They trudged along the river path, toward the hazy glow from the forensic lights in the distance.
“What if it’s her?” said Mallory
“Don’t. It can’t be her, you said so yourself. It’s too soon for that level of decomp.”
He prayed they were right.
The remains weren’t on the river path, they were about twenty-five metres inland, in a heavily wooded area. A mound of freshly dug earth drew their attention and on a plastic sheet beside it lay a collection of tiny bones. A portable floodlight illuminated the find.
It couldn’t be Katie. The bones looked far too old.
“What you got?” The forensic pathologist, a slim woman with dark hair tied up in a bun, leaned over the bones.
“We’re still digging them out,” she replied over her shoulder, “but from what I’ve seen, I’d say they were canine.”
“Canine? You mean those are dog’s bones?” Rob stared at the array of bones scarcely bigger than his finger. They could just have easily passed for a child’s rib cage.
She glanced up. “I think someone buried the family pooch here.”
Mallory broke into a deep chuckle. “This was probably his favourite spot.”
“Oh, for God’s sake.” Rob bent over and took a few deep breaths. When he stood up, he was shaking with the release of adrenalin. “So definitely not human?”
“No chance,” the technician confirmed.
Rob shook his head. “Unbelievable. Is Ed Maplin around?”
The woman shrugged. “Who?”
“Never mind.”
It turned out the neighbourhood watch group had been sent home once the emergency services arrived. “We didn’t want them contaminating the scene,” the officer said. “Didn’t know it was Fido at that point, did we?” He grinned.
“For once I’m glad this was a false alarm,” said Rob as they walked back to the car.
Mallory nodded, but didn’t reply.
It hadn’t been her this time, but they both feared that next time, it might well be.
“Coffee anyone?” DS Bird breezed into the squad room the next morning carrying two take-away trays filled with coffee. “Flat whites only, I’m afraid.”
The team fell on them, but she reserved one for Rob. “Here you go, guv.”
“Thanks Jenny.”
He’d been at the station since six that morning reading the reports from Arina Parvin’s case. He couldn’t shake the feeling that it was related somehow, even though it appeared not to be.
She’d cut through Bisley Wood on her way home from school with two friends. They’d split up less than a hundred metres from the end of the path. The road would have been in sight. Both girls had given matching statements and Rob had no reason to doubt them.
Arina had been abducted on a hundred metre stretch of woodland. Her school bag hadn’t been found, nor was there any trace of her, although no official search had been authorised.
Because Tessa Parvin had initially said she feared her husband had abducted their daughter, they hadn’t looked into any other possible lines of enquiry.
Instead, they’d set out to prove Arina had indeed been kidnapped by her Iranian father and smuggled out of the country. The evidence of this, in Rob’s opinion, was heavily circumstantial. He’d never have signed off on it.
On a whim, he called Tessa Parvin. She answered straight away.
“Good Morning, Mrs Parvin. Would you be able to meet me at the site where your daughter was kidnapped tomorrow morning? Yes, in Bisley. I’d like to see it for myself.”
Tessa readily agreed.
“Okay, great. Shall we say eleven o’clock?”
Tomorrow was Saturday, and technically he was not working, but in investigations such as these, the days blurred into each other. He figured he’d take the morning off and check out the route Arina Parvin took home from school that fateful day four years ago.
Next, he texted Jo and asked if she’d like to come along.
“Hell yes,” she responded, which made him smile.
“What is this?” DCS Lawrence burst through the door, newspaper in the air.
Everyone’s head whipped up.
“They know about Anthony Payne. How the hell did they find out about him?”
Their arrest outside the gallery hadn’t exactly been low key, but as far as Rob knew, no one had alerted the press as to who he was.
Lawrence smacked the newspaper down on Rob’s desk.
Known Sex Offender Arrested, screamed the headline.
Rob picked it up. “A confidential police source confirmed that known sex offender Anthony Payne has been arrested in connection with Katie Wells’ abduction,” he read aloud.
“Exactly!” fumed Lawrence. “Someone from this department leaked Payne’s arrest to the press. Now it will be all over the dailies. Christ, the man could sue us if he’s innocent.”
“I don’t know how this happened, sir.” Rob glanced at his team. Everybody appeared as shocked as he was. There were no guilty looks or shifty glances. “I don’t think it’s one of my team.”
“Well, someone bloody leaked it,” roared Lawrence, stomping toward his office. “I want that person found and suspended until this investigation is over. We plan our press releases so things like this don’t happen.” He went inside and slammed the door.
A deathly silence fell over the squad room.
Finally, Rob stood up and addressed everyone in a low tone. “I don’t for a minute think any one of you had anything to do with this,” he began. “But if you do know something, now’s the time to speak up. I’ll do what I can to mitigate the consequences.”
Nobody replied.
Mallory glanced at the room where the hotline operators were still busy taking down details from callers. The day shift had begun two hours ago. “Were all the civilian operators vetted?” he asked.
“Yes, sir,” said Jenny, who’d been in charge of hiring them. “As much as we could on such short notice.”
“Understood, Jenny,” said Rob. “Ask Vicky Bainbridge to get hold of The Daily Mail and find out who their source is. Tell her to offer them an exclusive once we know who kidnapped Katie. That should do the trick. If not, we’ll have to start questioning them, and we don’t have time for that. I need all hands on deck. Katie is still missing and until we have her safely back home or in a
