Sentence The Fourhundredandthirtyninth 

Dumbstruck, the confused WPC Isa Urquhart listened as Sam Smiles took the call on his mobile, his face draining of colour that left it almost taupe: “what do you mean you lost them? we saw them being cooped up in one of your vans! how did you manage that? what about the tracker? fuck, fuck, fucketty fuck! someone's head will roll for this débâcle – you'd better find it and fast! use a chopper, or I'll set my towser on to you with a chopper!” and he turned to face Isa and Jasmine: “the officer driving the van is Lauderdale's cousin and it's gone off the radar – the four men from the caves: DCC Doubleday, another Doubleday, Sir Parlane MacFarlane and George Gill, together with Lauderdale and Christiane, I don't know whose bright idea it was to put them all in one van, but the driver didn't wait for his escort, just drove off as soon as the rear doors were shut and he must have disabled the tracker, no-one knows where they are!” and Isa spoke sharply: “you can't lose a police van, surely? it's pretty conspicuous!” and Jasmine pointed at the screens: “it left our cameras there, it headed down the road to the Kirk, but a local driver could take it anywhere – the only traffic cameras are on the A68 and the Melrose Bypass – he would know how to avoid them,” and Isa tugged at her hair:
“the driver will have his phone, can't we get a location on it?” but Smiles shook his head: “not if he's using a disposable – to be able to organise this at such short notice, means he'll be smart enough not to have the van radio or his own switched on; that's the difficulty when a cop goes rogue, he knows about the technology and how to cover his tracks; I'm getting a chopper to circle the area, as you say, the van should be noticeable, if it's still on the road, but they may have a safe-house somewhere and if they get it under cover we're dependent on someone having spotted it, even before they know we're looking for it, so we'll get an appeal on Radio Borders, for a stolen Police Van; I know it will show us up for numpties, but if we are numpties, we really can't complain! but come on, it's not the absolute nadir – I've seen much, much worse, believe you me – we do have the Romanian girl and I've got an interpreter coming over from the College, she may be able to tell us something, and we also have Ochan'toshan and he may be willing to barter, because otherwise he's going down for a good long time – I don't understand how he could have been running these orgies involving lots of village children and some pretty dubious celebrities for so long without anyone hearing a whisper,” and Isa said: “people don't see what they don't want to see, and it's surprising how good kids are at keeping secrets, especially if they are being rewarded, or threatened, and probably both; are the Social Workers with them?” and Smiles nodded: “a whole team from Children's Services – they are all going to the BGH to be checked out and their parents will be there too, and so far as I can tell, they are all insisting that everything at Hill House is above board: 'Uncle Ralphy is just a sweet old man who adores children' and he's considered to be the village Santa Claus, or Fairy Godmother, all year round: none of the parents will hear a word said against him, or Lauderdale and his wife!” and he suddenly roared, which seemed quite out of character: “damn their eyes! lock 'em up and throw away the key, but that would be too easy, what a pity our undesirables get better treatment than they ever afforded their victims, although if the professional criminals ever find out what they've been doing, their cushy life can suddenly become extremely dangerous, so we'd better make sure nothing leaks out about them; come on, we've got a lot to do before the trail goes stone cold,” and he hurried them out of the van and into his own car, intending to do a bit of scouting about before going to the hospital to see how the interviews with the children were going on, which was when Isa asked the question that was troubling her: “if we've got Lolly and she's safe, how was she able to tell Tavish about the party at Hill House when she was in Stow 800 years ago?” and Jasmine simply said: “a Quantum Collision, Isa, Parallel Universes,” and all Isa could say then was, “oh! I see now!”