Chapter 8: Van on the run

1130 hrs Thursday 4^th April 2019. Thurston Hall

DAY 4

The CCTV camera footage files were in date order so the first shown was from the traffic camera situated on the A1101, Mildenhall Road, near the Co-op where Mel Reynolds worked. I had asked for footage from an hour before and an hour after the last sighting of all the missing girls. The start time/date shown on the first file was 2130.00, dated 20/Dec/2018. The file was fast-forwarded until 2134.23 when a vehicle’s headlights appeared, and what was obviously a taxi, heading out of Bury St Edmunds, sped past the camera. Another period of nothing until 2138.55 when an HGV passed the camera heading into Bury St Edmunds. Time passed with Bill and me staring at a screen where only the timing counters showed any signs of movement. At 2205. 27 a vehicle passed the camera heading towards Bury St Edmunds. It was easy to read the number plate and determine the make and model of the vehicle as the headlights were not dazzling the camera and the vehicle was travelling slowly as if just starting from a parked up position. Under the street lights, the exact colour could not be distinguished other than being pale, possibly white or grey.

“It’s a Vauxhall Vivaro, a panel van,” Bill said, excitement in his voice. He made a note of the number plate, BM03ZSA.

At 2206.32 Mel, her anorak hood up against the cold night air, appeared in Mildenhall Road. We watched her cross the road and continue down on the right-hand side footway of Mildenhall Road. She disappeared around the slight bend in the road at 2209.14. At 2209. 36 a vehicle’s headlight came around the bend and dazzled the camera, as we had seen on our first viewing on Tuesday. Bill and I exchanged glances.

“That could well be the Vivaro van,” l said. “He could have been parked up with eyes on the Co-op until seeing Mel leave work, then drove off in front of her. The vehicle must have turned around,” I walked over to the large map of Bury St Edmunds pinned to the side of the screen and pointed, “at the junction of Mildenhall Road and Tollgate Lane. “He could have easily turned there and would have then approached Mel head-on.” A light bulb switched on in my head. “How long would it take a driver to stop the van; get out on the driver’s side, walk around to Mel on the near side, grab and subdue her, throw her into the back of the van, and then tie her up or render her unconscious before getting back into the driving seat and driving off?”

Bill shrugged. “It has to be at least a minute, longer if Mel struggled.”

“That van is seen twenty-two seconds after she disappears around the corner. There have to be two of them. Does the Vivaro have side access doors?”

Bill nodded. “Yeah. Some versions have one each side, but all have one nearside access door.”

“That’s it. One driving, one in the back. They draw up alongside Mel; as the driver gains her attention by asking for directions chummy gets out from the back via the sliding side door with a chloroform pad or some such knockout drug. He then puts her in the back of the van, slams the door and off they go. Ten seconds at the most. We need to check the number plate. I’ll get the DI onto it right away.” I turned to Tommy, “we will take a break and view the rest of the footage in half an hour or so, OK?”

“Doctor Devereaux told me I was to be at your disposal for as long as required, “he said.

I could see Bill Clark was puzzling over something. “What is it, Bill?”

“Serial killers work alone.”

“But kidnappers don’t. Check if Mel’s parents have had a ransom demand but haven’t let us know.”

“They are working-class folk with no money. Why kidnap a supermarket worker?”

He had a point. I had been fearful that the five girls were victims of a serial killer, but there has never been a pair of serial killers working together other than the Wests. However, they hadn’t abducted girls from off the street but lured them into their house.

Bill took a smoke break while I went back to the office and gave DI Warren a heads-up on the Mel Reynolds situation, and asked her to run a check the Vivaro van’s number plate. I could see it was going to be a long day so I rang Molly in the canteen

“I won’t be able to accompany you home this afternoon, Molly. It’s going to be a late finish for me.”

“What about food, Joshua, will you have time to eat lunch?”

I glanced at my watch, 1215. “No, I will have something later.” I didn’t tell her I never eat lunch, else she would probably give me a lecture on nutrition and vitamins or suchlike.

“The canteen serves dinner from six until nine. Try the goulash with brown rice. I’ll have Marcel save you a plate.”

“Sounds scrumptious.”

“I may have been a bit heavy-handed with the paprika. When you get home you can let me know if I was.”

“I might be very late.”

“Promise me you will call in and see us when you eventually get home tonight. Deborah has something to ask you.”

“Will do, Molly. Ciao.”

“Később találkozunk, Joshua!”

DI Warren rang me just after I had talked to Molly. “The plates on the Vivaro were false, AJ. The registration plate belong to a VW Golf owned by a Baptist minister living in West Bromwich.”

I was not too surprised as villains seldom drive around in vehicles with pukka plates.

Linda Rogers disappeared on the 3rd of January 2019. She boarded a 14 bus at 1823.07 on 3/Jan/2019, got off at her stop but never made it home. I had asked for the footage from the Highway Authority camera in Horringer Road nearest the bus stop Linda would have got off. The 14 bus was due at that stop at 1846 so the footage Bill and I watched ran from 1545 3/Jan/2019. There had been plenty of traffic along Horringer Road at that time of day and we saw several Vivaro vans passing both ways but none that interested Bill and I until a light coloured Vivaro van heading towards Bury swung a left into Bristol Road at 1826.33. Bill and I exchanged glances. Could this be the van seen in Mildenhall Road when Mel Reynolds disappeared? A few moments, later, at 1835.08, the van reappeared and continued towards Bury As it passed the camera we saw the logo of one of the many parcel delivery firms on the side. We sighed and gave each other disappointed looks and nearly missed the light coloured Vivaro van that had turned in to Bristol Road.

“Stop, and rewind please, Tommy,” I said. The time was 1835.48 and the van had come from the direction of Bury.

“Could be another delivery van,” Bill said, “or a plumber, or any other sort of tradesman.”

“True, but there is no logo or signage. Same as the van we saw in Mildenhall Road,” I said, whilst making a note of the number plate. “OK Tommy, you can resume playback.”

At 1842.56 3/Jan/2019 a number 14 bus passed the camera and then pulled to a stop at the bus stop. The camera was too far from the bus stop for us to identify individuals, but we did note that three people got off the bus, one of them must have been Linda Rogers. Ten minutes after the bus had left the stop and continued on its journey, the Vivaro van seen earlier driving into Bristol Road pulled out into Horringer Road and sped off towards Bury, time 1855.07.

“That has to be our men,” I said. “Pound to a pinch of shite the number plates are false. I reckon they must have known the time Linda leaves work and what bus she gets home. They were waiting for her and probably swept her into the van the same way as Mel was abducted. I’ll get the plates checked, but I expect them to be fake.” I stretched and motioned to Tommy to load the next clip. “Let’s see if Dawn Sturrock ended up in a Vivaro van!”

Although we couldn’t place a Vauxhall Vivaro panel van outside the motel from where Dawn Sturrock disappeared, 2210.23 31/Jan/2019, we did have Highway Authority CCTV camera footage taken at the Westley interchange on the A14. At 2203.47 31/Jan/2019, a light coloured Vivaro van exited the interchange onto the Fordham Road, the road that leads to the motel at Westley. We were able to read the number plates which were the same as those of the vehicle seen on Horringer Road on the 3^rd of January. Not surprisingly, those plates belonged to a Ford Focus owned by a college lecturer in Middlesbrough.

That three vehicles, of the same make and model and all with fake number plates, were seen close to areas where three girls had disappeared is not a coincidence, and I was convinced Mel Reynolds, Linda Rogers, and Dawn Sturrock had been abducted by the same person or persons. As for the other two missing females, Kate Hodge and Betty Smith, they were included on Arnold Rampley’s asterisked list although not sharing all the physical descriptions of the other three girls and I surmised Rampley thought that they also had been abducted, probably by the same persons. I would need to access CCTV camera footage from Ipswich to glean any further information on Kate’s disappearance, and CCTV footage from private houses and businesses near to the office of Betty’s employer, Camper and Down Solicitors, would need to be accessed to discover what happened to her.

I brought DI Warren up to date with our findings and with what deductions I had made given the appearance of a Vivaro van at locations where the three girls had disappeared.

She nodded, a grim look on her face. “I agree with your hypothesis, AJ. Do you think they are still alive?”

I shrugged. “Probably not, but no bodies have been discovered as yet, and as DC Clark observed there has never been an instance of a pair of serial killers working together. If my supposition is correct then there were at least two people in the van when the girls were snatched.” I sighed. “The abductor or abductors are either supremely lucky or else they have watched the three girls and learned their routine. If Mel had been going home on that night she disappeared she would have caught a bus from outside the Co-op, however, the abductors appeared to know she was going to her boyfriend’s flat. How did they know? How did they know where Linda Rogers lived, or where she worked, or what time she finished work and which bus she would be on going home? Dawn Sturrock is a slightly different case as she might have been contacted via her website.”

“You think Dawn worked as a prostitute?”

“More likely as an escort, Ma’am. All her nefarious transactions would have been carried out over the internet or by mobile phone, and her abductors might have made an assignation with her. However, I would like to concentrate our investigation on Mel and Linda. I believe the five girls on Sergeant Rampley’s list have been abducted by the same person or persons, and if we could identify a stalker of Mel or Linda then that person might well be involved in the disappearances of the other girls.”

The DI nodded. “Identifying a stalker would seem to be our only lead.”

“I suggest my team re-question Mel Reynold’s boyfriend Ryan Cooper, and her colleagues at the Co-op, and Linda Roger’s flatmates and her fellow bar staff at her workplace ‘The Spread Eagle’. Dawn might have been working as an escort girl, and I have questions for her so-called agent and photographer concerning her clients. If we fail to come up with answers that point to a stalker I will then concentrate on the friends and work colleagues of Kate Hodge and Betty Smith to see if they have had stalkers.”

“Uniforms asked all the usual questions of friends, work colleagues, and family when the five females were first reported missing, It was assumed then that they went missing for one of the usual reasons; domestic, money, mental, or work related problems. Had abduction been suspected the questioning would have been more thorough. I will ask the DCI for some uniforms to assist you in any house to house calls you need to make.”

“That would be helpful, Ma’am. Meantime l will have DC Samir question Mel’s colleagues at the Co-op and DC Clark can give the boyfriend, Ryan Cooper, a tug. I will deal with Linda’s housemates and The Spread Eagle pub.”

“Fair enough, AJ. Just keep me informed with a daily report,” she paused. “Have you had any joy in obtaining CCTV camera footage from Ipswich?”

“DS Beddoes is going to introduce me to his contact tomorrow, Ma’am.”

“I didn’t hear that,” she said.

“Hear what, Ma’am?” I said as I exited her office. Fliss Warren gave me a smile that transformed her features, and I saw she would have been a very tasty dish back in the day.

Back in my ‘office’, I rallied my troops. “Sammy, you did well to get the camera footage. You probably had an early start so you can have an early finish. Tomorrow I want you asking questions at the Co-op supermarket where Mel Reynolds worked. Ask around among the staff and customers to discover if Mel ever mentioned being followed after work. Use your initative to find out who knew she was going to her boyfriend’s place the night she disappeared. No need to be at the Co-op until ten o’clock. You deserve some downtime.”

Sammy gave me a smile nearly as incandescent as the one received from Fliss Warren.

“Thank you, Sergeant.” She gathered up her bits and pieces then made her way to the door

“I’ll give the Co-op a bell to tell them you will be coming,” I called after her and she raised her hand in acknowledgement as she exited the room.

I turned to Bill Clark. “You can visit Ryan Cooper,” I paused. “Do we have his work address?”

Bill shuffled through the relevant documents. “He works at the brewery but should be home as he is off shift today. We better give him a call first. What about Mel’s parents, are we going re-question them?”

“No, we will leave them in peace if we can. You give Ryan a bell and I will contact Linda’s flatmates in Bristol Road.”

“There should be at least one of them at home. Two are students at Suffolk College, one is a hairdresser and two are nurses at West Suffolk Hospital.” He paused, “you probably will need a chaperone when questioning five females in their home.”

“What, you think I might assault them?”

“No, Sarge. They might assault you!”

“Chance would be a fine thing, but you’re right. I need to be accompanied.” I quickly amended my plan. “Leave Ryan for later after we, that is, you and I, have spoken to Linda’s flatmates and visited The Spread Eagle pub.” I looked at my watch “In fact, we might have time for a pie and a pint there before going on to Bristol Road.”

The barman at The Spread Eagle shook his head. “Never seen anyone hanging around outside when Linda left after her shift, and she never mentioned being followed or accosted or whatever. She only worked the day shift, ten am until six pm. Linda was a good kid and a bloody good worker and when you find the bastard that did it I hope you give him a good kicking.” He saw the look I gave him. “Come on, sergeant. I know the score; if a missing person isn’t found within a week they are probably dead. Linda had no reason to run off. Some scrote snatched her on her way home, stands to reason.”