by Lisa Stone
Dropping his head into his hands, Colin cried out in anguish. ‘It wasn’t meant to be like this.’
‘How was it meant to be?’ Beth persisted, keeping up the pressure. ‘What went wrong, Colin? You spent six months planning Leila’s abduction, so what happened?’
‘You don’t have to answer their questions,’ his solicitor reminded him.
He shook his head in despair.
‘When you were arrested,’ Beth continued, ‘you had your life savings and your passport with you, but there was no sign of Leila. Where is she? I believe you sexually abused her, then killed her and buried her body on the moors. You were about to flee the country when you were apprehended.’
‘No. I didn’t kill or abuse her. I’m not like that,’ he said, visibly shaking.
‘What are you like, Colin? Tell us,’ Matt said. ‘Tell us what happened and perhaps we can understand.’
Weaver raised his head, looked helplessly around the room and brought his gaze back to Beth. ‘I can’t tell you what happened, but I can tell you I didn’t take Leila because of that.’
‘Because of what?’ Beth asked.
‘Because I was going to abuse her,’ he said desperately.
‘Where is she, Colin?’ Beth asked again. ‘I can see from your face this is weighing heavily on your conscience, so tell me what happened.’
He shook his head.
‘Was she the first child you abused?’
‘I didn’t abuse her!’ he shouted. ‘I don’t know where she is. I’m not a paedophile. I did it for love. She liked me.’
The room fell silent, then Matt, unable to hide his contempt, said, ‘That’s what every paedophile says. That the child likes it, they enjoy it. I loved her and she loved me. Leila was eight years old, you sick bastard! She would have hated you.’
‘That’s enough,’ Ms Harold said sharply. ‘My client is entitled to be treated with respect.’ Then, turning to Colin, ‘I suggest we take a break now.’
He nodded.
‘Is ten minutes all right?’ Beth asked.
‘Yes, and please have a word with your colleague before you return. I won’t have my client spoken to like that. Any more verbal attacks on him and I’ll terminate the interview and make a formal complaint.’
THIRTY
‘Sorry,’ Matt said to Beth as soon as they were outside the interview room.
‘You need to keep a lid on your feelings,’ Beth replied. ‘You’ll get us reported, and Weaver isn’t the type to respond to anger or threats. He looks like a scared rabbit.’
‘Because he’s been caught!’ Matt said contemptuously. ‘He really believes he’s done nothing wrong.’
‘I know, but we’ll get there. Just be patient.’
DS Scrivener looked up as they entered the incident room. He’d been monitoring the interview live on screen. Following procedure, he’d switched it off while the client and solicitor were alone. He looked pointedly at Matt.
‘I know,’ Matt said. ‘Sorry. It won’t happen again.’
‘It better not. Remember your training – an anxious interviewee is less likely to confess than one who is relaxed. And our approach should always be one of respect.’
‘Yes, sir. I’ll remember.’
‘While you’ve been interviewing Weaver, we’ve had some encouraging results from the CCTV,’ DS Scrivener said. ‘Weaver’s car was recorded on the High Road leaving Coleshaw, heading north at one-fifteen in the morning on Thursday, the fifteenth of November. That’s two days after Leila vanished. The image is clear. He can be seen in the driver’s seat and Leila is in the back. Her eyes are closed, so she was either asleep, drugged or already dead. You can’t tell from the picture. The top of what could be her teddy bear is just visible. There’s still a lot of footage to go through, but Weaver seems to have followed the main route north, which is helpful. The moorland around the cottage is being searched now, but so far nothing.’
‘I think I’m going to try a slightly different approach. Go back in time and ask him about his childhood and mother,’ Beth said. ‘He visited her every month in the care home, but according to the manager it was more likely out of a sense of duty than love.’
‘Yes, worth a try,’ DS Scrivener agreed.
Matt and Beth returned to the interview room ten minutes after they’d left. Colin looked just as anxious as he had before the break. Beth began with the formalities: ‘The interview is continuing at three-forty-five p.m. Colin Weaver, you understand you are still under caution?’
‘Yes.’
Lowering her voice so it was non-threatening, Beth said, ‘I’d like us to start by talking a bit about your childhood. Your mother—’ But before she got any further, his solicitor interrupted.
‘My client is very concerned that you believe him to be a paedophile, so against my advice he wishes to tell you his version of events.’
‘Oh, OK,’ Beth said, surprised. She and Matt both looked at Colin Weaver as he fiddled with the cuff on his sleeve. His solicitor sat rather stiffly and prepared to take notes, as did Matt.
Weaver cleared his throat and then looked at Beth. ‘It’s true, I used to talk to Leila – building a relationship, as you call it – but not because I intended to abuse her; that is abhorrent to me. It was because I felt sorry for her. Her mother didn’t care about her and the social services weren’t doing anything. I knew it was only a matter of time before something bad happened to her, left alone on the estate late at night. I probably wouldn’t have done anything except talk to her, but someone I know who also knows Leila approached me with a plan for taking her and keeping her safe.’
‘Who?’ Beth asked.
‘Let me continue, please.’
Beth nodded.
‘Leila knew her mother was rubbish and was happy to come with me that night, but when she realized she’d have to do as she was told she began playing up and wanted to go home. She was used to running wild and doing what she wanted, and she didn’t like my discipline.’ Beth forced herself to say nothing and stay calm at Weaver’s admission that he’d taken and then disciplined the child.
‘Obviously I couldn’t let Leila go home,’ Weaver continued. ‘She was sure to tell someone where she’d been, however much she promised not to. I hadn’t intended to take her to the cottage until much later, but she kept shouting, and your officers were all over the estate. I knew that before long someone would report hearing a child in my flat. So I took her to Heath Cottage, where I looked after her in very difficult circumstances. The place is a dump – cold and damp and without any electricity – but we were only staying there for a few weeks. I made her meals on a camping stove, boiled water so she could wash, allowed her to watch films on my laptop, but she was rude and ungrateful. I cut her hair so I could take her out and she wouldn’t be recognized. That’s the hair you found in the bin. Yes, I had to smack her sometimes because she was a very unruly child, but I didn’t sexually abuse her.’
He stopped. A myriad of questions hung in the air. ‘So where is Leila now?’ Beth asked – the most important question of all.
‘I don’t know. I left her in the cottage on Wednesday while I went into town. When I got back, she had climbed out of a window that I thought couldn’t be opened. There was a thick fog – you can check the weather report. I spent ages looking for her, but she was nowhere to be found.’ His fists were clenched and anger showed on his face. Beth guessed that this had been the point when he’d killed her. His solicitor was still writing.
‘Then you phoned Doris Goodman. Why?’ Beth asked.
‘No comment.’
‘So who is the other person who knew you had Leila?’ Beth persisted.
‘I’m afraid I can’t tell you yet,’ Weaver replied. ‘Once she knows I’ve been arrested, I’m sure she’ll contact you and confirm what I’m saying.’
‘Really?’ Matt asked sceptically.
‘Yes, really.’ He then responded to all Beth and Matt’s other questions with ‘No comment�
�.
THIRTY-ONE
‘I could kick myself,’ Beth said, disappointed, as she and Matt made their way back to the incident room. ‘It was looking so promising at the start and then all that nonsense about it was a friend who made him do it! He must think we’re stupid.’
‘He scores nought out of ten for imagination,’ Matt said. The interview over, Colin Weaver had been returned to his cell and his solicitor had left. ‘I don’t think we could have handled the questioning any differently, though. Perhaps he’ll reflect on it overnight and have a change of heart by morning.’
‘Let’s hope so,’ Beth said. ‘We can hold him for another eighteen hours without charging him, but we will have to apply for an extension.’
‘We must be nearing the point where we have enough evidence to charge him without a body,’ Matt said reflectively.
DS Scrivener looked up and nodded sympathetically as they entered the incident room but didn’t say anything. He’d watched the interview on screen so knew the outcome.
Beth returned to her desk as Matt went to consult with a colleague. Although it was nearly 7 p.m., many of the team were still working. The updated missing person’s appeal had gone out with the six o’clock news and the phone lines were busy as members of the public called in with possible new sightings of Leila. As usual it was a matter of prioritizing promising leads and discounting the impossible or fanciful. If they could plot Leila’s last movements, it would make finding her or her body more likely.
Beth looked at her computer screen and set about going through the list of callers who’d phoned in response to the new missing person’s appeal. Beside each name was the time they’d called, their contact information and a brief summary of the possible sighting of Leila. Many of the callers were from the Marsborough area, which wasn’t surprising as the town had been mentioned in the appeal.
Those callers who had described Leila as having long hair were being discounted as they now knew Weaver had cut her hair short before taking her out of the cottage. Most of the calls marked as significant mentioned that the girl was carrying a teddy bear, so Beth began phoning those to ascertain more details – as others were doing. It took time, but in each case she established that the child seen carrying a bear couldn’t possibly have been Leila. Finishing one call, Beth made a note and moved on to the next.
Suddenly DS Scrivener stood and called for everyone’s attention. The room fell silent as they turned towards him. This would be news of a significant development. Good or bad?
‘An employee of Marsborough Refuse Collection Service has phoned in. He spotted a teddy bear similar to the one Leila had with her when she went missing. It was collected from a bin in Marsborough shopping centre when they cleaned it on the night of Saturday, the seventeenth of November. That’s four days after she went missing. It was disposed of with the other rubbish, but the CCTV for that day has been requested. Thank you for your attention.’
‘Four days,’ Matt said grimly to Beth over their computer screens. ‘So she was dead by then if he was disposing of her possessions.’
‘The poor child,’ Beth said. ‘She didn’t stand a chance.’
All the team knew this new information was a huge blow to the possibility of finding Leila alive, and Kelsey would need to be told at some point. However, evidence still needed to be collected to charge Weaver with murder and make sure the charge stuck.
Beth keyed in the number for the next caller on the list, introduced herself and said she was following up on the sighting she’d reported of Leila Smith. ‘It’s OK,’ the woman said straight away, ‘I made a mistake. The child I thought could be Leila lives in the next road to me with her brothers and sisters. That’s why she looked familiar.’
Beth thanked her, made a note on the system and then phoned the next caller. ‘Mrs Julie Branston?’
‘Speaking.’
‘This is Detective Constable Beth Mayes from Coleshaw Police Station.’
‘Just a moment,’ she said. Beth heard a door close, then Julie Branston came back on the phone. ‘Sorry, I didn’t want to disturb my little one. She’s only just gone off to sleep.’
‘I’m following up on your call earlier regarding Leila Smith,’ Beth said.
‘Yes, I’m sure I saw Leila with a man I assumed to be her father in Marsborough shopping centre.’
‘When?’
‘On Saturday, the seventeenth of November. She looked like the girl in the photo. She was very upset – shouting and crying. I was worried – I mean, you hear so many strange things – so I went over and asked her if she was all right. The man she was with told me she was upset because she’d lost her favourite teddy bear, and he was going to buy her another one.’
‘What time was this?’ Beth asked.
‘Early afternoon. Around one o’clock the first time I saw them. I was going into the shopping centre as they were coming out.’
‘You saw them again?’ Beth asked, her hopes building and adrenalin kicking in.
‘No, it was just him the second time. He was alone in the shopping centre, having a coffee near the children’s play area.’
‘Oh,’ Beth said, unable to hide her disappointment.
‘I went over and asked him if he’d found his daughter’s teddy bear. I was just being friendly. I know how upsetting it is for children to lose a favourite toy. But he seemed a bit put out that I’d spoken to him and was rather curt.’
‘Which day was this?’
‘Wednesday, the twenty-eighth of November. It would have been around three o’clock, perhaps a bit before.’
‘Did he say whether they’d found the teddy bear?’ Beth asked, taking notes.
‘Yes, he said they had.’
‘Did he have it with him?’
‘No. I assumed he’d found it on a previous day.’
‘And there was no sign of Leila?’
‘No. It was clear he didn’t want to talk to me, so I went back to sit with my friends. He left soon after.’
‘Can you give me a description of the man?’
‘Yes. Late forties. I guess five foot six or seven, average build. He had black hair but was bald on top. The first time I saw him he was wearing dark jeans and a navy zip-up jacket like the ones you get in Marks and Spencer, but I’m not sure the second time. He was sitting down. I didn’t get a good view of him and he left soon after I spoke to him.’
‘Would you be able to identify him in a line-up?’
‘Yes, I think so.’
‘Thank you. That’s very helpful. Someone will be in touch to arrange that.’
‘Have you found Leila?’ she asked.
‘No, not yet.’
‘Oh dear. Her poor mother. Perhaps I should have done more when I first saw them together. I had a gut feeling something wasn’t right, but then I told myself that lots of kids get upset over things they’ve lost.’
‘You’ve been very helpful. I doubt there was any more you could have done.’ Beth thanked her again, said goodbye and quickly updated DS Scrivener.
THIRTY-TWO
‘We will be charging Colin Weaver with the abduction and murder of Leila,’ Beth said to Kelsey, breaking the news as gently as she could. Kelsey’s face immediately crumpled, and Sharon looked equally shocked. Beth had asked Sharon to be present when she spoke to Kelsey.
‘But you haven’t found her body yet,’ Kelsey wept. ‘There’s a chance she might still be alive.’
‘We don’t think so,’ Beth said gently. ‘The circumstantial evidence is overwhelming. And the crown prosecution service wouldn’t have given us the go ahead to take the case to court if they didn’t agree.’
‘Oh no. My poor darling Leila,’ Kelsey cried. ‘Please find her little body and bring her home, so I can at least bury her.’ Beth’s eyes filled, as did Sharon’s.
For some moments, all that could be heard was the sound of Kelsey’s uncontrollable sobbing. Sharon, still clearly in a state of shock, tried to comfort her sister. Eventually Kelsey�
�s crying eased and Sharon asked Beth, ‘Is Weaver pleading guilty?’
‘At present he’s pleading guilty to abducting Leila but not guilty to her murder,’ Beth replied. ‘However, that could change before the case goes to court. His solicitor may advise him to plead guilty to reduce his sentence.’
‘Reduce his sentence?’ Sharon quivered, appalled.
‘It wouldn’t be by much. Murder carries a life sentence,’ Beth reassured her.
‘Until then, he’ll be kept in prison?’ Kelsey asked, wiping her eyes.
‘Yes,’ Beth said.
‘And you’re still looking for Leila’s grave on the moor, where Mrs Goodman suggested?’ Kelsey whimpered.
‘Yes, we are. But Mrs Goodman can only suggest places because of her knowledge of the area. She can’t be exact. She’s very upset by what has happened at her cottage, but apart from the one phone call Weaver made to her complaining about the cold, Mrs Goodman didn’t hear from him while he was there.’
‘He was complaining about the cold after he’d murdered my daughter!’ Kelsey cried, her eyes filling again.
Beth gave a small nod. There was nothing more she could offer. She’d come here to tell them that Weaver would be charged before it was announced on the news. She now offered Kelsey and Sharon her condolences and made a move to go. She’d come alone – Matt was working on another case, as the team dedicated to finding Leila had been scaled down now Weaver had been caught.
‘I’ll see you out,’ Sharon said, standing, and went with Beth to the front door. ‘I was wondering,’ Sharon said quietly so Kelsey couldn’t hear, ‘perhaps I should visit Colin Weaver in prison and try to persuade him to tell me where he’s buried Leila?’
‘I doubt his solicitor would agree to you seeing him before the trial,’ Beth said. ‘And it would be very upsetting for you and unlikely to achieve anything. Trained officers, including myself, skilled in interviewing techniques, have questioned Mr Weaver and he’s not ready to reveal where he’s hidden Leila’s body yet. Some people convicted of crimes like this never tell. Some boast in prison about what they’ve done, and others only tell after years in prison or on their death bed.’