by Wyer, Carol
Twenty-Three
Thursday, 19 April – Late Morning
A faint buzzer sounded, announcing Natalie and Lucy’s arrival. No one was behind the counter and they waited for a minute until they heard footsteps and Mitchell, the phone shop owner who lived in the flat above it, appeared.
‘Sorry, I was upstairs.’
‘Morning, sir. Is Duffy in?’ Natalie asked.
‘Not yet. He had to wait for an engineer to call. There’s a problem with the boiler. He’ll be in soon though.’ He rubbed at his chin and then said, ‘I’ve been thinking about things since we spoke yesterday and I was going to ring you. It might be something or nothing but…’ He crossed the shop and turned the key in the door.
Natalie waited for him to speak again. Mitchell looked out of the window before facing her. He wrung his hands together and looked at the floor. ‘It’s awkward… I think highly of him and I’m sure he wouldn’t…’
‘Mr Cox, are you talking about Duffy?’
He nodded miserably. ‘My office upstairs overlooks the backyard and I’ve seen him outside on the odd occasion with some of the kids. I’ve been giving it a lot of thought since you were here last and I can’t be a hundred per cent certain, but I suspect he might have been outside with the missing girls. It was a week last Saturday. I’d been to the warehouse to collect some stock. I came in via my private side entrance, and once in my office, I heard laughter outside. I glanced out of the window and onto the tops of their heads. One might have been Savannah and the other wore her hair in two buns. There was a third girl too with Duffy.’
‘Did she have short brown hair?’
His eyebrows lifted. ‘She did. How did you know?’
Natalie lifted her mobile to show him a photograph of Katy Bywater. His head bounced up and down. ‘That’s her. I’m sure of it. I really don’t know what to make of it though. Duffy’s a popular young man. You don’t need to be Einstein to work out that he’s attractive, and lots of our female customers gravitate towards him. I don’t want to cause him unnecessary grief. I was lucky he wanted to come and work for me.’
‘Did you ask him what he was doing outside with these girls?’
He looked down for a second. ‘I must confess, I didn’t. He’s such a good employee, very good technician as well – better than me at fixing computers – and we get a huge amount of repeat business thanks to him. As far as I could tell they were only talking, but…’
Judging by his facial expressions, Mitchell was experiencing an internal struggle. He had information but wasn’t sure if he should impart it. Natalie tried to nudge him along. ‘Is there something else you’d like to tell us? It might not seem to have any relevance but it could well help us. You see, Katy Bywater has gone missing.’
Mitchell’s hand flew to his open mouth. ‘Oh!’
‘Anything you can tell us might help us find her.’
He recovered his composure. ‘I can’t think of anything but… I’ve had a few concerns recently…’
‘What sort of concerns?’
‘Probably not connected in any way but I think Duffy might have been tampering with some of the youngsters’ phones.’
‘In what way?’
‘Again, I can’t be certain. It only came to light a couple of days ago. I spotted a group of boys hanging around Duffy and he appeared to be doing something to their phones, one by one. I couldn’t tell what but it seemed odd, although I’m not sure if that’s relevant to your enquiries.’
‘What do you think he might have been doing?’
‘I really couldn’t say but it looked suspicious. If I had to guess, I’d say it looked like he was fiddling with the settings.’
‘Where were you when you saw him performing these actions?’
‘Upstairs. I have a monitor so I can see when the shop is busy and I need to go downstairs to help.’
‘Does it record?’
‘It’s linked to the CCTV camera.’
‘And does Duffy know of the monitor’s existence?’
‘Yes… Oh, I see what you’re saying. He can’t have been doing anything untoward. He knows I can watch him from my office.’
‘You don’t watch him every minute though, do you?’
He gave a sharp laugh. ‘Goodness, no. I’m usually too busy. I glance at it from time to time. The front door buzzer alerts me to customers and I check on it to see if I’m needed.’
‘He’s here,’ said Lucy, who’d been watching the front door.
Duffy, immaculate in a dusty-grey coat and dark trousers, peered in through the glass.
Lucy unlocked the door and he stepped inside, the smile on his face fading rapidly. ‘What’s going on?’
‘We’d like you to come along to the station, Duffy. We need you to assist with our enquiries.’
‘I’ve told you everything I know.’
‘Some new information has come to light so if you wouldn’t mind accompanying us.’
Mitchell’s shoulders slumped and he couldn’t look his employee in the eye. Natalie asked Lucy to drive Duffy to the station in the squad car, then contacted Murray, still at the sports centre, to arrange transport to get them both back to Samford.
‘You won’t charge him, will you? I couldn’t manage to run this place as efficiently without him,’ Mitchell said.
‘We’ll have to see what he has to say for himself. Could I take a quick look upstairs at your office, please?’
‘Certainly.’
She followed him up the steep wooden stairs to the flat above the shop and into a sitting room, where her gaze was drawn immediately to a painting dominating the wall. It was of a woman with ivory skin, large dark eyes and a beautiful smile that lit up her face. Mitchell caught her staring. ‘That’s Cosmina, my partner.’
‘Lovely name.’
‘Cosmina Balan was lovely in every way. Sadly, she died of cancer a few years ago.’ His voice thickened with emotion and he turned away briefly before saying, ‘This is my office.’
A desk, cluttered with a laptop in pieces, stood under a window. She peered out onto the yard below, surrounded by brick walls, with no exit and containing nothing other than a wrought-iron table and two chairs.
‘I never use it. Duffy sometimes takes his lunch outside to eat. It’s only small but it catches the midday sun.’
The monitor he’d mentioned was on a filing cabinet, the screen visible from the desk. The shop was empty and the camera was trained on the counter area and a door fitted with a keypad. Undoubtedly a stockroom. The remainder of the office was taken up by shelves of box files appropriately labelled for tax purposes.
‘What happens if Duffy needs to go to the stockroom to fetch a new phone? Does he leave the shop unattended?’
‘He buzzes or calls for me to go downstairs.’
‘And if you’re not here?’
‘I’m almost always here during opening hours. He’s rarely alone.’
Natalie thanked Mitchell and left him to join Murray at the sports centre. She met him outside.
‘One of the football team coaches is in this morning and remembers Katy going off with Harriet after a practice session. They definitely knew each other.’
Natalie experienced a familiar buzz that indicated they were onto something. The girls had been acquainted and they’d all been spotted with Duffy outside the phone shop.
Duffy stared at Natalie with wide blue eyes, his palms open. ‘Katy’s gone missing?’
‘That’s what I said and you’ve admitted to knowing her so I’d like you to tell me everything you can to help us find her.’ Natalie was determined to drag out every piece of information he had. Duffy glanced first at Lucy sat opposite him and then over at Murray who stood by the door. He swallowed hard and shook his head before looking directly at Natalie once more.
‘Her dad bought her a phone and she’s been in the shop once or twice. I don’t know her. I certainly had no idea she’d gone missing.’
‘Cut the bullshit. You wer
e seen with her, Savannah and Harriet in the yard behind the shop a week last Saturday. You were well acquainted with all three of these girls and even saw two of them the day they disappeared.’
‘I don’t know what you want me to say. I had nothing to do with them disappearing.’ His blue eyes rested on her.
‘You can drop the pretence. You lied to me during an important murder investigation – the murder of teenage girls both known to you. What were you up to in the yard, Duffy? Tell me or you’ll have to call a lawyer smartish because I’ll have no choice but to charge you.’ Her words had the desired effect.
‘I wasn’t doing anything illegal. I was just talking to them.’
‘More bullshit. You could have talked to them inside the shop. It doesn’t add up, Duffy. You had no reason to be outside with three teenage girls unless you were up to no good, so let’s try again, and this time, tell me the real reason you were outside.’
‘Okay… okay. We were smoking. I can’t smoke in the shop.’
Natalie rolled her eyes. It was logical but there was more to this than smoking.
‘No. I don’t buy it.’
‘It’s true. Savannah was already in the shop looking at phone cases when Harriet wandered in with Katy. They’d met at the sports centre. Both fancied themselves as footballers. The shop was quiet. We had a chat about football and stuff and then Savannah asked if Mitchell was around. I called upstairs but he didn’t answer so I figured he was out. Savannah pulled out a packet of fags and passed them around. Katy took one. Harriet refused but joined us outside. I left the back door open in case a customer came in. That’s all.’
‘You didn’t think it was wrong to accept a cigarette from a minor?’
He snorted. ‘Leave it out. Loads of young people smoke. I started when I was thirteen. I didn’t offer the cigarettes around. Besides, she and I had shared smokes once before.’
‘When Mitchell was out?’
‘Yes, on a couple of occasions.’
‘When we talked to you about Savannah, you claimed not to know her very well yet now you’re admitting to standing outside and smoking with her.’
‘It was a quick fag and a few words.’
Natalie was getting nowhere with this line of questioning so she tried another. ‘I’d like to ask you about another matter. We suspect you might have been tampering with the settings on juveniles’ phones.’
‘That’s utter bollocks.’
‘You deny it?’
Duffy went silent for a moment and rubbed the palms of his hands on his thighs – a giveaway he was nervous. Natalie picked up on his actions. He’d had a chance to come up with a plausible explanation but instead was displaying signs of guilt.
‘You deny tampering with the settings?’
‘I…’ He couldn’t respond.
‘Let’s say you did. Why would you do that? Why would these teenagers come to you to change settings? Most of them are tech-savvy and can sort out their own mobiles. The only settings I can think of that they couldn’t change would be ones put in place by their parents. Am I close?’
Duffy opened his mouth then shut it again.
‘Did you lift parental controls, Duffy?’
No reply.
‘Let’s say you did actually lift these controls. Why would you do such an irresponsible thing? Don’t you think they’re in place for good reason? Children need to be protected and it’s your duty as an adult to ensure they don’t gain access to sites, games or apps that promote violence or pornography, or anything else that is unacceptable for kids this age.’
A dark look crossed Duffy’s face. ‘You’ve no idea! These kids see violence and worse on the news every day, on television programmes and films and sometimes in their own homes. They know what goes on in the streets – stabbings, drugs, drink. They’re not blinkered to it. They may be teenagers but they’re not blind. You talk as if I’ve committed some crime but I haven’t. They didn’t want me to download porn or videos of how to make bombs or anything. They just wanted access to some of the games that have a stupid PEGI rating. Some of those ratings are crap, like film ratings… Kids might not be able to go to the cinema to see an eighteen-rated film, but if their friend or their parents has it on DVD, they can watch it. Being able to play a game suitable for over-sixteens isn’t going to turn them into maniacs so I don’t see what the problem is. I played lots of eighteen-rated games when I was their age and it did me no harm. Kids have too many controls and restrictions placed on them and these games aren’t as harmful as some say.’
‘And that’s how you justify your actions? You’re not their parent or guardian. You have no right to decide what they should be able to play or watch. Their parents were being responsible and put controls in place and you…’ Natalie bit back further angry words. They were not helpful. She inhaled deeply.
‘You tamper with phones and give minors access to applications and games they shouldn’t use. You smoke with underage teenagers and you lied to us. There’s not a lot to commend you on at the moment, is there? You knew these girls and you’ve been withholding evidence during a murder enquiry. Am I getting through to you? You’re in trouble, Duffy. Two girls are dead and I need to locate Katy quickly before something dreadful happens to her, so quit stalling me and spit it out. What do you know about these disappearances?’
He shrugged. The action angered her further but it also triggered a hunch. Her last word had resonated with him.
‘You know about the Disappear website, don’t you?’
She’d been right. He slumped in his seat.
‘Want to ring a lawyer now?’
His voice was quiet. ‘No. I admit I told them about Disappear. They all thought it was cool. We’d been discussing dares and Harriet had done a few of them. She boasted her dad was some gangster in prison and that she wasn’t scared of anything and showed us a video she’d taken of her doing the choke dare. She was really into them. We were only chatting about them – the types of stuff you could do – and I mentioned Disappear. Next thing, they were discussing actually taking up the challenge. Savannah was the keenest. She said it would make her mum sit up and notice her. Katy hated living in Watfield and thought maybe going missing for a bit would convince her dad to return to Northampton, and suddenly Harriet dared them both to go missing. She egged them on and they made a pact to do it.’
At last, they had the link they’d been searching for. Natalie almost sighed with relief.
‘Did they agree on which days they’d take up the dare?’
Duffy nodded. Savannah was going first, on Monday, Harriet on Tuesday and Katy on Wednesday.’
‘Who else knew about this dare?’
‘I don’t know. After we talked about it they went off to the coffee shop to discuss how best to go through with it. I wasn’t party to that conversation. Savannah came back a while later and said it was all sorted.’
‘Did she say where she was headed? Was it the old pavilion in the park?’
‘That’s right. How did you know?’
‘Doesn’t matter. Carry on.’
‘The first I knew of it again was when Savannah walked past the shop on Monday and gave me the thumbs up. I guessed she was going through with it. Harriet came to see me on Tuesday because her mobile wouldn’t work. She was pissed off because she wanted to film herself doing the dare and then post the video to the website. When I tried the phone, it worked the first time. After what had happened to Savannah, I told her she ought not to go through with it but she wasn’t having any of it. Said it was even more of a reason to do it and she’d get even more attention if people thought she was in danger. We argued about it. I thought that was a stupid reason and it was too risky. I advised her to forget about the dare and go home but she got all moody, picked up her bag and stormed off in a huff.’
‘Was she going to hide out at the pavilion too?’
‘I honestly don’t know what she’d planned. It was her big secret and she was full of it. I hoped she’d taken
my advice and I actually believed she had until the following morning when you interviewed me. I didn’t think anything serious had happened to her – I mean, whoever murdered Savannah would have had to know about the dare and where Harriet was going. It didn’t add up. I figured Savannah had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and been targeted by some lunatic. It wasn’t likely the same thing would happen to Harriet. Besides, she was street-smart and she could look after herself.’
Lucy suddenly piped up. ‘What utter bollocks! She was only a kid not a bloody ninja warrior.’ Natalie gave her a look that was ignored.
‘You let her go off into the evening alone, knowing full well Savannah had been murdered.’ Lucy folded her arms and glowered at Duffy.
‘I keep telling you I didn’t know any of them well. I only told them about the website but I didn’t force them to take up the challenge – it was their decision, and I tried to prevent Harriet from going through with it.’
‘What about Katy? Did you see her yesterday?’ Natalie asked.
His brows furrowed as he digested Lucy’s words. ‘Maybe I should have phoned the police but I didn’t imagine anything like this would happen. It was only a stupid dare.’
‘A stupid dare that cost two girls their lives!’ Lucy retorted.
‘What about Katy? When did you last see her?’ Natalie repeated, giving Lucy a look that silenced her.
‘Yesterday afternoon. She was heading to the supermarket to get some provisions for the dare and I ran outside to talk to her. She came into the shop for a few minutes. She was terrified by what had happened to Savannah and Harriet but also desperate to get her dad to move back to Northampton. I told her the same thing I told Harriet and she finally agreed it was madness to go missing given both the others were dead. On my life, she wasn’t going to go through with it.’
Natalie pursed her lips. She wasn’t here to dispense judgement but she was furious about Duffy’s lack of responsibility. ‘You don’t seem to appreciate how foolish it was to encourage these vulnerable girls to take up this dare. It was completely irresponsible.’