A woman perpetrator put a different spin on things. Serial offenders were hardly ever female, and it likely ruled out a sexual motive – thank God – which left one question.
Why?
Was it trafficking? Suburban west London was a strange hunting ground. Too middle-class. Too settled.
As he ate his sandwich, he pictured Katie’s serious little face, and wondered where she was now. And if she was still alive.
They invited Lisa Wells into the briefing room. She wasn’t under caution, she was helping with their enquiries. Right now, she stared at him across the boardroom table.
Instead of the tatty skirt and blouse she’d been wearing earlier, she wore jeans and a simple T-shirt, her hair tied back in a ponytail. Practicality over vanity.
“Have you found anything?”
Rob cringed at the hope in her voice. “Lisa, Candy had a missed call from Katie this morning…”
Her eyes lit up.
“She didn’t leave a message, but there was a woman’s voice in the background.”
“A woman?” Lisa frowned. “You think a woman took her?”
“It’s possible.” Rob leaned forward. “Lisa, I need a list of anyone you’ve had contact with in the last few weeks, anyone who’s shown an interest in Katie, any friends of the family, even visitors to the house. Can you do that for me?”
“Okay.”
“Now, please. If you don’t mind.” He placed a piece of paper and a pen on the table in front of her.
“I’ll have to wrack my brains,” she said.
“Take as much time as you need.”
She nodded and picked up the pencil.
In the interim, Rob checked on Jeff and Harry who were ploughing through the CCTV footage in the vicinity of Brian Well’s and Sergio Wojcik’s flats.
“The entrance to Brian’s flat is around the back, so the camera on Upper Richmond doesn’t pick him up,” said Jeff. “But I’ve got him on the ANPR at nine-thirty-two heading to Katie’s house. It ties in with his story.”
It did. “Okay, good. What about Sergio?”
“He’s safe too. He leaves shortly after nine-thirty when he gets Lisa’s call. It matches his phone records. He then passes the ANPR camera on Lonsdale Road a few minutes after Brian Wells.”
“He did arrive a few minutes after him,” acknowledged Rob.
It seemed the two men were in the clear.
“Okay, thanks guys. Good work.”
He told Mallory to release Brian Wells, and went to see how Lisa was getting on.
“Making progress?”
Lisa had written half a page of names. She was chewing on the end of the pen. “I can’t think of anyone else.” She slid the list over to him.
He studied it. There were several names he didn’t recognise. “Let’s start at the top.”
They went through them all.
The neighbour, Ed Maplin’s wife, Julia, who popped in to ask for help with the annual street party. Every year they closed off the road and put stalls out so the residents could mingle and get to know each other. Like Jenny had said, they were a close-knit community.
That meant every resident in the street was a potential suspect, since they all knew each other. But the door-to-door enquiries hadn’t picked up anything suspicious, and he had to trust they’d done their jobs correctly.
He suppressed a shiver. What if Katie was only a few houses away, hidden in someone’s attic or basement?
The cleaner who came in once a week. “I can’t afford her more often than that,” Lisa admitted, blushing. She always used public transport and lived in Surbiton. Rob took her details, they’d check her out anyway, but it was unlikely she was involved, she hadn’t been working the day of the abduction.
Candy’s mother was on the list, but they’d already discounted her, along with Katie’s teacher, who’d been at school when Katie was abducted.
“Who is Mrs Patel?” Rob asked.
“Oh, she’s the lady who works in the newsagent around the corner. We often stop there for a cold drink on the way home, or bread to feed the ducks. She knows Katie.” Lisa shrugged.
“Okay, good.” They’d check her out too.
“Karen Prior is a work colleague. She came back to mine for a drink after work last Friday. We sat in the garden and had G&Ts.”
“Does she drive?” Rob wanted to know.
“Yes, it's a red car, a Honda, I think, but I can’t be sure. I don’t pay that much attention to cars.”
Rob asked for Karen’s details. It would be easy enough to check with the DVLA.
“Is Brian still in custody?” she asked, her voice quavering.
“We’re releasing him tonight. He’s no longer a person of interest.”
She heaved a sigh of relief. “I knew it. I knew he had nothing to do with this.”
“He was planning on taking Katie out of the country,” Rob reminded her.
The haggard look was back. “This divorce has been very hard on him. He misses being with Katy.”
“Why don’t you let him see her more often?” Rob asked, not that it was any of his business.
She sighed. “He went off the rails after we split up, lost his job, started drinking heavily. And he looked terrible. I didn’t feel comfortable leaving Katie with him.”
Rob could understand that.
“Maybe you guys need to have a talk,” he said, then shut his mouth.
Not his problem.
Lisa nodded. “Yes, we do.”
Rob showed Lisa out.
Suddenly, they’d gone from having no leads to having a whole street to follow up on, as well as the cleaner, the newsagent, and the work colleague.
He fought off the weariness that threatened to encroach and wondered if he ought to attempt a coffee from the machine in the canteen before heading back upstairs.
Bugger it. How bad could it be? He needed to stay awake. Katie’s life depended on it.
13
The coffee was really bad.
Rob grimaced and threw it away, grabbing a coke from the vending machine instead. They had the recent bout of budget cuts to thank for that.
Back upstairs, his extended team was hard at it. No one even considered leaving when Katie was still missing.
He got everyone’s attention. It was time for a pep talk.
Weary faces turned
