This was a woman who didn’t care what anyone thought of her. He wondered what she’d been like before her daughter disappeared, before her world had splintered. Maybe then she’d given a damn. But now there was nothing left to live for.
He glanced at Mallory and could see his partner was of the same opinion.
“What did DI Purley say?”
Tessa frowned. “That man was only interested in closing the case. He didn’t care about Arina, or about what I had to say. He palmed me off every time I rang the station, avoided my calls and eventually sent one of his deputies to tell me the case was closed, and they’d called off the search. My Arina was still out there and nobody went to rescue her.” A sob clutched at her throat.
Her anguish was palpable.
“I’m sorry for the way things were handled,” he said. “It does sound like there were grounds to continue with the investigation.”
She peered up at him. “Well, it’s too late now. Four years. My Arina is dead, I know it.”
It was the most likely conclusion. Unless the girl had been secreted out of the country. He’d have to ask DI Purley about that. Presumably, they’d checked with border control. Anyway, that wasn’t his case, and this wasn’t his fight.
He brought them back to the current investigation. “Mrs Parvin, why did you move to Barnes?”
“I needed a change. Everything in that house reminded me of Arina. It was really just the two of us, you see. Ramin was away a lot.”
He didn’t care about his daughter.
“What do you think of the neighbourhood?”
“It’s nice enough.” She sniffed. “I mean, the people seem friendly. I don’t socialise a lot.”
He tilted his head to the side as if the new angle would give him added insight into what she was thinking. “Why were you at Edward Maplin’s house the day Katie disappeared?”
“I wanted to join in the search for Katie. You see, I know what it feels like. I know what Lisa is going through. It’s the worst feeling in the world.” She wrapped her arms around herself.
Rob understood her need to help.
“Why didn’t you just tell us that to begin with? It could have saved us all this drama.” She’d be released, but there was paperwork involved, processing, write-ups, reports. She could have saved everyone the time and effort by just cooperating from the beginning.
“I didn't feel like talking to the police.” The stubborn sulk was back.
Rob stood up. Under the circumstances, even that was understandable, although not advisable. “Thank you for talking to us, Mrs Parvin. DI Mallory will process your release forms. You’re free to go.”
She didn’t move. “What about my daughter? What are you going to do about her?”
Rob froze. “It’s been four years, Mrs Parvin, the case is closed. What do you want me to do?”
“Find her,” she hissed. “Her body is out there somewhere. I want to bring her home. I want to bury my girl.”
Rob sighed inwardly. But she deserved no less.
“I’ll talk to DI Purley,” he promised. “But it’s not my investigation, so there are limits to what I can do.”
Her head dropped. “So once again Arina is swept under the proverbial carpet. No one cares that she’s still out there, that her body was never found.”
“It’s not that we don’t care, Mrs Parvin. It’s complicated. Arina didn’t disappear in our jurisdiction.”
“Serial killers don’t stick to jurisdictions,” she spat.
Rob spun around. “What do you mean, serial killers?”
“Well, you don’t think my Arina is the first little girl to disappear, do you? I looked into it. There are several girls who’ve gone missing in the greater Surrey area over the last few years. Most of them unsolved, of course.” Like it was their fault.
Maybe it was.
But was it true? Had there been a spate of unsolved missing persons?
“Okay, I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll look into Arina’s case. If it does mirror the other disappearances, we might have a shot of reopening the case.”
Mallory gawked at him.
Tessa Parvin exhaled. “That’s all I ask, Detective Chief Inspector.”
Rob was already regretting his words as he left the interrogation room.
16
“What are you doing?” Mallory grilled him on the way back to the squad room. “You can’t promise her you’ll reopen her daughter’s case. You have no control over that.”
“I didn’t promise I’d reopen it,” he said. “I promised I’d look into it. Besides, it does sound like the SIO might have been too quick to call it a day. What she said about her husband’s relationship with his daughter, or lack thereof, warrants further investigation.”
“She could be making it up, grasping at straws. She was distraught, after all. People see what they want to see.”
Rob knew that.
“It doesn’t hurt to check. Let’s look into the other missing girls, if there are any. And find out if anyone on our team has any contacts in the Middle East. It would be useful to know if Ramin Parvin has his daughter with him. She’d be sixteen now. I’m going to pay DI Purley a visit. He’s not returning my calls.”
Woking was a half hour drive from Richmond, but Rob made it in twenty. Blue lights had a way of making other motorists get out of your way.
He hadn’t cleared Tessa Parvin from their investigation yet. Had she taken Katie as a replacement for her own daughter? Maybe she wanted revenge on the system? Who knew what she was really thinking?
She appeared sane enough, but that didn’t mean she was. He’d been surprised before.
DS Bird was looking into her background, into any properties she owned, or connections she had. They hadn’t managed to extend the warrant they’d got for Brian Wells and Sergio Wojcik’s phone records to Tessa’s, but if Jenny or Mallory came up with anything, he’d speak to the Chief Superintendent.
Right now, his gut was telling him not to write her off as a suspect.
Rob didn’t enquire whether DI Purley was available
