CID was on the first floor. A tip from Mallory who’d been here before.
The door was shut, and he didn’t have an access card. There was, however, a water dispenser outside in the hall, so he poured himself a cup while he waited for someone to come out.
A few minutes later, a female officer emerged, and threw him a hesitant smile. He nodded a greeting, took his cup of water and went inside.
Like Richmond, this was an open-plan squad room, but unlike his department, the ranking officers’ offices weren’t made of glass.
He placed the cup of water on the first desk he came to, ignored the curious glances of the few people in the room, and walked towards the back.
Detective Chief Superintendent Maxwell, read the name on the door. Next to it, DCI Purley.
DCI now, was it? A reward for closing the Arina Parvin case?
Rob knocked and got a terse, “Come” in response.
He opened the door and walked in.
Purley leaped to his feet. “Who the hell are you? How did you get in here?”
Rob held up his warrant card. “DCI Miller from Richmond CID. I decided to save you the trouble of calling me back.”
Purley mouthed like a guppy.
Rob glanced at the chair. “May I? This won’t take long.”
Purley hesitated, then nodded. “Seriously, how did you get up here?”
“I walked up. Can we get down to business?”
Purley sat, the lines on his forehead deepening. “What is it you want, DCI Miller? I don’t have much time, so I’d appreciate it if you could be brief.”
Rob glanced at the DCI’s computer. He could see by the lack of light that it was in sleep mode or off, and the DCI’s mobile phone was blinking on the desk in front of him.
“I can see you’re a very busy man,” he said, not without a touch of sarcasm. “I need to talk about Arina Parvin, a twelve-year-old girl who disappeared in Bisley four years ago.”
Purley frowned. “What do you want to talk about her for? That was a long time ago. The case is closed.”
“Mrs Parvin is a person of interest in a current investigation, and I’d appreciate your take on what happened. DCI to DCI.”
Purley’s chest puffed out. Pander to the man’s ego and he’ll tell you anything. “In that case... Although, there’s not much to tell.”
Rob waited.
“Arina’s father was a foreign national. He went back to Iran and took his daughter with him. That’s all there is to it.”
“Did you get confirmation that she’d left the country with him?” Rob asked.
The DCI gave a curt nod. “Mr Parvin was booked on a flight out of Heathrow the evening of his daughter’s disappearance.”
“Was he travelling alone?”
Purley coloured. “He was, but that doesn’t mean his daughter wasn’t on that plane. There were several other Middle Eastern passengers travelling with young girls Arina’s age. He could have had a family member or friend assist him. It was an Emirates flight to Tehran.”
“What about airport cameras? Did you check to see if any of the other passengers matched Arina’s description?”
“Several did,” he replied curtly. “And with a headscarf and downcast eyes, it’s very hard to tell which of them were Arina.”
“It does leave quite a margin for error,” Rob pointed out.
Purley shook his head. “Come on. The father disappeared the same evening as his daughter. What are the chances?”
Normally, Rob would have agreed, he wasn’t a big fan of coincidences, but in this case, the SIO could have been mistaken. He recalled Tessa Parvin’s words.
She’s out there somewhere.
“Did you know Ramin Parvin wanted nothing to do with his daughter?”
Purley didn’t reply.
“He wanted a boy. He had no time for his daughter.”
“Then why did he take off the same day as her? If he didn’t have anything to do with her abduction, why run?”
Rob leaned forward, his senses prickling. “How do you know he ran?”
Purley sighed. “The wife was oblivious. She thought her husband was at work, until he didn’t come home. When the daughter didn’t come home either, she panicked and called us. Her first instinct was that her husband had taken her daughter. She even said as much in the 999 call.”
That was news.
“Then, she suddenly changed her mind.” He spread his hands and shrugged. “My Superintendent agreed with me, she was trying to cover for her husband. Maybe he got to her, threatened her in some way. You know how they are? If she talked, he’d harm the kid. I don’t know. But for whatever reason, she changed her story. A few days later, she appeared at the station harping on about a serial killer.”
“She wasn’t in her right mind,” Rob said quietly. “She was trying to make sense of what had happened. Maybe after she’d had time to think about it, she realised it was unlikely her husband had kidnapped Arina.”
Purley frowned. “It didn’t come across like that. The woman was irrational, grasping at anything and everything. We recommended she see a therapist to help her cope with what had happened.”
“How do you cope with losing a child?” Rob said.
Purley slammed his hands on the table. “The husband took her. That’s it. I’m sorry it happened, but what the hell am I supposed to do about it? The Iranians wouldn’t talk to us, they didn’t want to know. There was no way of finding out whether she was there or not.”
“So, you assumed she was and closed the case.”
He gave a curt nod. “Any detective would have done the same thing.”
Rob stood up. “Not every detective.”
He left the office without saying goodbye.
Katie had been missing for thirty-two hours.
Celeste had widened the house-to-house enquiries to the wider Barnes area. Police officers were searching Barnes Common and the Wetlands, as well as the river path. They even had a team in Richmond Park, assisted by the park rangers.
And behind the police, were the press. Hounding, watching, applying pressure.
Rob’s
