by BL Pearce
Unlike his house, there wasn’t a patio or sliding door. He fought his way through the foliage to the tiny porch. On it stood a worn wicker chair and a folded-up newspaper. At the foot was a bowl of water. But no dog.
A wooden door led into what he assumed was the kitchen.
Rob recalled the stains on her knees and her dirty fingernails. An avid gardener, Sylvia had said. A botanist. You wouldn’t know it by this mess.
The door was firmly closed, and there was only one window on this side of the house. Second floor. No wonder it was so dark inside. He kept his eyes locked on the back door, until he heard sirens coming up the street. It wouldn't hurt to give the uncooperative Mrs Parvin a bit of a fright.
He heard Mallory instructing them to break the door down. He pounded on the back door. “Mrs Parvin, this is your last chance. Let us in or we’re coming in to get you.”
His request was answered with a stony silence. If he didn’t know better, he’d assume the house was deserted.
He texted Mallory.
Go for it.
There was a loud bash as the door was forced open. Shouting, as the uniformed police identified themselves and entered the property. They’d search every room until they located Tessa Parvin.
Mallory would arrest her for obstructing the investigation and when they had her under control…
His phone beeped.
Got her.
Rob clambered back to the front of the house, tearing his trousers on a thistle bush in the process. He grunted and rubbed his leg. For a botanist, Tessa Parvin wasn’t a very good gardener.
15
Tessa Parvin was led away in resentful silence.
“Let’s have a look around,” said Rob.
They pulled on their gloves, just in case. Rob hoped they wouldn’t have to turn this into a crime scene.
“Creepy,” Mallory muttered as they crept down the passage. It felt like a ghost house. It was astonishing somebody was actually living here.
Rob tried the light switch. The bulb flickered, on its last legs like it was too much of an effort to shine on this place. It wasn’t very bright.
Clutter coated the dining room. Boxes piled halfway up the walls, books balanced in precarious heaps on the sturdy eight-seater table, their spines worn and tattered. Orchids of Kew, he read to himself. Rainforests of Brazil.
The living room was marginally better. This was where Tessa Parvin existed. Lived was too strong a word. A comfy armchair by the window, a floor lamp, a pair of spectacles on the reading stand, next to a half-drunk cup of coffee.
A television stood at the front on a second-hand cabinet. It looked relatively new. Her only expensive purchase. Everything else looked like it was covered in mothballs.
Reading and television. Her two pursuits. It saddened him that she lived like this.
“I don’t know why she didn’t just open the bloody door.”
“Proving a point,” said Mallory.
Rob shook his head. Some people.
The kitchen was equally bare, apart from the usual signs of human habitation. No fancy equipment, just a gas cooker, toaster, kettle and other basic necessities. Tessa Parvin lived a simple existence.
They creaked up the staircase.
“I’ll take this room,” Rob said. Mallory peeled off into the other.
The master bedroom overlooked the tangled back garden. That must be the window he saw. He looked through the cupboards and under the bed. Nothing. No sign of Katie.
“Anything?” he called out.
“Nothing,” said Mallory.
The bathroom was empty too.
There was only one place left to look. They studied the square panel in the ceiling above the landing.
“How are we going to get up there?” Rob asked.
Mallory disappeared into the second bedroom and returned carrying a pole with a hook on the end.
Rob watched as he hooked the latch and pulled the loft hatch open. It folded outwards revealing a metal ladder.
Mallory dragged it down. “Do you want to do the honours?”
Anticipation fluttered in his stomach. What would he find up there? He mentally prepared for whatever it might be. Being caught unawares was when the shock set in.
He scaled the ladder and stuck his head into the black hole. It was pitch black in the loft; he couldn’t see a damn thing. Using the torch on his phone, he peered into the darkness.
“I can’t see anything,” he called down.
He went further in. There were just more boxes, rectangular shadows with hard corners. Crates.”
“Ugh, what’s that smell?”
“Can’t smell anything from down here,” came Mallory’s reply.
The pungent odour made his skin crawl. His eyes adjusted and he made out a dim halo of light behind a stack of boxes. That must be where the window was.
He shone his torch around, looking for a light.
Aah, there it was.
He pressed a switch and a hanging bulb sprung to life. Unlike the hall light, this one was blinding. Look all you want, it was saying. You won’t find anything.
Mallory mounted the ladder behind him and shoved his head and shoulders through the hatch. “Find anything?”
“There’s not much space in here,” Rob said. “Certainly, nowhere to hide a body. Unless she’s in the boxes.”
Christ, what a thought.
“Where’s that smell coming from?”
“Over here.” Rob crouched down to inspect three or four enormous bags stacked in the corner. “Fertilizer,” he said. “Enough for a small farm.”
“Why would she keep that up here?” Mallory asked.
“No idea. She ought to get a garden shed.”
He poked around a bit more. “Can’t see any sign of Katie, can you?”
“No, thank God.”
Rob seconded that. He’d hoped to find her alive and well. Then they could have slept easy tonight. Instead, they were still on the hunt.
“Let’s get back to the station and talk to Tessa Parvin. She might be more amenable now she’s facing an obstruction charge.”
The sulky, tight-lipped woman glared at them from across the interrogation table. She was on the defensive, all right, her head held high, her body stiff, her features taut. Rob felt the animosity radiating off her.
He was the first to speak, after Mallory had presented their names for the recording. Tessa Parvin had refused her right to an attorney.
“What for? I didn’t do anything.”
Rob shrugged, he wasn’t going to argue with her. If she said anything incriminating, that was her problem. He was intrigued, however. All they wanted to do was talk to her, ask her a few questions about her own daughter, and yet here she was acting like a suspect in the Katie Wells kidnapping. Why bring that on yourself? Unless she was trying to mislead them – a double-bluff, if you like. Was he overthinking?
“Mrs Parvin, why don’t you want to help us with our investigation?” he began.
He was expecting a no comment, but she answered straight away.
“Why should I help you, when you weren’t interested when my daughter disappeared,” she hissed.
Rob stared at her, momentarily lost. “What do you mean?”
“You lot.” She waved her arm around to indicate the entire police department. “My little girl vanished four years ago, and you did nothing.”
Rob had looked up the case. Woking Police Station had handled the investigation. Twelve-year-old Arina Parvin had disappeared on her way home from school in Bisley, a small market town. The SIO, DI Purley, had come to the conclusion that Tessa’s husband, Ramin, had smuggled Arina out of the country, back to his native Iran. He’d disappeared the same time she had, and no one had had any contact with them since. The Iranians had refused to confirm or deny whether Ramin Parvin and his daughter were in the country.
Rob had left a message for DI Purley to contact him with regards to the investigation.
“Why don’t
you tell me about it?” he said softly.
Her eyes narrowed. “Why? So we can talk about how inept the police were? How they ignored everything I said and closed the case without ever finding out what happened to my Arina?”
“How old was your daughter when she disappeared?” asked Mallory. He knew very well how old she’d been, he’d read the file, but Rob knew he was using the question to persuade Tessa Parvin into telling them her version of events.
“She was twelve.”
Finally, they were getting somewhere.
“And where did it happen?” Mallory continued, working his advantage.
Tessa closed her eyes and gave her head a little shake.
The seconds ticked by.
Then she sighed and seemed to collapse as the fight sagged out of her. When she opened her eyes, they were muted and dull.
“Arina was walking home from school through Bisley Common. That’s the last place she was seen before she–she disappeared.”
“Did she often walk through the common?” asked Rob.
Tessa nodded. “Yes, if she didn’t catch the bus. It was a sunny day and she had two friends with her. They all lived on our side of the common.”
“What did they say happened?” Rob had read their statements and knew they’d veered off the path before Arina.
“They said goodbye to her and took a different route home. That’s the last they saw of her.”
This was the tricky bit. “What made you think something had happened to her, that she wasn’t with your husband?”
Her mouth clamped together, as she tensed.
“Ramin didn’t care about Arina. She worshipped him, but he wanted a boy. No matter what she did, she couldn’t change who she was.”
Her hands balled into grubby fists on the table. “He wouldn’t have taken her.”
It was pretty convincing. Rob studied the woman opposite him. Dishevelled, with prematurely grey hair, baggy clothes. No make-up.
This was a woman who didn’t care what anyone thought of her. He wondered what she’d been like before her daughter disappeared, before her world had splintered. Maybe then she’d given a damn. But now there was nothing left to live for.
He glanced at Mallory and could see his partner was of the same opinion.
“What did DI Purley say?”
Tessa frowned. “That man was only interested in closing the case. He didn’t care about Arina, or about what I had to say. He palmed me off every time I rang the station, avoided my calls and eventually sent one of his deputies to tell me the case was closed, and they’d called off the search. My Arina was still out there and nobody went to rescue her.” A sob clutched at her throat.
Her anguish was palpable.
“I’m sorry for the way things were handled,” he said. “It does sound like there were grounds to continue with the investigation.”
She peered up at him. “Well, it’s too late now. Four years. My Arina is dead, I know it.”
It was the most likely conclusion. Unless the girl had been secreted out of the country. He’d have to ask DI Purley about that. Presumably, they’d checked with border control. Anyway, that wasn’t his case, and this wasn’t his fight.
He brought them back to the current investigation. “Mrs Parvin, why did you move to Barnes?”
“I needed a change. Everything in that house reminded me of Arina. It was really just the two of us, you see. Ramin was away a lot.”
He didn’t care about his daughter.
“What do you think of the neighbourhood?”
“It’s nice enough.” She sniffed. “I mean, the people seem friendly. I don’t socialise a lot.”
He tilted his head to the side as if the new angle would give him added insight into what she was thinking. “Why were you at Edward Maplin’s house the day Katie disappeared?”
“I wanted to join in the search for Katie. You see, I know what it feels like. I know what Lisa is going through. It’s the worst feeling in the world.” She wrapped her arms around herself.
Rob understood her need to help.
“Why didn’t you just tell us that to begin with? It could have saved us all this drama.” She’d be released, but there was paperwork involved, processing, write-ups, reports. She could have saved everyone the time and effort by just cooperating from the beginning.
“I didn't feel like talking to the police.” The stubborn sulk was back.
Rob stood up. Under the circumstances, even that was understandable, although not advisable. “Thank you for talking to us, Mrs Parvin. DI Mallory will process your release forms. You’re free to go.”
She didn’t move. “What about my daughter? What are you going to do about her?”
Rob froze. “It’s been four years, Mrs Parvin, the case is closed. What do you want me to do?”
“Find her,” she hissed. “Her body is out there somewhere. I want to bring her home. I want to bury my girl.”
Rob sighed inwardly. But she deserved no less.
“I’ll talk to DI Purley,” he promised. “But it’s not my investigation, so there are limits to what I can do.”
Her head dropped. “So once again Arina is swept under the proverbial carpet. No one cares that she’s still out there, that her body was never found.”
“It’s not that we don’t care, Mrs Parvin. It’s complicated. Arina didn’t disappear in our jurisdiction.”
“Serial killers don’t stick to jurisdictions,” she spat.
Rob spun around. “What do you mean, serial killers?”
“Well, you don’t think my Arina is the first little girl to disappear, do you? I looked into it. There are several girls who’ve gone missing in the greater Surrey area over the last few years. Most of them unsolved, of course.” Like it was their fault.
Maybe it was.
But was it true? Had there been a spate of unsolved missing persons?
“Okay, I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll look into Arina’s case. If it does mirror the other disappearances, we might have a shot of reopening the case.”
Mallory gawked at him.
Tessa Parvin exhaled. “That’s all I ask, Detective Chief Inspector.”
Rob was already regretting his words as he left the interrogation room.
16
“What are you doing?” Mallory grilled him on the way back to the squad room. “You can’t promise her you’ll reopen her daughter’s case. You have no control over that.”
“I didn’t promise I’d reopen it,” he said. “I promised I’d look into it. Besides, it does sound like the SIO might have been too quick to call it a day. What she said about her husband’s relationship with his daughter, or lack thereof, warrants further investigation.”
“She could be making it up, grasping at straws. She was distraught, after all. People see what they want to see.”
Rob knew that.
“It doesn’t hurt to check. Let’s look into the other missing girls, if there are any. And find out if anyone on our team has any contacts in the Middle East. It would be useful to know if Ramin Parvin has his daughter with him. She’d be sixteen now. I’m going to pay DI Purley a visit. He’s not returning my calls.”
Woking was a half hour drive from Richmond, but Rob made it in twenty. Blue lights had a way of making other motorists get out of your way.
He hadn’t cleared Tessa Parvin from their investigation yet. Had she taken Katie as a replacement for her own daughter? Maybe she wanted revenge on the system? Who knew what she was really thinking?
She appeared sane enough, but that didn’t mean she was. He’d been surprised before.
DS Bird was looking into her background, into any properties she owned, or connections she had. They hadn’t managed to extend the warrant they’d got for Brian Wells and Sergio Wojcik’s phone records to Tessa’s, but if Jenny or Mallory came up with anything, he’d speak to the Chief Superintendent.
Right now, his gut was telling him not to write her off as a suspect.
Rob didn’t enquire whether DI Purley was available when he arrived at Woking Police Station. Instead, he flashed the duty sergeant his warrant card and walked past him like he knew where he was going.
CID was on the first floor. A tip from Mallory who’d been here before.
The door was shut, and he didn’t have an access card. There was, however, a water dispenser outside in the hall, so he poured himself a cup while he waited for someone to come out.
A few minutes later, a female officer emerged, and threw him a hesitant smile. He nodded a greeting, took his cup of water and went inside.
Like Richmond, this was an open-plan squad room, but unlike his department, the ranking officers’ offices weren’t made of glass.
He placed the cup of water on the first desk he came to, ignored the curious glances of the few people in the room, and walked towards the back.
Detective Chief Superintendent Maxwell, read the name on the door. Next to it, DCI Purley.
DCI now, was it? A reward for closing the Arina Parvin case?
Rob knocked and got a terse, “Come” in response.
He opened the door and walked in.
Purley leaped to his feet. “Who the hell are you? How did you get in here?”
Rob held up his warrant card. “DCI Miller from Richmond CID. I decided to save you the trouble of calling me back.”
Purley mouthed like a guppy.
Rob glanced at the chair. “May I? This won’t take long.”
Purley hesitated, then nodded. “Seriously, how did you get up here?”
“I walked up. Can we get down to business?”
Purley sat, the lines on his forehead deepening. “What is it you want, DCI Miller? I don’t have much time, so I’d appreciate it if you could be brief.”
Rob glanced at the DCI’s computer. He could see by the lack of light that it was in sleep mode or off, and the DCI’s mobile phone was blinking on the desk in front of him.
“I can see you’re a very busy man,” he said, not without a touch of sarcasm. “I need to talk about Arina Parvin, a twelve-year-old girl who disappeared in Bisley four years ago.”