by M A Comley
“Yeah, I can’t say I’m looking forward to breaking the news to them. I think I need a couple more cups of coffee inside me before I do that. Can you print off the details for me? I take it the parents’ address will be on file?”
“Definitely. I don’t relish your job this afternoon. Are you going to ring them first? Make arrangements to go around to see them rather than turning up on their doorstep?”
“I think I’d rather just take the risk and show up. Either way, it’s going to be an exceptionally difficult day for them after I divulge the news they’ve probably been dreading to hear since their daughter disappeared.”
The printer churned into action, and Barbara left her chair to collect the paperwork it was spewing out. She placed it all in a pink wallet file and handed it to Kayli.
“Thanks, I really appreciate your help on this. Maybe we should search the database to see if there are any more kids who have been reported missing in the last few months in that particular area.”
“I can do that and send you over a copy of the files this afternoon.”
“That would be fantastic. Not sure if it will come to anything. Could be a one-off, but you know, with this type of thing, it’s better to be forearmed.” Kayli smiled then emptied the contents of her coffee cup and left the room. She raced up the stairs and into the incident room. Her team looked her way when she entered.
“We’ve got an ID on the victim,” she announced. “Dave, we need to visit the parents now, before the media get wind of what’s gone on at the house of horrors.”
They left the station and drove the twenty-minute journey in relative silence, each of them lost in their own thoughts. “I’ll tell them.”
Dave turned to face her, wearing a frown. “Why say that? You always break the news to the victim’s family. Why should this time be any different?”
“All right, no need to snap my head off. I was just saying. Stating the obvious I know. Ignore me then. Here it is. There’s a car in the drive.” Kayli inhaled and exhaled a few deep breaths before she flung open the car door and exited the vehicle.
“Good luck,” Dave muttered as he rang the doorbell.
The door was opened almost immediately by a tall, handsome black man. “Yes? If you’re selling double glazing, you can get lost.”
Kayli produced her warrant card. “Hello. Mr. Kelvin Watson? I’m DI Kayli Bright. Can my partner and I come in and speak to you?”
His hand covered half his face. “You’ve found her?”
Kayli nodded curtly. “We have. Please, can we talk about this inside?”
He stepped behind the door and swept his arm in front of him, inviting them into his home. “Lorella, come quick. It’s the police.”
Heavy footsteps pounded floorboards in the room above, and a woman tying her dressing gown into place appeared at the top of the stairs. “Is it Jamillia? Have you found her?”
“This is my partner, DS Dave Chaplin, and we would like to talk with you. Would you care to join us and speak someplace more convenient?” Kayli asked, ignoring the woman’s question.
Lorella Watson raced down the stairs, almost tripping over her dressing gown. Dave stood at the bottom of the stairs, ready to break her fall if necessary.
The woman grabbed Kayli’s arm. “Please, tell me she’s safe.”
When Kayli didn’t answer, Lorella broke down in tears and crumpled to the floor. Her husband glared at Kayli and tried to pull his wife to her feet. Lorella began screaming in between the sobs, rocking backwards and forwards, crying out her dead daughter’s name. “Jamillia, baby, no!”
“I’m so sorry. Please, can we sit down and talk? I know this can’t be easy.”
Lorella finally accepted her husband’s help to get to her feet. The couple squeezed past Kayli and Dave and entered the first door on the right in the long hallway.
Kayli found it hard to stop her nerves from showing and held her hands together in her lap as the four of them took their seats. “It is with regret that I have to inform you that a child’s body was found yesterday evening.”
“Are you saying that it might not be our daughter?” Mr. Watson asked.
Kayli shook her head. “The victim matched your daughter’s likeness from the missing persons report you filed a few weeks ago.”
Lorella and her husband stared at each other in disbelief. Moments later, Lorella broke down in tears again.
Her husband moved closer to her on the sofa and cradled her in his arms. “Hush now.”
Kayli swallowed the emotions churning in her throat. “I appreciate how difficult this must be for both of you, but the more information you can give us now, the more likely it is that we’ll apprehend the person who did this, and swiftly.”
Kelvin nodded. “We’ll tell you everything we know, which isn’t much. When can we see her?”
“The post-mortem is being carried out today, and the pathologist has asked me to tell you that you can see her as soon as possible. I’ll have her call you later this afternoon.”
“Is she bad? Her body... what condition is it in?” Kelvin asked.
Lorella stopped crying to stare at her husband then turned to look at Kayli, her eyes wide with expectation, dreading the response.
“Her body was intact. A few broken bones. We’ll know more after the pathologist has completed her examination. I’m sorry.”
Lorella screamed and bolted from the room. Kelvin appeared to be in two minds whether to go after her or remain in the lounge.
“Please, go and make sure your wife is okay. We’re not going anywhere for a while.”
“Thank you,” he mumbled before rushing out of the room.
“This is tough for them,” Dave announced, rising to his feet and pacing the floor.
“We’re hardly finding it a picnic, either. We need to stick with it, though. The statistics prove that most children are abducted by someone they know. We need to make them aware of that and get the ball rolling on questioning anyone connected to the little girl.”
“I hear you. Do you think they’ll be in the right state of mind to give us the answers? I doubt it. I know I wouldn’t be after hearing that devastating news. Crap, why did she have to be dead?”
“Ssh... keep your voice down. You’re obviously taking this hard. Do you want to wait in the car while I question them?”
“I’m not taking it hard—I’m bloody angry. Sorry if you’d prefer me to keep my feelings under wraps, boss.”
Kayli sighed. “I’m not telling you to do that, Dave. Come on, we need to hold it together for the parents’ sake. You know how these things work.” Hearing footfalls on the stairs, Kayli motioned for Dave to retake his seat beside her.
Seconds later, a defeated-looking Kelvin entered the room and sat in the sofa opposite them. “She’s been sick. I’ve put her in bed. She’s under the doctor for depression, and I fear that she’ll do something to herself now that she knows Jamillia isn’t going to be coming back.” He placed a pot of pills on the coffee table in front of him.
“I’m so sorry that your wife is struggling like this, Mr. Watson. Are you okay to answer some questions for us?”
“I’ll do my best. My wife is riddled with guilt, Inspector. She was due to pick Jamillia up from school that day, but the traffic was bad, there had been an accident, and she got stuck in the hold-up. When she arrived at school, the staff told her that a friend had picked Jamillia up. Lorella tore into them. She was beside herself. No one had permission to pick up Jamillia other than my wife and myself—why would the school allow her to leave with someone else? Why have those rules in place if they’re going to break them like that?”
“That’s terrible. We’ll definitely be seeking the answers to those questions when we go to interview the staff. In the weeks leading up to your daughter’s abduction, did you notice anyone hanging around the estate?”
He fell silent for a while as he thought, then shook his head. “No, I can’t recall anyone. You think this person was watc
hing us and our routine?”
“It’s not unheard of. Forgive me, but I need to ask this question because statistics in these kinds of cases often point to someone having a connection to the child, maybe a relative or a friend of the family. Does anyone come to mind?”
“What? You think a member of my family would be capable of destroying us like this? That’s unthinkable, whether you’re going by your damn statistics or not.”
“I’m sorry. I had to ask. Do you have any male members of the family who frequently visit your home,” Kayli pressed, not willing to accept him rejecting the question out of hand.
“My father and my brother, that’s all. Neither of them would dream of touching my daughter inappropriately, let alone abducting her and keeping her somewhere secret for weeks. They just wouldn’t. Anyway, Dad’s really ill. He had a heart attack six months ago and is still recuperating. He loved Jamillia.”
“You mentioned your brother. What’s his name?”
“Troy, he works away from home a lot. A rep for a confectionery company. There’s no way he’d hurt a hair on her head. He loved her too much, and she loved him.” He scratched the side of his face. “You know what I mean. Nothing sinister in that, he just loved her. Christ, is that what this world has come to when you have to double-check what you’re saying when revealing how much your family love each other? It’s disgusting. As though loving a child is a terrible mistake.”
“You’re right, and I’m sorry for putting you through this. We’re probably being over cautious, but I’d rather go down that route than put another child in harm’s way. You understand our need to cover all the angles, right?”
“Sadly, yes. It doesn’t make it any easier. If I give you Troy’s address, how the hell is that going to look to my brother? He’s going to think that I believe he had something to do with his own niece’s death. Can you imagine what damage that is going to cause within our family?”
“It’s tough. Obviously, we’ll be discreet wherever possible if that will put your mind at ease.”
“It doesn’t, Inspector. How the hell has it come to this? Just over three weeks my child has been missing, and you lot haven’t done a thing to try and find her.”
“Have you seen your brother in that time?”
“Yes, twice. He and I even searched the streets for her together when she first went missing. Do you really expect me to believe he’s capable of harming my daughter when he went out of his way to do that?”
Most paedophiles would do the same. Keen to avoid the focus of attention landing on their doorstep. “Maybe not. We’ll still need to have a word with him. Maybe he saw something suspicious himself that he would like to share.”
Kelvin left his chair and walked over to the sideboard behind him. He removed an address book and opened it, then handed the book to Kayli to jot down Troy’s address.
“Has he worked as a rep on the road for long?”
“A couple of years, I suppose.”
“That’s really helpful. You have my word that we won’t go in there all guns a-blazing.”
“I’d appreciate it. Surely I would be aware if my own brother had those sick tendencies.”
“That’s not always the case. These people can be manipulative, not only with the children they abduct, but also with the people surrounding them in their day-to-day lives. They don’t advertise the fact they ‘like’ children on their foreheads. If they did, it would make our lives a lot easier.”
“I still think you’re wrong about Troy.”
“What about family friends? Anyone come to mind there?”
He shook his head. “No, all our friends have kids of their own. I refuse to believe they could be guilty of such atrocities.”
“All the same, we’ll need their names and addresses.”
Kelvin snatched back the address book and flicked through the pages. Each time he found a relevant page, he stopped and returned the book to Kayli to jot down the names and addresses—a total of four times. “I’m begging you to do this delicately. These men have been friends of ours for years. I’d rather keep that friendship intact, if it’s all the same to you.”
“You have my word on that, I promise. What school did Jamillia attend?”
“Saint Agnes’s Primary School. Do you need the address?”
Kayli looked at Dave. “Do you know it, Dave?”
“Yeah, on Charters Road, is that right?”
Kelvin nodded. “Yes, that’s the one. It’s quite a small school. They have a handful of teachers there. You don’t think it could have been one of them, do you? Don’t they have to be vetted or something?”
“We’ll still go there and get a few statements from the teachers. They might have seen someone hanging around the school in the weeks before Jamillia was taken. Did the school say whether your daughter was picked up by a female or male?”
“I can’t remember. You’ll have to ask them. Everything was a blur at the time... it still is.”
“Perhaps Jamillia confided in her brothers or sisters about someone hanging around. Did she have any siblings?”
“Only Marcia, she’s younger than her sister, only four. She’s at playgroup now. I doubt you’d get much joy out of her. I’m sure she would have told us if she knew anything.”
“Okay, what about other family members, perhaps female relatives who Jamillia might have confided in?”
“I don’t think so. She would have told her mother if anything was troubling her.”
“Can you think of anything else we should know before we begin our investigation in earnest?”
“No, not at this moment. Can you tell me a little about your experience in such cases? I need to know that my daughter’s case will be dealt with efficiently.”
“Of course. I won’t lie to you—this is the first case of this nature my team is dealing with, but only this morning, my DCI pulled me into her office to praise us for reaching our targets in solving cases for the year—the only team to do that at the station, I might add. Please, I can’t emphasise this enough that it’s very much a two-way thing. If you should think of anything you haven’t mentioned during our conversation today, I need you to contact me on this number day or night. Likewise, if you or your wife need to know how the investigation is progressing, I’ll do my best to keep you updated on things. Of course, it won’t always be that easy if we’re in the process of chasing a suspect. I just want you to know that you’re in safe hands.”
“Let’s hope you catch the person responsible for murder... abducting my daughter before he picks up someone else’s child.”
“I hope that’s the case, too. Can I ask what you do for a living, Mr. Watson?” His eyebrow rose as if he were surprised by the question.
“I work through the night at an all-night burger bar in Bristol. Crazy Joe’s Place. Why?”
“Just filling in the blanks, sir. What about your wife. Does she work?”
“She works part-time in the shop around the corner. She was going to up her hours once Marcia was at school full-time. Not sure she’ll be able to cope with that now, given what’s happened.”
“The name of the shop, sir?” Kayli smiled, warding off any doubts the man might have.
“It’s the small Co-op in the high street. You probably passed it on your way here.”
“That’s great. It’s just for our records. Okay, we’ll get off now. I want to reassure you again that we will do everything in our power to bring the culprit to justice, hopefully soon. Ring me if you need anything.”
Kelvin showed them to the front door. Kayli’s heart broke in two when she heard Lorella’s sobs filling the hallway from her bedroom upstairs.
“Thank you, Inspector. I better see to my wife now.”
He shook first Dave’s hand then Kayli’s. She held on to his longer than she usually did. “Please take care of your wife. Reassure her that my team will do their best for you both.”
“I will. Thank you.”
CHAPTER THREE
Once Kayli and Dave had left the house and Kelvin Watson had closed the door behind them, they both let out a huge sigh.
“That was tough. I feel like I’ve been on an emotional rollercoaster,” Kayli said as they exited the garden and hopped back in the car.
“Me too, and I didn’t even say anything.”
“Yeah, tell me something I don’t know.”
“What now?”
“We go back to the station and start trawling through the database. We’ve got a list of names to be getting on with.”
“What about going to Jamillia’s school?”
“I think we’ll leave that until tomorrow. Let the press do their bit in reporting the murder and see if it spooks anyone overnight.”
“Good thinking. I knew you were an inspector for a reason.”
“Flattery will get you everywhere. I need to chase up the PM when we get back. Let’s stop off and pick the team up some lunch en route.”
“Generous too!” Dave chuckled.
“Did I say I was paying?”
Dave chewed on his lip, and Kayli punched him in the arm.
“I’m kidding,” she said “I’ll pay, this time. We need to stay focussed on this one, Dave. That woman is going to go downhill rapidly if we don’t come up with a suspect soon.”
“I agree. The guilt she must be feeling must be intolerable.”
“Poor woman. I would hate that responsibility to be clinging to my shoulders.”
They drove back to the station with only the noise of the car engine filling the inside of the vehicle. When they arrived, Kayli distributed the sandwiches, and Dave put his hand in his pocket to buy everyone a coffee. Over lunch, Kayli ran through how the meeting with the parents had gone. She ended up throwing away half her sandwich, clearly not as hungry as she thought she was.
“This one isn’t going to be easy, guys. We’re going to have to dig deep. Let’s fight hard to give Jamillia the justice she deserves, all right?” Kayli noticed that DC Donna Travis, the youngest of the team, had barely touched her lunch, and she crossed the room to speak to her. “Donna, are you okay, love?”
When Donna glanced up, there were tears in her eyes. “Not sure, boss.”