“How is the search coming on?” the construction worker asked between drags. The ashtray on the side table was overflowing.
“We’re pursuing several lines of enquiry,” Rob replied automatically.
Sergio nodded, as if this was to be expected. “What can I do to help you, Detective?”
Apart from the cigarette smoke, the flat was surprisingly clean. The carpet was crumb-free, which was more than he could say for his own, and the kitchen countertops were clear. There wasn’t so much as a beer can in sight. He couldn’t see any evidence of a young girl having been here.
“I wanted to talk to you about your misdemeanour charge in Poland back in 2006.”
Sergio’s gaze hardened. He didn’t reply for a long moment, just took a deep drag of his cigarette and exhaled. A wispy plume stretched upwards towards the ceiling. Eventually, he said, “That was a long time ago.”
“What happened?” asked Rob. Everyone made mistakes, he knew that. He sat back, prepared to listen to Sergio’s.
“I was twenty-one,” Sergio began in his deep, accented voice. The cigarette between his fingers had burned down almost to the filter. “I had this girlfriend, Aggie, her name was. She was beautiful, but what a pain. She used to make me crazy, you know. But I loved her, so I put up with it.”
This was sounding creepily familiar. Rob tensed, but nodded for him to continue.
“One day we had an argument. We were always arguing about something, I don’t even know what.” He shrugged and looked perplexed. “She threw all my clothes out of the window onto the street below.”
Rob raised an eyebrow. At least Yvette had never done that to him.
“She told me if I ever came back, she’d destroy my CD collection.” He scowled at the memory.
“CD Collection?” reiterated Rob.
Sergio nodded. “I have a large rock collection. You like rock ‘n roll?”
Rob nodded. “Yes, I like it.” When he got round to listening to it. Suddenly, Pink Floyd made sense.
“So, when she was at work, I broke into her flat to get it. She knew I wanted it back, that’s why she kept it.”
Rob sighed. Relationships.
“That’s when you were caught?”
“Yeah. A neighbour saw me and called the police. I spent six months in jail.” He inhaled viciously. “For trying to get something back that was mine to start with.”
There was nothing left to smoke, so he stabbed the butt out on the corner of the ashtray and dropped it in.
Rob believed him. Sergio didn’t strike him as the kidnapping type. He wasn’t even a burglar. Not really. The man wore his heart on his sleeve, he wasn’t sophisticated or secretive enough to pull off an abduction.
Rob stood up. This was a dead end. “Thanks for talking with me.”
Sergio seemed surprised the interview was over so quickly, but he didn’t question it. He got to his feet and saw Rob out.
His house had been searched too, and they hadn’t found anything relating to Katie.
“When can I see Lisa?” Sergio asked, as Rob walked out of the front door.
“Whenever she’s ready,” he replied. “Give her a call.”
Sergio nodded.
Lisa could use her lover’s support right now, especially since she wouldn’t be able to leave without being swamped by reporters. As he walked away, he heard the rustle of the cigarette box, followed by the inciting hiss of a lighter, before the door shut.
11
Rob stared into his double espresso and tried to make sense of what they knew. He’d go back to the squad room in a minute, but right now, he needed to think.
The Evening Standard lay beside him on the table, Katie’s serious face stared back at him. She was front page news, and on every radio and television station in the country. His name was listed at the end of the article as the Senior Investigating Officer in charge, along with a reminder that it was his team who’d apprehended the notorious Surrey Stalker and the spate of revenge killings earlier in the year.
So much for managing expectations.
Katie had been intercepted on her way to school and lured into the nature reserve where the kidnapper had dumped her rucksack in the pond, then taken her to a vehicle via the river path.
Brian Wells had been planning to take Katie on holiday to France. In light of the custody battle, he was getting ready to run. But so far, there was no actual evidence that he’d abducted his daughter. He’d arrived at Lisa’s house as soon as she’d called him at nine-thirty this morning, which meant he couldn't have been far away. If he had hidden Katie, it had to have been close by.
After flying through to Lisa’s house that morning, Brian had been escorted home. His apartment had been searched, and the Euro tickets found. He hadn’t had time to move his victim.
Rob scratched his head. Where the hell could he have hidden her?
Brian Wells was a local, he knew the area, and would have been aware of the reservoir in the reserve. He could easily have convinced his daughter to go with him. All the evidence, circumstantial though it may be, pointed to Katie’s father, and yet they had nothing on him.
Rob glanced at his wristwatch. Nearly nine.
Should they have another crack at him, or let him go and see where he went? If he had secreted Katie away somewhere, the little girl would be hungry and thirsty by now.
Unless he’d had help.
He rang Mallory. “Was Brian Wells seeing anyone?”
The DI’s tired voice replied. “I don’t think so. He didn’t mention a girlfriend.”
“Have we checked his call records?”
“Got them from the service provider an hour ago. Will is going through them now.”
“Look for anyone he may have contacted this morning around the time of Katie’s disappearance, as well as anyone he was in contact with regularly.”
“You think he had an accomplice?” Mallory asked.
Rob nodded at Katie’s photograph. “Maybe. I
