by P. F. Ford
‘I hear your opinion, and if we prove he’s our man, I’ll be happy to accept you were right. But we’re going to prove it the way we’ve been trained, not on a whim, okay?’
Darling sighed and rolled her eyes.
‘Okay, whatever,’ she said. ‘Do you want me to play good cop or bad cop?’
Slater adopted a deadpan expression.
‘You’ll notice the absence of a film crew,’ he said, caustically. ‘That’s because this isn’t a film set, this is the real world. Until I’ve had a chance to assess your capabilities, all I want you to play is quiet cop. Is that clear?’
‘I didn’t mean anything-’
‘Good,’ interrupted Slater, slipping on a pair of latex gloves and flexing his fingers. ‘Just as long as we’re both going to be professional about this.’ He poked at the stuff on the table. ‘He doesn’t carry much, does he?’
Darling sniffed her disapproval.
‘Just a wallet, a snotty handkerchief, fifty-eight pence in small change, and a couple of boiled sweets,’ she said.
Slater picked up the wallet and opened it. He slid out a ten-pound note and pushed it back, then he carefully peered into each compartment.
‘Ah, what’s this?’ he said, sliding a small photograph from the wallet. He placed it on the table where they could both see it was of a small girl. Slater guessed she would have been about the same age as Chrissy Morrison.
‘I wonder who she is,’ said Darling. ‘And more to the point, why is he carrying her photo around?’
‘Did you notice any photos of children in his house?’
‘No, I don’t think so, not even in the woman’s bedroom.’
‘No, I don’t recall any. So it’s not likely she’s his daughter, is it?’
‘At his age I would think not.’
Slater poked around in the wallet again and produced another photograph. This one was obviously from a pregnancy scan.
‘I don’t know much about these things,’ said Slater, placing the photo in front of Darling. ‘Do you?’
‘It’s not something I’ve had to worry about so far,’ she said, ‘but I do have a mate who had a baby a few months ago. She made everyone study her scans, and I believe she takes about a hundred photos a day of her kid. Bores the arse off those of us who aren’t interested. Anyway, like I said, I’m no expert, but if I remember right, the later scans were quite detailed so I would think that’s quite an early scan, where the baby’s just forming. It just shows up like some sort of indeterminate blip on the radar, if you see what I mean.’
Slater thought he knew exactly what she meant.
‘You don’t think it’s a scan of his own kid, do you?’ asked Darling. ‘He hardly looks capable, and he’s so old!’
‘We’ll ask him in a minute,’ said Slater. ‘But I don’t think you need to worry about an imminent arrival. This scan is donkey’s years old. Look how tatty it is.’
As soon as they entered the interview room, Crump began to polish his glasses. He had no handkerchief to use now so instead he used the hem of the fleece he was wearing. As they sat down across the table from their suspect, Slater became aware of the same faint odour there had been in the man’s lounge earlier. He wondered if Crump had picked up the smell from the house, or if the house had picked up the smell from him.
Over the next half an hour, Slater tried his best to wheedle information out of the old man. All Crump had done was sit and polish his glasses. Slater finally decided he had no choice but to assume the guy wouldn’t talk because he had something to hide. He adjourned the interview and stalked out of the room, Darling following behind, to find DI Goodnews and ask what he should do next.
‘Do we have good enough grounds to get a search warrant?’ asked Goodnews.
‘We know he was at the school gates,’ said Slater. ‘He appears to be caught on CCTV taking sneaky peeks at the little girls, and he followed one of them away from the gates. He’s also carrying a photograph of a similarly aged little girl.’
‘And he won’t tell us a bloody thing,’ added Darling. ‘All he says is he wants to speak to a solicitor first. He’s definitely guilty about something.’
Goodnews looked enquiringly at Slater.
‘He’s distinctly furtive about something,’ he agreed. ‘He can’t look anyone in the eye, and he doesn’t stop polishing his glasses, like it’s a nervous thing.’
Goodnews considered for just a few seconds before she made up her mind.
‘Right,’ she said. ‘Go for it. Get a search warrant, get a full forensics team down there, and turn the bloody place upside down. Stick him in a cell for now, and arrange a solicitor if that’s the only way we’re going to get him to talk.’
‘We’re looking for anything that might link Crump to the murder of Chrissy Morrison,’ said Slater, as he and Darling led Ian Becks and his forensics team into Crump’s house. ‘You know the sort of thing to look for. We’re particularly interested in finding kiddie porn or anything like that. We’ll start upstairs.’
As Becks dispersed his team, Slater and Darling made their way upstairs. Before they could start searching, however, his phone began to ring.
‘It’s me,’ said Goodnews, in his ear. ‘According to the duty solicitor, Mr Crump is ready and willing to answer some questions.’
‘What, already? But we were just going to start searching his house.’
‘It’s your choice, but if I were you I’d get back here while he’s willing. If your pet geek and his search team are half as good as you keep telling me, they know what they’re doing without you holding their hands, don’t they?’
‘So what’s changed his mind? He didn’t want to talk earlier.’
‘I can’t imagine,’ said Goodnews, innocently. ‘Perhaps someone suggested to the solicitor that we have enough evidence to charge him, and that it was only a matter of time before that became public knowledge.’
‘If someone did suggest that, they were taking a big risk,’ said Slater. ‘All the evidence we have is circumstantial. We have nothing concrete. That’s why we’ve trooped out here with a search warrant.’
‘Perhaps someone thought it was worth taking a punt and seeing what happens.’
‘That’s fine as long as that someone doesn’t leave someone else to catch the fallout if they’ve made the wrong call.’
There was a brief pause and then Goodnews spoke again.
‘Are you saying you want me to interview him?’
‘No,’ he said. ‘I just want to voice my opinion that I think we should find some hard evidence. I don’t want a shit storm heading my way if we’ve got it wrong.’
‘Darling thinks he’s our man,’ said Goodnews.
Darling was standing right next to Slater, so he turned away from her and lowered his voice.
‘Are you telling me you’re backing five minutes’ experience over fifteen years?’ he hissed.
‘It’s not always about experience. That’s the whole point of introducing young blood and new thinking.’
‘What is this?’ Slater was unable to keep the irritation from his voice. ‘Some sort of experiment? What’s coming next? Ouija boards?’
‘Don’t be so bloody stupid,’ Goodnews snapped. ‘And remember who you’re talking to. I’ve told you before – as long as I know what’s going on, I will always cover your back. That applies to all my officers, and it applies to you and Darling right now. And I can assure you it’s not an empty promise.’
Slater tried to slow his breathing. He really didn’t want to argue with Goodnews, but he couldn’t see why they needed to rush.
‘So, are you going to come and do this interview?’ she asked, quietly.
‘Yes, I suppose so. We’ll be there in about fifteen minutes.’
He ended the call and stuffed the phone back in his pocket.
‘What was all that about?’ asked Darling.
‘We have to go back,’ he said. ‘Apparently Mr Crump can’t wait to talk to us.’
She smiled.
‘Great! Perhaps he’s going to confess.’
When they walked into the interview room, Slater immediately noticed the familiar, musty aroma that seemed to accompany Michael Crump again. He was staring down at the table again, just as he had earlier, but this time, as the door opened, he jumped so hard he banged a knee against the table and began furiously rubbing it, then he slipped his glasses off once again and began polishing them. The duty solicitor was a man Slater had come across before, although he couldn’t recall the guy’s name.
Darling set the tape rolling and went through the introductory formalities, in the process reminding Slater the solicitor was called Donald Swanning, then she sat back, looking confident. She had been chatting to Slater all the way back in the car about how she was sure Crump was about to confess. Slater wasn’t so sure.
‘I hope you’re going to be a bit more co-operative this time, Michael,’ he began. ‘We have some CCTV footage that puts you in a pretty awkward situation, and you won’t do yourself any favours if you don’t explain yourself. Do you understand?’
‘My client realises he didn’t cover himself in glory earlier,’ said Swanning. ‘But he’s now prepared to answer your questions as best he can.’
Slater nodded to the solicitor and then looked at Crump, who slipped his glasses back onto his nose.
‘Good,’ said Slater. ‘In that case let’s start again with a clean sheet. So, Michael, how about you tell us why you were stood outside the school gates just as the kids were coming out of school.’
Crump swallowed hard, and for a few seconds Slater thought he was going to play dumb again, but then finally he raised his head, focused on a point above Slater’s head, and began to speak.
‘I never thought about it being going home time at the school. I never had any kids, so it’s something I just didn’t think about.’
‘But why were you there?’
‘I was waiting for a lift.’
‘Why did you need a lift?’
‘I work part-time for a cleaning company,’ he said. ‘They have their own vans, but I use my own estate car mostly. It needed a service, so I dropped it off at the garage and one of the other guys was supposed to pick me up and take me back to the yard, but he never turned up.’
‘We’ll need to know the name of the garage where your car was serviced, and we’ll need to speak to the person who was supposed to pick you up,’ said Slater. ‘Can you write them down for us?’
For the first time, Crump looked Slater in the eye for just a second or so before he looked away.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Of course I will. I understand you need to see if I’m telling the truth.’
Darling slid a notebook and pen across the table. Crump took the pen and wrote down the information, then slid the book back across the table. Darling looked down at the page.
‘So what happened to your lift?’ asked Slater. ‘Why didn’t he turn up?’
‘When I saw him next day he said he was there. But I think he arrived early, and he didn’t wait, so he was gone before I even got there.’
Slater felt a tad disappointed. He thought this explanation was quite plausible, and it would explain why Crump had been looking up and down the road. He could see Darling out of the corner of his eye, though, and he could tell from her body language that she was unconvinced.
‘So you’re telling me you hadn’t realised there would be schoolchildren and parents milling about all over the place?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ said Crump. ‘If I had realised I would never have arranged to wait right in the middle of them. I don’t like crowds, you see, and I find it difficult being around children. I just thought it was an easy place for anyone to find, you know?’
Darling nearly jumped from her seat when Crump mentioned he found it difficult being around children, and Slater briefly thought he was going to need to restrain her, but the moment passed as quickly as it had arrived.
‘What do you mean you find it difficult being around children? Don’t you like children?’
‘No, no, it’s not that,’ explained Crump. ‘I think it’s because I never had any of my own. I just don’t know how to talk to them or anything, and when that happens other people think I’m weird. I’m just embarrassed by my own inadequacy I suppose.’
‘Inadequacy?’
‘That’s what my wife calls it,’ said Crump, sadly. ‘According to her I’m inadequate in just about every way you can imagine, and especially inadequate when it comes to dealing with children.’
‘You didn’t tell us your wife’s name,’ said Slater.
‘Melanie.Her friends call her Mel.’
‘So who’s this young girl?’ Slater placed the photograph he had taken from Crump’s wallet on the table in front of him.
Crump stared down at the photo and his mouth opened silently once or twice, then he licked his lips and looked up at Slater.
‘Ah,’ he said, at last.
‘I assume you know who she is. We found the photo in your wallet.’
‘You’re not going to believe me.’
Slater gave him an encouraging smile.
‘Try me.’
Crump looked across at his solicitor. The solicitor nodded his encouragement.
‘I suppose you could say she’s a sort of fantasy,’ he said, looking down at the photograph again.
Darling sat up even straighter in her chair. Slater began to feel a little sick. He hoped this wasn’t going to be some sort of sordid sexual fantasy confession.
‘I take it you found the scan photo in my wallet as well?’ asked Crump.
Slater slid the photo across the table.
‘This one?’
Crump looked down sadly at the second photo, and for a minute Slater thought he was about to start crying, but then he seemed to pull himself together. He looked up at Slater.
‘Do you have any children?’ he asked.
‘No.’
Crump sighed.
‘No, me neither,’ he said. ‘But I nearly became a father about twenty-five years ago. This was the first scan. I remember the day she told me she was pregnant like it was yesterday. It was like I’d climbed Everest, won the lottery, and become the first man ever to be a dad, all rolled together. Best day of my life, it was.’
He stopped talking, and now Slater could clearly see tears beginning to form in the corners of his eyes.
‘So, what happened?’
‘She lost the baby,’ said Crump. ‘My little girl was gone, just like that. That was the worst day of my life. It broke my heart.’
‘You knew it was a girl?’
‘I never knew for sure, not sort of officially, you know?’ Crump placed a hand on his heart. ‘But my wife said so, and I knew in here it was a girl.’
‘So who’s this?’ Slater tapped the photo of the small girl.
‘I haven’t a clue. I found it on a bus, years ago, and I just sort of kept it.’
‘Why would you do that?’ Darling was staring at Crump, disbelief etched all over her face.
‘I don’t really know,’ said Crump. ‘I was going to hand it in, but I stuck it in my wallet for safe keeping and forgot about it. A couple of days later I opened my wallet, and there it was. That’s when I realised she was just like I would have wanted my own daughter to have been.’ He looked at Slater and gave him a sad little smile. ‘I know, it sounds daft, doesn’t it? But it sort of helped, having a picture of what she might have been like, you know?’
Slater had no idea what to say to that. Was it the truth, or just a load of rubbish? It seemed unlikely, and yet...Perhaps… Darling, it seemed, had no such doubts, and as Slater mulled over Crump’s reply, she suddenly jumped in to the conversation.
‘So why were you taking so much interest in the little girls by the school gates?’
‘I’m sorry?’ Crump looked confused. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘There was a girl on each side of the gates. We’ve got you on CCTV taking a close loo
k at both girls.’
‘No, I don’t remember doing that. Why would I?’
‘Perhaps because you were trying to decide which one to abduct.’ Darling sat back, eyes blazing.
Crump drew in a sharp, involuntary breath, as did Slater.
‘I did no such thing!’ he said, and for the first time, Slater glimpsed a fire in his eyes. ‘Anyway, I wasn’t wearing my glasses.’
‘What?’ said Darling.
‘My glasses,’ said Crump, tapping the side of his head. ‘Because I was running late when I left my car at the garage, I was rushing, and I left them in the car. I can’t see much without them. I’ve got reading glasses for really close up, but for anything else, without those varifocals, I’m knackered. I’m not denying I might have looked at those girls, but I wouldn’t have seen them clearly. They would just have been a blur.’
‘Are those the glasses you’re wearing now?’
‘I went back to get them when I realised my lift wasn’t going to happen.’
Slater turned and glared at Darling. He would quite happily have thrown her out of the room there and then, but it was too late now, the damage was already done. Fortunately, Darling seemed to be quite good at reading faces and she pursed her lips, but stayed silent.
‘I think what my colleague is trying to say,’ said Slater, returning his attention to the suspect, ‘is the CCTV footage shows you following one of the girls away from the school.’
Crump looked confused, but Swanning was alive to the situation, and he was quick to speak for his client.
‘Are you sure he was following the girl, Sergeant Slater?’ he asked, sharply. ‘Or was it just the case that he walked off in the same direction?’
Slater realised he was beginning to lose control of the situation. Hadn’t he earlier suggested exactly the same possibility to Darling? Desperately, he tried to claw back some of the moral high ground.
‘The CCTV clearly shows Mr Crump looking at both girls, and then appearing to choose to follow one of them.’
In the silence that followed, Swanning looked at Slater, and a smile slowly crept across his face.
‘We’ve already established that my client cannot see clearly without his spectacles-’