“Loud and clear,” says Leo.
“Grand.”
Sergeant Mager lifts the coffee cup to his mouth and takes a chug. His bald head shines as a beam of morning light pulses through the window behind him. He has a kind face, one that has seen too much pain, and Julia guesses he’s been a cop for his whole life and is nearing retirement.
Sergeant Mager sets his coffee down. “We questioned Bambury in relation to the disappearance of Annabel Newsome, his girlfriend of two years.”
“When was this?” asks Detective Muhtar.
Sergeant Mager consults the file in front of him. “Five years ago now. To give the bloke credit, he was very obliging. He seemed every bit as concerned as everyone else about his missing girlfriend. At first, I didn’t think he had anything to do with it, but Annabel’s mum and dad insisted he must be involved. They said Annabel had ended the relationship and he couldn’t let it go. Annabel caught him following her on more than one occasion. He called the house all the time. There were frequent break-ins in the Newsome residence, too. Nothing would be taken. But the message was clear—I can get you any time I want.”
Julia’s eyes drift to the lower righthand corner of the screen where there’s a mug shot of a smiling Daniel, his sincere blue eyes locked on the camera. It could have easily been mistaken for a snap in a high school yearbook.
“Did her parents say why they broke up?” she says.
“Textbook possessive boyfriend stuff. Had to know where she was every minute of the day, told her what to wear, who she could see.”
“And violence?”
“Mum said she’d sometimes overhear heated verbal arguments and saw bruises on Annabel’s arms. But Annabel denied Daniel was physically violent—not uncommon for victims of abuse, unfortunately.” Sergeant Mager’s face grows dark. “On the night Annabel disappeared, she’d been at a pub with friends in the few days before Christmas. At first, we thought she might have drowned in the canal—there had been a spate of incidents involving intoxicated patrons falling into the water—but her parents insisted Annabel wasn’t a heavy drinker and her friends stated she only had one pint all evening.” Sergeant Mager runs his palm over his bald head and looks at them. “I believe Bambury killed Annabel and hid her body somewhere, but we were never able to prove it.”
Julia exhales. “God.”
“This is a man who likes to be in control. If things don’t go his way, there’s no telling what he’ll do.”
“Was he investigated for anything else?”
“Nothing official, but there was another girl he was involved with when he was sixteen who went missing. She was a neighbor. I made some inquires when I was looking into Annabel’s case. The girl’s name was Sheila McFadden, if I remember rightly. The word on the street was that Daniel and Sheila had been quite friendly. Then one day she turns up dead in a field not far from the school they both attended.”
“What makes you think Daniel was involved?” says Julia.
“He was the one who found her body. There were other things too, an alibi that didn’t quite add up, and he was overly helpful to the inquiry, always checking in with lead investigators to see how the case was going, which was strange for a sixteen-year-old kid. But no proof really, just suspicions.”
“How did Sheila die?”
“Strangulation. A ligature round her neck. Her school stockings, I believe.”
“What about Daniel’s background?” says Detective Muhtar.
Sergeant Mager drains his cup of coffee and gets up to pour himself another. “He told everyone he knew he was adopted, but in actual fact Bambury’s mother abandoned him when he was five. She dumped him with a man who didn’t believe he was Daniel’s real father. Consequently, Bambury was treated little better than a slave by the household and was subjected to terrible abuse. There were frequent calls to child services by neighbors but Bambury was never removed from the father’s care. When I was questioning Bambury about Annabel’s disappearance, I asked him about the abuse and while he accepted it had occurred, he refused to admit that his real mother had abandoned him. He insisted she’d died of cancer when he was five and that was the reason he was sent to live with his father. Even when I told him we had tracked his mother down and she was alive and well and living in Bournemouth, he still wouldn’t accept it.”
“Is he really a doctor?” says Julia.
“Oh, yes,” says Sergeant Mager, nodding. “And by all accounts he worked very hard to get there, held down two jobs while studying and kept an A average. He’s a very bright boy. He wanted to make something of himself, despite his rough upbringing.”
“And what’s your take on the situation with Toni?”
Sergeant Mager looks thoughtful. “You think he abducted the victim from her hotel?”
Detective Muhtar nods. “And according to records at Supercheap Rentals, a man fitting Daniel’s description hired a van for a month using a fake license in the name of Craig Pullman.”
Sergeant Mager looks thoughtful. “So he’s planned for it—he was going to take her whether she decided to go with him voluntarily or not.”
Detective Muhtar nods. “I agree. A search is underway. We are running number plate recognition software over our national traffic cameras. But Turkey is a big country. Also, with the time that has passed, he could have crossed borders already.”
Julia turns away, despondent. “It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.”
Sergeant Mager takes a breath. “Look, I’ll be frank with you. This guy’s no dummy. He’s a man with a plan and he’s well-resourced. You’ve got your work cut out for you. But don’t lose hope. Go back and review all the evidence. You never know what that might turn up.”
66
They take Sergeant
