Child's Play Read Online Free PDF Page A

one or two, abducting any of my pupils could be worth someone’s while,’ she pointed out rather acidly.
    ‘ Which, with respect, is why you should have reported her missing as soon as you knew.’
    ‘ I’m aware of that now,’ she replied quietly. ‘Yesterday I thought at first that she might have had an accident. Later I assumed her absence was some kind of prank and I was simply giving her time to return.’ Frowning, she added, ‘Surely, by now, if she had been abducted, there would be a ransom demand?’
    ‘ I can’t really comment on that,’ Dewi told her. ‘We don’t have much experience of kidnappings. But you’re probably right. Anyway,’ he said, getting to his feet, ‘thank you for your help, Dr Scott. And the coffee. Either myself or Inspector Tuttle will be in touch very soon.’
    Freya too rose. ‘See my secretary on your way out,’ she said. ‘She’s put together plans of the grounds and buildings, and some other literature which may be of use.’
    When Dewi emerged on to the sun-soaked forecourt Torrance, now on her own two legs, was leaning against the wing of his car, leather riding boots covered in dust.
    She was not as tall as he had thought, but her legs were long and exceedingly shapely. With the back of her hand, she brushed at a loose strand of glorious flaxen hair, adding a smear of dirt to the smudge of freckles across her nose.
    ‘ One of us will get clapped in irons if I’m seen talking to you,’ he told her. ‘Matron’s already given me a rocket for having “truck”.’
    She laughed again, spontaneously, and he thought she must laugh often. ‘She doesn’t miss much.’
    ‘ She missed Sukie’s disappearing act.’ He dropped his briefcase on the passenger seat. ‘But then, so did everyone else, apparently. How well d’you know her?’
    Torrance shrugged. ‘Quite well, I guess, but not especially so. I taught her to ride a few months back.’
    ‘ Any idea why she’s legged it?’
    ‘ I’m sorry?’ She frowned, again mystified.
    ‘ Run away,’ he explained. ‘Decamped. Absconded. Whatever.’
    She flicked at a leaf shard stuck to the car bonnet. ‘Dr Scott isn’t sure Sukie did run away. She thinks she might have had an accident. That’s why we spent most of yesterday doing a horseback search. The security guards were out on foot, too. Generally they just tootle around in their little white trucks.’
    ‘ Keeping to the drive and tracks?’
    She nodded, scuffing her toe on the ground. ‘If someone wanted to get out they could, you know. They wouldn’t even have to go through the main gate. The walls are full of holes.’ She met his gaze; uneasily, he thought. ‘You should talk to Sean. He knows every inch of the place.’
    ‘ Sean?’
    ‘ The groundsman.’ Then she smiled. ‘Funny, but he looks quite like you. Most of the girls have a dreadful crush on him.’
    ‘ Where does he live?’
    ‘ In the village down the road. With his ma, I think.’
    A woman came round the side of the building, striding purposefully towards them, a dark-green divided skirt slapping against her bulging thighs. Hurriedly Dewi vaulted into the car and fired the ignition. ‘She looks as if she means business. I’d better go.
    ‘ Yeah, you better had.’ Torrance’s smile broadened. ‘But I hope you come again.’
    Long before he reached the gates he could see Randall, with his dog beside him, sitting on its haunches, waiting in the shadows cast by the trees.
    ‘ They rang down to say you were on your way,’ Randall explained when Dewi stopped the car.
    Dewi looked up at him. ‘D’you keep a record of the comings and goings?’
    ‘ That depends on who’s coming and who’s going,’ Randall said. ‘I book tradesmen and folk on business, and strangers, of course, but I don’t keep tally on the school governors, for instance, or the families, or, basically, anybody I’ve been warned to expect. They’ll sign in at the school. There’s a visitors’