by BL Pearce
“I think she can handle it, sir. It was twenty years ago.”
Lawrence accepted the coffee. “I’m sorry, Rob, it’s not my call.”
Jo would be gutted.
“You know I’m compromised, sir, since we’re… together.”
Lawrence nodded. “I’m aware of that and if you want to stay on this case, it’s your duty as a senior police officer to act with discretion and be above reproach. You’re not to talk to her about the investigation.”
“Have you met Jo?” he blurted out.
Lawrence had the grace to grin.
“I can’t see her backing down on this one.” Rob said. “Besides, as an NCA agent, she could be a valuable asset to the team. She has access to things we don’t, contacts we only dream about. It would be a huge help if we could use the NCA’s resources to help us solve this case.”
Lawrence still wasn't buying.
Rob sighed. “Okay, here’s another idea. What if she concentrated on the Manchester connection? We still aren’t sure Rachel’s disappearance has anything to do with our current investigation. There’s a fifteen-year gap between the cases.”
“Hmm…” Lawrence narrowed his eyes. “That might work. As long as it doesn’t affect what we’re doing here.”
“No, sir. I’ll make sure it doesn’t.”
“Okay, you win, Rob. I’ll talk to Pearson over at the NCA, but that’s all I can do. It’ll be up to them whether they second her to us or not.”
“Thank you, sir.” Rob grinned.
As soon as Arina Parvin’s case had been transferred from Woking to Richmond CID, Rob organised a search of Bisley Common.
“Do you really think she’s there?” asked Jenny, bringing him a cup of tea.
“I honestly don’t know, Jenny. I’m just doing what should have been done four years ago. I’m more concerned about Katie Wells at this stage. She’s been missing for over a week now.”
Thank goodness they had these other cases to distract them, because there were no new leads in Katie’s disappearance. The situation was dismal. Even the papers had shifted her to page two. Reduced to a few lines of copy. In time, she’d be forgotten.
“The CCTV footage from the school in Bisley has come in,” said Will. “I’m going to look at the day Arina went missing.”
Rob watched over his shoulder as Will fast forwarded Camera 1 to three-thirty on the day Arina disappeared.
“Stop, who are all those people?”
“Schools out,” said Will.
Boys poured out onto the pavement. Talking. Laughing. Jostling each other. Kids on bikes sped off in both directions. A bus pulled up at the bus stop and they piled on. It drove off. More kids gathered.
By four o’clock the rush had ended. The street was once again quiet.
“Come on,” Rob muttered.
At 16:02 a white vehicle pulled onto the narrow embankment beside the woods, blocking their view of the path.
“Get out of the way,” hissed Will. “You’re blocking the camera.”
“Can you make out that vehicle?” Rob squinted at the screen. White paint. Sturdy wheelbase. Dirt-splattered tyres.
Will zoomed in. “Could be a delivery van.”
“Can we send that shot to Peter Ansel on the second floor,” asked Rob. “He used to work as a road traffic collision investigator. He might be able to shed more light.”
“You think it belongs to the kidnapper?” asked Will.
“The timing fits. If Arina left school at three-thirty, she’d get there around four. It’s a twenty-five-minute walk across the common and she was chatting with friends which would have slowed her down. I’d say it’s very likely to be the perpetrators vehicle.”
“Right.” Will took a screen grab and sent it off to Peter Ansel’s email address, all within a few seconds.
They watched for a while longer, but nothing happened. Arina didn’t emerge from the woods, nor did they see anybody else. If anyone had got out of the vehicle, they’d done so on the side facing away from the camera.
“Forward it on to when the vehicle drives off,” said Rob.
Will sped up the footage until they saw the base of the vehicle shudder to life. It coughed a few times then pulled out into the fast-moving traffic.
Rob checked the timestamp. 16:13. Eleven minutes. Enough time to grab Arina, subdue her and carry her to the van.
“I can’t believe no one saw him load Arina into his van,” said Rob. “It wasn’t rush hour yet, but there was traffic on that road.”
“Maybe she went with him willingly.” Will glanced up at his boss.
Could Arina have known her attacker?
“What car did her father drive?” he asked.
Jenny scrambled to look it up. “A navy-blue Ford Focus, sir.”
“It wasn’t him. Ask Tessa Parvin if Arina knew anyone with a white van. That includes extended family.”
“Yes, sir.” Jenny got on the phone.
“Pity we can’t pick up the reg number when he drives away.” Rob frowned at the screen. The camera had been positioned towards the pavement, not the passing traffic. It didn’t help that the entire road was under a canopy of trees, which made the images dark and grainy.
Will’s computer pinged.
“It’s a reply from Ansel,” he said.
“That was quick.” Peter must have been sitting at his desk and read the email almost immediately.
“He reckons it’s a Vauxhall Vivaro or Movano, he can’t be sure which.”
“You get that, Jenny?” called Rob.
She gave him a silent thumbs up.
It was four-thirty and they were about to start their joint team update, when Rob got an urgent call from a Sergeant Dixon, the police officer in charge of the search at Bisley Common.
“Is that DCI Miller?”
“Yes.” His breath caught in his throat.
“We’ve found what looks to be human remains in a clearing in the woods on the west side of the common, sir. And from the size, I’d say it was a child.”
27
“They’ve found a body,” said Rob, his chest heavy with emotion. Finally, something finite. An indication they were on the right track.
“Is it Arina?” asked Mallory.
“They don’t know yet. But they think it’s a child.”
“Sweet Jesus,” whispered Jenny.
“Forensics is on the way. We’d better get over there.”
Mallory was already pulling on his jacket.
“Will, please update the DCS.” The Chief Superintendent had left to go to a meeting and wasn’t yet back. Will was the only one brave enough to face him.
“Sure thing, guv.”
They sped across Surrey. Angry blue lights and an unapologetic siren. Cars parted like the Red Sea as motorists scrambled to get out of their way.
Sergeant Dixon had texted through the GPS coordinates. “It’s in the western quadrant of the common,” Mallory told him. “In a thick wooded area, by the looks of things.”
Rob parked on Bagshot Road, the closest entry point to the burial site. There were skid marks where the police vehicles had ramped the pavement and driven across the heath to get as close to the crime scene as possible.
He couldn’t do that in his car.
A police constable directed them to the grave.
“Who would have thought it?” he puffed, as they strode across the heath. “The little tyke buried right here on the common.” It was clear he was a local.
The sun was still high in the sky and the common baked in a hazy, blond light. Midges darted out of the undergrowth at their faces.
The burial site was cordoned off. One small grave in the middle of a blazing yellow cordon. Onlookers craned their necks to see something, anything. But there was nothing to see. A white forensic tent had been erected over the remains. Stark and alien amidst the soft golds and greens of the heath.
“Sergeant Dixon?” A heavy-set man with sunken eyes and a thick jaw strode out to me
et them.
The man nodded and extended his hand.
“DCI Miller and this is DI Mallory.”
“Good to meet you. Come this way.”
A PC handed them forensic over-suits complete with shoe coverings and masks. They kitted up.
Silver stepping plates led the way towards the tent. Even though Rob had been at several crime scenes over the last few years, he never lost the sense of dread. He figured that was a good thing.
It was hot inside the tent, but the pathologist was working fast. She didn’t look up as Rob and Mallory entered.
“Good afternoon, DCI Miller.” She didn’t take her eyes off the body.
“Liz.”
Rob had worked with Liz Kramer several times before. She was a terse, but highly intelligent woman who didn’t suffer fools gladly. Nothing got past her. He was glad she’d been assigned the case. Beside her, holding a clipboard and recording all the evidence she was extracting, was an earnest young man, also in a white over-suit.
“What can you tell me?” he asked.
She didn’t reply straight away, but rather removed a metal object from the soil close to the victim’s head and carefully placed it into a plastic evidence bag.
Then she glanced up. “Looks to be female, lower teens, maybe as young as eleven or twelve. I can’t be sure until I get her back to the lab.”
“But you’re sure it’s a girl?” His voice was raspy.
She raised an eyebrow. “I’d say so, judging by the pelvis, although it is hard to tell when they’re so young and underdeveloped.”
“Christ.” It could be her.
“Is that what you wanted to hear?”
“Yes and no.” He gave her a meaningful look.
She sighed. “I know what you mean.”
There was a pause, then she added, “By the level of decomposition, I’d say she’s been here for a couple of years. Again, I can’t be sure until we’ve done all the tests. There is also some evidence of animal disturbance.”
Rob forced himself to take a look. This was the part that got to him, for once seen, he couldn't unsee it. He carried a whole photo album of dead people in his brain.
If this was Arina, there was nothing left to identify her. Her skin was almost all gone, and what little was left was stretched tight across her skeletal face. Her hair was grey and dirty, impossible to determine what colour it once was. He recalled the photographs in the file. Arina had had glossy black hair reaching halfway down her back.
He swallowed to get rid of the foul taste in his mouth.
Her clothes had fared better than she had. “Is that a school uniform?” He peered at the threadbare fibres covering her torso.
“I don’t think so,” Liz replied. “It looks to me like some sort of covering. A sheet or a shroud. She is wearing a dress, but it’s so discoloured, it’s hard to say if it’s a school uniform or not. I’ll know more once I get it off her.”
“She looks so peaceful,” Mallory spoke for the first time. He, like Rob, was staring at the remains of what once had been a vital, healthy young girl.
“You’re right, she does.” Rob took a step back and studied her position. She lay on her back with her hands folded across her chest. “Do you think the killer positioned the body like this?”
Liz gave a grunt. “I’d say so. She had two blue metallic clips in her hair. One on each side.” She nodded to two evidence bags the forensic technician had already recorded and placed in a plastic box.
“Could I have a quick look?”
The technician glanced at his boss, who gave a curt nod.
Rob emptied one of the bags into his gloved hand and inspected the contents. It was one of those girls' hair clips that snapped shut when you bent them. Yvette’s niece had some like it. He remembered Yvette doing her hair once when they went round for supper.
He turned it over, studying it under the portable crime scene lamp. This one was rusty and weathered, but beneath the dirt and corrosion, a cobalt blue colour was visible.
He handed it back. “I wonder if these were hers or if the killer put them in her hair,” he mused.
Liz was once again focusing on the corpse. “All I can tell you, Rob, is that she appears to have been respectfully laid to rest, covered with a shroud, and then buried. The grave is fairly deep, whoever buried her was obviously afraid of wild animals getting to her.”
“Or her body being found,” pointed out Mallory.
Liz raised an eyebrow.
“Is there any indication of how she died?” asked Rob.
Lisa touched the child’s head, gently moving a clump of course, grey hair to the side. “At first glance there doesn’t appear to be any trauma to the skull and her bones are intact, but I can’t confirm until I’ve had a chance to study her properly.”
“What about sexual assault?” he asked.
She hesitated. “I can’t say at this point, Rob.”
He sighed. That was all he was going to get today. Still, it was more than most pathologists were willing to cough up on the spot. “Okay, thanks Liz.”
It was time to go.
He gestured to Mallory and threw back the flaps, exiting the tent. Outside, he tore off his mask and inhaled large lungfuls of fresh heath air. The oppressive melancholy that always befell him at crime scenes began to dissipate.
“It could be her,” Mallory said, joining him.
They stripped off their suits and handed them back to the PC, who immediately put them into a box to be disposed of later.
“Yes, and if it is, it means she was buried in the same place she was abducted.”
Mallory hesitated. “Does that mean Katie’s buried somewhere in the Nature Reserve?”
Rob shook his head. “We searched the place. The sniffer dogs would have picked up her scent.”
“Her backpack was found there,” Mallory reasoned. “He may have taken her back there after we searched the place. If we’re making parallels, we don't know when Arina was buried here. It may have been when she was taken, but it could have been days, even weeks later.”
Rob stared at him. He was right. If Katie was dead, the killer could have gone back to the nature reserve to bury her body. What better place to hide her remains than somewhere the police had already searched?
“Organise it,” he said.
28
Rob and Mallory watched as Arina’s remains were lifted onto a stretcher and carried to the waiting forensic van that would transport them to the lab for further analysis.
“It’s hard to believe they didn’t investigate because they thought she was in Iran,” Mallory mused.
Rob grunted. He’d keep his opinions on the incompetence of DCI Purley to himself. An enquiry into his incompetence would kick off anytime now.
A wail came from the woods behind them, making them both spin round.
“Tessa!” yelled Rob, recognising the dishevelled woman stumbling towards them.
“Is it her?” Her voice was a hysterical cry. “It’s her, isn’t it? I know it’s her.”
Rob caught her just before she reached the police cordon. She collapsed like a ragdoll into his arms, sobbing. “Arina. My baby.”
Mallory blocked her view so she wouldn’t see the stretcher of bones being lifted into the SOCO van.
“We don’t know it’s her,” Rob stressed. “Not until we’ve done a DNA test.”
But Tessa was inconsolable. “It’s my baby, I know it is. It was that paedophile. He killed my Arina.”
Rob grimaced. A lawsuit looked unavoidable.
A female PC approached them. “Can I be of assistance?”
Rob smiled gratefully. “Thank you.”
She took the sobbing woman from Rob’s arms and led her away from the crime scene, talking to her in a calm, reasonable voice.
Rob breathed a sigh of relief. Tessa’s anguish only made the situation more distressing.
“She’s going to go mental if it is Arina,” Mallory said, his jaw set in a grim line.
“Can’t blame her.” Mallory wiped his forehead. “It would have been better if she was in Iran with her father.”
“We need to release a statement first thing tomorrow morning that Anthony Payne has been cleared from our investigations.” Rob said as they walked back across the heath.
“I’ll call Vicky and set it up,” said Mallory.
“Get Harry to do it. Audiences will know him from the Crimewatch episode.”
Rob glanced back. The female police officer had led Tessa off towards where a park ranger’s vehicle was stationed. They’d get her safely back home, and a Family Liaison Officer would be assigned to her, once they knew for certain it was Arina’s remains they’d found.
Rob was already in bed when his phone rang.
“DCI Miller,” he said, his voice groggy.
“Rob, it’s Liz Kramer. Sorry to disturb you, but I thought you’d want to know the results of the DNA test on the remains.”
Rob sat up so fast he got a headrush. “Tell me.”
“It was Arina Parvin’s body.”
He stared in front of him at the bare wall as her words sunk in. It suddenly struck him that Yvette had taken all their pictures and he hadn’t got any of his own to put up in their place.
“You there?”
“Yes, I’m here.” He cleared his throat. “Thanks, Liz. I appreciate the call.”
“You’re welcome. I’m off home. I won’t be doing the post-mortem until Friday, but at least you know it’s her. That should help you get the ball rolling.”
“Thanks again.”
Rob stared at the wall for a long time as he tried to make sense of the discovery. Until this moment, there’d been a chance it wasn’t Arina. That it was another little girl, from another time and place. Nothing to do with their investigation.
Now, his thoughts came fast and furious. Was this the same person who’d abducted Katie? Did it mean Katie was dead too? Would they find her body when they searched the nature reserve? What about the other girls? What about the open spaces and commons near to where they were last seen?
