by M J Lee
‘But you want to help us understand what happened, don’t you? It’s important, isn’t it?’
For the first time, he looked up. ‘Will it bring my father back from the cop shop? He’s been gone a day now. They didn’t even let us say goodbye.’
‘I know how you feel, Dan, it’s not easy being separated from your dad. But this interview is to help us understand better.’
‘So he’s going to be released soon?’
‘Honestly, I don’t know what’s happening with your father, Dan, but as soon as I do, I promise we’ll let Ruby know and she can tell you. Alright?’
The boy nodded, looking down again.
‘Can we start now?’
He nodded again.
Chrissy started the tape machine with a loud click. Daniel looked up and smiled for the first time. ‘It’s a bit old, ain’t it?’
‘Yeah, we’re old-school in Greater Manchester. One day we’ll drag ourselves kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century,’ said Chrissy.
Ridpath stared at her – she was supposed to be silent.
‘You’re a City fan too?’ He pointed to the scarf around her neck.
‘Yeah, since I was your age. Been through ups and downs with that lot, I can tell you.’
‘Dad says he’ll take me to a match one day when he gets his job back. Pep’s mint, ain’t he?’
‘He’s better than that, but he’s still got a job to do in the Champion’s League.’
‘Yeah, but this year is our year, I reckon.’
‘Me too.’
‘You guys can talk about football afterwards but let’s get the interview finished first, OK?’ interrupted Emily. ‘So you know who everybody is, Dan. Your City fan operating the video camera is Chrissy Wright, a civilian officer with Greater Manchester Police. DI Ridpath is also with GMP…’
‘I thought you were with the coroner?’
‘I’m with both, seconded to the coroner for a while,’ answered Ridpath.
‘Seconded?’
‘Like a footballer, I’m out on loan to another club for a while.’
‘I get it.’
Emily continued. ‘Ruby Grimes is a residential social worker for Manchester Children’s Services and I am DS Emily Parkinson. It’s 4.05 p.m. on the afternoon of 8 August 2020. Before we go on, I’d like to say if you don’t understand any of my questions, Dan, let me know and I’ll ask them in an easier way so you do understand. Also if you can’t remember, say “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember”. We want to know what happened, that’s all. Do you understand?’
‘I get it.’
‘And there’s one other thing. You do know the difference between telling the truth and telling a lie, don’t you?’
For a moment, his eyes flickered and he looked down again. ‘I think so,’ he mumbled.
‘It’s important you tell me the truth about things that have happened to you, Dan. Before we begin, I want to make sure you understand the difference between the truth and a lie.’
He lifted his head.
Emily continued, almost sounding like somebody from children’s television. ‘Let me tell you a story about John. John was playing with his ball in the kitchen and he hit the ball against the window. The window broke and John ran upstairs into his bedroom. John’s dad saw the broken window, and asked John if he had broken it. John said, “No, Dad.” Did John tell a lie or the truth, or don’t you know?’
‘John told a lie.’
‘What do you think he should have said?’
‘He should have told his dad he broke the window.’
‘Because if he lies, somebody else might get into trouble, right?’
He nodded slowly.
‘Good, I knew you’d understand, you’re a smart cookie who always beats me at Warcraft.’
He laughed. ‘That’s because you’re a noob.’
She laughed along and answered, ‘Tell me about it.’ After a few seconds, she composed herself and said, ‘I’d also like you to tell me about the day your brother, Dave, disappeared. Take your time and try to remember as much as you can.’
He started haltingly. ‘We’d been in the house all morning, me and Dave, watching TV and playing games. Dad had made us pancakes for breakfast. He makes good pancakes, but his porridge is crap, he puts salt in it. Then I asked him if I could go to the park. He said yes as long as I took Dave too. So we got ourselves ready and went out. We went over the road to the park and played on the swings for a while, before I met some friends who were going to play basketball. There’s a court not far from the playground…’
‘What did Dave do?’
‘He wanted to stay at the playground.’
Ridpath looked across at Emily Parkinson. She had learnt her lessons well in Interview 101. Her body language was exactly mirroring that of Daniel; sat back in the chair, shoulders slumped, most of the time looking down but occasionally looking up, her hands by her side.
‘So you went to the playground. What happened then?’
‘I played with the others, defence and attack. I kept looking over to Dave to check he was OK. Dad had told me to look after my younger brother. One time, I looked across and a man was talking to Dave, so I stopped playing and ran back to the playground. The man was still there so I told him I would call the police unless he left Dave alone.’
‘What did the man do?’
‘He ran away sharpish, like he was afraid.’
‘So what did you do?’
‘I ran back to finish the game because the other lads were calling me. When I looked around again Dave wasn’t there. So I went back to the playground and started looking for him, shouting his name, but he didn’t answer.’
‘What did you do next?’
‘I thought he could have run home. I ran back across the road and asked Dad, but he hadn’t seen him. We started looking then, meeting a copper on horseback in the park. Big hoss it was too, much bigger than me. The copper spoke on his radio and I heard it squawk but I couldn’t hear what they were saying. Anyway, we carried on searching and then Dad rang the police again and they came out to look.’ A long pause. ‘That’s it.’
Ridpath had been taking notes all this time. Everybody was looking at him as his pen scrawled across his pad.
Finally, Emily said, ‘Would you like something to drink, Daniel, after such a long time talking? Shall we take a break for five minutes?’
‘OK, I wouldn’t mind going to the bathroom.’
‘I’ll take you,’ said Ruby.
As they left the room, Ridpath’s phone buzzed with a message.
Michael Carsley going to be charged with the murder of his son at eight p.m. this evening.
Chapter 63
I was out yesterday but I didn’t find anybody. There were a few children I could have taken but none had the innocence I was looking for.
What is wrong with this young generation? Why do they all look like they know everything and have seen it all? Perhaps it’s the internet? Or YouTube? Or video bloggers?
I came back depressed and lonely. I thought about going to the other house but I didn’t want to be alone, not tonight.
Mother sits there, not saying a word, but I know she’s angry with me.
Time to find somebody.
I hope he’s as good as the boy in the United shirt. I remember clearly his last words as he lay on the bed. ‘Please leave me alone, please.’
I decided to kill him then.
He took a long time to die and I had to finish him off with a chokehold.
I’ll keep the next one for longer.
He’ll be my friend.
Chapter 64
Ridpath ran out of the interview room and past the surprised security guard as he dialled Claire Trent’s number on his phone. ‘What the hell’s going on?’
‘I’ll remind you not to use that tone of voice with me, Detective Inspective Ridpath.’ The voice at the other end of the phone sounded like a knife being scraped across a whetting s
tone. ‘As Senior Investigating Officer, DCI Turnbull has decided, in collaboration with the Crown Prosecution Service, to charge Michael Carsley with murder at eight p.m. this evening.’
‘But it’s bullshit. Where’s his evidence?’
‘He obviously feels he has enough and the CPS agrees with him. A press release will be going out later this evening.’
‘But we have video evidence confirming Michael Carsley wasn’t involved.’
‘What? Why didn’t you tell me earlier?’
‘We need to get confirmation from Daniel Carsley. We’re halfway through the interview when I received a text saying Michael is going to be charged.’
‘Who released the information? Everyone has been ordered to keep it under wraps.’
‘That’s not the point, boss, Carsley is innocent.’
He heard a long sigh down the end of the phone, followed by ‘I want to see this evidence, Ridpath, now.’
‘I need to finish the interview with Daniel Carsley first. We still have thirty minutes left with him.’
‘Right, finish and be in my office at five thirty with your evidence that Carsley is innocent.’
The phone rang off abruptly. Ridpath stared at the empty screen for a second before returning inside to the interview room.
Emily was still sat in the same place. Chrissy was checking the footage she had shot in the first part of the interview.
‘Well?’
‘It’s true, Emily, he’s going to be charged.’
‘What am I supposed to do now? I promised Daniel I would let him know as soon as I heard anything about his father.’
Ridpath made the decision for her. ‘Tell him as we conclude the interview.’
‘Not straight away?’
‘No.’
‘Is that an order, DI Ridpath?’
‘No, it’s an instruction, Emily. And I will tell him.’
As they spoke, Daniel Carsley came back in the room, drinking a coke and eating a bag of cheese and onion crisps. He sat in the same place and Chrissy readjusted the focus on his face. She switched on the tape machine with another loud click.
Daniel Carsley smiled at her.
‘We are now ready to resume the interview with Daniel Carsley at 4.29 p.m.’ Emily’s voice had changed. It was harder now when she spoke into the microphone, not as soft as before. ‘Right, Daniel, are you ready to begin again?’
‘Yeah, I’m getting hungry, though,’ he said through a mouthful of crisp.
‘Your evening meal is at six,’ said Ruby Grimes. ‘I think it’s fish and chips tonight.’
‘I like fish and chips.’
‘Daniel,’ began Emily, ‘I’d like to dig a little deeper into your statement, ask a few questions to clarify the details. Would that be OK?’
The boy nodded. ‘OK.’
‘Now right at the beginning you said you asked your dad if you could go to the park. Is that correct?’
‘Yeah.’
‘What time did you ask him?’
‘Dunno, nearly one o’clock I think.’
‘Why did you ask him then?’
Daniel thought for a moment. ‘Me and me brother were bored and there was nothing on the box except stuff about antiques and doing up houses.’ Then he seemed to remember something. ‘And Tony Greene texted me saying they were going to the basketball court so it seemed a good time to ask Dad.’
Emily glanced across at Ridpath. Daniel was telling them everything, he just needed prompting to remember the details.
Ridpath remained as stony-faced as ever.
‘So you went to the park. What time was it when you left the house?’
‘I dunno.’
‘Had the BBC News started?’
‘I think it had. I remember hearing that rotten music as we were going out the door.’
‘So you went to the park, crossing the main road with your brother…’
‘Yeah, I held his hand like my dad said and waited for the green man.’
‘Perfect, that’s exactly the right way to cross the road. What did you see when you walked to the park?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Did you see anybody? Hear anything?’
Daniel closed his eyes, obviously reliving the walk. ‘There were a couple of men fixing one of the fairground trucks and there was the smell of cut grass everywhere. I remember Dave sneezing, he hated that smell.’
‘So you arrived at the park and went to the playground. Why there?’
Daniel frowned. ‘Sorry, I don’t understand.’
‘Why did you go to the playground? It’s a big park, you could have gone anywhere.’
Daniel smiled as he understood the question. ‘Dave wanted to play on the swings and it’s where we always met up with Tony Greene.’
Once again, Emily glanced across at Ridpath. He carried on writing in his notepad, not returning her look.
‘Good. When did Tony Greene and your friends arrive?’
‘I dunno.’
‘Was it five minutes or ten minutes after you were in the playground?’
‘I dunno, not long, though. We weren’t there long.’
‘So you met them. What did you do next?’
‘Like I said, we went to the court to play basketball.’
‘Leaving Dave on the swings.’
‘Yeah, he wanted to carry on in the playground.’
‘It must be a bit of a pain having a younger brother trailing around you all the time,’ said Ridpath.
Daniel smiled. ‘Yeah, it is,’ he answered quickly before remembering and changing his response. ‘Yeah, it was.’
Emily pushed a sheet of paper and a marker pen across the table to Daniel. ‘Could you do me a favour? Could you draw the park, putting in the basketball court and the playground?’
Daniel seemed glad of the change, giving him something to do. Ridpath glanced at the time: 4.45. He saw the social worker, Ruby Grimes, had seen it too.
Daniel finished drawing and held up the paper. ‘Here’s the court and here’s the playground. The path we took here leads to the main entrance.’
‘Aren’t there a few trees between the court and the playground? Could you draw them for me?’
He quickly drew a couple of trees in a child’s style.
‘Now where were the baskets? Can you draw them in?’
‘Sure, they’re at either end. But we always play this way because one of the baskets is broken and nobody’s fixed it.’
‘One last favour. Can you draw a circle to show where you were and the rest of the players, putting a name above each one?’
‘But we were moving around all the time?’
‘No worries, show me roughly where you were.’
‘We were playing two attackers versus three defenders. I was an attacker.’
‘All the time?’
‘No, some of the time I played defence.’
When he had finished naming the players and their positions, Emily looked at the drawing and said, ‘So when did you notice the man talking to Dave?’
Daniel looked down and mumbled. ‘I don’t know what time it was.’
‘Make a guess. Had you been playing for five minutes? Ten minutes? Fifteen minutes?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Could it have been twenty minutes?’
‘Daniel has already said he doesn’t know, DS Parkinson.’
‘And when did you run across to speak to the man?’
‘I dunno.’
‘Daniel has answered the question.’
Emily held her hands up. ‘This is important, Dan. Remember what we said earlier about telling the truth?’
The boy looked like he had been caught in a trap.
‘Because when we talked to Tony Greene, he said you never left the basketball court. You stayed there all the time playing the game.’
Daniel looked across at Ruby Grimes, then at Ridpath and finally at Chrissy Wright, none of whom reacted.
Emily asked the ques
tion. ‘Did you run across to Dave?’
Daniel Carsley stared down at his feet and shook his head.
‘I’m sorry, Dan, I’ve got to hear your answer.’
‘No,’ he said quietly.
‘You didn’t run across to talk to a man, did you?’
‘No.’
‘Did you see a man?’
‘No.’
‘Dan,’ said Ridpath, speaking for the first time.
The boy looked up, his eyes full of tears.
‘You mustn’t blame yourself. You did nothing wrong.’
‘But if I’d looked after him better, like my dad said, then he wouldn’t be dead. He’d still be alive.’ There were tears in his eyes. ‘It’s ma fault.’
Ridpath understood the emotions the boy was feeling. That overwhelming sense of guilt, that sat in the middle of the chest like a lump of concrete. When he spoke again, he knew the words were meant to reassure himself as much as for the boy. ‘It’s not your fault, Dan. A bad man hurt your brother, don’t blame yourself.’
‘I think it’s time to end this interview, Daniel is unable to carry on.’
‘One last question, Ruby… please,’ asked Ridpath.
She nodded.
‘Dan, why did you leave Scotland? Was your dad hitting you?’
The boy exploded. ‘You don’t get it, do you?’ he yelled. ‘It was my ma, my ma who was hurting me and Dave. She was sick and couldn’t control herself. She kept hitting us. Dad took the blame but it wasn’t him.’
‘This interview is definitely over,’ said Ruby.
Chapter 65
Ruby Grimes took Daniel back upstairs so he could dry his eyes before he sat down to dinner. The last thing she wanted was for the other residents to see he had been crying.
Ridpath, Emily and Chrissy were left alone in the room. The place was cold as if a shroud had been wrapped around it. In this case the shroud was a young boy’s guilt.
Eventually, Ridpath broke the silence.
‘Did you get everything on tape, Chrissy?’
‘Yeah.’ The answer was monosyllabic, almost sullen in its tone.
He checked his watch. ‘I’ll need it for my interview with Claire Trent at five thirty.’