Bring Them Home (Detective Karen Hart Book 1)

by D. S. Butler

  Perhaps she was being unfair. Sophie was hard-working and enthusiastic, and she did need more high-level interview experience to progress to the next level.

  ‘I don’t want anything to go wrong in the interview, but we’ve planned the questions.’

  Karen pulled out a chair and sat down. ‘I don’t want to hold her back, but Sophie can be quite idealistic. When something runs contrary to her principles, she has a hard time controlling her emotions.’

  DI Morgan leaned back in his chair. ‘You’re right, but it’s something she needs to work on. We’ve prepared the interview strategy. I thought perhaps we could go over it with her now. It’s a good opportunity for her, but if you think she’s not ready, I trust your opinion.’

  Karen wasn’t sure, but it was true that learning from textbooks and case studies was not enough. Nothing beat the experience of being in an interview face to face with a suspect and having to think on your feet when they surprised you. Was she being too hard on Sophie?

  But any small mistake could have huge consequences. She worried that Phil Carver might slip through their fingers.

  ‘If you think she’s ready for it,’ Karen said, ‘we could try her out on the preliminary questions. If it looks like she’s getting in over her head, then either Rick or I could take over.’

  DI Morgan nodded. ‘Good idea.’

  ‘I’ll watch the interview from the viewing room too, and see if I can pick up anything from his behaviour.’

  At that moment, a member of DI Freeman’s team, Farzana Shah, poked her head around the door. ‘DI Morgan, Phil Carver has arrived at the station. He’s with the custody sergeant now.’

  DI Morgan thanked Farzana and then turned to Karen. ‘Ready?’

  Karen nodded firmly. ‘Ready.’

  Karen left Rick in the main office and headed down to watch the interview. The viewing room was long and rectangular with a variety of audiovisual equipment set up on a desk set back against the wall. Karen would be able to watch the interview live on a video screen.

  It took her a little while to set things up, and then she sat there, staring at the black screen and waiting for the interview to start.

  The interview room appeared on the screen. Phil Carver was already sitting at the table and taking in his surroundings. The duty solicitor, who’d consulted with his client in private when the cameras and microphones were switched off, now remained silent. A uniformed officer stood by the door.

  Phil looked a little different from the last time Karen had seen him. He was nervous, constantly biting his fingernails and rubbing a spot on the side of his nose.

  DI Scott Morgan entered the room with DC Sophie Jones and introduced himself and Sophie. The officer who’d been standing beside the door left.

  Karen couldn’t help fretting that they’d thrown Sophie in at the deep end a little too early, but DI Morgan looked his normal impenetrable self and Sophie looked calm and controlled. Karen was pleased Sophie was reacting well under pressure. This was the most testing interview she’d taken part in during her career as a detective so far.

  DI Morgan was an experienced interviewer and kicked things off by asking Phil a few routine questions, trying to get him to loosen up and even develop a bit of a rapport.

  Sophie asked her questions perfectly, and Karen guessed she had practically memorised the interview strategy.

  Karen leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table, and stared intently at the screen. At the start of the interview, Phil Carver had been edgy, but now his shoulders had dropped and he was leaning back in his seat. He was still on his guard but more relaxed. Karen thought DI Morgan had done well so far.

  ‘So, Phil,’ DI Morgan said, tapping his pen on the paperwork in front of him, ‘we’ve brought you in here today because we found you in possession of illegal material on your laptop and desktop computers.’

  ‘I don’t know what you’ve found but it’s probably been planted,’ Phil said defensively. ‘I’ve done nothing wrong.’

  ‘You’d recently deleted files containing images on your hard drives, but our technical unit managed to recover them.’

  Phil’s face paled and he licked his lips. ‘I don’t know anything about any images.’

  The solicitor shot Phil a look, and Karen wondered what they’d discussed before the interview.

  ‘We were also able to extract all your internet browsing history, Phil,’ Sophie said.

  She looked calm and in control, but Karen could hear the waver in her voice. She sat back and waited for Phil to respond.

  ‘It’s not illegal if I just happen to stumble on some dodgy websites,’ Phil said.

  ‘Remember what we discussed earlier, Mr Carver,’ the solicitor said.

  Phil’s face tightened in anger and he slapped an open hand against the table. ‘It’s just pictures online. What’s so bad about that? I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m not hurting anyone by looking at photographs.’

  ‘What about the poor kids in those photos?’ Sophie snapped, going completely off script. ‘Those children are being hurt, aren’t they?’

  Phil’s solicitor advised him not to say anything, and DI Morgan swiftly moved on to the next planned interview question.

  Sophie’s cheeks burned pink, and Karen felt sorry for her. She was trying so hard to keep control and it wasn’t easy. Not when she had to listen to somebody trying to defend the indefensible.

  DI Morgan wrapped up the preliminary questions and the solicitor requested some time alone with his client.

  They stopped the recording to take a break. Karen jumped up from her seat, left the viewing room and headed down the corridor to find them.

  She caught DI Morgan walking back to the office.

  ‘Did that look as bad as it felt inside the interview room?’ DI Morgan asked.

  Karen pulled a face. ‘It wasn’t a complete success. Still, it’s early days.’

  ‘It’s bloody annoying it takes so long,’ DI Morgan said with conviction.

  Karen looked up at him. Of course, she knew it bothered him. A case like this would bother anyone, but DI Morgan didn’t often show his feelings.

  ‘We’ll get there in the end, sir. We just have to make sure we do everything by the book.’

  They walked into the main office area and DI Morgan headed straight to his office. Sophie was standing beside Rick’s desk.

  She looked up and saw Karen and then looked down at the floor. ‘I’m sorry, Sarge.’

  Karen put a hand on her shoulder. ‘It’s not an easy job, Sophie. It was probably a bit too soon to put you in.’

  Sophie shook her head, her brown curls bouncing. ‘I don’t understand how DI Morgan can bear to talk to him. He makes my skin crawl.’

  ‘It’s his job,’ Karen said.

  ‘He doesn’t like it either,’ Rick said. ‘But he doesn’t have a choice. He has to talk to him to find out if he had anything to do with the missing girls.’

  DI Morgan came back out of his office carrying a pile of paperwork.

  ‘He’s entitled to a break and we’re on the clock,’ DI Morgan said as he looked at his watch. ‘We’ll only be able to fit in one more interview session before we have to call it a night.’

  Sophie looked horrified. ‘Call it a night? How can we just stop when he might know where Emily and Sian are?’

  Rick winced as though he expected DI Morgan to reprimand Sophie for being so naive.

  Instead, DI Morgan patiently explained. ‘Come on, Sophie. You know all about the PACE Act. We can’t question him all night, even though I’d like to. He has rights.’

  Sophie screwed up her face in contempt. ‘Someone like that doesn’t deserve any rights.’

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  Jenny Dean’s mother, Louise Jennings, heard the news that Phil Carver had been arrested when she was in the Spar. She’d been carefully filling her shopping basket with a variety of items to tempt Jenny’s appetite. The poor girl hadn’t eaten anything since Emily had gone mi
ssing. So far, she’d picked up chocolate biscuits and chicken soup. She smiled as she spotted the Jammie Dodgers. They’d always been Jenny’s favourite. She put a packet in her basket and turned into the next aisle. She was about to pick up some eggs when Mrs Harris, a short, round woman, approached her.

  ‘Oh, you poor, dear soul,’ Mrs Harris said, looking at Louise with pity.

  Mrs Harris considered herself a Christian and attended church every Sunday without fail. She may have looked to be kindness itself, but Louise detected a gleam in the woman’s eye. She was hungry for gossip.

  ‘You must tell me if there’s anything you need. I’ve been praying for you and your family.’

  ‘Thank you very much,’ Louise said stiffly and tried to move past the nosey woman.

  ‘It must have been such a shock for you all.’

  Louise felt a wave of dislike for Mrs Harris. Of course it was a shock. Talk about stating the obvious. She was very tempted to tell the woman to mind her own business, but she managed to bite her tongue and leaned down to pick up some salt and vinegar crisps. Jenny had always liked those. It was junk food, but at least it would be something to give her energy, and goodness knows she needed her energy at the moment.

  But Mrs Harris wasn’t that easily pushed aside. Determined not to be ignored, she continued, ‘Of course, now Jenny’s new boyfriend has been arrested, I suppose it’s only a matter of time before they find the girls.’

  It took a few moments for Mrs Harris’s words to sink in.

  Jenny’s mother turned around sharply. ‘Arrested? Who’s been arrested?’

  Mrs Harris put a hand on her chest. ‘Oh, don’t tell me you didn’t know! Oh, now I feel just awful.’

  Jenny’s mother dropped the wire basket on the floor and took a step towards Mrs Harris. How did this nosey old bat know about Jenny and Phil? They’d been keeping things quiet because Jenny didn’t want Dennis finding out before she was ready. They even met up at a pub in Lincoln to avoid rumours. But why would the police arrest Phil? It didn’t make any sense. Mrs Harris must be mistaken.

  ‘Who’s been arrested?’ She repeated her question through gritted teeth.

  ‘I told you. Jenny’s boyfriend, Phil Carver. I bumped into them in Lincoln last week. It did surprise me she’d moved on so quickly after Dennis but that’s none of my business.’

  Jenny’s mother felt dizzy. She reached out to steady herself on a shelf full of multipack crisps. ‘Are you sure about this?’

  ‘Yes, my next-door neighbours were shopping at Tesco’s, and they saw him being taken away.’

  Louise’s hands curled into fists. She stood there for a moment swaying on her feet, and then quickly turned and darted out of the shop. She could hear Mrs Harris calling after her, but she ignored the horrible old bat.

  Huffing and puffing, she moved as fast as her old bones would carry her. Diagnosed with arthritis three years ago, Louise had become resigned to a slower pace of life. Not today, though. Today, she ran.

  She didn’t bother to knock on the front door of Jenny’s house, but instead made her way around the side and went in through the kitchen.

  ‘Jenny!’ she yelled.

  The family liaison officer was in the kitchen, bustling about making tea like she owned the place. ‘What’s wrong, Mrs Jennings?’ she asked, eyes wide with fake concern.

  Jenny’s mother narrowed her eyes at the woman. She probably knew all about Phil Carver’s arrest and hadn’t told them. How could the police withhold information like that?

  Instead of answering the woman, Jenny’s mother just shouted again for her daughter.

  Jenny appeared in the kitchen, her long dark hair tangled around her pale face. ‘What’s wrong? Have they found her?’

  Jenny’s mother shook her head. ‘I just heard that Phil has been arrested.’

  Jenny Dean’s hands flew up to cover her mouth. ‘Dear God.’

  Jenny’s mother turned to the officer, who had the decency to look a little sheepish. ‘You knew about this, I suppose?’

  ‘I’ve gotta go to the police station,’ Jenny muttered. ‘I need to know what’s going on. Do they think he’s hurt Emily?’

  The family liaison officer reached out and put a hand on Jenny’s shoulder. ‘There has been an arrest but there’s no other news yet. If you wait here, I’ll be able to update you soon.’

  ‘This is unbelievable,’ Jenny’s mother said. ‘Why should we trust you to do that? You didn’t even bother to tell Jenny that her boyfriend had been arrested.’

  ‘It’s only just happened,’ the officer said. ‘He’s not even been questioned yet and—’

  Jenny turned her back on the policewoman. ‘Where’s my coat?’

  Jenny’s mother marched through the kitchen and into the living room. She plucked Jenny’s black padded jacket from the back of a chair and handed it to her daughter.

  ‘God knows what will happen when Dennis finds out about this,’ Jenny’s mother said.

  Jenny took the jacket from her mother with shaking hands. ‘It’s not Dennis he has to worry about. If Phil has hurt my Emily, I’ll kill him myself.’

  Desk Sergeant Stuart Smith had been hoping for a quiet evening shift. Sadly, it looked as though he was going to be disappointed.

  He first noticed something odd was going on outside due to the sheer amount of press hanging around the station. There had been some journalists milling about ever since the poor little girls had gone missing, but tonight they seemed to have descended en masse.

  Then the shouting started.

  He wasn’t supposed to leave his post at the desk so he couldn’t go and investigate. However, curiosity got the better of him and he picked up the phone and asked a favour from PC Clive Trees.

  Clive arrived at the desk, looking a little grumpy at being called away while on his break.

  ‘I’ve had to leave my tea,’ he grumbled.

  ‘Never mind your tea,’ the desk sergeant said. ‘I want you to go out there and find out what all that racket’s about, and while you’re at it, try to calm things down a little.’

  Muttering under his breath, PC Trees did as he was told.

  When he came back in a few moments later, his face was pale. ‘Sorry, Stuart. But I think we’re going to need a couple more officers out there.’

  Before he could explain further, Jenny and Dennis Dean entered the station’s reception area together.

  The duty sergeant’s immediate reaction was sympathy. He had a daughter of a similar age to Emily and Sian, and his heart went out to the couple.

  But Jenny and Dennis weren’t interested in his pity. They were there to demand answers. Unfortunately, the desk sergeant didn’t have any information to give them.

  When Dennis Dean loomed over the desk with the threat of violence in his eyes, the duty sergeant took a deep breath and picked up the phone. He had a feeling it was going to be a very long night.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Karen was bone weary. She’d spent the last half an hour trying to calm Jenny and Dennis Dean and persuade them to go home and wait for news. It hadn’t been easy. The worst part was, she didn’t have any news to give them, good or bad. How did you explain that to a parent out of their mind with worry?

  She was walking back upstairs when her phone beeped. A message from Christine displayed on the screen.

  Have made enough lasagne to feed a small army. Shall I pop over and leave some in your fridge?

  Karen smiled and typed:

  Yes! You’re an angel. Thanks :)

  No problem. Someone has to make sure you eat properly!

  As she walked past the cubicles in the office, Karen looked in through the glass panel on DI Morgan’s office door. He was on the phone. He’d been talking to the family liaison officers, trying to fill them in on developments. But apart from telling the officers they’d made an arrest, he didn’t have much more information to deliver.

  It was frustrating and Karen understood Sophie’s point completely. In
her black-and-white view, Phil Carver was one of the bad guys and as such they should be entitled to question him all night if they wanted.

  The trouble with that was they didn’t know for sure that Phil Carver had abducted Sian and Emily, and any information they received after questioning a sleep-deprived Phil Carver overnight would be inadmissible. They would jeopardise the whole case and they couldn’t allow that to happen.

  After a further fruitless round of questions, the custody sergeant had placed Phil in a holding cell overnight and they would have to resume questioning first thing tomorrow morning.

  Phoebe Goodman had called into the station after she finished work and spoken to Sophie. She reiterated what she’d said on the phone. She’d had a relationship with Nick Gibson, and there had been no coercion on his part to get her to pose for the photographs. Another dead end.

  Rick and Sophie’s desks were empty. DI Morgan must have persuaded them to go home while Karen was downstairs talking to the Deans.

  Karen knew she should get home too. They had a busy day ahead of them tomorrow, and she’d need to be at the top of her game if they were going to get the truth out of Phil Carver.

  DI Freeman’s team were already at their desks, shuffling through paperwork, preparing to carry on overnight. Karen stifled a yawn, sat down at her desk and moved the mouse so her computer monitor woke up.

  After Phil discovered what they’d unearthed on his computer, he’d quickly decided to dump the duty solicitor and bring in a private one. Karen hadn’t seen her before, but she knew her stuff. She objected to almost every point they raised and generally made a complete nuisance of herself. Rick put it best when he’d described her as a pain in the arse.

  From the state of his flat, Karen had guessed Phil Carver didn’t have much money, but he clearly had enough to employ an expensive legal adviser. Maybe playing games on the internet paid better than they’d suspected.

  Although Phil Carver had some incriminating evidence against him, and he was undoubtedly a sick individual, Karen was still not wholly convinced he’d snatched the girls. After their second session with Phil in the interview room, his solicitor had been very keen to point out he was playing his Xbox online, competing against others, when the girls disappeared. There were records they could check, but the solicitor was savvy enough to know not to offer that as evidence unless she thought it would provide a good alibi for her client.