Текст книги "Jessica Daniel: Think of the Children / Playing with Fire / Thicker Than Water"

Автор книги: Kerry Wilkinson

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Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 56 страниц)

14

Jessica rarely took her battered old car on the motorway, largely because she didn’t trust it not to break down. Esther’s powerful new vehicle could have comfortably sped away from her at any point as they travelled in convoy along the M61.

Unmoving traffic was backed up in the opposite direction as they drove and the sun had disappeared below the horizon by the time Esther parked outside a house on the outskirts of Chorley. Jessica pulled in behind her, only realising how cold it was when she got out of the vehicle. She could feel chills on her exposed hands as she opened the door to get into Esther’s car.

‘It’s bloody freezing out there,’ she said.

Esther reached across to the back seat and picked up a file before handing it over. ‘I’m in a bit of trouble,’ she said. ‘I’m supposed to be staying with the victim. I’m heading back after this.’

‘Why did you want to come here?’

Esther flicked her long brown hair behind her head and scratched her ear. ‘I’m not in trouble trouble. It looks like I’ll be spending a decent amount of time with Rachel until her son is found . . . or not.’ She hesitated over the last two words before continuing. ‘I just want to meet Adrian. We’ve only heard one side of the story but it would be nice to have both before going back.’

‘Do we know if he’s got a girlfriend?’ Jessica asked.

Esther shook her head. ‘There was nothing in the file so, if he does, she doesn’t live with him.’

‘That’s what I thought.’ Jessica opened the car door and again felt the bitter cold. ‘Right, let’s go.’

Because it was almost dark, it was a lot harder for Jessica to judge the type of area where Adrian Corless lived. His house didn’t appear to have a number, leaving Jessica and Esther to check the adjacent terraced properties to make sure they were at the right one. Rather than a plastic double-glazed door, the house had an old-fashioned wooden one, the type Jessica knew officers loved to kick in if the opportunity ever arose. She’d had a conversation with a member of the tactical entry team a few months ago in the station’s canteen where he told her new-style doors had taken most of the fun out of the job. ‘It’s one thing to use a battering ram on those things,’ he said, ‘but nothing feels quite as good as sticking your boot right through one of those old wooden ones.’

In the apparent absence of a doorbell, Esther thumped loudly on the frame. A light flickered inside and the door was opened by a tall thin man with round-rimmed glasses. He had a shaven head and was wearing a pair of jeans with a slim-fitting T-shirt. He looked the exact opposite of what Jessica might have expected. Perhaps because Rachel was so insistent he was somehow involved in Lloyd’s disappearance, Jessica had a picture in her head of him being large and menacing. Instead, after seeing the man, she had two letters in her mind: ‘IT’.

Longsight shared a computer specialist with another police station in the area. He was on call at all times and, in theory, would fix their terminals whenever there was a problem. His advice usually consisted of turning the machine off and then on again. If that didn’t work, he seemed as lost as anyone else.

He also looked very similar to Adrian Corless.

Adrian didn’t appear particularly happy but forced a smile after the two officers had introduced themselves. He had a weary look on his face as he said, ‘He’s not here’, then waved both women inside.

There were few niceties as he led them into a sparsely filled living room, offering them each a chair at the dining table. The house didn’t seem as if it had been decorated in the previous twenty years or so, with faded brown wallpaper and a patchy, thin dark blue carpet. Aside from an armchair facing a television and a round dining table with three hard wooden chairs, there was no other furniture in the room – not that there would have been much space in any case.

The two officers sat at the chairs by the table but, before they could say anything, Adrian pointed to the room behind them. ‘Do you really think I’d take my son and keep him here? I know it’s a complete shithole and I have to live here.’

Esther nodded gently towards Jessica, who spoke. ‘Why are you assuming that’s why we’re here?’

‘You’ve not found him, have you?’ Adrian was still standing but his tone was hopeful and sounded sincere.

Jessica replied. ‘I’m sorry, we haven’t.’

The man’s face fell. ‘So you are here because you think I’ve got Lloyd?’

Jessica figured a direct question was as good as any. ‘Have you?’

Adrian pointed to the rest of the room again. ‘No. I told your people that yesterday when they came round. Why aren’t you out there looking for him?’

‘We are looking for him but we have to examine all possibilities.’

Adrian sighed, running a hand across his head before sitting on the third chair at the dining table. ‘I know . . .’ He paused, leaning back into the seat and continuing. ‘Look, I know you’re only doing your jobs but he’s not here. He’s just not. Whenever it’s my day for visits, I try to take the boys out so they only have to sleep here. I don’t know why Rach is saying I took him. Maybe it’s to get back at me or perhaps she’s just hoping.’

The two women exchanged a glance. Jessica believed him and it was clear from the look in Esther’s eyes that she did too.

‘Can you think of anyone who might want to take Lloyd?’ Esther asked. Adrian shook his head. ‘Your ex-wife says there was some sort of issue between you regarding access?’ she added.

Adrian stood and let out another large sigh. ‘It was my idea to break up, did she tell you that? She’s just . . . she’s a pain in the arse, I can’t think of a better way to put it. When we got together, we had a good time. My mum didn’t want us to get married but we did anyway – but that was partly because Rach was already pregnant. First Marcus and then Lloyd came along, we just got into a routine.’

He had started to pace and it felt like he was talking to himself. He wasn’t facing the officers and Jessica thought he was speaking to clear his own thoughts as much as anything else. ‘For the first few years, I used to work with computers,’ he continued. ‘I was the main IT guy for this call-centre place up in Preston. It was good money and we saved loads for the wedding and had all sorts of plans to get a bigger house and so on. Then the company was bought out and I lost my job. I got bits and bobs from the job centre but that’s where it started to go wrong.’

Jessica resisted an urge to smile at the revelation Adrian had worked fixing computers. Even though it wasn’t necessarily relevant to the case, she was interested in where the story was heading. She knew from experience that sometimes the best way to get information was to stay quiet and let them speak.

Adrian didn’t seem to know if he wanted to sit or stand but ended up resting his hands on the back of the chair, leaning forward. He made eye contact with both women, then stood and started pacing again. ‘Look, I’m not perfect but I love my kids, I just couldn’t get on with her any more. We both knew things were shit, I was just the one who admitted it first. She wanted the boys and so did I. My solicitor told me there was no point in going to court because the mother always wins. I did it anyway, even though I ended up paying him most of my wages and now I have to live here. The judge ruled for her and I get them every other weekend.’

‘When was the last time you saw Lloyd?’ Esther asked.

‘Weekend before last. I took him and Marcus to the football on Saturday. We were going to do something on the Sunday but it rained all day.’

‘You’ve not seen either of them since?’

‘No. I didn’t even find out Lloyd had gone missing until one of you contacted me. Rach hasn’t bothered to call. The worst thing is that she’s telling you I’ve got our son and, while you’re here talking to me, he could be anywhere. I went out last night, driving around in case I saw him anywhere. Then I had to come back here and answer questions. Now I’m doing it again.’

‘Where were you yesterday afternoon between 3p.m. and 5p.m.?’ Esther asked. Both officers had already read the answer in the file.

‘I was here, on my own, watching TV.’

As alibis went, Jessica knew it was pretty terrible.

Adrian stepped away from the table and stopped pacing, holding his arms out wide. ‘There’s not much else I can say, just look around for yourself and then, when you’re done, can you please get on with finding my son?’

The two women looked at each other and then stood in unison. Adrian turned around and sat on the armchair, switching on the television with a remote control. Esther left the living room, entering a small kitchen with Jessica just behind her. Together they walked into the hallway and up the stairs. Looking around someone’s house wouldn’t usually be so straightforward but, as the man had offered, there was no reason to turn him down.

‘Seems fairly genuine, doesn’t he?’ Jessica asked when they reached the top and were out of his possible earshot.

‘Yeah, he’s got a point too. If Rachel’s busy telling everyone who’ll listen that he’s involved when he’s not, it’s just taking resources away from where we should be looking.’ Esther clearly believed what he had said, as much as Jessica did.

‘Maybe the break-up was so bitter she can’t see past it?’ Jessica suggested.

‘Probably, but it’s pretty stupid if that’s the case. I’ll see what I can get out of her when I go back.’

‘It might be just blind hope that Lloyd’s safe and that Adrian’s got him somewhere? At least then he wouldn’t be hurt.’

There were three closed doors at the top of the stairs. ‘Which one do you want?’ Esther asked.

Jessica pointed to the one on their left. ‘I’m guessing that’s the Presidential suite, so I’ll have that.’

Esther stepped towards the opening on their right as Jessica opened the door she had chosen. It certainly wasn’t anything approaching ‘Presidential’ on the inside. There was no carpet or wooden flooring, leaving the floorboards exposed. A single bed with a metal frame was pushed up against the back wall, the only other furniture a single chest of drawers that was almost as big as the bed. Despite its size, clothes were strewn across the floor and, because of the adult-sized shirts, T-shirts and jeans in the pile, it seemed a fair assumption this was Adrian’s own room. Jessica looked around the door, checking the ceiling for an attic but she couldn’t see anything of note and turned back around.

The room Esther had gone into was the only one that seemed to be decorated. There was a new carpet on the floor, the walls unmarked and recently painted. Two single beds were made up with matching bedding and a portable television was on a chest of drawers.

As Jessica entered, Esther was staring out of the window. ‘Anything?’ Jessica asked.

‘Nope, not too bad in here though, is it?’

‘Much better than the other room. This must be where Marcus and Lloyd sleep when they stay over.’

The rest of the house offered very little of note. There was a large cupboard downstairs but no sign of a basement, attic, shed or any other place someone could obviously be hidden. Jessica hadn’t expected there to be, given Adrian’s openness in letting them explore. His name would be checked against storage units and, in the wake of everything that had happened, other places that could be rented such as allotments. Jessica didn’t think they’d find anything. If the example of ‘Glenn Harrison’ had shown them anything, it was that using a fake name was easier than it should be.

Adrian was talking to someone on his mobile phone when the detectives re-entered after looking around. He stood and ended the call. ‘I’m going back out in the car,’ he said. ‘He’s got to be somewhere. One of my mates is coming over and we’re going around all the parks. I tried calling Rach but she’s not answering.’

Jessica wasn’t sure if the two parents contacting each other was for the best considering the allegations Rachel had made but, considering neither of them were suspects, Adrian wasn’t breaking any laws.

The two officers left and Jessica followed Esther to her car and climbed in. The other woman started the engine and switched on the heater. Esther phoned someone from her department and, even from the one half of the conversation she could hear, Jessica knew there was very little happening. When she hung up, Esther confirmed just that. ‘It doesn’t sound like there’s much going on at our end,’ she said. ‘No one’s seen anything on the CCTV cameras. None of the kids at the school saw Lloyd going off with anyone or getting into a car. I think someone at your end is going over the traffic cams but that will take a while. It looks like he just vanished into thin air.’

Jessica sighed. Now she had spoken to both parents, the disappearance felt real. In some cases, she had to work with hardly any leads. This was the opposite; they had so much to go on but none of it made sense. Every time they found an answer to a question, it left them with more questions.

After saying goodbye to Esther, Jessica drove home. Gritting lorries were charging along the main roads, spraying salt across a surface that already felt a little skiddy.

She was feeling tired as she pushed open her front door. Part of it was because she was leaving for work when it was still dark each morning, then returning after the sun had set too.

As she closed the door behind her, she heard Caroline calling out from the living room. ‘You’re home.’ Her friend sounded far more excited than she expected on a cold December evening.

Jessica turned around to see Caroline bounding into the hallway, a large grin on her face. ‘I’ve got a surprise for you,’ she said.

Jessica was only in the mood for putting her feet up on the sofa, drinking a few glasses of wine, and falling asleep in front of some rubbish television show. She tried to smile and offer some enthusiasm. ‘Go on . . .’

Caroline pointed towards the door. ‘It’s in there. Close your eyes though.’

‘If I close my eyes, I’ll walk straight into the wall.’

‘It’s only a few feet, come on.’

Jessica couldn’t be bothered arguing, although she didn’t trust herself not to collide with an inanimate object, so closed her eyes and allowed her friend to lead her into the living room. When she heard Caroline’s excited ‘ta-da’, Jessica opened her eyes.

It wasn’t a surprise she would have expected or hoped for.

In the room was a large Christmas tree, stretching from the floor to the ceiling. It had been meticulously decorated with lights and many other hanging objects she couldn’t even begin to describe. Across the ceiling were lines of metallic-looking streamers.

‘Well, what do you think?’ Caroline asked, an even bigger grin on her face.

Jessica tried to hide her true feelings. ‘It’s . . . bright,’ she said, with as much joy as she could muster. Lights on the tree were flashing on and off to a silent tune as her friend, seemingly oblivious to the lack of enthusiasm, walked around the room pointing at things.

It wasn’t that Jessica disliked Christmas decorations, she just preferred things plain and simple. She didn’t want to have to come home and see all sorts of things stuck to her ceiling, she merely wanted to enter her flat, take her shoes off, and flop in front of the television. Or, better yet, her bed.

As much as she had enjoyed living with Caroline in the past, it was quickly becoming clear that, with all the time that had passed, she now preferred living alone. She had become used to being able to come and go as she chose and not having to worry about someone else. She was happy for her friend to stay while she sorted herself out but, with the effort Caroline had put into decorating the room, Jessica was wondering how short-term the stay would be.

After assuring Caroline she liked the new-look living room, even though she didn’t, Jessica said she had some work to do and spent the rest of the evening in the bedroom doing very little. She was feeling uncomfortable in her own flat but knew there was no way she would ever say anything about it.

Watching the evening news on the portable television in the bedroom, Jessica saw Lloyd’s photo. He was getting more media attention than Isaac had, although there was a mention of the first boy’s disappearance too. Jessica used her phone to check her emails and swapped a few text messages with Dave, who told her the dig that day had barely started before being abandoned because of the frozen state of the ground. Despite all their leads – and the unanswered questions – it seemed as if things were stalling, certainly in relation to Isaac.

Even though she was exhausted, Jessica again struggled to sleep. She lay on the bed next to Caroline staring at the red LED lights on the front of her alarm clock. The time was almost taunting her and Jessica found herself trying to work out the maximum number of hours she would be able to sleep before having to get up.

Jessica drifted in and out of sleep and woke for the final time when there was still half an hour before her alarm would go off. She lay staring at the clock when her phone began to ring. At first the sound confused her, as she wasn’t completely sure if she was awake or dreaming. It was only when Caroline began to move that Jessica snapped out of her dreamlike state and reached out to answer. Reynolds’s name flashed on the screen. Jessica hauled herself into a sitting position and pressed the button to answer.

‘Morning,’ she said wearily.

‘Jess? You sound as if you’ve died overnight.’

‘Maybe I have.’

He sounded apologetic. ‘Er, yeah, sorry. It’s Simon Hill, we’ve traced his mobile and know where he is. I’m on my way to pick you up.’

15

Jessica was only two minutes into the car journey with Reynolds when she realised his claim to know the location of Simon Hill was only partially true. The man’s mobile had been traced to a mast in the Sunderland area, a minimum of three hours away. That meant they knew the rough location of where he had been – but certainly not where he was. Local officers had been dispatched to the area in the hope of finding him but Jessica and the inspector were travelling there in the hope of either discovering his location themselves, or questioning him if he had already been picked up.

As she yawned and stretched in the passenger’s seat of Jason’s car, Jessica knew there was no way she would be lucky enough to get through a tiresome journey, then find the person they were looking for sitting in an interview room waiting for them to arrive.

The first hour was spent driving in the dark. Jessica had always got on with Jason Reynolds but they had little in common. While she could have got through a journey and probably had a degree of enjoyment with Dave, Izzy or even Esther, whom she had only just met, Jessica simply had nothing to talk about with the inspector. By the time they hit Leeds, rush-hour traffic was beginning to peak and conditions had become more hazardous. There had been overnight snow which had turned to slush. Cars weaved dangerously across lanes around them as Jason drove steadily.

Jessica didn’t know what to do with herself. With conversation at a minimum and the radio firmly set to a station she didn’t think she would start listening to regularly for at least thirty years, Jessica tried to content herself with fiddling around on her phone. The presenter was in the middle of some spiel in which he was dedicating a string of songs from husbands to wives and vice versa. If Jessica was married, or had a boyfriend, she would have been very suspicious if her other half went through the whole procedure of contacting a radio station to ask for a special song. She wondered if it was that natural mistrust which stopped her from getting too involved with anyone.

As it was approaching the point where she didn’t think she could take any more, they finally passed the sign indicating they were within Sunderland’s city limits. Reynolds pulled over to the side of the road and made a phone call to whoever his local contact was. Jessica often thought Manchester was bleak but the grey overcast skies and string of run-down houses on their route in meant she took an instant dislike to the city. She knew it was irrational and more than likely based on how tired she was but she was already desperate to get in, find their man, then get out again.

Reynolds drove to a police station which had clearly been recently renovated. The red-bricked outside was clean with the glass on the door leading into reception completely transparent. To anyone else, it would have seemed normal but, at Longsight, although it had been tidied up a few years ago, the constant battering by the elements meant the exterior always looked dirty. The doors leading into the station were translucent at best with a film of brown and grey dirt coating the surface. Jessica had visited plenty of other stations both in and out of her district over the years and whenever something else was better kept than theirs, she instinctively wondered why other areas had money to spend while theirs seemingly didn’t.

Inside, they were quickly ushered through to a ground-floor office occupied by a woman who introduced herself as DCI Linda Dawson. She was somewhere in her early fifties, with long hair dyed brown, with grey roots coming through. Smartly dressed in a grey suit, she welcomed both officers, offering them a seat. Jessica took an odd pleasure from seeing the woman’s office wasn’t as nice as Cole’s. It was as irrational as her dislike of the city based on the weather but Jessica was feeling strangely parochial.

When they were settled, Dawson began to skim through the notes on a pad in front of her. ‘Obviously you know Mr Hill’s SIM card was traced to a mobile phone mast,’ she said. ‘We’ve been in contact with the network operator but there haven’t been any further hits so far. Has either of you ever been up here before?’

Jessica and Reynolds shook their heads.

‘Okay, his signal was traced to somewhere in the Pennywell area, which is a mile or so away. I know your DCI spoke to someone at the phone company. I’ve been in contact with him all morning. By all accounts, they can trace the call to within a few hundred yards. There is a row of shops not far from there which seems like a good place to start. We’ve had officers going door-to-door with the man’s photo. So far, nothing’s come back but I figured I can take you out there and we can have a look around for ourselves.’

With little else they could do, it seemed as good a plan as any. Jessica and Reynolds followed DCI Dawson and a constable, who went in a separate vehicle. They stopped at the back of a supermarket car park where frost still sat on the ground in an area in shade. The sun had begun to appear through the clouds but that was making the day even colder. Jessica was glad she had remembered a coat that morning and picked it up from the back seat of the car. The two local officers removed heavy coats from the boot of their vehicle and put them on before the four of them walked towards the supermarket. Across the road, Jessica could see a row of red-brick semi-detached houses with black slate roofs. The supermarket was close to a row of shops and all of the local buildings were similar in appearance.

DCI Dawson stopped when they were a few feet away from the shops. As the other officers moved towards her, she spoke quietly to ensure it was just them who heard. ‘It’s a very densely populated area around here,’ she said. ‘There are literally thousands of houses all within a small radius and a few flats too. That means your man, assuming he wasn’t just passing through, would find it very easy to hide – if that’s what he’s trying to do.’

Jessica took three copies of the same photo of Simon Hill out of her pocket. They had been printed on standard paper from the station and were grainy to start with. The quality looked even worse because of the creases from how she had folded them but Jessica flattened them against her stomach, handing a copy to each of the other officers. She had emailed the photo to her phone and was happy to use that herself.

From the headshot, Simon Hill had a shaven head and, judging by his double chin, was quite overweight. Jessica looked around at the handful of people walking past the shops and realised an instant problem that everyone was wrapped up in a mixture of jackets, hats, scarves and gloves. Everyone looked overweight when you took into account the large padded coats being worn, plus anyone who had a shaven head would most likely be wearing a hat, or a hood.

It was always going to be a long shot to go looking for the man based on the location of a phone call but the odds of finding him were now even lower.

Dawson walked them past the shops until they reached the supermarket’s entrance. ‘Has anyone been in the shops showing that photo around?’ Jessica asked.

The chief inspector was clearly trying to hide how cold she felt but Jessica saw the other woman’s face twitch as she suppressed a shiver. ‘Yes,’ Dawson answered. ‘This was the first place we started. Without getting a bus into the centre, this is where most people who live around here would see each other.’ She pointed towards the supermarket. ‘There are CCTV cameras inside and out, which we’ve requested images from but we haven’t been given the okay yet. We could go for a warrant but everything’s happened really quickly and, to be honest, we don’t know if your man’s been in. The mobile signal was just from somewhere around here.’

Jessica caught Reynolds’s eye and gave him her best ‘We’re wasting our time’ look. It wasn’t quite as good as her ‘Stop being such a dick’ face, or her ‘Sit down and shut up’ expression, both of which she had perfected through working with Rowlands, but it did appear to be successful.

‘I think we might go for a drive around the area,’ the inspector said to Linda. ‘While your team are out and about, I’m not sure there’s much we can do. At least this way we’ll get a feel for the place.’ Jessica thought he could have added, ‘And it’s bloody freezing out here’, but he didn’t.

Dawson nodded, clearly thinking something similar. She assured them she would call if anything came up.

Back in the car, Reynolds rang Cole and told him there was little going on. It was a similar story in Manchester, with frozen ground again impeding the dig in the woods where Toby Whittaker’s clothes had been found and no sign of Lloyd Corless. Jessica sent a text message to Esther asking how Rachel Corless was faring but the reply simply told her the boy’s mother was still quiet and borderline uncooperative. It was becoming clear everything further south had stalled.

‘What do you reckon?’ Jessica asked.

Reynolds sounded resigned. ‘Between you and me, officers are being moved back to other jobs or the districts they came from. Someone up top isn’t happy with our progress.’

It was the first Jessica had heard of it. She stumbled over her words, trying to hide at least part of her annoyance. ‘But we’ve got so many things going on. How are we going to get through it all with less people?’

‘I think that’s the problem. Jack told me he’s been trying to hold things off for a day or two but it goes way above him and the super. There’s the investigation into Isaac Hutchings’s murder, everyone’s expecting Toby Whittaker’s body to be found in those woods at any moment, then there’s the allotment, the list of kids, whoever Glenn Harrison is, the driver of the stolen crashed car and now Lloyd Corless. Plus everything in between, including Simon Hill. Jack’s tried to keep it all to himself but I’ve heard whispers people upstairs are unhappy with a lack of focus and so on.’

‘It’s not his fault, is it?’

‘I agree but there’s not much we can do. I don’t think anyone knew how big this would get. One minute it was a missing child, the next we’re trying to run multiple cases. It was always going to be too big for a DCI.’

‘So who’s going to run things?’

‘Chief super I guess.’

Jessica wasn’t convinced. ‘Why would he be taking people off the case?’

‘Probably just to focus on finding Lloyd. I guess if we can find him, it might lead us on a trail back to everything else.’

‘Or finding out what happened with Toby or Isaac could lead us to Lloyd?’

‘Maybe, but it’s not got us far yet, has it?’

‘If we find Simon Hill with Lloyd it will have.’

Reynolds didn’t reply but his silence said more than words. Jessica herself had thought about the trail that had brought them to a freezing supermarket car park in Sunderland. Aside from the fact Simon Hill had been involved in a petty dispute fourteen years previously – and that he had lied to his wife about what he was up to – there wasn’t anything to link him to Lloyd or Isaac’s disappearance.

‘Let’s find somewhere to eat,’ Jessica said. ‘Maybe we’ll strike lucky and our man will come in for a fry-up with Lloyd in tow.’

The cafe they ate in was as greasy as Jessica could have hoped for. Reynolds munched his way through a bacon sandwich while she had a full English breakfast, although the lack of black pudding was a cause of concern.

‘I don’t know how you eat that,’ the inspector said as Jessica wiped up an egg yolk with some fried bread.

‘What?’

‘All that fat. Even looking at your plate makes me feel like I’m putting on weight.’ He held up the remains of his sandwich. ‘My wife would be annoyed if she knew I’d eaten this.’

Jessica grinned as she finished off a hash brown. ‘This is a bit of a treat. Usually I just eat pot noodles and toast.’

‘Together?’

‘Of course not . . . although that’s not a bad idea. It’s just fair to say that I definitely wasn’t a gourmet chef in a previous life.’

‘What do you reckon you were?’

‘Oh, I don’t know. You see all those dickheads on TV and everyone reckons they were some Roman emperor or a Greek goddess or something. I was probably a chimney sweep or something else not very interesting.’

‘Ever the dreamer, then?’

‘You know me.’

Jessica finished off the last of her sausage and looked at the clock on the wall above her colleague’s head. Because of the journey, the time spent in DCI Dawson’s office, plus eating, Jessica had lost track of the day. As she thought about the fact it would be dark within an hour and a half or so, she had an idea, taking out her phone and checking for further directions.