The Missing Minutes

Emma reached the hire car she had collected after her train journey. The rain was becoming heavier. She put her notebook on the passenger seat but did not start the engine. The conversation at James Morrison’s house was still in her mind.

Nora had seen Claire enter a car on the evening she disappeared. She also remembered a similar car near the community hall and a man called Reid. But she had not seen the driver. Emma could not treat those details as proof.

Her phone rang. It was Sarah, her editor.

“Are you coming back to Edinburgh tonight?” Sarah asked.

“Yes. But I need to check something first.”

“Is it about Claire Morrison?”

“It is. I have a name, but I can’t explain it properly yet.”

“Then don’t send me a story yet,” Sarah replied. “Send me what you can prove.”

Emma ended the call and opened her old notes on her laptop. She searched for Reid. There were several people with that name in the documents. One was mentioned in a list of volunteers for the Glenarraidh Education Trust. His first name was Daniel.

That was useful, but not enough. Emma did not know if Daniel Reid was Nora’s Mr Reid, or if he owned a dark car in 2011.

She wrote three questions in her notebook. Was Daniel Reid at the community hall? Did the trust have records showing what he did? Could anyone confirm the car?

Then Emma noticed a date beside his name. It was on a list from August 2011, only weeks before Claire disappeared. The document was an old programme for a local event, not a police record.

Emma took a photograph of the screen so she would remember where she had found the name. She did not publish anything. She sent Sarah a short message: I’m checking a possible witness connection. Nothing confirmed.

Emma also found an online list of the trust’s old meetings. It showed meetings during the summer of 2011, but she could not find entries for September. This did not mean the meetings had stopped. The website might not have all the records.

As she closed the laptop, another message appeared on her phone. It came from an unknown number.

You should ask why the trust stopped keeping its old meeting records.

Emma stared at the screen. There was no name and no explanation. Anyone could have sent it.

She saved the message. Then she looked back towards the Morrison house. Its windows were dark now.

She had two new questions: was the Daniel Reid she had interviewed the man Nora remembered, and who wanted her to ask about the records? Neither question had an answer yet.