‘I know, sometimes these things work for you, sometimes not – but you never know with photofits, it’s all part of flushing him out. They’re pushing his link with the swimming pools too, so plenty of phone calls in, the guys are working as fast as they can.’
‘All right, I’ll ring you after I’ve spoken to Jessica. Have you the statements in from Amelia’s family and friends?’
‘Pringle will have them for the morning session. I’m running late. Talk later.’
‘Sure.’
As she put down the phone and sipped her coffee, Kate knew well why Nolan and Donoghue weren’t happy. She wanted to know what his next move would be too. The killing of both girls formed the beginning of a pattern, one that could be relied upon heavily, if murder was his main motive or if the crimes were sexually driven. His stalking of Caroline, and possibly Amelia, meant he had been looking for something from both of them. The development of a relationship, even non-sexual, all pointed one way: he was looking for emotional closeness. Would he repeat the same pattern soon, or was he reassessing his choices all the time? She would need to consider the statements from Amelia’s family and friends, but right now she had Jessica to contend with. If the girl was holding something back, she’d have to get it out of her.
≈
Perhaps it was being under tighter police security that had changed the girl, but this time when Kate met Jessica Barry, the girl looked very different. She wore no make-up and when Kate arrived, she was curled up on the sofa in soft white pyjamas with pink daisies. Kate couldn’t make up her mind whether she looked more or less vulnerable without her war paint on, but with it gone, Kate could see how pretty she was. Rather than the overconfident stance of the previous day, Jessica looked anxious. Looking at her, Kate felt that whatever walls she had tried to build up to protect herself had come tumbling down.
Mrs Barry offered to make some tea, but Kate turned it down, knowing that being alone in the room with the girl was never going to be on the cards. Child protection regulations prevented them talking one on one, but Kate didn’t mind – she felt that, on this occasion, Mrs Barry’s presence in the room was a help rather than a hindrance. Any distance Jessica had originally displayed towards her mother was now gone, along with the make-up and the rest of her adolescent front.
‘How have you been, Jessica?’ Kate asked gently.
‘So-so.’
Mrs Barry nodded in acknowledgement.
‘Good. These things are difficult.’
‘That’s what I’ve been telling her,’ Mrs Barry agreed, appearing more confident.
‘Jessica, yesterday when Detective Inspector O’Connor and I spoke to you, we both felt there was something you were holding back.’
‘I helped with the sketch, didn’t I?’
‘I know you did, and I understand they’ve got lots of calls from the public already. But I’d like to go back to the man, Jessica, the one from the swimming pool. How well did Caroline know him?’
Jessica looked over to her mother, but Kate pressed on. ‘Jessica, I’m not trying to say anything bad about Caroline, I just want to see if there was anything else about this man that might be relevant.’
‘Jessica, you can trust Kate,’ her mother said softly. ‘Anything you say will be treated with the strictest confidence. Isn’t that right, Kate?’
‘Of course. Nobody is setting themselves up as judge and jury here.’
Again Jessica looked over at her mother, who gave her another reassuring look and nodded her head.
Jessica pulled her body into a tighter curl and traced the outline of a daisy on her pyjama leg. ‘Caroline met him again afterwards, after that time at the swimming pool.’
‘How do you know?’
‘She told me. Well, she didn’t exactly say they’d met up. She just said in passing that she’d met him, nothing sinister or anything. It was just a chance thing, it wasn’t important.’
‘Did she meet him more than once?’
‘She might have.’
‘Jessica?’
Jessica gave a little sigh of frustration. ‘They talked, that’s all. I think she felt sorry for him. She was really good at swimming, you know, he said lots of encouraging things to her, about never giving up. She said he was a good listener, she liked him, said he was nice, that he was kind to her, sort of like a teacher.’
‘And what did you say?’
‘Not a lot. She knew I didn’t like him. I mean, I’d only seen him once, but when Caroline set her mind to something, that was it. She didn’t think he was odd, she thought he was grand.’
‘Did she tell you his name?’
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe she thought I didn’t want to know, maybe she thought I didn’t understand, maybe she was right …’ Her voice trailed off.
‘So how did she talk to him? Was it over the phone?’
‘No, I don’t think he had one. I don’t know, but he lived nearby, she’d see him around when she was out; like I said, nothing planned or anything.’
‘Why didn’t you say all this before?’