by GS Rhodes
Kidd shook his head.
“Might have you do it if he still puts up a fight,” Kidd said. “But I reckon we’ve got enough to go on. I think I might pay him a little visit. He wasn’t at the press conference.”
“You’re bloody joking,” Sanchez said. “So he didn’t want to be there for the interview this morning, and actually bloody managed to skip out on the press conference. He works in recruitment, it’s not like he’s saving lives or something.”
“Well, I’d certainly love to hear his excuse for that one,” Kidd said. “What did you manage to get from Mrs Wade?”
“Buckle up.”
Kidd grabbed his coffee and sat on the edge of Simon’s desk as Sanchez and Ravel told him everything they’d found out. The more she spoke, the wider Kidd’s eyes seemed to get. DCI Reid seemed to have no intention of going to visit Eric’s mistress, and that was ringing alarm bells in Kidd’s head.
It was possible, of course, that the cases weren’t connected at all if the mistress potentially had something to do with it. And obviously, if Daniel was involved with Maggie’s disappearance, then they wouldn’t be. Of course, Peter West was still in the frame, and though the kids were pretty far apart in terms of location, it was possible that he could have gotten them both. Their list of suspects was growing, but at least they had a few leads to chase, which was more than they had this morning.
They needed to figure out where Daniel Walters had been instead of being where his assistant had said he was, and they needed to talk to Eric Wade’s mistress and either put her in the frame or take her out of it. It seemed like they were going to at least follow Brody Wade’s disappearance to that point, even if they didn’t take it any further.
Then they would need to speak to Peter West. There were PCs who were keeping an eye on him, sure, but there was no way that he could be watched all the time. Kidd had an urge to head down the road and kick in the door of that house again for old times’ sake, and to ease his mind.
“Do we need to tell Weaver about the Brody Wade case?” Sanchez asked.
“Not yet,” Kidd said. “We’ll tell him about it when there’s something to tell. Are you two happy to go and talk to the mistress?” Kidd asked Campbell and Janya. “Take it easy, don’t go in all guns blazing, we just need to figure out her part in all of this. We have Cherise’s side of the story, now we need hers.”
“Sounds good to me,” Janya said.
“What about us?” Sanchez asked.
“I think we need to pay a visit to Mr Walters’ place of work,” he said. “I think someone hasn’t been telling us the truth.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“I’m afraid he’s not here at the moment.” The receptionist at All Out Recruitment was not pleased to see them. The second Kidd and Sanchez had walked through the glass double doors and shown her their warrant cards, her face had gone sour.
“Daniel Walters isn’t here?” Kidd said, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. So much for going back to work then, he thought. “I was under the impression he was working today, or that he had come back to work. That’s what I was told, anyway.”
“He was in this morning,” she said. “But he had to go back to his house to have a chat with, well, with your lot, I think?” She laughed a high pitched laugh, not that it quite reached her face. “Head honcho gave him the rest of the day off, something to do with his family, I think. He’s nice like that.”
“Who is?” Zoe asked.
“The boss,” the receptionist said. Her face twisted in confusion. “I’m sure I spoke with one of your lot on the phone this morning. Didn’t I confirm that he was in meetings all day yesterday? You didn’t really need to come down, you know?”
She was young, red hair cut into a severe bob and black rimmed glasses that looked a few sizes too big for her petite face. Her smile was saccharine and in no way genuine.
“If Daniel isn’t here, then we would like to talk to his assistant, if at all possible,” Kidd said, already starting to lose patience.
“Louise,” the receptionist said, nodding. “Yes. She was the one who confirmed the meetings with me, and I confirmed them over the phone with your lot.”
“Well, that’s lovely,” Kidd said, “But if we could just chat to her ourselves, it would be a heck of a lot quicker. You do know that there’s a child missing, don’t you?” This seemed to get her attention. She sat up a little straighter. “Daniel Walters’ four year old is missing and we’re investigating her disappearance, so if you wouldn’t mind just letting us through the door so we can do our jobs, I would greatly appreciate it.”
She blinked a few times. Perhaps she wasn’t used to people speaking to her so harshly, or maybe she thought that if she repeated herself enough times they would turn around and walk away, but Kidd was a touch more stubborn than that and he needed to find out exactly where Daniel Walters was. He wasn’t at work when he was supposed to be, and as far as they knew, he wasn’t at the places he was supposed to be on the day Maggie went missing. They needed to put the pieces of this puzzle together. Fast.
“I’ll buzz you through,” she said. “It’s on the second floor, his office is right at the end, Louise’s desk is just outside it, you can’t miss it.”
“Thank you,” Kidd said, walking past her desk and through another set of glass doors and up a flight of stairs.
“Laid it on a bit thick there, didn’t you?” Zoe said.
“She wasn’t getting it,” Kidd said.
“Where do you think Daniel is?” Zoe asked as they climbed the stairs.
“I don’t know,” Kidd replied. “I’ve got a few ideas, but we’re working on hunches and guesses at this point. He was meant to be in the office, that much I know. The fact that he isn’t here, and he doesn’t have the excuse of meetings today, means…” he trailed off.
“What does it mean?” she asked.
“It might mean something,” he said. It was all he had. He had a hunch, and he was following that hunch. Someone here had to know something.
The office was open plan, the walls stark white with big windows that had a view of…well…it had a view of the parking garage next door. Very charming. There were people sitting at desks, most of them young, good looking, wearing headsets and chattering loudly on the phones. The noise was cacophonous and it was already doing a brilliant job of setting Kidd on edge.
A few pairs of eyes turned to look at Kidd and Sanchez as they walked in. These were not friendly faces, these were the faces of people who just wanted to know who the strangers were and what on earth they were doing in their offices.
A white man stood up, keeping his headset on as he approached them both. He was wearing a suit that was definitely a couple of sizes too big for him, grey with white pinstripes. His hair was slicked back with so much product it looked like it was made out of Lego. He looked like he belonged in Bugsy Malone not in a recruitment firm.
“Erm, can I help you?”
“We’re looking for Daniel Walters,” Kidd said, pulling his warrant card out of his jacket pocket. “I’m DI Benjamin Kidd. Can you help me?”
“He’s not here,” the man said, turning his nose up at Kidd. “He went home this morning to be with his wife. They’re having family problems. Won’t be back in until tomorrow probably. You’re out of luck.”
“I doubt that,” Kidd replied. “Can you point me in the direction of his assistant?”
“’Fraid not,” the man replied.
“And why’s that?” Zoe asked.
“She’s just out getting us all lunch,” the man said. “We were all busy so she went out to get us something. It’s a little late in the day, but you’re welcome to stick around and eat with us if you want.”
Zoe’s lip curled. She looked like she wouldn’t want to do anything of the sort, least of all with this guy.
“I’ll pass,” she said. “Do you know when she’ll be back?”
The man shrugged. Kidd was about to say something rude when the do
or opened behind them. Laden with paper bags from Pret A Manger was a young, brunette woman, her hair a little frizzy, her glasses a little askew, out of breath from having just climbed the two flights of stairs.
Her gaze was downcast as she walked in, travelling from desk to desk, handing off the paper bags. Only a couple of them looked at her, even less of them actually said, “Thank you,” or words to that effect. The sooner they got out of here the better.
“Must be your lucky day,” the man said, looking past them to the young woman. “That’s Louise. Hey, Louise!” he shouted. The woman jumped, almost dropping the bags. She froze.
“Yes?”
“These coppers wanted to talk to you about Daniel,” he said, turning back to them. “There you go. Last chance for a late lunch, if you fancy it.”
“I’d rather shove bamboo under my fingernails,” Zoe said before turning her attention to Kidd. “Shall we?”
“Gladly,” Kidd said, walking away from the man and towards the woman they now knew to be Louise. Kidd couldn’t place her age. From a distance she looked young, her height making it seem like she was nothing more than a school girl here on work experience. But up close, she looked…Kidd hated to think it, but she looked tired, and it made her look older. “Louise, is it?”
“Yes,” she said, handing one of her last paper bags to a woman who was mid-conversation on the phone. She walked towards the man who had addressed them, dropping off her last paper bag and starting towards the other end of the office. “What can I help you with?”
Her desk was set apart from the rest of the workers. Kidd saw it as something of a blessing given the way they seemed to treat her. They were next to a glass-fronted office that Kidd assumed was Daniel’s.
She took a seat and woke up her computer.
“We’re looking for Daniel Walters,” Kidd said. “Apparently, you’re the right person to speak to.”
“He’s not here,” she said. “Family emergency. Sorry.”
“Well then, would you be able to confirm a few things for us?” Kidd asked.
“I think I already did that this morning,” she said, tapping away at the keys on her computer, not looking at the two detectives. “He was in meetings all day yesterday.” She clicked a few times and pulled up his calendar. The afternoon was entirely blocked out with different names, the entire afternoon booked out. “He wasn’t here. Sorry.”
“We’re investigating the disappearance of Daniel’s daughter,” Kidd started.
Louise turned to him sharply.
“Maggie is missing?”
“Yes,” Kidd replied. “We’re here to double-check Mr Walters’ whereabouts because we have reason to believe that he may have been somewhere else.”
“You think he kidnapped his own child?” she asked, sceptical.
“No,” Kidd said. “Though you’d be surprised at the number of times that’s happened before. We just want to confirm that he was where he said he was.”
Louise hesitated. “He was in meetings all afternoon,” she said, reaching across her desk to grab a stack of Post-it Notes. “He’s a very busy man, so perhaps him not being where he said he would be was because he changed the schedule. It happens sometimes.”
She started writing on the Post-it. Kidd couldn’t see past her head as she wrote.
“Now I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” she raised her voice a little. “I have a lot of work to do. Thank you so much for coming in. I will be sure to give you a call when he’s back in the office.”
She cleared her throat, sliding the stack of Post-its across the desk. Kidd looked down and read what she had written. “MEET ME IN THE CAR PARK. 10 MINS.”
“No problem,” Kidd said, looking at the rest of the office, his heart hammering away in his chest. “Thank you for your time.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Owen Campbell still didn’t feel like he had woken up. The morning had given way to the afternoon and it was coming closer to the end of his shift, and he was still waiting for the three coffees he’d had that morning to kick in.
In spite of all of that, he felt like he’d made progress today and it had been a welcome distraction from what had happened on the case last night. He was still worried about Simon, of course he was, but at least he was contributing to finding Maggie Walters.
Truth be told, he wasn’t all that close with DC Simon Powell. They had worked together since Kidd came back from his sabbatical, but they’d never really spent much time together outside of work. Owen had always intended to invite him out to places, to go for a drink with him and just get to know him a little better, always told himself that he was going to make more of an effort, but it just never materialised. Now he felt bad about it.
“I think it’s just up here,” Janya said, snapping Owen out of his thoughts as they drove out of Kingston and towards the university campus. It wasn’t all that far from the station. On foot it would have taken them no more than ten minutes to get there, but in the car they’d had to loop right around and find parking.
It was a white house with a lot of ivy across the front of it. There were trees in the front garden casting a lot of it into shadow, and in a strange way, if you didn’t know that the house was there, you probably wouldn’t have given it a second glance.
Owen didn’t know where he expected Tally Hill to be living, but based on what Janya and Sanchez had said about where Cherise Wade lived, he thought it would look a lot worse than this.
He parked the car and sat back in his chair.
“What do we…” he started, turning his attention to Janya. Much like with Simon, he hadn’t worked with Janya a whole lot, hadn’t really taken the time to get to know her outside of the station either. Now wasn’t really the best time to do that. “What do we do?” he asked.
Janya fixed him with a slightly confused stare.
“Well, I think getting out of the car would be a good start,” she said, a smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth. “Are you nervous?”
“A little,” he said. “I don’t know what I’m expecting to find when we go in there.”
It was true. He knew that she stood accused of snatching Brody Wade, but it’s not like he was expecting to walk in there and find the kid sitting there watching TV or something.
“We just want to have a chat with her,” Janya said. “DCI Reid would have probably had a good reason to not look into this, but we’re just crossing her off our list, and…well…if it’s suspicious or we see anything that might point to her having done something, we investigate it further.”
Campbell nodded. Janya was pretty level headed for someone newer in the job than he was. He needed to focus more. He knew that. He spent way too much time making jokes and trying to find a way to make work fun that he forgot sometimes he was here to do a job. He could learn from Janya for sure. He probably could learn from Simon too.
“Owen,” Janya snapped. “Focus, please. Don’t make me do this all by myself.”
It surprised Campbell to see her confidence wobble a little.
“Don’t worry,” he said, smiling. “In this together, alright?”
They got out of the car and made their way to the front door. The address that Mrs Wade had given them hadn’t brought anything up on the national database. The property was clean, or at least it seemed to be. You never really knew what was happening behind closed doors until you smashed them down.
“Can I help you?” A mixed-race woman answered the door. Her eyes were a beautiful amber colour, practically glowing in the mid-afternoon sun. Campbell was transfixed. She was average sized, curvy, and her hair cropped close to her head.
“We’re looking for Tally Hill,” Janya said, shooting a look at Campbell who was all but drooling at the sight of her. “I wondered if you’d be able to help us?”
“Who’s asking?” she said, crossing her arms.
“I’m DC Janya Ravel, this is DC Owen Campbell.” Janya said it with enough force that it seemed to snap hi
m out of his trance. “We’re investigating a disappearance and just wanted to check in with Tally, if she’s here.”
The woman sighed and turned her back on the two of them.
“Tally!” she called. “Got some coppers here to see you.” She sauntered back into the house and through a door at the far end of the hallway. She slammed it closed, leaving Janya and Owen in the foyer, waiting.
The entryway was a lot grander than he’d been expecting. It was wider, for one, with a grand staircase to the side. At the end of the hall before them was a small desk with a lamp and an open book on it. It looked more like a hotel than it did someone’s house.
The sound of footsteps came down to them from above, someone hurrying along the landing. A woman, well, more a girl, came bouncing down the stairs. She was tall, slim, a baggy t-shirt hanging off her slight frame.
“Sorry,” she said, a little out of breath. “I was…” she trailed off as a second pair of footsteps sounded from behind her. A man made his way downstairs, his shirt undone, his belt flapping around his trousers, his dress shoes in his hands. He sheepishly made his way past all three of them, heading down the garden path to a car that was parked a little way away.
The girl they assumed to be Tally smiled at them, leaning on the doorframe.
“I was busy,” she said with a shrug. “Can I help you? Is something wrong?”
“We’re investigating the disappearance of Brody Wade, potentially in connection with another disappearance,” Janya said. “May we come in?”
Tally looked behind her before turning back to the two detectives.
“Sure,” she said. “The…um…the other people that live here, they’re not…they’re not that keen on the police, so maybe don’t say that too loud,” she added quietly. “Come through to the kitchen.”
