“Yes, sir,” chorused the team as Jenny scuttled out to talk to Vicky.
Payne’s chubby solicitor was up in arms about the newspaper article. “This will ruin my client’s reputation and his business,” he shrieked, waving The Daily Mail in Rob’s face.
“I’m sorry about that,” said Rob through gritted teeth. “The leak is being dealt with.”
“My client is going to claim compensation for this.”
Rob nodded warily. “Unless he’s guilty, in which case the only place he’s going is prison.”
Chubby didn’t like that. Rob left him huffing and puffing and marched into the interrogation room where Payne was waiting. Mallory walked in behind him, case file in hand. They had less than two hours in which to charge or release him.
“How did you sleep?” Rob sat down opposite the sex offender. Despite the uncomfortable holding cell, he seemed well rested and confident.
“You’ve got nothing on me,” he sneered, ignoring the question.
Rob glanced down at the list Jo had emailed through containing the residences Payne had lived in over the last five years since his release from prison.
“Where did you live once you got paroled?” he asked the suspect.
Payne frowned, surprised by the question. “Um, Croydon. That’s where I grew up, so that’s where the council placed me.”
“You know the area well?”
“Yeah, I guess so. What’s this about?” He stared at Rob as if he were trying to work out the angle, but Rob gave nothing away.
“Did you know that while you were living in Croydon, a young girl called Rosie Hutton went missing?”
Payne swallowed. “No, I didn’t know.”
“Yes, she disappeared on her way home from school on the tenth of November 2016. She was twelve years old.”
Payne didn’t reply. He simply watched Rob with wary eyes.
“You moved to Guildford in 2017. Is that right?” Rob enquired.
Payne nodded.
“And while you were there, a young girl called Elise Mitcham disappeared on the way home from school.”
Rob watched him for a reaction. He’d gone very pale.
“You can’t pin those on me. I had nothing to do with those girls’ disappearances.”
“So you say,” murmured Rob.
“You owned a white Ford Transit van,” stated Mallory. “Registration LP03 8JR. Can you confirm that was your vehicle?”
He gave a small nod. “I worked as a delivery driver when I got out. What’s wrong with that?”
“Would you say you knew the greater Surrey area fairly well?” Mallory asked.
“Yeah, so what?”
“It would be easy for you to kidnap unsuspecting schoolgirls with a van like that, and hide their bodies around the county,” Rob cut in.
“What? No. I haven’t kidnapped anyone.” He glanced at his solicitor. Panic in his eyes.
“Detective, this is a fishing expedition and you know it. My client hasn’t done anything wrong. You’ve kept him here for nearly twenty-three hours. I think it’s time you made a decision. He’s been through enough.”
It killed him to admit it, but the solicitor was right. They had nothing linking Anthony Payne to Katie Wells. He didn’t own any property, his vehicle hadn't appeared on any of the ANPR cameras, and even though he’d disappeared off CCTV for an hour at the exact time of Katie’s disappearance, they couldn’t prove he was anywhere near her house or school.
The fact that he’d lived in the nearby vicinity of two other missing girls meant nothing. So did a million other people. A fact his defence team would not hesitate to point out.
“Okay, Mr Payne, you’re free to go, but you’re still a person of interest in this case, and we may need to talk to you again.”
His solicitor thumped Payne on the back. “Come on, let’s get you out of here.”
Rob shot them both a dark look as they exited the room.
24
Bisley Common was forty-six hectares of protected woodland, grassland and heath.
Rob and Jo met Tessa Parvin in a dirt layby on Stafford Lake Road, the pedestrian entry point where Arina and her friends would have begun their walk.
The secondary school they’d attended was two blocks away. Arina’s friends would be sixteen now and in their GCSE year.
Tessa Parvin climbed out of her car, flushed and jittery. The wind whipped her messy cloud of black hair around her face. She grasped Rob’s hand. “Thank you, detective. I can’t believe someone is actually taking Arina’s case seriously for once.”
Rob nodded. He was operating purely on gut instinct here. There was nothing linking the two cases other than her, and the somewhat nebulous fact that Anthony Payne had lived in the general vicinity four years ago.
“This is my colleague, Jo Maguire,” he said. Jo offered a bright smile.
He left out that she worked for the National Crime Agency and that she was less of a colleague and more of a girlfriend. Did one even say that at their age?
“How old was Arina when she went missing?” Jo fell into step beside Tessa. There was nothing awkward about Jo. People warmed to her and Tessa Parvin was no different.
“She was twelve,” she gulped.
“And this would have been her exact route home from school?” Jo confirmed. Rob had briefed her on the way over, and she’d had a quick look at the case files he’d printed out from the database so he could study them at home.
Tessa said that it was. She stared at the ground as they trudged along a well-worn footpath towards a wooded area up ahead. Tall grass and shrubs brushed their ankles, buckling in the wind. The heath changed from ochre to gold and back again as the gusty waves swept over its surface.
“It’s beautiful out here,” Jo mused. Rob picked up the scent of pine on the warm breeze. A small herd of deer huddled in a cluster, all facing the same way. He’d always wondered why they did that?
The footpath took them into the woods, weaving between pine trees, ancient oaks and holly. It was protected from the wind, although they could still hear the manic rustling of the branches above them.
“It’s thicker than I thought,” said Rob. From the map, the wooded area
