Chapter Five
Detective Sergeant Harry Edwards was at his desk in Golders Green Police station, looking through some of his missing persons’ case files. He had been doing this for over two hours, ever since he had arrived for duty at 7 a.m. on Monday morning. What was more, for the first time since he had joined the Missing Persons Unit just over a month ago, he was excited. This was something he knew his new colleagues would find difficult to believe, as he had given them the impression of being an irritable and cynical old copper just waiting to retire in a year at 60.
When Harry had first transferred to this particular police duty, he thought of it as largely pointless and bureaucratic. After all, most of the yearly quarter-of-a-million or so ‘mispers’, as the police called them, eventually turned up, and the very small minority of those who did not, who had been murdered or kidnapped were then investigated by other units. Thus it was largely a procedural duty.
This was in contrast to the majority of his over-forty years in the ‘force’ (he still refused to call it the ‘police service’), in which his work had been varied and interesting. After doing his obligatory two years as a uniformed officer, he had joined and worked his way through the CID, being on several high profile murder cases and even in the Flying Squad for a while, driving fast cars and catching armed robbers. He accepted that he was no longer as strong and fit as he used to be, now being just over five-feet-tall with a slim, almost frail build. He had also had a minor heart attack last year. But he still had a good brain and so why could he not have finished his long career doing some other more interesting duty?
But now as he continued to look through some of the case reports, his detective’s curiosity was finally aroused in this missing persons’ duty. He had a talent of noticing things others did not, which was now displaying itself: he thought he had found a link between some of the cases. There were three of these; so far he had only checked the more recent of the hundreds of files.
The first was a 55 year-old alcoholic woman from Golders Green, called Susan Josephs. From her picture, she did not look like a bad-looking woman, thought Harry. She had white hair and wore glasses but also had a pretty face. It had been her daughter, who had first reported her missing in March of this year. Her picture and details had been distributed and the British Transport police had a report on her, as having been found drunk at stations on two occasions – stations on the Northern Line. Her daughter also confirmed that her mother had disappeared at night sometimes, only to return the next day or the day after.
The second missing person was a very tall and skinny man called Ian Thomas, aged 68, from Camden Town. He looked very frail in his picture, thought Harry, with his ‘turkey’ neck and drawn face. He was on medication, being a diabetic and suffering from a kidney complaint, according to his daughter, who had reported him missing the day after he had visited her in Morden in May of this year. After the release of his picture and details, a member of the public came forward saying he may have seen him asleep on the day of his disappearance on a late tube at Warren Street station on the Northern Line.
The ‘final’ missing person was called James Ridley, a painter and decorator from Hendon, who had noticeably ginger hair and was 61 years of age. His wife, who reported him missing one month ago, said he had probably been drinking the night he had gone missing. She said he was not an alcoholic but ‘like a lot of men he enjoyed a drink now and again’. His details were distributed and the British Transport police had him on CCTV getting on a tube at Chalk Farm tube station on the Northern Line.
Harry got up from his desk in the large half-noisy office he shared with several other CID detectives on the first floor of the police station in the Community Safety Unit. He wanted a cigarette, one of his few remaining enjoyments in his life, despite what his doctor said. He put on his beige Mac-like overcoat and checked his watch: it was 9.12 am. One of his colleagues, Detective Constable Sarah Rockford, made some comment about his having to pay the price for his addiction. But Harry with his interest in his job re-awakened did not for once mind having to go downstairs to smoke in the wet and windy weather.
As he paced around the police station’s car park, he again thought about what the last three cases had in common. Apart from the Northern Line travelling and living links, the two males were last seen on the Northern Line; in the female case, she was known to have been found on the Northern Line and lived in a place served by it. There was also in the second male case and female case the heavy drinking; the first male was on medication, which could mean similar effects. Finally, the two missing males were last seen late at night; in the female case, she was known to have gone missing late at night at times.
All these things could be co-incidences, Harry thought. Lots of ‘missing’ people must use the Northern Line all the time to get around in London, especially if they live near it; they also sometimes like a drink or are on medication, and do so late at night. Lots of such people also go missing without any crime being involved. But the fact in particular that the two males were last seen on the tube and the female one having some history with it helped to convince Harry that there was something sinister about these cases; the only question was what? Were the missing people abducted from the tube? Did they disappear in the tube system in some ways – suicide; accidents, perhaps?
These were all possibilities but before Harry could attempt to explore them, Sarah, the female Detective Constable from his office, interrupted his thoughts. She poked her head around the door to the car park. ‘Harry, there’s just been a report of a misper, a teenage female.’
Harry quickly stubbed out his cigarette and returned to his office.