DISAPPEARANCES Without A Trace - Extract

 

There would be nothing that would throw the team more, throw the DCI more than something catastrophic happening on that first night. Like something happening on that first night when it was least expected. Like on that night when just a settling in period was expected and when the team were just making sure all the systems were up and running. And that first night when DC Reed was finding her feet. What better time for this weirdo to strike? Except he didn't just 'strike', he cut into the heart of the team. "How's it going out there detective?" That was the DCI. He was just doing that checking thing he tended to do. Like a mother hen he was just making sure everything was ok. "I'm good. This fucking rain though." And maybe for the first time Pepper sounded proper pissed off. "Give it an hour and we'll wrap up for the night. At least we've got the measure of this and if it does take weeks of this we are getting settled into the stride now." The DCI spoke gently into the mic. "Yeah an hour's good. I'm just heading into perfect 'weirdo hood territory' now." Pepper was kidding, but she was also right.

"This rain is making camera footage pretty much useless but at least we can see you, alive and well." That was the WPC. "Copy that." And Pepper's response was short. "Hey I'm losing you a bit. You covered up your mic or something Pepper?" The sound had gone from pretty bad to really bad. Those feeds were never perfect, and they did suffer from interference from whatever electronics might be in the vicinity at the time. "Just hurry up, get out of that area Pepper. I don't want you out of radio contact at all. But if you are it needs to be for a short a time as possible." But this time there was no feedback from Pepper's mic or from her in the form of a response. The mic was dead. The DCI tapped his mic, then he looked up at the screen. He looked up at the precise time that the hooded figure was right in front of Pepper. But that could have been a figment of his imagination - they were looking for a lit up hood, and through the rain drops that kept splattering the tiny camera lens, it looked like it was a lit up, faceless hood in front of her. But then the video feed went dead so he didn't have time to process what he was seeing.

The DCI and the WPC just looked at each other. The DCI tapped the mic again. "Pepper, Pepper you there, let me know you're ok?" Now there was a little more urgency in the voice of the usually calm and calculated DCI. He looked at the WPC and she just looked back. "Guys, have you got Pepper. The feed to the incident room has gone down. Tell me you have her and that she's ok?" He waited for a response, but there was none. He looked at the WPC again. "Get the mobile units on the radios and get them over to Pepper's last known location. She's got tracking on her so it should be easy enough. "All units, and I mean all units, get over to east side, Pepper's last location. Comms have gone down. Video feed is down and we need to make sure she's ok." But again there was nothing in response. The radios were dead. Everything was dead and the DCI just slumped back in his chair. "Fuck. We need to get out there. We need to get every available body out there, NOW." The WPC knew what he was saying but with everything down, they would just need to go out on foot and in cars. They would need to get every available officer and they would need to get back into the city and round up the rest of them. "Even mobile phones are down sir." That had been the WPC again - using her initiative she had tried to contact one or two of the team via cell phone. But that hadn't worked either.

It wasn't looking good now. The DCI needed a minute. He needed to gather his thoughts. There might not be a need to panic and what he thought they saw before the video went down might not have been the case at all. He was trying to be logical. Radio and video could have dead spots, but for the police radios to go down, and the cell phone network was something that was a worry. A bit like the CCTV going down at the precise time that victim 8, Brenda Tavistock went missing. Except this was worse and it was an officer out there that couldn't be contacted. No officer could be contacted. The DCI needed to get his thoughts together - he needed not to panic. There was a problem and he needed to solve it. He just needed to think. But then, precisely then, the video screen flickered to life. "Pepper, Pepper you ok?" The DCI sounded calm, kind of but there was no response. Then the lit up hood filled the screen. No full figure just the hood and those lights. And there was the feeling that if the raindrops weren't obscuring the view, that it would have been possible to look beyond the bright LED lights and to the face of the person. But that could have been the mind playing tricks. "Fucking rain." Now the DCI sounded rattled. "I have your officer. You won't find her and you won't find me. You shouldn't have sent a girl out to do a man's job. Now she will suffer." The voice was electronically altered which made it impossible to identify an accent either regional or foreign and made it even more impossible to put a gender or an age on it.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck!" The DCI slammed down a clenched fist onto the table he was sat at. The worst possible case scenario was unfolding in front of him. "I don't know if you can hear me you sick cunt. But I'm coming for you. And when I find you I'm gonna kick your ass so hard you'll have to spit to shit." The anger in the DCI's voice was palpable. It was 'thick'. And the lit up hood just stayed there, on screen. This person just let the DCI have his little outburst. And then there was this little electronic 'laughing' and that it was electronic made it more irritating. "By the time I have finished with DC Pepper Reed, she will be a different person. And she will wish she had chosen a different career. And as time goes on, YOU will wish you hadn't sent a little girl out to do your job." There was a second or two after that voice stopped talking and then the video and sound feed went dead. The DCI put his head in his hands. "This is one cruel motherfucker sir." The WPC wasn't wrong. This was a person who knew how to push buttons and knew exactly which rib to slip the metaphorical knife between. And then he knew how to twist that knife. The DCI didn't say anything. He was having trouble now getting any logical thoughts going. Comms were back up now. "What's going on, everything went dead, everything." That was a voice over the radio from one of the mobile units. "Yeah what the fuck is happening?" That was a voice again over the radio from the mobile comms room. "We've lost Pepper though, we've got no video, no sound and her tracking is down." It got worse and worse.