by GS Rhodes
“Meetings,” Kidd repeated. “Yes, very important meetings. Do you have some scheduled for this afternoon?”
Daniel sighed.
“I’m a very busy man,” he said. “As well you know, so I usually do. I’m not sure about today, I’ll need to check my schedule.”
“Your schedule,” Kidd said. “That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about. Could you remind me of your whereabouts on Wednesday, please?”
“You’ve already got this information,” Daniel said. “If you’ve called me down here to waste my time, I’ll just go back to work.”
“I’ve not got my notes with me,” Kidd said, keeping his expression neutral. “Refresh my memory.”
Daniel sighed. “I had a meeting at Pizza Express at one, if I remember rightly,” he said. “Then after that, a meeting at a Cafe. I think it was Cafe Marco. I have a lot of meetings there. It’s small, secluded, never busy. Then the last meeting was in Teddington. No specific meeting place, just down by the lock. Refreshed?”
“Very much so,” Kidd said. “We’ve been checking up on you, Mr Walters, I hope you don’t mind, and we can confirm that you weren’t at any of those locations on Wednesday afternoon.” He paused, watching Daniel’s face carefully. He remained still, determined not to give anything away. “What do you have to say to that?”
“Those were my meetings,” Daniel said. “And you’re wasting my time.”
“Quite the reverse actually,” Kidd said. “I think you have been wasting our time. DS Sanchez?”
“We called both of those locations and asked about reservations, there were none. We asked to see the CCTV to make sure you were there, you were not. We even went so far as to send a little picture of you to make sure we hadn’t missed anything, the staff had no idea. Not even at the small, secluded Cafe Marco. They’d never even seen you before. So when it comes to wasting anyone’s time, Mr Walters, I think you have been wasting ours,” Zoe said. “Anything to add, DI Kidd?”
“Nothing to add,” he said. “Just a question. Where were you on Wednesday afternoon, around the time that your daughter went missing?”
Kidd could see that Daniel was sweating. He loosened his tie and undid his top button. The room had definitely gotten a little bit warmer, but Kidd was sitting pretty because he knew that he was about to get everything that he wanted from Daniel Walters.
“I…I wasn’t…I wasn’t in meetings,” he sputtered.
“We know that, Mr Walters,” Kidd said. “Now, tell us what’s really going on?”
Daniel took a heavy breath and leant back in his chair. He turned his gaze skyward—like anybody up there was going to help him—and then back to the two detectives.
“I was with someone,” he said. “I was with a woman I’ve been seeing, her name is…her name doesn’t matter, I—”
“Her name does matter,” Kidd interrupted.
“Fine, her name is Leigh Cremer.”
“Everything matters, Mr Walters, don’t you understand?”
“I just don’t see what any of this has to do with my daughter going missing!” Daniel shouted.
“Now wouldn’t really be the time to raise your voice to me, lad,” Kidd growled. “It could have everything to do with your daughter going missing. We are investigating, and in order to do our job, we need all the facts. For all we knew, you could have been part of it.”
“But I wasn’t—”
“Be that as it may, if you hadn’t lied to us in the first place, you would have saved us an awful lot of trouble.”
“I wasn’t about to start talking about Leigh when my wife was there,” Daniel said. “She…she doesn’t know.”
“Obviously,” Kidd said. “Carry on, Mr Walters, I’ll try not to interrupt again.”
Daniel started talking. He told them about Leigh, how they had met at a business conference, how they had been seeing each other ever since, and how his assistant had been in charge of making sure that nobody found out about it.
“It just…started happening and I couldn’t stop it,” he said. “I couldn’t help myself. It was all so easy.”
“And why didn’t you answer your phone?” Kidd asked.
“I put it on silent when I’m with Leigh,” he said. “Rachel is…she needs me sometimes, or thinks she does, so she calls me out of the blue. She did it once while I was with Leigh and it was a bit of a mood killer so I…” He seemed to realise how awful it sounded before he could even get to the end of his sentence. “The phone was on silent and in my bag. We spent the whole afternoon together so I didn’t end up checking my phone until we left the hotel.”
“At what time?”
“It was about seven o’clock?” he said. “You can check my call log. I called Rachel back as soon as I saw.”
Kidd nodded. “And you were with Leigh yesterday afternoon when we came to see you at your office? I assume someone there would have told you we’d been there, they seemed like a chatty bunch.”
“Yes,” Daniel said quickly. “I needed to blow off some steam, I was stressed.”
Kidd looked at Zoe who offered him a nod in return. They had gotten all they needed from Daniel. It was enough at least that they would be able to take Daniel out of the picture if his alibi checked out. It would leave them with one less suspect, but progress was being made at least.
“That’s all we needed to hear from you, Mr Walters,” Kidd said. “Would you mind leaving us with Leigh’s details? We’d love to chat with her and confirm all of this.”
“Please don’t tell my wife,” Daniel blurted. “It’s…it’s not really…I don’t…”
“It’s not our place to,” Kidd said. “We just want to talk to Leigh to corroborate your story.”
Daniel let out a huge sigh of relief at that. He gave them her details and left the station. They would be able to speak to him again if they needed to. Next stop, Leigh Cremer.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
After sitting in that room for such a long time, Kidd needed some fresh air. Zoe felt the same, heading outside to the front of the station with him. He turned his attention to the reception desk on the way out. Diane was still away.
It was strange. She was only one person out of a building of hundreds but it gave everything a different sort of feel. Instead of having that welcoming presence at the front desk, you had…well…you didn’t have that.
“He’s quite a piece of work, isn’t he?” Zoe said as the two of them walked. They wandered away from the station, following the river down past the Rose Theatre and out towards the riverfront. “Both of the men are. Do we want to talk to Eric Wade?”
“We’ve got confirmation from Tally that he was with her when it all happened,” Kidd said.
“And we just need confirmation from Leigh that Daniel was where he said he was and then that’s both of the husbands out of the picture,” she said. They stopped and looked out at the water. “Two men cheating on their wives as their children were kidnapped.”
Kidd mulled it over, suddenly remembering what he had been thinking of the previous night when he had been with Liz. With her finding out about Craig and everything with Peter West happening this morning, it had managed to slip his mind.
“Do you think it’s a little too much of a coincidence?” Kidd said, breathing in the fresh air coming off the water. There were people wandering by, heading out on their lunch breaks most likely.
“What do you mean?”
“The two kidnappings we’re investigating,” he said. “I know we were only looking at them both because they had happened in a short space of time. But what if there’s more going on there?”
“You really think there might be a connection?”
Kidd shrugged.
“It’s a theory,” he said. He knew how tenuous it was, how much he was reaching to find a way to put the two things together. But what if?
“You think whoever it was who snatched those children knew about the fathers’ affairs?” Zoe asked. “And they took them
for revenge?”
Kidd moved his head from side to side, mulling the idea over in his head.
“Perhaps, revenge,” Kidd said, which would have put Rachel in the frame or even Cherise Wade. “Or vigilante justice.”
“Vigilante justice?” Zoe repeated.
“Someone who thinks they’re doing the right thing by punishing these men,” Kidd said. “What if they know about the affairs and, instead of exposing them to their wives, they found a way to take something that they loved?”
Sometimes when kidnappings came around there was a ransom involved, someone would want money in exchange for giving the victim back alive or in one piece. In this case, nothing like that had come up. So they either had someone like Peter West on their hands, someone who found some sick sort of pleasure in stealing kids away from their parents, or it was someone with some other agenda.
Whatever it was, Kidd didn’t like it. And he didn’t like that he didn’t feel much closer to solving this case than he had done a few moments ago.
“It’s a sound theory,” Zoe said. “It’s not beyond the realm of possibility.”
“We need to talk to Leigh Cremer,” Kidd said. “We need to make sure Daniel was with her, really take him out of the picture.”
Kidd’s phone started buzzing away in his jacket pocket.
Typical, he thought. Away from the office for five minutes and this is what happens.
He took it out to see Liz’s name emblazoned across the top of the screen. His stomach dropped. With everything they had just been talking about, the cheaters being punished by someone, he couldn’t help but think about Greg. But Greg had broken up with his mistress, hadn’t he?
He answered the phone, his heart beating double-time in his chest.
“Hello? Everything alright?”
“Ben!” Liz said, excitedly. “I was honestly expecting to have to leave a message. Is it a bad time?”
“No, Liz, not a bad time, is everything okay?” he asked quickly.
“Fine,” she replied. “Is…is everything okay with you? You sound worried.”
Kidd took a moment to calm himself. He was overthinking it, letting his brain run at a million miles an hour. He turned to Zoe and mouthed, “Liz” to her. She walked away, giving him a little bit of privacy, taking out her own phone.
“Yeah, fine, just on a case,” he said. “What do you need?”
“I don’t mean to bother you at work with something like this,” she said. “But I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind watching the kids tomorrow night? Greg wants to take me out on a date night, he’s feeling all mushy and romantic because it’s our wedding anniversary soon, and he thought you might be free? Bring John if you want. Might be nice for the kids to get to know him if he’s going to be sticking around.”
Kidd hoped that he would be. He just needed to get around to filling him in on all his secrets first.
“No problem,” he said. “More than happy to. Text me the details and I’ll be there.”
“You’re a wonder,” she said. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
They hung up the phone and Kidd looked over to Zoe to see her pacing, her phone pressed to her ear. She took it away, pressed a few buttons, and returned to the same position, her face tight with worry.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“It’s a call from Cherise Wade,” she said. “The connection is bad and I can’t make it out.”
Kidd’s phone buzzed again, a text this time.
JANYA: Got a visitor at the front desk. Cherise Wade is looking for Zoe.
◆◆◆
Cherise Wade was sitting in the waiting area, her makeup streaked with tears, her blonde hair straightened to within an inch of its life. She looked so small sitting in the reception area, holding onto her handbag for dear life. There was something about her that seemed fragile. It was the same look that Kidd had seen on Rachel’s face. He didn’t need to ask how she was coping with the disappearance of her son. It had clearly taken its toll on her.
“I tried to call you,” Cherise said, immediately getting to her feet as they walked in the door. “What did you say to that woman?”
“We interviewed her,” Zoe said. “We spoke to her and confirmed everything that you had told us about her relationship with Eric. She told us about what had happened with you also.”
“And did she have him? Did the bitch have my boy?”
“No, Mrs Wade, she didn’t,” Zoe said, keeping her voice even. “Is that why you’ve come down here? You didn’t need to make that trip, I would have called you back.”
“No, it’s more than that,” she said, rummaging in her handbag. She pulled out an envelope with the name ERIC scrawled across it in big black letters. “This came through the letterbox and I-I didn’t know what to do.”
“Did you call DCI Reid, I’m sure she—”
“She won’t help me, I know she won’t,” Cherise said. “DS Sanchez, you’re the only one who has listened to me, you’re the only one who wants to help me. I need you to look at it.”
Zoe looked to Kidd like she was seeking permission. He wanted to know what was in there. If they had to deal with the fallout from DCI Reid, they would deal with it, but he didn’t want to just turn this woman away. He nodded.
Zoe opened the envelope, Kidd looking over her shoulder to see what was written on it. His mouth fell open.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Eric
We have your son and we know what you’ve done. If you want him back, you know what it will cost you. £5000 is to be delivered. Call the number on the reverse to make the arrangements. You have two days.
Kidd showed it to the rest of the team. Cherise had been in pieces when Zoe had spoken to her about it further. She didn’t have that kind of money, she had no idea where she would get that kind of money, and she didn’t want to lose her son.
The ransom note wasn’t a new tactic, that much Kidd was aware of, he’d dealt with them many times before. The only thing that was different was that it had taken so long for it to arrive. In his experience, they arrived quite quickly. Normally, the kidnapper wanted it over sooner rather than later.
He knew one thing for certain, though, this wasn’t Peter West’s style. He didn’t need the money, and his alibis checked out. He was out of the picture, but Kidd was struggling to figure out who exactly was in the frame now.
“We have a time limit to rescue Brody Wade,” Kidd said. “I know this isn’t our case, but if the connections that we’ve come up with check out, we could be receiving something similar for Maggie in the coming days.” He turned his attention to Janya, thinking back to what she had said the previous day when she’d spoken about the other kidnappings in the area. “What details can you get me about those other kidnappings?”
“I can pull them up again, I’ll send them over to you,” she said. “I thought it was strange to have had so many in the surrounding area in such a small space of time. But…I don’t know, we seemed focussed on ones that were active, right? I didn’t want to dig too deep.”
“It’s fine,” Kidd said. “You did the right thing. Pull up any details that we have on them, see what the outcomes were, where did the children show up, what happened to them, were there ransom notes involved? We need to move.”
Kidd made his way back to his desk, waiting with bated breath as Janya sent the details of the other cases to the team. They chose to divide and conquer, looking through the different case files.
The first one Kidd looked at was from two months ago. A child had gone missing in Richmond Park while out with its Dad. He had been distressed and gotten the police involved. Kidd made a quick note of the investigating officer before he carried on reading. No less than a week later, the child had reappeared. The investigation was closed, the child had been found.
He read through it again. The child had disappeared and reappeared in Richmond Park like nothing had happened.
He looked at the next one. A child had gone missing
on their way home from school in Surbiton. They had been with their au pair. One minute they were there, the next they were gone. The au pair was investigated and almost charged when the child didn’t show up. A week later, the child was found, not a scratch on it, completely fine, like nothing had happened.
He kept reading, trying to find similar cases, similar outcomes. DS Sanchez looked through a few more only to find the same outcome. DC Ravel found the same. Kidd’s head was spinning.
“How many of these cases do we have?” Kidd asked.
“Five or six I would say,” Janya said. “Seven or eight that fit the same criteria. There are a few where the child was found, so they don’t quite fit with the rest, but…” she trailed off.
“What do you think?” Zoe asked.
Kidd didn’t know what to think. He tried to theorise, but it seemed so much bigger now than their case had first appeared to be. Were all of these people being extorted by the same person? Were they all receiving ransom notes? And why weren’t the police doing anything about them?
“Do you think they’ve all been threatened like this?” Campbell asked. He was still trying to get hold of the CCTV of Peter West, just to make sure, just to confirm, even though now it was looking increasingly unlikely that he was in any way part of this. If these kidnappings were connected, he’d been in prison when most of them were happening.
“If they were, why didn’t they tell the detectives who were investigating?” Janya asked. “Cherise has gotten us involved in it, why wouldn’t they do the same?”
And it dawned on Kidd, hitting him like a runaway freight train.
“They were cheating,” he said flatly. “Whoever received the ransom note was the one who was cheating. That wasn’t addressed to Cherise, that was addressed to Eric.”
“So you think that they contacted the partner and the money was a way to keep them quiet?” Zoe asked. “It’s plausible.”
