Tuesday, 10 March 2020, 7 a.m.

Wynne

1

They did not find his DNA in either vehicle.

Or hers. Wynne was still not sure this was a man. Pretty sure, but not certain. The kids thought it was, but they had described that high voice. It could have been a man with a high voice, of course, or a man disguising a low voice, or a woman.

The fact she couldn’t even be sure of which one summed up this entire case: she had no idea what was going on.

And the question of why bother kidnapping the kids only to return them was still unanswered.

She thought about Matt Westbrook. For her this was an annoyance – an extreme annoyance, yes, but no more than that. For him it was a total disaster, a collapse of his and his kids’ world. And he had no idea who or why, or whether he would ever see his wife again.

Wynne was beginning to think he wouldn’t, and the forensic results from the Golf and the Land Rover were not giving her much hope that her opinion would be changing any time soon.

‘So, yeah,’ Dudek said. ‘There was nothing. We found the kids’ DNA, Matt and Annabelle’s, but no one else’s.’

‘How’s that possible?’ she said. ‘How does someone drive a car for that long and not leave a trace?’

‘By being very careful,’ Dudek said. ‘And you know as well as I do. It’s not television. The forensics people aren’t miracle workers. You wear gloves and clean clothes, keep your hood up, maybe wear a face mask – you won’t leave much behind.’

‘Not much,’ Wynne said. ‘But nothing? That must have taken a lot of effort, which is telling in itself. They would only have taken such careful precautions if they felt that us getting their DNA presented a risk to them.’

‘Because we already have it?’

‘Right. Or because they think we could easily get it.’

Dudek nodded slowly. ‘Which suggests it’s someone she knows. They would assume that if we had DNA we would test everyone we could think of and find them.’ He raised his hands in a gesture of helplessness. ‘But we knew it might be someone she knows already. The question is who?’

‘Or it’s someone we have on file,’ Wynne said. ‘Which is new information.’

‘OK,’ Dudek said. ‘I’ll run a check for anyone with this kind of thing on their record, suspect or witness or interviewee.’

There was a knock on the office door. It opened and a uniformed officer came in. She gave a nod to Dudek then looked at Wynne.

‘Good news,’ she said. ‘We found the van.’

‘Where?’ Wynne said.