Like This, for Ever

59




MARK HADN’T SEEN her. Lacey didb’think he’d seen anything much, his eyes had been full of tears. The hand that had reached up to push open the door had been bloodstained and twisted. He might even have broken it.

For a second, she almost turned and followed, with no idea of what she’d do or say when she caught up with him, only knowing that no one in his position should be alone.

Then she saw the slim, white-faced woman being led across the room by a tall man in an expensive suit. This was Huck’s mother – impossible to mistake the heart-shaped face and the tiny nose. She was trying to make eye contact with people as she left, holding back sobs as she did so. ‘Thank you,’ she kept repeating. ‘Thank you for your help. Please find him.’ As they reached the door, she looked up and met Lacey’s eyes. Her lips moved, she tried to smile, then they were gone and everyone in the incident room was looking at Lacey.

‘What are you doing here?’ Dana Tulloch’s voice was like an icy shower on a cold day. She was at the far side of the room, Detective Superintendent Weaver standing directly behind her.

Lacey moved further into the room. ‘I want to help,’ she said.

‘I’ve got no time for theatricals.’ Slowly, deliberately, her heels clicking on the tiled floor, Tulloch stepped towards her. ‘You’re not on full duties and you’re certainly not part of this investigation. You need to go home.’ As she stopped talking, she stopped moving. She stood and stared.

‘I’m another pair of hands,’ said Lacey, conscious of every member of the team watching them. There were tears on Gayle Mizon’s face but she was holding it together. DS Anderson was red around the eyes. Even Stenning was the same off-white shade as the paint on the walls. She’d never seen them like this before. And she knew that there was no one she could rely on in the room to back her up. However well disposed towards her they might be privately, they’d support Tulloch when it came to it.

‘I can watch CCTV footage, I can trawl through witness statements, I can run HOLMES searches. I’ve got a good eye for detail, you can use me.’ Before the words were out, she knew it was no use.

Tulloch glanced at the detective closest to the door. ‘Tom, would you please take DC Flint to her car?’ she said.

A second’s pause, and then Tom Barrett stood up.

Lacey felt her temper rise like water coming to the boil. Tulloch had no right to put private antagonism before the search for a child. Especially that child. As Barrett stepped towards her, she put up a hand to stop him.

‘I have information,’ she said. ‘Directly relevant to the case. If you won’t let me help, then I have to make a statement.’

Around the room, detectives were sliding glances at each other, then flicking between her and the DI. Tulloch narrowed her eyes and moved closer. She couldn’t have looked more cynical if she’d been practising in front of a mirror. ‘What information?’

‘I can tell you who sent me the text about the body at Deptford Creek and I have the name of a possible suspect.’

The mood of the room changed then, subtly, but unmistakably. When she’d arrived, they’d been sympathetic, even if they hadn’t dared show it. Now, she could sense their allegiance changing as they registered the possibility that she’d been holding out on them.

‘Tom, take her downstairs. I’ll be down in five minutes.’

No, Tulloch was not going to have it all on her terms. ‘I want Sergeant Anderson to take my statement,’ said Lacey. ‘Gayle or Pete can accompany him.’

Tulloch was close to her now. Close enough to spit, close enough to strike. Either looked decidedly possible. ‘You do not get to choose to whom you speak,’ she said.

‘With all due respect, Detective Inspector Tulloch, I believe you have a personal prejudice against me. If you insist on taking my statement, I want a solicitor with me. If the Sergeant does it, we can start straight away.’

It took a split second for Tulloch to realize that waiting for a duty solicitor could take an hour or more. Wearing heels, she was almost exactly Lacey’s height, and Lacey could feel her breath on her face as she spoke.

‘If anything happens to that child, I will hang you out to dry. Do I make myself clear?’

Lacey didn’t blink. ‘Likewise,’ she replied, then deliberately turned her head away. ‘Shall we start, Sergeant?’

‘Why didn’t you tell us this the night we found Tyler?’ asked Anderson, as she’d known he would.

‘I had no proof Barney sent me the text,’ Lacey replied. ‘It was nothing more than a hunch and the fact that very few people have my mobile number. I couldn’t turn a vulnerable child over to a murder investigation without something more than that. I thought I could make him confide in me, that he and I would come in together. I also thought you might be able to trace the text from my phone, but that doesn’t seem to have happened.’

‘It was sent from a pay-as-you-go phone,’ said Stenning. ‘Cash transaction, impossible to trace.’

‘And the first you’ve heard of his suspicions about his father was tonight?’ asked Anderson.

‘Absolutely. I didn’t really take in what he was telling me at first. I felt too bad and too angry that he’d had to find out about his mother the way he did. I thought he was just hitting out. But then, after he disappeared, I started thinking. I know Stewart is out of the house on Tuesdays and Thursdays – I’ve noticed before now that Barney is on his own then. But the security bloke I spoke to at the university said he always leaves at six because he has a young kid. So, he’s telling work he’s leaving early to be with his son, and he’s telling his son he’s working late.’

‘So where is he going?’ said Stenning.

‘Exactly. And Barney insisted he was at Deptford Creek that Saturday night we found Tyler’s body.’

‘That boat was empty when we checked it,’ said Anderson. ‘At least, we assumed it was. Locked up, in darkness, people near by said it had been empty for months.’

‘I went to their house a few days later,’ said Stenning. ‘I remember it because it’s right next to where you live, Lacey. Mr Roberts told me they hadn’t been near the boat for months. Mind you, the kid said the same thing.’

‘He was protecting his father,’ said Lacey. ‘He also talked about bloodstained sheets from the boat. Blood-clotting drugs in the bathroom. And the glove.’

She nodded at the small black glove that was now in an evidence bag in the middle of the desk. ‘Assuming it’s the same one – Barney said it wasn’t his,’ she reminded them. ‘Why would Stewart have a child’s glove that isn’t his son’s?’

‘Ah shit, I remember now, Sarge,’ said Stenning. ‘The kid mentioned that the boat was reported wet. By the locksmith, I think he said. The boat was damp inside and the boy’s dad had to take the day off to go and dry it out. Roberts himself neglected to mention that. Claimed he’d forgotten until his son reminded him.’

‘We need to bring him in,’ said Anderson. ‘And get a warrant to search his house and the boat. OK, thanks, Lacey.’

‘Sarge, you need to find Barney, too. I dread to think what’s going through his head right now. He’s in no state to be out on his own.’

‘We’ll get right on to it. Christ, the last thing we need right now is another missing kid.’ Anderson stood up, switched off the recording equipment and stretched to ease the muscles in his back.

‘What happens now?’ asked Lacey. ‘Can I leave?’

Anderson nodded down at her. ‘Course you can. But stay close to a phone and answer it immediately if we call. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you to stay in the area.’

‘Are you sure there’s nothing I can do to help?’

Anderson opened the door and allowed Lacey to precede him out. Stenning brought up the rear.

‘If I were you, love,’ he said, as the door slammed shut behind the three of them, ‘I’d go and find DI Joesbury. I’d say that’s where you can be most use right now.’