Read Online Found Guilty at Five by Ann Purser - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Ann Purser
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circulated her particulars, of course, and asked for an eye to be kept open for her. One of the lads, quite by chance, saw a girl on some steps outside a block of flats, rather late on Monday night, looking lost and frightened. It was Jamie’s address. Our lad spoke kindly to her, but she refused to give him any sensible details about herself. Told him she’d had a lover’s tiff, and then ran off.”
“Not Akiko, then? Is that what you rang to tell me?”
“Yes and no. We think it probably
was
Akiko. I recognised his description of the girl straightaway, but of course it was dark, with a dim streetlight, and his impression is in no way conclusive. Nevertheless, Lois, I think we should be following this up.”
“You mean to say a fine, healthy young policeman, fully trained, could not catch a mere slip of a girl, all alone and unprotected?”
“My reaction, too. He’s been told, but said she ran across the road to a waiting van, and they disappeared at speed. He judged that she had been fooling him, and left it there. But how polite you are this afternoon! In the old days, you’d’ve yelled at me that I knew nothing about anything and a child of five could’ve caught her! But still, the answer’s the same. He didn’t catch her, and we are continuing our enquiries.”
Lois ended the call.
“Mum? Can I come in?” It was Jamie at her office door, and Lois nodded wearily. “Come on, boy, sit yourself down. Where’ve you been? Is Gran still in the kitchen?”
“I just went for a walk and a think. And yeah, Gran’s getting tea things out. Says I look like something the cat brought in.” He smiled wanly.
“I’ve just had a call from Inspector Cowgill. Seems they had a sighting of a girl who might have been Akiko. She ran faster than the policeman, and they have not yet caught up with her.”
“So we know she’s alive!” He leaned back in his chair, took a deep breath and managed a smile.
“Did you think she might not be? Is there something you’re not telling us, Jamie?”
He was silent for a minute or so, then said that perhaps he should tell her something Akiko had told him. Lois nodded and waited.
“She said that when she first came to London, her father, who is so old that he was a young soldier in World War Two, warned her to keep quiet about her origins and not answer idle questions about what her daddy did in the war. He also told her not to flash her money about, nor let on that he was very rich. Said it would make her vulnerable to predators.”
“Sounds very overprotective to me!” Lois replied. “Did she say anything else?”
“Nope, nothing more. I’ve told you all I know. Anyway, I’d better go back to London soon, now I know she’s alive. I’m much more likely to find her there than if I wander about Farnden like a fart in a kettle.”
“A
what
? You’d better go and see how Gran’s getting on with tea.”
* * *
J AMIE’S RELUCTANT MENTION OF A KIKO’S ORIGINS CAME BACK TO Lois when she set off to take Jeems for her evening walk through Farnden Hall spinney. Here there were interlinking footpaths, and she was familiar with all of them. Mrs. T-J, in her time, had kept these private, except for friends, and Lois was on her list. Now Norrington had put up signposts with twee names, like Piglet’s Home and Rabbit Town. The first was an old clearing where a long-dead cottager had kept a pig in a now-disintegrating pigsty, and Rabbit Town was, of course, the rabbit warren, a mass of burrows. She had once sprained her ankle when her foot had disappeared down a rabbit hole.
So, Lois thought, as she climbed a stile with barbed wire threaded across the top, Akiko had come from Japan, whose soldiers seventy-odd years ago had invaded Burma and set up grisly prisoner-of-war camps for incarcerating the enemy, using them as slave labourers to build the notorious Death Railway. And the enemy was us, Lois thought. Thousands of British and Americans and their allies.
“Not Akiko, then? Is that what you rang to tell me?”
“Yes and no. We think it probably
was
Akiko. I recognised his description of the girl straightaway, but of course it was dark, with a dim streetlight, and his impression is in no way conclusive. Nevertheless, Lois, I think we should be following this up.”
“You mean to say a fine, healthy young policeman, fully trained, could not catch a mere slip of a girl, all alone and unprotected?”
“My reaction, too. He’s been told, but said she ran across the road to a waiting van, and they disappeared at speed. He judged that she had been fooling him, and left it there. But how polite you are this afternoon! In the old days, you’d’ve yelled at me that I knew nothing about anything and a child of five could’ve caught her! But still, the answer’s the same. He didn’t catch her, and we are continuing our enquiries.”
Lois ended the call.
“Mum? Can I come in?” It was Jamie at her office door, and Lois nodded wearily. “Come on, boy, sit yourself down. Where’ve you been? Is Gran still in the kitchen?”
“I just went for a walk and a think. And yeah, Gran’s getting tea things out. Says I look like something the cat brought in.” He smiled wanly.
“I’ve just had a call from Inspector Cowgill. Seems they had a sighting of a girl who might have been Akiko. She ran faster than the policeman, and they have not yet caught up with her.”
“So we know she’s alive!” He leaned back in his chair, took a deep breath and managed a smile.
“Did you think she might not be? Is there something you’re not telling us, Jamie?”
He was silent for a minute or so, then said that perhaps he should tell her something Akiko had told him. Lois nodded and waited.
“She said that when she first came to London, her father, who is so old that he was a young soldier in World War Two, warned her to keep quiet about her origins and not answer idle questions about what her daddy did in the war. He also told her not to flash her money about, nor let on that he was very rich. Said it would make her vulnerable to predators.”
“Sounds very overprotective to me!” Lois replied. “Did she say anything else?”
“Nope, nothing more. I’ve told you all I know. Anyway, I’d better go back to London soon, now I know she’s alive. I’m much more likely to find her there than if I wander about Farnden like a fart in a kettle.”
“A
what
? You’d better go and see how Gran’s getting on with tea.”
* * *
J AMIE’S RELUCTANT MENTION OF A KIKO’S ORIGINS CAME BACK TO Lois when she set off to take Jeems for her evening walk through Farnden Hall spinney. Here there were interlinking footpaths, and she was familiar with all of them. Mrs. T-J, in her time, had kept these private, except for friends, and Lois was on her list. Now Norrington had put up signposts with twee names, like Piglet’s Home and Rabbit Town. The first was an old clearing where a long-dead cottager had kept a pig in a now-disintegrating pigsty, and Rabbit Town was, of course, the rabbit warren, a mass of burrows. She had once sprained her ankle when her foot had disappeared down a rabbit hole.
So, Lois thought, as she climbed a stile with barbed wire threaded across the top, Akiko had come from Japan, whose soldiers seventy-odd years ago had invaded Burma and set up grisly prisoner-of-war camps for incarcerating the enemy, using them as slave labourers to build the notorious Death Railway. And the enemy was us, Lois thought. Thousands of British and Americans and their allies.
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