They found Lisa crying in the kitchen.
“Mrs Wells, can we have a word?”
She nodded through her tears.
Rob sat down while Mallory took up a less obtrusive position by the door.
“Is there anyone we can call to be with you?” he asked. She wore the haunted, hollow look of desperation. And was dressed in the same dirty, torn clothing from that morning. “A sister or another family member, perhaps?”
She gave a brief, shuddering gasp. “My brother and his wife are driving down from Yorkshire. They’ll be here soon.”
That was something. “Okay, good. Now, Mrs Wells, do you mind if I ask you some questions about your husband?”
She wiped her nose on her sleeve. “Brian? Why do you want to know about him?”
Rob ignored the question and ploughed on. “We heard he’d recently been fired from his job in the city. Is that true?”
Her voice was croaky as she tried to hold back the tears. “He went to pieces after we separated and started drinking heavily. He worked for a big import-export company and was responsible for millions of pounds worth of payments, so when he started dropping the balls and people weren’t getting paid, they dismissed him.”
She knew a lot about the intricacies of her husband’s job. He said as much, but she shrugged. “Brian used to talk to me about his work, back when we could still communicate without having a row.” She hung her head in her hands. Tears hovered, threatening to fall, but somehow didn’t, making her eyes gleam. “It wasn’t always like this, you know?”
He did. He really did.
She continued, “I didn’t think it was right, them sacking him like that. Especially since they didn’t give him any notice. They paid him a month’s salary instead, so there was nothing he could do.”
Rob frowned. That was a bit weird. They wanted rid of him so urgently that they didn’t give him the official notice period, preferring to pay him out instead. He must have seriously screwed up.
“When was this?”
“Some time ago now. When we first split up.”
“A year ago?” He cast his mind back to their first conversation. Mallory nodded in silent confirmation.
“Yes.”
“How’s he been earning a living since then?”
“He consults, advises people on their finances, that sort of thing.” She pursed her lips. “As far as I know, anyway.”
Rob had seen how strained things were between them. Whatever communication had existed, had shut down as soon as she’d begun sleeping with Sergio.
“Do you mind if we have a quick look at Katie’s room?”
He hadn’t been up there yet, and even though the house had been thoroughly searched, he wanted to take a peek, just in case anything jumped out at him.
Lisa glanced up, surprised by the sudden change in his line of questioning. “Oh, sure. Although the police have been up there all morning.”
“I know. It’s just so I can get a feel for what Katie is like.” He nearly said ‘was’. Christ, that wouldn’t have gone down well.
Seven hours.
Lisa showed them to Katie’s room. It was a typical little girl’s room. Pink floral bedspread, matching curtains, a tasselled lampshade and posters of Ariana Grande on the wall.
“She loves her.” Lisa nodded to the poster. “We considered going to that concert up in Manchester, but in the end, Brian said she was too young. Thank God we didn’t.”
Rob nodded sagely. Thank God, indeed.
Her lip quivered. “Turns out he was right about that too.”
Mallory gave her a sympathetic grimace.
There was a photograph of Katie and her parents in a gold frame on the dressing table. They looked happy. Brian had his arm around Lisa, Katie stood in front of them, beaming into the camera. They were on a beach somewhere, with straw umbrellas and the sea twinkling in the background. Happier times.
“Where are you in the divorce proceedings?” he asked.
Lisa’s face clouded over.
“I’m sorry, but I have to ask.”
“That has nothing to do with Katie’s disappearance,” she insisted. She adjusted the angle of the photograph, remembering. “Brian is a good man. He’d never hurt his own daughter.”
Stranger things had happened.
Mallory drew back the curtain and peered out of the window. “Direct view onto the street below,” he said.
Rob turned to Lisa. “Still, you said he wanted custody of Katie.”
The quivering lip again. “Yes, but I think it’s just because he’s angry at me for moving on. You know, with Sergio.”
“But that’s nothing serious?” Her words.
She gave a weak nod. “Brian doesn’t like the thought of a strange man in the house.”
Perhaps he had a right to be cautious.
Although, divorce brought out the worst in people. Rob knew that first-hand. His own had yet to be finalised, even though they’d completed the worst part, the negotiations. Luckily, Yvette, being an ex-lingerie model, had her own money and hadn’t wanted anything from him. She’d turned her nose up at his small, one-bed semi in Richmond, even though it was in a sought-after area.
To be fair, she hadn’t been in the best frame of mind during the proceedings. Her mind clouded by panic attacks and agoraphobia; she’d just wanted the whole thing over with as soon as possible.
He’d offered to wait, to give her some time to consider her options, but she wasn’t interested. Every minute married to him a stark reminder of the trauma from which she was trying to recover. He’d never felt more of a pariah in his life.
Maybe this whole custody battle was just a spiteful attack on Lisa and had nothing to do with Katie herself. Hopefully, the courts would decide in the child’s best interests, whatever that was.
There was nothing in the little girl’s bedroom that aroused his suspicion, and the more he spoke to Lisa, the more convinced he was that she had nothing to
