to do that–you know feed a baby?”

“Why, do you want to get some? It’s a wonderful sensation, knowing that you’re nourishing a little body, and it beats bottled milk.”

He blushed again. “Okay, I’ll amend our records.”

“I haven’t taken anything to enable me to feed her as far as I know.” I excused myself, sat her in her high chair and warmed a pot of pureed food for her. I offered to let the huge policeman feed her but he declined the offer. I was just finishing when Jenny and the other detective came down.

“Nothing up there, sir, so if she’s got a liaison, she’s kept it quiet.” She watched me extract Catherine from the chair and change her on the kitchen table having laid a changing mat across it. “Is she yours?”

“D’you think I’d be doing this if she wasn’t?”

“You have a niece, who’s still a baby.”

“Shit, shit, shit,” said our little robot strolling through.

I nodded at her–“Walking Dictaphone, only problem, she only records things you wished she hadn’t heard.”

The woman detective laughed. “I’ve got one of six, still have to watch what we say.”

“Tell me about it–I have one of five and two of seven.”

“How many have you got then?”

“Including Julie–seven, plus the toddler, who’s my sister in law’s.”

“Crikey, it’s like an orphanage.”

“In a word yes, only all my kids have two parents plus grandparents who love them.”

“We’re going back to HQ now, contact us immediately if you hear from the kidnappers. There’ll be a liaison officer making contact shortly.” He picked up his notes popped them into his case and they left.