BBC Midlands Today
Saturday 23 July 2016 | Last updated at 15:59
Daisy Mason: Police question teenager
The BBC has learned that an unnamed teenage boy is helping police with their inquiries in connection with the disappearance of eight-year-old Daisy Mason. Despite an extensive search involving hundreds of members of the public, Daisy has not been seen since last Tuesday.
After it was announced that her parents, Barry and Sharon Mason, were being questioned by Thames Valley CID, there has been a widespread hate campaign on social media. The family home was subject to a devastating arson attack in the early hours of this morning, which sources say was connected with this campaign. The family are now believed to be in hiding.
Anyone with any information about Daisy should contact Thames Valley CID incident room on 01865 0966552.
*
I stand for ten minutes, watching Jamie Northam on the video feed from Interview Room Two. He must know we’re watching him, but he doesn’t seem bothered. In fact, I’m prepared to bet he’s putting on a show for my special benefit. Derek Ross has been replaced, to his obvious relief, by someone from Alex’s firm. Though he looks scarcely out of university, and has spent the whole time I’ve been standing here boning up on the Police and Criminal Evidence Act. Gislingham comes up behind me. ‘Anything interesting?’
‘So far I’ve seen him scratch his arse, pick his nose and dig crap out of his ears. All I’m missing is him squeezing his zits and I’ll have a full house. Any news from the search at the Rahijas’?’
‘No sign of Daisy. They don’t have a cellar or anywhere they could have kept her. Challow’s lot are going over it now, just to be sure, but the house looks clean as far as we can tell.’
‘Anything on Azeem’s laptop? He looked shit scared of something.’
‘Well, that something wasn’t porn. Looks like he’s been running a nice little earner dealing ketamine and skunk. Probably to students – always a ready market there.’
‘And he was idiot enough to leave the evidence on his laptop?’
‘Seems he’s doing Business Studies at the Further Education college. He was practising his double-entry accounting.’ He sees my face. ‘No, seriously, I’m not joking.’
I shake my head. ‘Jesus wept.’
‘Anyway, we’re charging him. His mother’s coming in.’
‘OK. So that just leaves us Jamie Northam. Whose mother certainly isn’t coming in. She’s still not answering her phone.’
‘You want me to sit in?’
‘No, I’d rather you made a start on the paperwork. See if you can find Quinn.’
‘Right, boss.’
*
I push open the door and go into the room. The lawyer pings upright as if he’s on elastic, then pushes his glasses up his nose. ‘Right, er, Sergeant – ’
‘Detective Inspector. For the record.’
The door swings open and Quinn comes in and joins me. He’s had a shower – I can smell his Molton Brown bodywash. I wish I’d thought to do that. Too late now.
‘So, Jamie – ’
‘Jimmy,’ he says sullenly. ‘My name is Jimmy.’
‘Fair enough. So, Jimmy, you are not at present under arrest. Mr Gregory is here to make sure that everything’s done according to the regulations. We all clear on that?’
No answer.
‘OK, I’m going to start by asking you some questions about Barry Mason. He says you found out where he worked and came to his office.’
He shrugs, but says nothing.
‘Why did you want to talk to him, Jimmy?’
Another shrug. ‘Just wanted to see what he was like. Mum’s always saying I’m like him.’
Something tells me Moira Northam only says that to her son when he’s pissed her off.
‘Do you get on with your stepdad?’
He looks up at me, then back at his bitten fingernails. ‘He doesn’t like me much. He says I’m fuckless.’
‘Feckless.’
‘Whatever.’
There’s a silence. I looked up Marcus Northam after I spoke to Alex – his big house on the river, his thriving property business, his extensive connections and his son at medical school. Hard to see him regarding this kid as anything other than a royal pain in the arse, and I’m sure he makes his feelings on the subject abundantly clear. And even if Jamie’s every bit the delinquent his stepfather considers him, the question is which came first, the acting-up or the disdain? Either way, it’s no surprise Jamie thought he might have more in common with Barry than either of the parents he’s forced to live with – no wonder he thought he might get a more sympathetic hearing from the man who actually fathered him.
‘So how did it go, when you met Barry?’
‘He said we couldn’t meet up. That it wasn’t a good idea.’
‘Did he say why it wasn’t a good idea?’
He looks away.
‘It was because of Daisy, wasn’t it? He said she was having problems at school. Is that why you tracked her down? Is that why you wanted to talk to her – to see if it was true?’
There’s a silence. He looks suddenly defeated. White about the eyes.
‘When he mentioned her I remembered. I’d forgotten, but then I remembered there was this little kid. She had blonde hair. We met her once at the zoo, me and my mum. She gave me a piece of her chocolate.’
‘She was nice to you.’
‘My dad was there too. I wanted to talk to him but he went away.’
I sit back again. ‘So you recognized your father – you remembered him. Even though you were only four when he left.’
He looks away. ‘I remember him boxing with me when I was little. In the garden. Mum didn’t like it.’
‘You were quite young, weren’t you? For boxing?’
‘Dad said I needed to be able to look after myself. When I went to school. So no one would bully me.’
‘He taught you how to fight to be nobody’s fool.’
The lawyer gives me an odd look.
‘Sorry – it’s from a song. It’s been in my head all day.’
The lawyer obviously thinks he’s scored some sort of point. ‘I’m not sure where all this is going, Inspector.’
‘We’re getting to that. So, Jimmy, you managed to work out which school Daisy went to.’
‘Piece of piss. Just sat outside a couple of schools at home-time until I saw her.’
‘Then you went back there later and spoke to her. It must have been a real shock for her – finding out she had a half-brother.’
‘Nah. She already knew.’
Now he really does have me wrong-footed. ‘Are you absolutely sure? Her parents didn’t want her to know about you. How did she find out?’
‘Don’t ask me. All I know is that she knew my name and everything. I think she thought it was cool to meet me. I think she liked having a secret from her mum.’
‘She didn’t get on with her mum? Do you know why?’
He shakes his head.
‘So what happened, Jimmy? You meet up, and she’s clearly happy to see you. She tells her mates she’s got a new friend and you see each other a couple more times, and suddenly she’s telling her friends she doesn’t want to talk about it any more. She’s angry and she won’t say why. What the hell happened?’
He shrugs.
I force myself to have some patience. It’s never been my strong suit.
But it pays off this time. Eventually.
‘She wanted to go to the circus on Wolvercote Common,’ he says at last, ‘so I got Azeem to take us. That’s why we were in the car. But it was crap. Kids’ stuff.’
I know the circus he means. We went, once. It was magical. One of the best days. I remember Alex lifting Jake so he could stroke the nose of a white pony they’d got up like a unicorn with a twisted golden horn. He talked about nothing but unicorns for days afterwards. I bought him a book about them. It’s still there, in his room.
Quinn’s voice dispels the memory. ‘Wasn’t the funfair there that weekend as well?’
Jamie nods. ‘But her mum won’t let her go to things like that. She’d never even seen candyfloss before. She didn’t know you were supposed to eat it.’
I have a sudden sad image of the two of them just being kids. Having a tiny afternoon of the ordinary childhood they might have had.
‘Sounds like a nice day,’ I say. ‘So what happened?’