Read Online Marcher: The Author's Preferred Text by Chris Beckett - Free Book Online

have had a positively soothing effect on her, and she seemed much less tense as she returned to the table to join the rest of them. Thugs with baseball bats, fights in recreations grounds: this was the kind of trouble she knew and understood.
    ‘I’ve got three air patrols and six cars on this,’ said Dick Thomas the police chief, returning to the table ‘Some sort of petty gang fight I should think, but if this was to turn out to be the mischief you were talking about, Mr Bowen, then I think we’ve got it pretty well in hand.’
    ‘That’s good,’ Charles said. ‘Now if you’ll excuse me, I really should get back down there and…’
    But he was interrupted for a second time by the phone. Janet Richards returned to it with a slightly theatrical sigh – she almost seemed to be enjoying having an audience - but her face fell as she listened
    ‘Vanished? In front of witnesses? How many? Missing from the Unit? Okay, I’m going to put you on to Val.’
    Val Hollowby came to the phone. The Social Care Purchaser’s gaunt, skeletal face became even grimmer as she listened to whoever was on the other end.
    ‘But why wasn’t I notified earlier? Are you saying Jazamine didn’t follow procedures? Why wasn’t I told this girl was interested in shifters? Yes I know, but how can I support you if you…’
    ‘A fifteen-year-old girl went missing from outside our Assessment Unit this morning,’ Janet Richards explained to Charles. ‘She’s had a problem with absconding for years, apparently, so nothing new about that, even if her social worker does seem to have just let her go on this occasion. But the thing is that she was evidently at the centre of the incident in that recreation ground. It’s looking very much as if this could be another of your Dunner cases, Mr Bowen, because any number of people are now telling our officers that they saw her vanish into thin air .’
    Val Hollowby came off the phone.
    ‘The girl’s called Tamsin Pendant,’ she said, ‘a.k.a. Delaney, a.k.a. Blows. She’s fifteen years old. Lots of history, lots of problems. Physical abuse. Sexual abuse. Been in the care system for years. Lots of trouble there. Placements breaking down. Absconding. Drugs. And she's been talking a lot recently, or so I now gather, about shifters and seeds and Dunner and all that.’
    Suddenly she leaned forward, looking into Charles’ face with big watery eyes:
    ‘But you know, Mr Bowen, they all do all sorts of worrying things . It’s easy enough with hindsight to say we could have seen the signs, because there are always signs when you look for them afterwards! It’s not that we necessarily miss them at the time. It’s just that we can’t act on them all.’
    ‘Yes,’ said Janet Richards shortly, ‘but I’m concerned that they didn’t let you know in this case. I’m concerned about the lines of communication. That’s something we’ll need to look at.’
    Janet Richards was putting down a marker. She was pointing out that a breakdown of communication had occurred at a level below that of one of her subordinates. It was a preliminary step in that old deskie dance of blame. And the Social Care Purchaser, understanding this instantly, darted her boss a look of pure hatred.
    ‘Who was the last person to see her?’ Charles asked.
    ‘Her social worker, Jazamine Bright,’ said Val Hollowby, ‘and before that a free-lance therapist we use called Sarah Ripping. One of the Unit staff took her to a session with Sarah, and then Jaz collected her and took her back to the Unit. When Jaz dropped her off, Tammy announced that she was going to disappear and that Jaz would never see her again. For whatever reason, Jaz didn’t actually walk her back inside the Unit as she’s supposed to do but just dropped her off, and Tammy never went inside. It seems she’s been talking a lot lately about shifters and having shifter friends and so on, so it all fits together. Too late though, of course, as will doubtless