by Anita Waller
They placed their orders, and Liz led them through to the lounge. Dan stood and looked at the two visitors. His eyes showed he had been crying, and Oliver held out his hand. Dan shook it, then turned and shook Tom’s hand.
‘I’m so sorry, Dan,’ Oliver said. ‘If you need anything, you and your mum, we’re here.’
Tom nodded his agreement. He turned to Liz. ‘Is there anything you need, Liz?’
‘I need the police to walk through that door and tell me they have Jake. Everything else I can handle.’
Tom put his arms around her and pulled her to him. ‘No news, then?’ he asked, his voice muffled as he spoke into the top of her head. He felt the sob that seemed to encompass her whole body.
‘Nothing. CCTV has caught nothing that’s of any help, nobody saw anything. My baby simply disappeared.’
He held her for a moment longer, and then steered her to the sofa. ‘Sit down, Liz, and let’s talk.’
Tanya brought the drinks through, and for a moment no one spoke. Then everybody seemed to speak at once.
‘How…?’
‘What…?’
‘I…’
Oliver held up his hand. ‘Whoa. Let’s start again. Is there anything that you need right now? Do you need anything legal?’
‘No,’ she said. ‘I don’t think there is. I won’t be in work for some time, obviously, but–’
Tom interrupted. ‘You take whatever time you need. That shouldn’t even have come into the discussion. Can you tell us what happened? Will you be comfortable with that?’
Liz nodded. ‘I can tell you everything I know, but it’s not a lot.’ She talked, covering everything from her leaving work to arriving back home with Tanya. The two men listened in silence, waiting until she had finished.
‘Did you know Gareth had been seeing Sadie?’ Oliver asked.
‘No, I didn’t. And apparently, I’m not to jump to conclusions about that – DI Brent said, until the forensics come back on the bedding from the bedroom, and the cot bedding, there is no proof they had been in there. He seemed to infer that maybe the murderer took his clothes, possibly because something of him, or her, had transferred to Gareth’s clothes. But Sadie was all but naked, except for her dressing gown, and he didn’t take her clothes, then put a dressing gown on her. And I’m sorry I keep saying he, because I’m by no means convinced the murderer is a man. It could as easily be a woman – possibly more so, as my baby has been taken.’
‘You think maybe Jake was the target? That Sadie and Gareth were in the wrong place at the wrong time?’ Tom spoke quietly, mulling over the possibility.
‘I do, and I think that’s what was in DI Brent’s head when he told me not to assume.’
Oliver joined in the conversation. ‘Did they find Gareth’s clothes?’
Liz looked startled. ‘I don’t know. Would they have told me if I’d asked? They seemed pretty keen to get me out of that house, so they could carry on with processing the crime scene.’
‘I don’t think they’ll tell you much until they’re convinced you didn’t murder your husband and his bit on the side in a fit of jealous rage. When they have time of death, that will clear you. You didn’t leave work until five, did you?’
‘A little bit after. And I rang the police around 5.40, so it didn’t leave me much time to stab them and spirit away my son, did it?’ They could both hear the bitterness and anger in her tone.
‘I can’t listen to this, Mum.’ Dan stood, and walked towards the lounge door, his shoulders hunched. ‘If you need me, give me a shout. I’ll be in my room.’
‘Dan!’ Liz moved to go to him, and Oliver held her arm.
‘Leave him be,’ he said. ‘He’s struggling. He’ll turn to you, eventually.’
‘This is so hard, Oliver. So hard. Nothing can prepare you for a situation like this. And I haven’t a clue what to do.’
‘Don’t blank your FLO, for a start,’ Tom said. ‘She’s here to support you and your family, so if there’s anything you need to know, or you need to speak to Brent, tell her. Hang on in there, Liz. You’re one of the strongest people I know. Be brave. And I shouldn’t imagine for one minute that you feature in any murder scenario, they have to work through things one step at a time. I’ve come up against Brent before, and he’s thorough. A careful man, doesn’t risk losing a guilty verdict with sloppy work. Trust him. And if there are issues, we’ve got your back. I hope that’s understood. Whatever happens, we’re both here for you.’
She gave a weak and tentative smile. ‘I know. I’m struggling to believe that the woman who got up for work yesterday morning is the woman here, now. I don’t feel like the same person. I almost feel like…’ She hesitated. ‘I feel as if Gareth dying isn’t real. I haven’t cried for him, and yet we’ve been together for ever. The only concern is Jake. And as for Sadie… what am I supposed to feel about her? And at some point, I’m going to have to face her son. I’m going to have to tell someone I’ve never met before, his mother was having an affair with my husband. What a bloody mess.’
‘You’re jumping to conclusions, again,’ Oliver said gently. ‘Wait for DNA results, Liz. Until they come through, we can know nothing with any certainty.’
‘I know. I know in here.’ Liz touched her left breast.
She stood. ‘Thank you both for coming, and don’t feel offended, but I want you to go. You’re forgetting I know your diaries – please go back to work, you’re both needed there. I will be back, I don’t know when. Is that okay?’
Tom stood and hugged her. ‘No time limit,’ he said softly. ‘We can make our own coffee.’ He smiled down at her. ‘Take care, Liz. And if there’s anything, legal or otherwise, get on the phone.’
‘And I echo that,’ Oliver said. ‘Anytime. Day or night. Remember that.’
‘I will. And thank you for galloping to my rescue. I’ll keep you informed, obviously, as soon as I have something to tell you.’
She stood at the window and watched as their cars pulled into the traffic, in convoy. She couldn’t have had better employers if she’d tried. But she needed space, time out to think.
‘Tanya, I’m going for a lie down. If anything happens…’
‘Go, Liz. I imagine you didn’t sleep at all last night. I’ll wake you if you’re needed, and any information will be passed straight on. And I won’t wake you unless anything is urgent.’ She tapped her laptop, open on the kitchen table. ‘I have some reports to file, I can be doing them while it’s quiet.’
Liz placed the tray of cups on the side and climbed the stairs. The last time she had climbed some stairs… She closed her mind down. These were different stairs, no dead bodies here. No Gareth. No Sadie. And no Jake.
She glanced into Dan’s room, and he was reading.
‘You okay?’
‘No.’
‘Need a hug?’
‘No.’
‘Need to talk?’
‘Mum,’ he said, exasperation in his tone. ‘Leave me alone. This is all my fault. If I had told you about the car being up there a lot…’
‘What difference would that have made?’
‘Can’t you see?’ he snapped. ‘It would have made all the difference. Dad would have stopped seeing her – he loved you, she really was a fling, I’m sure. You would have stopped Jake going there, and none of this would have happened. Different circumstances.’
‘Oh, God, Dan.’ She moved across to his bed, and pulled him into her arms. ‘You can’t think like that! Take it a step further back – if I hadn’t gone back to work after maternity leave…’
Dan clung on to her and cried, deep gulping sobs. ‘I loved Dad,’ he mumbled. ‘Why? Why did he do this?’
‘He only had an affair,’ she explained gently. ‘He had no part in anything else. He would have died for Jake, possibly did. We may one day get to know the full story, but don’t ever stop loving him, Dan. I won’t. He was a good man. And even if they prove he was with Sadie, that love may take a knock, but it won’t go
away. That’s what love means.’
Mother and son laid back on the bed, arms wrapped around each other, and slowly drifted into sleep, both thinking about a man; just not the same man.
---
‘Liz? You in the bathroom?’
Liz could hear Tanya’s voice through her sleep-induced fog brain. ‘I’m in Dan’s room,’ she whispered, reluctant to wake him.
She slid out from his draped arm, and opened the door.
‘Sorry. We cried together, had a talk and dozed off. He’s still asleep. Let’s go downstairs. Has something happened?’
‘Yes. Will Dan be okay if we go down to Moss Way station?’
‘Sure. I’ll leave him a note. He’ll ring me when he wakes. What’s happened?’
‘We’ve managed to get some CCTV. I understand it’s a bit grainy, but DI Brent wants you to look at it. Apparently, somebody a few doors down from the crime scene works nights; he wasn’t in when we did our first sweep for CCTV cameras. We’ve been back today and there’s something on it. It’s all we’ve managed to pick up. Fingers crossed it means something to you.’
‘I’ll have a quick wash, wake myself up, and we can go. Is that okay?’
‘Yes, of course. I’ll grab you some water from the fridge, and I can make you a drink of tea when we get there. It’s important we go quickly, Liz, in case you can recognise something.’
Liz nodded, headed for the bathroom.
Within three minutes they were on their way to the imposing police station.
Tanya shepherded her straight through, and DI Brent came forward to meet her.
‘Thank you, Liz. Come through here.’ He led her into a large room, sectioned by screens. ‘This is DC Rankin. He’s our whizz on computers. He’ll take you through the video. It’s not a clear picture, but look at everything. The walk, the hold of the person’s frame, everything.’
She nodded again and sat down in the chair by the side of the young, somewhat geekish-looking constable. ‘Hi,’ he said. ‘I’m Ian.’
‘She looked at him. ’Ian Rankin?’
‘Don’t ask. My parents are fans.’
Liz nodded a third time. ‘Ian, I’m Liz. Show me the movie.’
Pulling her chair closer to the screen, she watched intently. A figure pushing a pushchair came into view, and she gasped. Her stomach heaved, and a figure hurtled towards her clutching a bowl. She tried to swallow, but it was futile. She vomited until she could vomit no more. Her child was on a screen, being stolen.
‘Liz?’ Brent stepped forward, holding a towel, and a glass of water. ‘I’m sorry, I should have realised you would react like this…’
She pushed back her hair, and wiped the towel across her face. ‘I’ll be fine now. It was the shock… it’s definitely my pushchair. The toy dangling from the side of the hood is Peppa Pig. The little hand playing with it is Jake’s. And he’s awake. He plays with it all the time if he’s awake in the pushchair.’
At her gasp, Ian had stopped the video. ‘Ready to carry on? We can wait a few minutes if you want to settle yourself.’
‘Go ahead, I’m ready. We need to find him.’
‘Right, this is crucial now you’ve established it’s definitely your pushchair. I can stop the video at any time you say stop. I’m going to move this on one frame because in this next frame there’s a small portion of a face. Look at it carefully. And there’s not much to see so don’t feel you’ve let us down if it doesn’t mean anything.’
‘I understand,’ she said quietly, and pulled her chair even closer. ‘Go.’
He clicked on one frame, and she stared at the picture. The person’s head was encased in a hood, and was looking down towards the ground, clearly aware there may be CCTV cameras that could catch him. All Liz could make out was a brief sliver of skin. It could have been anybody.
There was dejection in her voice. ‘No, I can’t tell anything from that.’
‘Don’t worry. We couldn’t either,’ Brent intervened. ‘Ian’s going to run the rest of the clip until this person goes out of shot. Watch it through to the end. We can then rewind and take it a frame at a time if you need that.’
She waited, and the video re-started. The pushchair and pusher went across the scene and Liz’s eyes never left the screen. This evil monstrosity had killed two people and had her son. Joggers and a hoodie, trainers – unisex wear. Deliberately.
She shook her head. ‘I’m so sorry. It means nothing to me. I can’t even tell if it’s a man or a woman. And I wouldn’t recognise any identifiable walking issues because when you’re pushing a pram, your gait changes. You’re more hunched over. As this person is. The only thing I will say is that whoever it is, is taller than me. The partners in my practice bought us this travel system, and it was really expensive. So much so, that it allowed me to adjust the handle for the comfiest position. This person is bending over. I’m 5’3”, so this person is taller than that, but not by a massive amount.’
‘I knew I was right to bring you in,’ Brent smiled. ‘That gives us something to go on. Now, Ian is going to run it one frame at a time. Study each one individually; it will be tedious, but it’s so important, Liz, as I’m sure you can appreciate. Then at the end, he’ll do one more complete run through. We’ll take you home after that.’
Liz settled herself more comfortably on the chair, and leaned forward. ‘Go.’
She carefully studied each frame as DC Rankin scrolled through them, indicating when he could advance to the next one. She looked for a longer time at the frame where there was a partial image of the face, then as the screening drew to a close, she heaved a huge sigh. ‘Nothing. Absolutely nothing.’
Ian leaned forward and re-started the whole thing. ‘Right, one last time. Watch it as if it was Emmerdale, and you’re not emotionally tied to it. Watch it as if you’re doing a proof on it for ITV, and looking for continuity issues, mispronunciations – look for anything other than that baby being your baby.’ He clicked on his mouse and the screening started for the last time.
Liz never took her eyes from the screen, and then shook her head in exasperation at the end. ‘I can’t help. I noticed the time at the bottom said 16:18, so I presume that indicates my husband was already dead by then? I can’t even tell what sex the person is.’ She turned to Brent. ‘Do you have any thoughts on that?’
He shook his head, his brow furrowed. ‘Not really. Everybody wears joggers, trainers and a hoodie, and he or she was careful to conceal with the hood. The timer is accurate – we’ve checked that out on his set-up. There were three other houses on that road that we thought had CCTV – two of them were dummy cameras, and one wasn’t working. This is the only working one between the Fremantle house and the main road at the bottom. Thank you so much for doing this, Liz. Tanya will run you home. I’ll probably be in touch later, because we’re expecting the DNA results from the bedding. It’s the cot bedding I’m most interested in – I don’t expect the kidnapper to have gone in the main bedroom, but the little room is a different story. Do you happen to know if other babies are put into that cot?’
‘Now there I can help,’ she said. ‘She had no other children, Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday, just Jake. Monday and Friday, she had a little boy, but he’s three and sleeps in that single bed in the same room as the cot, if he needs a nap. In theory, there should only be DNA from Sadie and from Jake.’
Liz placed her handbag on her shoulder, shook hands with Brent and DC Rankin, then followed Tanya from the room.
They walked around the corner to the car park, and set off to head back up to Gleadless. Liz felt frustrated by her inability to come up with anything concrete, and didn’t want to talk. Tanya sensed her mood, and kept quiet until her phone rang. She glanced at the display. ‘It’s DI Brent.’
She pressed to receive the call and Brent’s voice filled the car. ‘Tanya, are you still with Mrs Chambers?’
‘Yes sir, I am. Just going over Birley Lane.’
‘I’d like you both to head back he
re, please.’
‘Of course. Ten minutes or so.’ She disconnected and looked at Liz. ‘Maybe they have another CCTV.’
Liz shrugged. ‘Whatever. Let’s go back and get it done, then I can go home to Dan. It’s starting to feel like a long day.’
DI Brent had been watching for the car; he met them at the door.
‘I need you both to come into my office, not the main one.’ His expressive face wasn’t smiling.
They followed him down a corridor and into an office that bore his name.
‘Please – sit down, Mrs Chambers.’ Liz felt as if she was back at school. It had been Liz earlier, now it was Mrs Chambers.
‘We’ve had the DNA results back. Rush job, as requested. I’m sorry, Liz, but it does show that your husband and Sadie Fremantle were in that double bed together.’ Brent was calling her Liz again, and she felt better for that. His news was as she had expected.
‘And what about the cot bedding?’
‘There is an issue.’
‘Stranger DNA?’
‘You could say that. Only two DNA results, one of which is Sadie’s. The other one we are assuming is Jake’s. We checked it against the DNA result from the main bedding, purely to confirm it was Jake’s.’
Liz felt the blood drain from her.
‘The thing is, Mrs Chambers, the DNA from the child in that cot is a different DNA altogether to the man in that bed that afternoon. Do you want to tell me why, Mrs Chambers?’ He took out a DNA swab from his drawer. ‘I need a DNA sample from you, to check we’re looking for the right baby. Open your mouth please, Mrs Chambers, and when you close it again, you need to talk to me.’
Chapter 25
Brent sat back in his chair, and stared at the woman in front of him. Why hadn’t she been honest from the beginning? He had no doubt it was her child who was missing, she seemed to have omitted certain parentage details. ‘I’m waiting.’
‘Am I under arrest?’
‘Not yet.’
‘Do I need a solicitor?’
‘I don’t know. Do you?’
