‘She was with me, I swear,’ he said. ‘We passed an old school mate of mine, Darren Thomas, you can ask him.’
‘We will,’ Hollis said, his tone grim. ‘So, you got to the bookies, what then?’
‘I went inside to meet my dad.’
‘With Aleah?’
Reese hesitated and Kate could see him trying to work out which was the safest answer. Children weren’t allowed in bookmakers but she had a hunch that the rules might have been waived for Reese.
‘She came in with me. I know she’s not supposed to, but Bob turns a blind eye. She just sits in a corner and reads or does a bit of drawing.’
‘So, the betting slips in her room weren’t given to you at the pub?’
Reese shook his head. ‘Bob gave them to her the last time I went in to put a bet on. Said they’d keep her busy.’
‘So, you lied to your wife?’
His expression became even more desolate.
‘I suppose.’
‘So, if Aleah was with you in the bookies, how did she disappear?’
‘I sent her outside.’ Reese said. ‘I didn’t have enough money for a decent bet and my dad couldn’t lend me anything so I wanted to ask Bob for credit. I didn’t want Aleah to hear.’
‘So, you told her to wait outside?’
‘No, I gave her fifty pence and sent her off to the shop for some sweets.’
‘And that’s the last time you saw her?’
Reese nodded, his eyes suddenly brimming with tears.
‘The last time you saw Aleah was when you sent her off to the shop?’
‘Yes,’ Reese said. ‘Bob wouldn’t take my bet so I went back out to look for her and she’d gone.’
‘You do realise,’ Hollis said, his voice toneless, ‘that you’ve wasted a lot of time and resources. If you’d told the truth we might have found Aleah on Tuesday.’
He didn’t say ‘alive’ but the implication was clear. Kate cleared her throat hoping Hollis would take the hint and rein it in a bit; she could sense that he was growing increasingly irritated with Craig Reese and it wouldn’t help any of them if he lost his temper. They didn’t want Reese too defensive at this stage. Reese stared at the table-top.
‘Can I get a glass of water?’ he asked. ‘It’s a bit hot in here.’
‘Do you need a break?’ Kate asked. ‘Toilet, fag?’
Reese looked up at her gratefully.
‘Please. I’ve been stuck in here for ages.’
‘Okay,’ she said, standing up and picking up the folder of notes. ‘I’ll send somebody in to show you where you can get a drink and have a cigarette.’
She left the room with Hollis in tow trying to work out where to go next. Reese was being cooperative but, as soon as they shifted focus to his whereabouts on Tuesday night, she expected him to clam up, unless he had a damn good explanation.
‘Let’s grab a coffee,’ she said to Hollis. ‘Regroup.’
Doncaster Central was a fairly new building and the designers had obviously decided that police personnel would appreciate a good view when they found time for grabbing a quick coffee or a bite to eat. The canteen took up half of the top floor, three storeys up and flanked on three sides by floor-to-ceiling windows which afforded diners views across the town. It was more like a viewing deck than a functional space. Kate pushed open the swing doors, which always reminded her of a hospital with their port-hole windows, and pointed to a corner table.
‘I’ll get the drinks. White two sugars?’
Hollis nodded and pulled out a chair.
The canteen was quiet; the breakfast rush a memory of bacon smells and empty cereal packets and lunch was still an hour or so away so Kate didn’t have to queue. She took advantage of a minute of time to herself to consider their approach to Craig Reese. Hollis was obviously getting a bit frustrated and wanted to push on with the interview but they had agreed to take it slowly, earn his trust and then ask him about Tuesday night. She was worried that Hollis was losing focus on that objective. She grabbed the two mugs of coffee, took them over to the milk and sugar station and studied the view out over the museum. The squat building was mostly hidden by trees in full foliage but the breeze afforded her occasional glimpses of the swirl of block paving which flagged the approach to the main entrance. She remembered a visit there with school when she was eight or nine, a winter trip with a frigid picnic in the park before the coach took them home. The only exhibit that stuck in her mind was the beetles, massive examples of stag beetles, longer than her hand, which reminded her of something that Doctor Who might have to tackle on a remote planet. She shuddered at the memory.
‘Too much history,’ she muttered to herself, tearing open sugar packets and pouring them into the two drinks.
‘Right,’ she said, plonking a mug in front of Hollis and causing a tiny tsunami of coffee to spill onto the table. ‘Regroup time. How do you think Reese is feeling at the minute?’
Hollis shrugged. ‘Hard to tell.’
‘If he had nothing to do with her disappearance, then he’s grieving. Don’t forget that Aleah was his stepdaughter. And he’s frightened. We’ve caught him out in a lie and that makes him vulnerable. And if he did harm her then he’s going to be panicking.’
Hollis wrapped both hands round his mug, as though he needed the warmth of the hot drink, and studied its depths.
‘Have I done something wrong?’ he asked.
‘No, not at all. But I think you’re getting a bit ahead of yourself. Accusing him of not cooperating and insinuating that Aleah might have been alive if he’d told the truth could make him defensive. We don’t want him defensive, we want him biddable, willing to tell us everything so when we do ask him about Tuesday night it’ll be obvious if he’s lying.’
‘Do you think?’ Hollis sounded sceptical.
Kate took a long drink of her coffee before she answered. Hollis still had a lot to learn but he was quick and keen.
‘You lead the next session,’ she said. ‘I think he’s getting a bit wary of you. Be gentle, encouraging. Don’t let him think that you’re disgusted with him for lying.’
‘But I am. The girl’s dead and she might be alive if he’d told us the truth straight away.’
‘I know, and he knows as well, believe me. But keep a lid on it. Show some sympathy, encourage him to open up. We’ll show him his dad’s statement and then you ask about Tuesday night.’
Hollis shook his head. ‘Why don’t you do it? I just want to punch him.’
Kate laughed, surprised at the younger man’s sudden anger. ‘We both want to punch him, Dan. We want to punch most of them most of the time. The real skill is reining in that energy and using it to your advantage. You up for it?’
The DC nodded.
‘Is this a teaching moment?’ Hollis asked with a sudden grin. ‘Are you mentoring me?’
‘Now I want to punch you,’ Kate said. ‘Come on, drink up and let’s get back to it.’
The stale cigarette smell was stronger when they returned to the interview room. Reese was standing opposite the door, leaning against the back wall. A PC was standing next to the table and the two had obviously been chatting as Reese’s facial expression was open and unguarded. The change when Kate beckoned him over to a chair was like a sudden cloud passing over the sun on a bright day. His eyes deadened and his brows straightened into a faint frown. Kate crossed everything that she’d got this right and that Hollis was up to the job.
‘Feeling a bit more comfortable, Craig?’ Hollis opened.
Reese nodded.
‘So, can we pick up where we left off? You went outside the bookies to look for Aleah. Tell us about that.’
‘I went to the sweet shop,’ he began, his voice low and uncertain. ‘She wasn’t there. I asked the girl behind the counter if she’d seen her and she said that she’d bought a couple of small packets of Haribo’s and left.’
‘So, what did you do next?’
‘I walked up and down the street a few time
s, thought she might have gone in a different shop but there was no sign of her so I went back to the bookies. My dad was still there and I told him that Aleah was missing. He said she’d probably gone home and that I should go back and see if she was there.’
‘And that’s what you did?’ Kate wanted clarification. At some point Reese had asked his father to corroborate a lie and she wanted to be clear exactly when this had happened.
‘Yes. I kept an eye out on the way in case she was having a slow walk back and then I looked around at home.’
‘You looked around, where?’
‘Her bedroom, the garden, the shed. I was panicking a bit by then.’
‘So, you phoned her friends and your wife?’ Hollis prompted.
‘I think so. I phoned Lucie’s mam and then Evie’s. Then I rang Jackie and Jackie’s mam and dad.’
Kate nodded as though she approved of what he’d done to find his stepdaughter. ‘And you phoned your father,’ she said.
Reese blushed.
‘I phoned my dad and asked him not to tell Jackie that I’d been to the bookies. I know I told you that I’d phoned to ask if he’d seen Aleah but that weren’t true. I just didn’t want Jackie finding out what I’d done.’
‘And your dad said that he’d lie for you?’ Hollis’s tone was neutral.
‘Yes.’
‘So, you called Jackie and then you called the police? Is that right?’
‘Yes.’
‘Right. Two police officers came to the house and you told them what you’ve told us, apart from the bit about being in the bookies?’
‘Yes,’ Reese admitted miserably.
Hollis slid a piece of paper out of his folder.
‘This is a statement from your father that he signed this morning when he’d sobered up. Have a read and tell us if you agree with his account.’ He slid the page over to Reese who stared at it for a second before he dragged it closer and began to read. He nodded and slid it back.
‘You accept what he’s told us? It’s accurate?’
‘Yes.’
Hollis placed the paper carefully back in the folder, leaned forwards across the table and, using his arms to support his head, folded his hands beneath his chin. Kate could almost hear him thinking about how to approach the next part. He was half smiling as though he was pleased with what Reese had said. Reese looked unhappy but not at all defensive.
‘Where did you go on Tuesday night, Craig?’ Hollis asked, his tone conversational.
‘Wha– why…?’ Reese stammered.
Got him, Kate thought. He hadn’t been expecting that at all and Hollis’s calm manner had lured him in completely.
‘Tuesday night,’ Hollis repeated. ‘You left your house, where did you go?’
Reese looked at Kate, trying to understand what they wanted from him now but Kate just raised her eyebrows and shrugged, letting him know that she thought Hollis was asking a reasonable question.
‘I went to look for Aleah,’ he said.
‘Where? Where did you look?’
‘Just round the streets and that. Not far.’
‘How long were you gone for?’
Reese’s eyes flicked backwards and forwards from Kate to Hollis and back again.
‘I’m not sure. An hour?’
‘And that was your sole purpose in leaving the house, to look for Aleah? And you stayed on the estate?’
Reese hung his head, defeated. Kate had sensed from the beginning that he wasn’t the type to stand up to hours of questioning – there was something a bit pathetic about him like a puppy who just wants to please its owner.
‘I went to see if I could find my dad. I needed to make sure that he’d back up my story to Jackie. I went up to his house,’ Reese admitted.
‘Why not just ring him?’
‘I tried. He wasn’t answering. He said yesterday that he was going to the club and I thought he might have had a few too many and fell asleep when he got home.’
‘Which way did you go?’ Hollis asked and Kate wanted to give him a pat on the back. He knew exactly what to ask and he was staying calm, reeling Reese in again.
‘Over the quarry. It’s quicker.’
‘Did you go near the pond?’
Reese shook his head.
‘You didn’t go to the pond? You seem very certain about that. Were you not tempted to have a look around, just to see if you could find Aleah, be a big hero and bring her home?’
‘She wasn’t at the pond that night,’ Reese said.
Kate sat up straighter. Was he about to confess? Had he kept her somewhere else and dumped her later in the night when his wife was asleep?
‘How do you know if you didn’t look,’ Hollis pushed.
‘There was a bloke there. Search and Rescue. I saw his Land Rover at the gates when I went through the fence. Wanted to know what I was doing so I told him that I was Aleah’s stepdad and I was having a look around. He said he was looking for her as well. He’d just checked up by the fence and at the pond and there was no sign of her.’
Fowler, Kate thought. The man she’d seen earlier, the one who told her that he’d checked the pond last night. Could he have been dumping the body and wanted to keep Reese away? A bit unlikely, he had a good reason to be there and he’d admitted it to her without being prompted. Worth checking him out, though.
Hollis was taking notes, writing down details of the conversation that Reese claimed he’d had.
‘And this would have been at what time?’ he asked.
‘Probably between half nine and ten, it was starting to get dark.’
‘Can you describe the man you spoke to?’
Reese’s description fitted Kate’s memory of Ken Fowler exactly, down to the close-cropped hair and huge hands. Reese might be a bit of a numpty but he was an observant one.
‘And after you spoke with this man, where did you go?’
‘My dad’s. I knocked but he wasn’t in. So I went home.’
Hollis nodded and finished scribbling.
‘And that would have been what time?’
‘Dunno. Half ten maybe? Jackie was in bed. The doctor gave her something to calm her down and it knocked her out. I don’t even know if she heard me come back.’
So, nobody to confirm when Reese had got home, Kate thought. And only Ken Fowler to confirm the story about being at the quarry. If Jackie Reese was doped up to the eyeballs, as Reese claimed, then he could have been out half the night and she would have been clueless. She glanced at Hollis, hoping he was thinking roughly the same thing. It was time to wind this up, let Reese go and perhaps find Ken Fowler for a quick chat. Hollis caught her eye and her intention.
‘Right, Craig,’ he said, closing his folder. ‘We’ll get your statement typed up and then send somebody along to get you out of here. We’ll probably need another chat so expect us to be in touch. And I’m sorry about Aleah. Go home and be with your wife.’
Reese’s eyes filled with emotion as he looked gratefully at Hollis. He’d obviously been keeping a lid on his emotional state but Hollis’s kind tone had pierced the wall that his feelings were hiding behind and the whole thing was about to come tumbling down. Kate didn’t want to be there to see it. She stood up and left the room, desperate for fresh air and another coffee.
It was going to be a long day.
5
2015
Kate’s phone beeped when she was halfway up the stairs to the canteen. She was tempted to ignore it until she was fully re-caffeinated but there was a chance that it might be news about Aleah Reese’s post-mortem and she didn’t want to miss any details. It was from an anonymous number.
‘In Doncaster this afternoon. Can we meet? Drew Rigby. PCSO.’
‘Shit,’ Kate sighed. She’d forgotten about her conversation with him the day before and it looked like she was going to be too busy to see him. As she studied the screen trying to decide how to respond another text pinged in, this time from Raymond.
‘Team meeting, five mi
ns.’
Just enough time to grab a coffee and head back down to the incident room.
Raymond had already started his briefing when Kate pushed open the door to the small meeting room on the first floor. Hollis was there, leaning against the back wall and the other two members of her small team, Cooper and Barratt, were sitting at the oval desk. A detective that she didn’t recognise was sitting opposite Barratt. The DCI looked up as she found a seat and balanced her mug on the table in front of her. He looked tidier and less flustered than when she’d met him at the scene the previous day and he’d put on a clean suit and shirt – obviously this was intended to be a formal occasion. She half expected him to make a sarcastic comment about her being the last to arrive but she was well within the ten-minute deadline and he obviously wasn’t in a petty mood.
He’d started by putting information on the whiteboard which dominated the wall at one side of the room. Aleah’s school photograph, the same one that Jackie Reese had given to Rigby, was in the middle with lines radiating out to other pieces of information. One of these was another photograph. The girl’s body beside the pond. Yet another photograph was a close-up of the hands, bound loosely with yellow cord.
Further lines led to the names of people who had been interviewed. A vertical line had been drawn down the board to separate the diagram from a handwritten timeline starting with Aleah being with her stepfather at 11am and ending with the discovery of the body. Reese’s evidence needed to be amended to support his recent statement.
‘Fletcher. What did you get from Craig Reese?’ Raymond asked without preamble. He stood, poised next to the whiteboard, marker pen in hand.
Kate gave him a brief outline with times and potential witnesses and Raymond used the side of his hand to scrub out the false information and replace it with the most recent.
‘Right, good. We need to check up on this Darren Thomas, see if his story corresponds with Reese’s. Got details?’
Hollis opened his folder and read out an address and phone number.
Closer To Home Page 4
