Three

A Chapter by Darius Greeves

Digging In

Day five, thought Lee. Day five and it feels like a f*****g year. James had been lying when he’d said it wasn’t all that bad. Lee had at first been very enthusiastic, despite his initial scepticism, dissecting other people’s work, trying to find new angles of approach. But with each file he realised more and more, the people who’d looked at this stuff first were just as good, if not better than him. They’d explored all avenues, there was nothing he could add, and by day five he knew exactly what he was in for.

‘Where are all those f*****g good ones you were talking about James?!’ He shouted across the room, although he doubted he needed to. In those five days alone he’d established that James had the hearing of a superior being, he said that it had helped him out a lot in life and Lee didn’t doubt it. James chuckled,

‘Stick with it Nemo’, James had taken to calling Lee this on account of his left arm being a quarter of an inch shorter than his right, Lee didn’t see the humour in this but James seemed to find it incredibly amusing. Then he pulled open another file. Nothing stood out at him, just a missing persons case, a girl, five years old, Tina Aikley, disappeared on her way home from school. The case was ten years old, no trace ever found, a full search of the area was done turned up nothing, several tips were called in but all turned up dead ends. Lee filed through some of the finer details almost on auto-pilot and stopped, looking at the main picture of the girl. Something was off, he couldn’t quite put his finger on it until....

‘James’, the older man looked up from his own file, raising an eyebrow, ‘Have a look at this’ Lee showed the man the picture ‘Notice anything?’. The older man looked over it,

‘Should I?’

Lee pointed at the features ‘Pig-tails, denim dungarees, plain t-shirt’, James looked uninterested. ‘This picture is supposed to be from 2003, what little girls wore that in 2003’

‘Some girls had weird fashion, so what?’

‘Look here, at the edges, you see that blotch of light, that’s a small inconsistency, it looks like it was taken with a Polaroid camera’

‘So?’

‘What schools used Polaroid’s in 2003? It’s more expensive, why would they have money to spend like that?’

‘Maybe they just hadn’t switched over, what are you getting at Nemo?’

‘I’m gonna call them’ Lee slid over to the phone while searching on his laptop and proceeded to dial, someone then picked up. James was listening to Lee’s side of the call,

‘Hello there, I’m with the state police running up some information on an old case. I’ve just got a couple of easy questions for you.....yes....yes.....thanks so much..... Ok I was just wondering if you had any record of the last time you used a Polaroid camera for a school photo? That would be very helpful thank you’ Lee waited, and a couple of minutes passed before the person replied, then he started writing down numbers ‘Hi there....oh, ok, I see’. Lee put down the phone. James questioned him, ‘What?’

‘They haven’t used Polaroid cameras since 1997’

‘But the girl wasn’t even born then, what the hell is going on?’

‘I think we need to visit Old Peaks Elementary...’

‘Wait what did you say?’

‘Old peaks elementary...’

‘As in Old Peaks CA? Hold on’ James slid on his chair and rifled through a load of boxes before coming to the desired file and pulling it out. ‘Let me try this, don’t tell me she lived at 42 Saville Drive, Old Peaks, CA?’ Lee glanced through the file,

‘How did you know that?’, James showed him the file in his hand

‘This cold case has the same address’.

The idea of coincidence had of course appeared to both detectives. But they couldn’t buy it. It was drilled into both of them, not to believe in coincidences, and so they didn’t.

‘I just don’t see the link though...’ Lee said, more to himself than James, who was sat behind the wheel, controlling the car with one hand and nursing a coffee in the other, ‘What links a five year old girl to a sixty year old oil magnate who was killed fifty years earlier, I mean I know we don’t believe in coincidences but where’s the link’. James nodded, staring bleakly out onto the open road, it was desolate in its beauty, but one of the perks of driving at such ridiculous hours was that they had the road to themselves. ‘Well maybe it’s not the people who are important, maybe it’s the address’, Lee in turn nodded although not in agreement

‘Yeah see I thought about that, but the property in of itself has no inherent value, no historical value. It just doesn’t make sense...’. James didn’t challenge him, instead the two sat in almost complete silence both considering wild ideas, until they reached the school. By the time they arrived it was 11am, the school was bustling with uncontrollable miniatures roaming. The two detectives first announced themselves over an intercom, providing proper identification to the cameras before being allowed in. The security didn’t surprise Lee, given what he knew about the history of this particular school. The detectives then went to the principal’s office, and entered after a polite knock.

‘Detectives....’ The principal was a small woman in her early forties, with dark hair and glasses but possessed a surprising air of confidence given her rather inferior stature compared to the two men, ‘I’m Shana Roding, how can I help you today?’, she arranged and stapled papers as she talked,

‘Yes thank you for seeing us on such short notice, I just wondered if we could have a look at some pictures of a former pupil of yours, a Tina Aikley?’, Lee looked at the file as he read the name and the woman finished arranging her papers,

‘I’m afraid the name doesn’t mean an awful lot to me, you said on the phone she was here ten years ago but I’ve only been here for three myself. Having said that if we have anything our receptionist Tildy will be able to find it for you, but I wouldn’t hold your breath. I do believe the FBI cleared us out of most of what we had on her’, James was obviously unsettled by this,

‘Did you say the FBI?’

‘Yes, now I believe Miss Kernshaw taught the girl you’re asking about. She has a free in about 15 minutes so I’ll send her over as soon as possible. I’m afraid I’ll have to dash off as I’m very busy but Tildy will answer all your questions so you’re in safe hands’

‘Thank you so much Miss Roding’

‘Please, Shana’ and with that she shook both their hands and walked out. Upon Tildy showing them the few pictures she had found on the computer, though only of the whole class, the detectives struggled to conclusively identify the girls in the photos as either the same, or different people. And so unsatisfied, they thanked the receptionist and headed out of the door, before being stopped by another woman, this time in her late thirties with soft features and incredibly bright lipstick which somewhat startled Lee.

‘Detectives! Sorry, I was held up, Shana...Miss Roding said you had some questions for me about a former pupil?’, the detectives looked at each other,

‘Yes, well it may be a long shot but we were wondering if you could tell us anything about Tina Aikley? We have a picture if it might refresh your memory’,

‘Oh yes I remember her, how could I forget, so sad...’, Lee handed over the photo, ‘Oh dear, oh no...’

‘What is it Miss Kernshaw? Do you remember something?’

‘Well yes, no. I’m sorry detectives are you sure this is the right girl?’

‘What?’

‘Well that picture.... That isn’t Tina Aikley’, the men looked from the photo back to the teacher as she handed it back,

‘Are you sure?’

‘Positive, I mean...no one’s worn dungarees since 1995’.

The detectives’ next stop was the father’s address. The mother was deceased before any of the events occurred. The men were struggling to get their heads around what they had just found out.

‘So...’ James began ‘We have a girl, who goes missing. For some reason the bureau get involved, turn up nothing, but in the meantime wipe most of the useful information the schools got on her. Then to add to that, they grab a picture of a different girl to eliminate any chance of the poor girl being recognised. I mean what are they doing over there in Washington?’ Lee, now driving, looked thoughtfully out the window,

‘This can’t be an accident...’

‘What are you getting at?’

‘The Bureau don’t just make mistakes like that, much less get involved in a missing persons case that early anyway. There’s something much bigger going on’

‘I don’t know... I just don’t know...’

The drive was a long one. The two men alternated in driving, trying to fairly spread the load. Eventually the directions led the detectives up a winding road, which to an unknowing observer appeared to lead to nowhere but, after a brief disagreement about the plausibility of the route, emerged into a small hamlet of houses. They were clearly cut off, but a reasonable distance from the San Diego central hub so that in a car it would only take twenty minutes. Lee walked up to the house door first and knocked hesitantly. He feared the father, if around, would not enjoy being forced to recall such a tragic event. Footsteps appeared to get louder until a man opened the door. What was left of his hair had been cut very short but was still obviously going grey. He was slightly rounding in the middle, but not dangerously so. As he looked up Lee thought he noticed a hint of recognition, understanding maybe? But this didn’t surprise him given the events that had befallen the poor man.

‘Hello?’

‘Hello there sir, my name’s Detective Lee Harding, this is Detective James Smith. Are you Harvey Aikley?’

‘I am’

‘I understand this may be hard for you but we’re investigating the disappearance of your daughter, Tina. We have a few questions for you.’ The man appeared agitated, and after a brief look back into his house nodded,

‘Come, we can talk round in the garden’. He then led the two to a small patio on a large grass area around the back of the property where the three sat on patio chairs which were very nicely styled. Lee had failed to notice until that moment the size of the house. Three stories, Lee thought, and very wide. He noticed the pool and what appeared to be an outhouse. Harvey was obviously doing ok for himself.

‘So, detectives... what can I help you with?’. The man’s tone was straight to the point but not rude.

‘Well we just have a few questions about what you know about what happened to your daughter, and more importantly how this became the picture in your daughter’s file?’, Lee showed the man the picture. He looked at it, but did not show any signs of surprise.

‘I was told the investigations were finished, I don’t under....’

‘DAD!’. The man’s words were cut short by a girl’s voice from inside the house, followed by the girl herself running out. She was about sixteen by Lee’s working, with a very fine bone structure in her face, obviously athletic. ‘Can I use the car today? Stacy needs a lift to trampolining...’ She then turned and looked the men up and down.

‘I didn’t realise you had another daughter, I’m so sorry, hello there I’m Lee’ Lee reached out his hand to shake hers. She smiled at him and Lee tried to push down the worrying thought that she may have been flirting. Out of the corner of his eye he caught Harvey trying to say something as the girl leaned forward to shake Lee’s hand and introduce herself.

‘Tina’. Lee immediately lost his smile and his hand went limp. The name hung in the air like a fine powder. Neither Lee nor James knew what to say. Lee pulled out a real picture of Tina Aikley he had been given by Miss Kernshaw. Blurry as it was he held up the picture next to the girl.

‘Tina?’

‘That’s what I said isn’t it?’ The girl was obviously grumbled that the mood had changed. ‘And what do you mean another daughter?’, suddenly her father piped up.

‘Tina sweetheart, here are the keys. Take it for as long as you want...’ this seemed to cheer the girl up.

‘Thanks dad! Bye’, and with that she was gone. The two detectives turned back to Harvey, waiting for an explanation almost before asking the question.

‘You found her?!’ It was James who cut the silence first.

‘Not exactly....’ Harvey looked down in guilt. ‘She was never really gone....’

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