In this compact home they didn’t need to be detectives to tell no one else was in. ‘Barry won’t be long. I called him,’ Cherry Mallin told them after they’d made themselves known and perched on stools in the kitchen area. ‘When you called I was hoping you might have news of Joss, but you say she still hasn’t been found. We’re at our wits’ end.’
‘Does she have a mobile?’ Georgina asked.
‘Turned off.’
‘How long has she been gone?’
‘More than five weeks.’
‘Where does she live?’
‘Here with us. I thought you knew.’
‘We’re not from the local lot,’ Diamond said. ‘Does she have her own room?’
She pointed to a door. ‘It’s poky, but we manage.’
‘May we look?’
‘Go on. The ones in uniform already went through it and took some stuff away, like the laptop. Nothing left, really.’
She was right. It was a minimal, impersonal space with a bed and hanging canvas storage space with six shelves which housed the rest of Joss’s possessions, make-up, clothes, shoes, a few paperbacks. Diamond could imagine how Hen would feel if she saw this pathetic little collection.
‘After the divorce, Barry insisted she moved in with us,’ Cherry Mallin said. ‘She wasn’t able to support herself. We had a nice house in Pretoria Lane. We sold it and bought this box on wheels and paid for everything, the divorce, the rehab and the repayments. She’d borrowed heavily from loan sharks.’
‘What’s Barry’s job?’ Diamond asked, thinking the man couldn’t be all bad.
‘Pest control. He’s out in the van all day killing things.’
‘You need a strong stomach for that.’
‘I don’t know about his stomach, but Barry’s strong-minded, that’s for sure.’
‘And is Joss his only daughter?’
‘From his first marriage. He prefers Jocelyn, by the way.’
‘Thanks. And what does she prefer?’
She gave a faint smile. ‘Joss. Barry associates the word with joss sticks and the hippy life we want to wean her away from.’
Diamond added narrow-minded to his mental dossier on Barry. ‘I hadn’t thought of that. She was quite a rebel as a teenager, I gather.’
‘She had a difficult start, her mother dying when she was only twelve. Barry met me about a year later and we married quite soon, which wasn’t easy for Jocelyn to accept.’
‘I understand. Who’d choose to be a stepmother? How do you get on these days?’
‘Reasonably well. She calmed down a lot after we all moved here.’
‘It can’t be easy, three of you in a confined space.’
‘Everyone who lives in a caravan has to face that.’ She seemed to have accepted the change in their lifestyle remarkably well.
‘So what do you think it was that caused her to take off?’
‘We’re not sure. She didn’t say anything to me. There wasn’t an argument. The police seem to know what it was about — I mean the ones who searched her room — but they weren’t saying much. Barry has heard since that his sister Henrietta is in some kind of trouble and it’s connected to that. We can’t understand why because Barry hasn’t seen Hen for twenty years and neither has Jocelyn.’ She stopped for the sound of a vehicle outside. ‘This will be him.’
So much of Barry’s reputation had preceded him that there was quite a frisson of tension while they waited for the door to open. Short, pale and skinny, he didn’t live up to his billing until he spoke in a clipped, aggressive tone with a tilt of the jaw. ‘What’s all this, then? Any news?’
Georgina decided to assert herself. ‘If you mean news of your daughter, no, we’ve heard nothing more.’ She went through her usual ponderous introduction. ‘Thank you for taking time off, Mr Mallin.’
‘It had better not be time wasted,’ he said. ‘I’ve had it up to here with police people treating us as if we don’t have a right to know why my own daughter is missing.’
‘We’re all agreed on the need to find her urgently,’ Georgina said.
‘So you issued a warrant for her arrest. What’s that about?’
Georgina cleared her throat. ‘Haven’t you been told? Her DNA was found in a car used to transport a murder victim.’
‘I was told that much. This happened all of seven years ago. Why this sudden interest in Jocelyn?’
‘It comes from information that only recently came to light.’
‘You’re telling me her DNA was found in this car in 2007 and you’ve only just done anything about it?’
Peter Diamond was getting impatient. This was all wrong. Georgina shouldn’t have been on the receiving end of the questions.
‘There was a delay in tracing the DNA to Jocelyn,’ Georgina said.
‘Oh, come on. A delay of seven years?’ Mallin said. ‘How much confidence can be placed on evidence that’s been lying around all that time?’
Diamond chose now to say to Georgina, ‘If I may, ma’am.’ And without waiting for an answer, he turned to Mallin. ‘Let’s deal with what concerns us all — your daughter’s disappearance. Your wife has said Joss — Jocelyn — gave no hint to her that she was leaving. Just for the record, can you confirm the same?’
‘I’ve been through this with your people already,’ Mallin said.
‘First, they’re not our people. We’re acting independently of the Chichester police. And second, be aware that you’re assisting a high-level murder inquiry.’
The few choice words had a seesaw effect on the exchanges. ‘You’ve got to make allowance. I’m under stress,’ Mallin muttered and then said, ‘Ask whatever you want.’
‘I already did.’
‘About Jocelyn leaving? We had no clue. I gave her a lift into town to the job centre and arranged to meet her at lunchtime and she didn’t turn up. I waited almost an hour, tried calling her phone. Nothing.’
‘How was her state of mind?’
‘No different from usual.’
‘Did you speak in the car on the way to Chichester?’
‘Very little. She was listening to her iPod.’ As if he’d given the wrong impression he added, ‘It doesn’t mean we’re not on good terms. You can ask my wife.’
‘So when did you report Jocelyn as missing?’
‘The same day, about eight in the evening. There was a time when she would stay out unexpectedly, or come back very late, but that was years ago. When she came to live with us after the divorce, we came to an understanding. These days if she’s not home by early evening there’s cause for concern.’
‘When you say “came to an understanding”, you mean you made rules?’
‘They were necessary.’
‘But she doesn’t always keep them, right?’
Mallin glanced at his wife. ‘There was one incident about three years ago.’
‘The fight outside the club?’
‘An isolated event.’
‘It must have been serious for her to have received an official caution. That’s when the DNA was taken. And you’re going to tell me you don’t understand how it took three more years for her to be linked with the murder case. That’s why the assistant chief constable and I were called in.’
‘I was led to believe my sister Hen is implicated.’
‘Who told you that?’
‘One of the detectives who came here. He said she’s been suspended.’
‘We’ve spoken to your sister, Mr Mallin, and I can assure you she’s as concerned as you are for your daughter’s well-being. She’s helping in every way she can. Getting back to Jocelyn, do you know of anyone who might wish her harm?’
He shook his head. ‘We’ve thought and thought.’
‘Her ex-husband?’
‘That bastard? He married again and moved to some tax haven. If you ask me, he wouldn’t be back unless there was money in it, and he got most of mine at the time of the divorce. One look at Jocelyn’s present circumstances and you wouldn’t see him for dust.’