It was depressing.
The Chief Superintendent had taken to pacing through the squad room, making everybody nervous. He’d halt at the whiteboard, stare at is as if wishing something new would appear, then ask Rob for the hundredth time if there were any developments.
“No sir. When we do, you’ll be the first to know.”
Lawrence went back to his office, his grizzly jaw taut with tension. Rob had never seen him so stressed. For his final case, this was turning out to be a doozy.
Rob pulled up Tessa Parvin’s 999 call. As Purley had said, she’d initially thought her husband had abducted her daughter.
Hello. My daughter hasn’t come back from school and I’m worried about her. I think–I think my husband may have taken her.
“Who am I speaking to?” the operator asked.
“My name’s Tessa Parvin. It’s dark already and she’s still not back. She should be back by now.”
“Okay, Tessa. I understand. What makes you think your husband may have taken her?”
“He’s, he’s gone too. He packed a bag... I think he’s left me.” A sob. “He may have taken Arina with him.”
“Okay, if that’s the case, we’ll find him for you. What is your husband’s name?”
“Ramin Parvin. My daughter is Arina.”
“Okay, ma’am. I’m going to send a police officer round to your house to get some details from you. Can you give me your address?”
“Oh, okay. It’s…”
The rest was pretty standard. The operator told her to keep calm and someone would be with her shortly.
To give the operator credit, she’d quickly dispatched an officer to the Parvin house. In the case of a missing child, it was imperative to act fast. Even if it turned out to be a false alarm, it was better to err on the side of caution.
Unfortunately, the police detective involved hadn’t felt the same sense of urgency. He wondered who’d been dispatched. Looking it up, he discovered it was a PC Brightman out of Woking. He’d been the nearest available officer and had arrived at Tessa’s house half an hour later, at ten forty-seven.
Tessa had waited until nearly half past ten before she’d raised the alarm and called the emergency services. Most likely she’d been dialling around checking to see if her daughter had gone to a friend’s house.
That’s what he would have done, if he’d had a daughter. He suppressed a shiver. Thank fuck he didn’t. Not if that was the kind of worry it brought.
Yvette had made it quite clear she wasn’t interested in having kids, so he’d gone along with it even though, at one point, he’d quite fancied the idea of being a dad.
He grunted. That ship had sailed, and probably a good thing too. He couldn’t remember to feed Trigger, let alone be responsible for another human being.
He closed the file and leaned back in his chair. Was Arina Parvin somehow linked to Katie Wells' disappearance?
“Hey Evan.” He approached the soft-spoken American sergeant who sat on the opposite side of the room.
“Yeah?” Evan glanced up.
“Would you do me a favour and look into this missing person case from four years back? It’s Tessa Parvin’s daughter.” He handed Evan the file.
Evan’s eyes widened. “The suspect you just interviewed?”
“She’s not a suspect, just a person of interest at this stage, but yes. Her daughter disappeared four years ago, and the case was never solved. Not properly. The DCI in charge made the assumption that her father had taken her back to Iran, but it was never confirmed.”
“You want me to confirm it?”
Rob hesitated long enough for Evan to raise an eyebrow.
He dropped his voice. “Actually, I’m interested in whether any other young girls went missing in the wider Surrey area around the same time as Arina. Mrs Parvin seemed to think there were.”
“You think it’s part of a wider network?”
“I don’t think anything, yet. That’s what I need you to find out.”
“Got it.” Evan gave him a confident grin. He’d heard from Galbraith what an asset DS Burns was to the team, now he hoped he could prove it.
17
Harry knew a female officer at the Twickenham branch who had ties to Iran. “I think she mentioned her uncle, or some member of her family, was in the police force there.”
“It would be great if she could ask him to make some unofficial enquiries,” Rob said. It was a longshot. “The Chief Superintendent has tried calling the Iranian embassy, but they’re not responding.”
He wasn’t holding his breath, either. Officially, there wasn’t much they could do, but with no definite confirmation from the airport CCTV or the flight details, Rob was hesitant to put a lid on it. He didn’t like loose ends.
“I’ve been looking for an opportunity to talk to her,” Harry grinned.
With his looks, it was a wonder he needed an excuse. Rob had seen how the women in this department responded to him. The handsome, mixed-race constable got more sideways glances and cups of tea than the Chief Superintendent himself.
The Crimewatch lady came up to him and asked yet another question. Harry put on a practiced smile. “No, unfortunately you can’t use the pink backpack, it’s still in evidence, but I can give you a life-size photograph. Will that do?”
Rob backed away, but he wasn’t fast enough. The reporter homed in, pinning him against Harry’s desk. “DCI Miller, could we get a few words from you as the Senior Investigating Officer?”
“DS Malhotra is perfectly capable of speaking on behalf of the team,” he said, then turned to Harry and hissed, “We need to know if Arina is in Iran with her father.”
“I’ll do my best, guv,” Harry replied. The grin was gone now. He understood the seriousness of the request.
Rob left him to it, much to the disappointment of the disgruntled Crimewatch anchor.
“Is he always so noncommittal?” she huffed in his wake.
Rob sunk into his desk chair. If Arina wasn’t in Iran, DCI Purley was going to have to revisit
