by Ford, P. F.
‘Probably as angry as you.’
That answer seemed to take the wind out of Mrs Crump’s sails.
‘You would?’
‘Yes,’ said Darling, ‘but I’m afraid you need to understand we have a job to do, and we had good reason to think we should search your house.’
‘What reason? You still haven’t told me what’s going on.’
‘You say you’ve been away?’
‘That’s right, I’ve been to see my father. I always go this time of year, it’s his birthday.’
‘And how long have you been away?’
‘Since the weekend.’
‘So you’re unaware there’s been a major incident in Tinton?’
‘What do you mean? What sort of major incident?’
‘A small girl was abducted from outside Saint Xavier’s school on Monday afternoon.’
All the colour rapidly drained from Melanie Crump’s face, and for the first time the aggression disappeared.
‘Oh God, that’s terrible,’ she said.
‘Sadly, the girl was found dead on Tuesday,’ said Darling.
‘How did she die?’
‘I’m afraid I can’t discuss that.’
‘But what’s this got to do with me? Or my house? Or my husband?’
‘We have CCTV footage of your husband hanging around the school gates at the time the girl was abducted. When we went to your house to question him about this, he denied it. That was a pretty stupid thing to do when we could clearly see him on the film, so he was taken in for questioning, and a search warrant was obtained to allow us to search your house.’
Melanie Crump sat open-mouthed for a long time before she spoke again.
‘He is pretty stupid,’ she said, at last.
‘I’m sorry?’ said Darling.
‘Michael, my husband.’ She said the word ‘husband’ as if it was offensive to her. ‘He wasn’t always stupid, but he is now. Useless too. I often wonder why I married him.’
Darling didn’t say anything. She’d been wondering the same thing herself. She just couldn’t see how they could ever have got together in the first place. They were like complete opposites.
‘How long have you been married?’
‘Thirty-two years,’ said Melanie, gloomily. ‘Thirty-two years too many. Anyway where is he? I suppose you’ve got him locked up in a cell, have you?’
‘Oh no. we didn’t find any evidence to suggest he’d done anything wrong, so we let him go. That was hours ago.’
Melanie Crump managed to look surprised and disappointed at the same time, which in turn surprised Darling. She didn’t know what reaction she had been expecting, but somehow that wasn’t it.
‘So where is he?’
‘I have no idea,’ said Darling.
‘We have to find him, there’s no telling what he might do.’
‘I’m sorry? What does that mean?’
Something flashed across the other woman’s face so quickly Darling hardly had time to register it before it was gone again.
‘It’s just that he’s a bit of a depressive, that’s all. I don’t want him doing something stupid.’
‘Do you think that’s likely? Has he ever done anything like that before?’
‘He tried to crash his car once. It was a long time ago, mind.’
‘But he’s been alright recently?’
‘Well, yes, but then no one has accused him of kidnapping a kid before.’
Darling wasn’t prepared to accept any guilt for doing her job, and she was beginning to feel desperately tired.
‘Yes, that was a bit unfortunate,’ she admitted. ‘But I’m sure you can see we had to check it out.’
‘Yes, I suppose so,’ Melanie conceded. ‘But where the hell can he be now?’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Darling, ‘but he is an adult. If he wants to go missing for a while, it’s his choice. I will ask for the night shift to keep an eye out for him, but I can’t organise a search until he’s been missing for at least 24 hours.’
‘Oh, I’m sure he’ll be alright,’ said Melanie Crump. ‘He’s gone missing before, and every time I’ve hoped, you know? But he’s like a bad penny. He keeps on turning up.’
Chapter 7
It was 6.45 am and Slater wasn’t exactly at his best. Not really an early morning person, he was feeling even worse than usual after a mostly sleepless night. He had come in early, expecting to have to go through all their paperwork before he could prepare for this morning’s meeting, but to his delight, someone had done it for him. It was all very neatly organised, and whoever had done it had even written a brief synopsis of each part of the enquiry so far. If this was Darling’s work, and he doubted anyone else would have been responsible, he was impressed.
The doors banged open behind him and she came in, carrying a tray with two coffees and two plates of bacon sandwiches.
‘Morning, Boss.’
‘Morning, Darling. Is this your work?’ He indicated the neat stacks on his desk.
‘It’s okay, isn’t it?’ she asked, tentatively. ‘I just thought it would save a bit of time this morning.’
He smiled at her.
‘Is it okay?’ he said. ‘It’s better than okay, Darling, it’s bloody brilliant. I really wasn’t looking forward to doing that this morning, and now I don’t have to. I can even use your notes for the briefing.’
As she placed the tray on an empty desk, a relieved smile spread across her face.
‘There’s one more thing,’ she said, slipping her bag from her shoulder and retrieving a file from inside it. ‘I took it home to write it up.’
‘So you haven’t been here all night, then?’
‘Not quite, but it was a near thing. Melanie Crump came in last night, just as I was going home. She wanted to know why we had arrested her husband and searched her house. She didn’t make a statement as such, but it was an interesting conversation so I thought I’d make some notes.’
She handed him the file, and then offered him a coffee and a bacon sandwich.
‘You don’t have to make breakfast for me,’ he said. ‘It’s not in your job description. How much do I owe you?’
‘You’re not paying. Look upon it as a peace offering. I was a bit of an idiot yesterday.’
Slater pulled out a chair for himself and one for Darling, and indicated for her to sit with him.
‘That was yesterday,’ he said. ‘Forget it. Today’s another day. You’re not the first keen young detective who got carried away, and you won’t be the last.’
‘But I totally messed up that interview,’ she said, as she slipped into her chair.
‘You didn’t follow the plan, but we would have had to let him go anyway. We didn’t have enough evidence to hold onto him. Did you check his alibi?’
She nodded.
‘The garage did service and valet his van, and they say he did come back for his glasses, just like he said. The guy who was supposed to pick him up was there early, although he says the arrangement was he would pick up Crump if he was there. According to him there was no time agreed.’
‘So who’s telling the truth?’
‘I’m not sure this John Fisher would know honesty if it slapped his face,’ she said. ‘He’s a bit sneaky if you ask me. He thought it was funny leaving Crump stood at the school gates. Hashtag complete arsehole.’
Slater sighed his disappointment.
‘So, barring the one small detail about the timing of the lift, he has near enough confirmed what Crump told us. He was genuinely waiting for a lift, and that explains why he kept looking up and down the road.’
‘So, what do we do now?’ Darling asked.
‘Quite honestly, we’re up shit creek without a paddle,’ Slater said. ‘Standing by a school gate when the kids come out might be suspicious behaviour, but on its own, it’s not actually a crime.’
‘I suppose so. But you have to admit, he is a bit weird isn’t he?’
Slater grinned.
‘We’d fill the cells up in five minutes if we started to arrest people for being weird. Aren’t we all weird in our own way?’ They chewed in silence for a moment before he spoke again. ‘You need to be careful you don’t burn yourself out. You must make sure you get enough sleep.’
‘Yeah, I know I look like shit this morning,’ she said, with a rueful grin, ‘but you don’t exactly look as fresh as a daisy yourself.’
‘That’s just my age.’
‘I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about Melanie Crump, and whether I should have called you before I spoke to her.’
‘Do you think she would have been happy waiting another half hour for me to get here?’
‘Hell, no. She was looking for a fight as it was.’
‘So you had to think on your feet, and deal with an irate member of the public, there and then,’ he said. ‘You had to defuse the situation.’
‘Well, yeah, I guess so.’
‘I don’t recall seeing any dead bodies down in reception,’ he said. ‘And Sandy Mollinson tells me you handled the situation just fine. If it had been a question of interviewing her that would have been different, but you did the right thing.’ Slater tapped the folder on the desk next to him. ‘And you’ve made some notes. So stop worrying about it.’
They chewed in silence for a while before Darling spoke again.
‘You didn’t tell Goodnews, did you?’
‘Didn’t tell her what?’
‘That I was behaving like a dork yesterday, and I ruined the interview.’
‘I tell her what I think she needs to know, but that doesn’t always include every little detail,’ said Slater. ‘We’re bound to have differences, especially at this early stage, but we can sort them out for ourselves. We don’t need her to get involved, do we?’
‘I thought you might not want me as a partner,’ she said quietly.
He looked at her sharply.
‘Give me a break. I think I’m prepared to give it a little longer to see if we make a team before I go crying to the boss.’
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it to sound like that. It’s just that-’
‘Look,’ he said. ‘You’re new to all this, and I’m new to having a young woman, who also happens to be new to all this, as a partner. But, believe me, I’ve worked with some total morons in the past, and one thing I know already is I’d rather be teamed with you than the vast majority of them. We’ll be fine, we’ve just got to give it a little time to get to know each other, that’s all.’
‘Okay’ said Goodnews. ‘What have we got so far? Is this Michael Crump still in the frame?’
It was her idea to have these early morning meetings when they had a big case. Slater knew her theory was quite simple: if she knew what was going on, she wasn’t likely to get any nasty surprises, and, if necessary, she could step in and deflect any flack that might come from above. She wasn’t interested in taking over the case, but she would make suggestions if she thought they might help.
‘He has to be still in the frame because we don’t have anyone else right now,’ said Slater. ‘But his story about his car being serviced checks out. There’s a small query over his claim he was waiting for a lift, but it doesn’t look as if that’s going to be enough to drag him back in for more questions.’
‘You’ll need to be careful there,’ said Goodnews, stating the obvious. ‘That solicitor will come down on us like a ton of bricks if we don’t have a good reason to speak to him again. What about the father? Have you ruled him out?’
‘His alibi checked out,’ said Slater, ‘but he didn’t seem to care his daughter was missing when we spoke to him, and he’s shown no more interest since we found her body.’
‘It wouldn’t hurt to take another look.’
‘Maybe we should go down to his office and poke around. It can’t do any harm, can it?’
‘What other lines of enquiry have you got?’
‘Norm’s found a similar case, in the regional database, from ten years ago. A small girl, same sort of appearance as Chrissy Morrison, disappeared after school and was never seen again. It was in Romsey, about an hour south of here.’
‘Was that a murder?’ asked Goodnews.
‘No body was ever found,’ said Norman. ‘And it’s still an open case.’
‘So how is it similar?’
‘Same situation, after school, and the little girl was the same age and appearance.’
‘It’s a bit tenuous. It’s probably worth taking a look, but I’m not sure-’
‘And it was the same date,’ added Norman. ‘October 20th.’
‘Now you’re talking,’ said Goodnews, with a smile. ‘That’s really good work, Norm. Have you asked for the file?’
‘We sent the request last night,’ said Slater. ‘We’ll follow it up as soon as they’re open for business.’
‘If you need a word from me to speed things along, just let me know.’ Goodnews turned to Norman. ‘You know what I’m going to suggest now, don’t you?’
‘Search the national database?’
She turned to Slater, with a grin.
‘Didn’t I tell you having a civilian on board would work out for everyone?’
Slater didn’t like to remind her that Norman had insisted it was only a trial, and he wouldn’t stay if he felt constrained by the role.
‘This is good,’ said Goodnews. ‘You’re making progress. Is there anything else?’
‘Melanie Crump has turned up,’ said Slater.
‘Is she going to be any help? If she was away, is she likely to know anything?’
‘I haven’t spoken to her yet, but Darling was here when she turned up last night. I’ll let her give you the gist of what she said. Darling?’
He slid the folder with the notes she had made at home last night across to her. She looked taken aback, but quickly opened up the folder and scanned through the notes. Slater knew she was buying herself a few extra moments to compose herself.
‘So,’ she began. ‘Melanie Crump turned up here last night, demanding to know why her house had been searched and where her husband was. She was extremely belligerent, but when I explained about her husband being on CCTV at the school gates she eventually backed down and became a bit more composed. She told me she had been away for a few days visiting her father and hadn’t known about Chrissy Morrison. In the end, I think she could see why we had done what we did.’
‘So, what do you think?’ asked Goodnews.
‘I think there’s something very strange about Michael and Melanie Crump. For a start, she didn’t seem a bit surprised when I said he’d been brought in for questioning. Then she seemed almost disappointed to find we’d let him go. And there’s something else – he doesn’t appear to have a penny to his name, and yet she turned up here wearing expensive designer clothes.’
‘Sounds like two people leading separate lives,’ said Norman. ‘There could be a hundred reasons for that.’
‘She also claimed to be concerned about him being missing, and about what he might do,’ added Darling, ‘but her actions didn’t say that. She looked as if she didn’t give a toss, and she’d be quite happy if he never came back.’
‘You say he’s missing?’ asked Goodnews.
‘He wasn’t home when she got back, but he’s an adult, isn’t he? Maybe he was down the pub.’
‘What did she mean “what he might do”?’ asked Slater.
‘Apparently he’s prone to depression. She says he tried to crash his car once, although that was years ago. She sort of implied he might go off the rails because we had accused him of kidnapping Chrissy, but I got the impression she would be very happy if he did. She said he’d gone missing before, and how she always hoped he wouldn’t come back, but he was like a bad penny and just keeps on turning up.’
‘Sounds like there’s something going on in the past there,’ said Goodnews.
‘Yeah,’ agreed Slater. ‘It’s hardly normal is it? I think maybe me and Darling need to have a
chat with our Mrs Crump, and perhaps Norm could take look at their backgrounds?’
‘Yeah, no problem,’ said Norman. ‘I can do that after I’ve done the database search.’
Goodnews got to her feet.
‘You’ve got plenty to get your teeth into there,’ she said, gathering her things together, and heading for the doors. ‘So I’m going to get out of your hair and let you get on. Remember I’m not here to interfere, but I’m always willing to help if I can.’
‘That was a very good little presentation you did at the morning meeting,’ said Slater. ‘Especially considering you weren’t expecting it.’
He smiled at Darling. She was driving, but she managed to turn her head long enough to acknowledge and return the smile.
‘Was it that obvious?’
‘I thought you handled it very well. Taking those notes from the folder gave you just enough time to gather your thoughts.’
She laughed.
‘So you sussed out what I was doing.’
‘Only because you didn’t refer to them once when you were talking.’
‘I hope I didn’t miss anything out.’
‘I don’t think so,’ he said. ‘You seemed to cover everything I had read. It was a job well done. I think the boss was impressed, too.’
‘Why does she make such a big deal about us keeping her informed and how she’s not trying to steal anyone’s thunder?’ asked Darling.
‘Because it’s a complete change from what we’re all used to around here. The old boss left us all to our own devices, took all the glory if we solved a case, and then bollocked us when he didn’t like what we were doing. Goodnews wants to be kept informed so she doesn’t get any nasty surprises, and she can steer an inquiry if she thinks it’s going off track. In return for that she’ll back us up if anything does go wrong. It seems fair enough to me.’
‘So she’s a bit more hands-on,’ said Darling.
‘She’s a lot more hands-on,’ said Slater, ‘but I think that’s a good thing.’
‘I thought you didn’t like change.’