From time to time, Steven tried to steer the conversation back to the man who’d taken her away and anything he might have said or done but he did it as casually as possible, so as not to encourage any post-event trauma. He stopped immediately when Jenny grew restless of his questions. They then talked about what children did at nursery school instead — Jenny’s favourite subject in recent weeks.
There was a bad moment when the time came for Steven to return to Edinburgh and Jenny decided for the first time ever in this situation that she wanted to come with him. She clung to his sleeve in determined fashion until he eventually managed to reassure her that she’d be safe and that no one would try to take her away again. The moment passed but Steven could see that Jenny’ view of the village and her life in it had been coloured, perhaps indelibly and forever, by the events of the last two days.
As he drove back he found himself becoming increasingly angry over what Sigma 5 had done. True, they hadn’t harmed Jenny physically but the experience was going to stay with her and it would always be there in nightmares. It seemed likely that the confident little girl he’d known would never be quite so confident again.
The description of the man that Jenny had given could have fitted either Childs or Leadbetter — both were tall, athletic men with dark hair, but he recognised that such a description would fit a great many other men, simply because of the lack of distinguishing detail. Jenny was too young to give a better description. While he thought about it, Steven remembered that he had spoken to DCI Brewer on Saturday morning when the policeman was returning from a visit to Crawhill Farm where he had learned of Khan’s destruction. If Childs and Leadbetter had been around to answer his questions about the fate of Rafferty’s dog, then it clearly could not have been either of them who’d been involved in Jenny’s abduction. But had both of them been around? It was possible that Brewer had only spoken with one of them. He decided that this was something worth checking so he pulled into a lay-by and phoned him.
‘No, I only spoke with Leadbetter,’ replied Brewer. ‘Why d’you ask?’
‘You’re sure you didn’t see Childs at all?’ asked Steven, ignoring Brewer’s question.
‘No, these two are usually joined at the hip but not on that occasion, or the night before for that matter.’
‘What d’you mean?’
‘Childs turned up at Trish Rafferty’s place after you asked us to put a guard on it. He said he wanted to express his sympathy over Tom’s death and find out Trish’s plans for the farm. The officer on the door pointed out that it was very late and suggested he leave it until the morning. Childs agreed and left.’
‘I don’t suppose your man reported what kind of car Childs was driving, did he?’ asked Steven.
‘It wasn’t on his report but I could ask him.’
Steven thanked Brewer and continued his drive. He had reached the southern outskirts of the city when Brewer called back. ‘It was a blue Range Rover. Does that help?’
‘It does,’ replied Steven and clicked off the phone. Coincidences didn’t stretch that far. It had been Childs who had taken his daughter.
Steven drove to his hotel and made contact with Sci-Med for the second time that day — he’d been in touch before he left Glenvane to make the official request for police protection for Jenny and the family. It was already there in practice — he’d noticed the dark Ford Escort with two men in it on their walk round the village, but DCI Grant would need the official paperwork. At the time of his first call, Sci-Med had not had anything back from the lab so he thought he’d ask again.
‘The report’s just come in,’ said the duty officer. ‘Do you want me to read it out?’
‘Shoot.’
‘All submitted samples of glyphosphate and glufosinate weed-killing chemicals contained exactly what was stated on the container labels and in the same proportions. A search for contaminating traces of other chemicals was negative in all cases.’
‘Shit,’ murmured Steven as his theory caught fire and turned to ashes. ‘What about the rat?’
‘Toxicology report on animal ref. 23567, male rat. The animal’s body contained no trace of toxic chemicals.’
Steven felt utterly dejected. He was so silent that the duty man had to ask if he had heard. ‘I heard,’ he murmured.
‘The lab want to know if they can destroy the chemical samples and ditch the rat’s body or do you want them kept?’
‘They can chuck them. Wait! No, tell them to hang on to the rat for the time being. They can lose the chemicals though.’
‘Will do.’
Steven remembered his conversation with Sue and Peter when he had said that he couldn’t give up the investigation because he was ‘in too deep’. The lab had just told him that, far from being in too deep, he had actually failed to scratch the surface of the affair. The GM crop on Peat Ridge Farm had not been poisoned and neither had the rats. He had no idea what was going on.
He gazed out of the window while he tried to salvage something from the situation. The threats to his and his daughter’s life had been real enough and Rafferty’s and Binnie’s deaths were a sad matter of fact. There was also little doubt that the rats’ behaviour had changed so where did that leave him if chemical poisoning was no longer in the frame?
He thought again about Sweeney’s reaction to being questioned when he’d spoken to him at the Vet school and took comfort from that. Sweeney wouldn’t have behaved the way he had if all he had been asked to conceal was a completely negative report. In fact, there would have been no reason to pressure him into doing so in the first place. But there had been a reason. Either the rat Binnie had examined was in some way different from the one he had sent to Sci-Med or… Or what? Could it be that he had asked the lab to look for the wrong thing?
Steven reckoned that it was difficult to see what other test he could have asked for in the circumstances. Toxicology would cover the presence of all known noxious substances including those which damaged DNA and would therefore affect future generations… but it wouldn’t have entailed a check for infection, he reminded himself. Maybe the crop or the rats or both had been infected by a bacterium or virus, although he couldn’t see how someone like Rafferty could have engineered anything like that. It was a long shot but it was worth checking out, Steven decided — if only because he couldn’t think what else to do for the moment. He contacted Sci-Med again and asked for bacteriology and virology reports on the rat’s body.
Eve called to say that she’d been in touch with Trish Rafferty again.
‘Any progress?’ asked Steven.
‘She’s coming home to Crawhill tomorrow,’ said Trish. ‘She has to sort out various things and make arrangements for Tom’s funeral so I said I’d give her a hand whenever I could.’
‘Well done.’
‘I didn’t do it for you. I did it because she’s my friend.’
‘Understood,’ said Steven in such a way as to make Eve feel guilty that she’d said it. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I didn’t mean to jump down your throat. It’s just that I feel so guilty about all this. How was your daughter? Did you have a nice day with her?’
‘I’ll tell you about that when I see you,’ said Steven.
‘When will that be?’
‘Dinner this evening?’ suggested Steven.
‘I can’t. I’m working at the hotel.’
‘Pity.’