Chapter 16

Detective Constable Jain was nearing the end of his shift. It had been one of his more frustrating days at work. The investigation into the missing person, as simple as it seemed, had hit a brick wall. Hospitals had no record of James Lockedon, nor did the police custody units in his force or adjacent ones. He did have a criminal record, however, but nothing exciting. There had been a drunken brawl once upon a time, which he was arrested for and ultimately charged with public order. Nothing that helped Jain with his current whereabouts.

He had been recently contacted by James' parents, who were understandably concerned, but could offer no insights into his whereabouts. They explained how it would be out of character for him to disappear and had never done anything like this before. His friends, however, confirmed what Claire had said: he often disappeared on nights out and did not answer calls or text messages. It seemed that no-one really knew James that well. His employer described him as quiet, but sometimes moody and opinionated. He had missed work numerous times, as he had done today, through sickness but they had no idea about his mental state, whereabouts or lifestyle. Other numbers were contacted with equal success: zero squared. The misper's girlfriend had provided the login details for 'find my phone' and it remained as it had all day, or at least its last known position was the same. If the phone had been turned off it could technically be anywhere. Home address checks and house to house enquiries were all negative. There was very little else the police could do at this time. If James Lockeden did not want to be found then he was unlikely to be, unless some new information came to light. The detective logged off his PC and went to the duty inspector's office, knocking firmly on the door.

"Come in."

This tiny office, used daily by at least three different inspectors, definitely had the look of a room that no single-person had responsibility for. The walls were covered from edge to edge in yellowing A4 paper. Each notice was already out of date, relating to procedures and memos from years ago. Officer shift patterns, edited with every available colour of highlighter, adorned the pinboard behind the inspector's desk. The night tour inspector was a woman named Evelyn, or Inspector Thorne to her subordinates. She was tapping away on a keyboard far more proficiently than most police officers did. Jain could see she was updating custody records, which meant writing down reasons for keeping arrested people in custody overnight, although he knew that she could not realistically have visited the cells yet. Usually, it was a generic update aimed only at complying with the law rather than really determining if people needed to be kept in custody. Thorne clicked the mouse and turned to look at the detective.

"What do you need?"

Jain cleared his throat, ready with his prepared speech.

"I've been dealing with a misper all day ma'am. All the standard checks have been done, guardian has been updated, it just needs an inspector's authority to confirm it. Premises checks completed, all negative. Family updated. It was reported by the misper's girlfriend, who seems genuinely concerned, but there appears to be no known history of mental health, drugs or anything to raise the risk assessment further, so it's down as medium."

Inspector Thorne nodded at Jain's recital of a common missing person update. Usually, a misper enquiry started at 'standard risk', not 'medium', but there was no need to change it if work had already been done. Thorne did not really care much about things that were beyond her control. She asked for the reference number and found the record on the computer. She read his update, almost word for word the same as his verbal explanation, input her force ID number and saved the record. As far as she was concerned, a few keystrokes and her job was complete.

"That's all done," Thorne confirmed, "and I'll pass it over to the early tour. There's nothing the night team can do I presume?" This meant that she had no intention of getting anyone else to do any work on it.

"Not really. Bank checks would be next, but we'll need further authority for those and he's not high risk, so that can wait until tomorrow. The parents were incredibly frantic and will probably be in touch with us before we get back in touch with them. The girlfriend as well. They all seemed really worried but couldn't give us anything specific that would bring him up to high risk. No medical issues they're aware of. No history of mental health. He's got money and friends if he wanted to hide away for a few days. Probably turn up by the weekend of his own accord but we need to cover the bases, obviously."

Thorne nodded in agreement, taking Jain's word for everything. She dismissed the officer with a curt thank you before returning to the computer.

Jain could feel something eating away at him. He had not lied to the inspector. He really had done everything that was required of him for a medium-risk missing person. However, the car being abandoned in a rural location struck him as something important. The weirdo, Gerald, had also raised his heckles and created more questions than answers. A blue-collar man with that kind of age and physical appearance, prejudiced as it seemed, usually came back with a record on the Police National Computer. But his name was not on there. He should have asked to see some ID, but Gerald had not been breaking the law so he did not see any need at the time. He also should have taken his address for a voters roll check, but again, it had not been at the forefront of his to-do list. He could do that tomorrow if necessary. These concerns clouded Jain's mind on the journey home, but he still felt confident that the misper would turn up. He was probably having a break for a few days and would come back when he was ready. It was a selfish thing to do, worrying his girlfriend and parents like that, but men were inherently selfish in Jain's experience. In truth, he often thought that all humans were naturally selfish. Very few people he met in this line of work had given the detective any sort of confidence in the human condition.