‘And so far, nobody is suggesting my client has committed murder or attempted murder or treason, which are the only exceptions to the defence of duress,’ Scott retorted, the steel of her tones matching her expression.
‘I want to back up a little,’ Paula said, looking directly at Diane, who had been apparently ignoring their exchange. ‘How did Warren find out the names of the children he’d fathered?’
Diane couldn’t hold Paula’s stare. She picked at the edge of the table with her thumbnail and watched her hand intently. ‘The HFEA employ a data security firm to hold their back-ups. We’re a small community. Everybody knows everybody else. Warren found out who does the HFEA and basically bribed them. He said we’d do the back-up and hand it over to them and we’d pay them the same as the HFEA. So they’d get double their money for no work.’
‘And they didn’t wonder why you wanted to get your hands on the data? They weren’t worried about compromising their security?’
‘It’s not compromising your security when you’re dealing with one of your own.’
Paula thought that was bullshit and made a note to come back to it another time. ‘So Warren went into the HFEA and backed up their database?’
She chewed the skin round her thumbnail. ‘It was me. He thought they’d be less suspicious of a woman.’
‘So you helped yourself to the data that would identify who got Warren’s sperm?’
‘I didn’t have any choice,’ she said, stubborn now.
‘We all have a choice,’ Paula said. ‘You chose not to exercise yours and four children are dead.’
‘Five,’ Diane said. ‘You think I don’t know that?’ Scott leaned over and whispered something in Diane’s ear. She nodded.
‘Did you know what Warren intended when you stole that data?’ Paula asked.
‘I wasn’t thinking straight about anything at that point. I was half-mad with grief.’
‘We need to find Warren, Diane. Frankly, at this point you need to be thinking about yourself. Under the principle of joint enterprise, which I’m sure Ms Scott will be happy to explain to you, you’re looking at four murder charges. I can’t make any promises because we don’t have the power to do deals like they do on the telly. But if you help us now, we’ll help you down the line. Where is he, Diane?’
She blinked back more tears. ‘I don’t know. I swear to God. We’ve been together for seven years and he’s never gone off anywhere like this. He’s only ever away when it’s business, and then I know what hotel he’s in. He’s never hidden from me before.’
‘What was the plan tonight? Was he supposed to come over to kill Ewan?’
‘He should have been there before I picked Ewan up. He told me he’d be back in plenty of time. When it came time to collect Ewan, I didn’t know whether to go or not. But I was scared of what he’d do if I screwed up. So I went and got him.’ She almost smiled. Paula detected triumph. ‘He won’t show up now you lot are there.’
‘He won’t see us,’ Paula said.
‘That’s what you think. He’ll be able to watch everything you did this afternoon. He’s got remote access to all the cameras. He’ll have known as soon as you drove up to the gate. He knew all about the big black cop who came on Sunday even before I emailed him. Wherever he is, he’s one step ahead of you.’
‘You sound pleased about that,’ Paula said.
‘If that’s what you think then there’s something wrong with your hearing.’
It was the first sign of combative spirit Diane had shown and it intrigued Paula. ‘What about family? Parents, siblings? Friends?’
‘We kept ourselves to ourselves,’ she said. ‘He doesn’t get on with his parents. He’s not in touch with them.’
‘You’re not doing yourself any favours here, Diane,’ Paula said. ‘We’ve got your computers now. You said Warren was a master of the universe with computers. Well, I’ve got a colleague who’s even better than that. She’ll be all over your contacts book by now.’
‘I don’t think so,’ Diane said. ‘We’re security specialists. If she tries to get in, the data will all rewrite itself as gobbledygook. ‘
Paula chuckled. ‘I wouldn’t bet on that.’ She pushed her chair back. ‘If you’re not in the mood to be helpful, I don’t want to waste my time. We’ve got you bang to rights on abduction, false imprisonment and attempted murder.’
‘Then charge my client or release her. You’ve got nothing. The boy went with her willingly. He passed out. My client cannot be held responsible for whatever her partner left lying around on their kitchen table.’ Scott was working up a head of indignation but Paula cut her off.
‘Tell it to the magistrates tomorrow morning. I’m done for now. We will have further questions later, so it would be helpful if you could keep yourself available, Ms Scott.’
CHAPTER 41
Tony took his hands out of his pockets and folded his arms. ‘She’s good. She’s very good. She’s only lying when she has to, so you don’t really notice the lies. She doesn’t have a tell either.’
He swung round as Paula walked in. She leaned against the wall, looking exhausted. ‘She’s a tough cookie,’ she said.
‘Well spotted,’ Tony said. ‘She’s the best kind of liar. One of those who convince themselves they’re telling the truth.’
‘What did you make of her?’ Carol asked Paula.
‘At first, I was completely with her. I bought it all. I thought she’d truly been terrorised. Then there was one moment - I think it was when I asked the question that made it seem like we didn’t know that Warren was the father of the victims. Her reaction was so nakedly genuine that it reset the benchmark and I realised she wasn’t nearly as candid as she wants us to think.’ Paula pushed her hair back from her forehead. ‘I got nothing from her. Nothing worth a damn.’
‘I wouldn’t say that,’ Tony said. ‘We know a lot more than we did before. The picture’s starting to become clearer.’
‘But we’ve got to find Warren,’ Carol said. ‘I’ve got Stacey covering his credit card, all his known email addresses, his driving licence and his passport. His photo is going out on the news tonight.’
‘He’ll be long gone,’ Paula said.
‘Tony thinks not. Tony thinks he’s got a mission to finish, don’t you?’
Lost in his own reverie, Tony frowned at her. ‘What?’
‘A mission. He’s got a mission to complete.’
He scratched his head. ‘That’s what I said, yes. But you’re not going to find him, Carol.’ He grabbed his jacket from the chair where he’d tossed it. ‘I need to go and talk to somebody.’ He made for the door.
‘Talk to who? About what?’ Carol demanded. But she was talking to a closing door.
Stacey wasn’t the only one who could take advantage of the information age. These days, once you’d got a warrant, things could move at amazing speed. Take the phone companies. As soon as they’d returned to the MIT squad room, Kevin had been detailed to acquire phone records for DPS and Diane Patrick. He’d managed to track down a magistrate to sign the warrant within the hour, then he’d scanned it and served it electronically. The mobile and landline companies had been just as quick off the mark for once.
He was surprised by how little phone traffic there had been from the numbers and said as much to Stacey. ‘Do you think she’s been using a phone we don’t know about? A throw-away? ‘
‘Maybe,’ Stacey said. ‘But most people in the ICT community prefer to use email or IMing. You can encrypt it much more easily. Phones are hideously insecure.’ And then she’d given him access to a bit of software that acted as a reverse directory. At the touch of a key, the names and addresses associated with the numbers spooled out on the screen before him.
He looked down the list and saw it was mainly companies. He suspected they were probably all DPS clients, but he’d have to work his way through them and make sure. There were a couple of calls to Carr’s Garage. Kevin thought that was the cousin who took in DPS’s parcels, but he made a note to check with Ambrose.