Richard saw Janine’s expression and saw that something had shifted. Something had happened.
‘What?’ he said.
She took a breath and moved closer. ‘Clive, Claire.’
They looked at her. Claire distraught, dishevelled and Clive breathless.
‘Oh, I am so sorry,’ Janine said. ‘The child, the little boy we found. It’s not Sammy. They’ve got the DNA results back. It’s not Sammy.’
It was as if the air had been sucked from the room. A moment where no-one moved and then all hell let loose. Claire flew at Janine, hitting out at her and crying. Clive began shouting, ‘What do you mean? Where’s Sammy? You said-’
Janine pulled Claire close, so she couldn’t keep thumping her, and held her while she wept.
Chapter 11
Detective Superintendent Louise Hogg never raised her voice, didn’t need to, but the message was crystal clear to Janine in every crisp syllable. The two women were in Hogg’s office and Janine was acutely aware that her team out in the incident room, could see through the glass partition that she was receiving a comprehensive bollocking.
‘So, Sammy Wray is still missing plus you have no idea who the murder victim is. You’ve lost two days following false trails for the murder, two days acting as though the abduction led to it.’
‘We never said it was Sammy Wray,’ Janine pointed out.
‘But you assumed it was, you let that determine your strategy, your actions,’ Louise Hogg said.
‘The same age, sex, colouring, they had the same t-shirt,’ Janine tried to defend herself.
‘The most popular high street range, as I recall. The Chief Constable is waiting to hear from me. He wants to know exactly how we’re helping Sammy’s parents, how we intend to reassure the community and how we’ll protect the force’s reputation. What can I tell him?’ She stared at Janine, displeasure clear in the set of her expression.
Janine cleared her throat, stood up straighter. ‘That no-one is more dedicated to solving this than me and my team. That we will pursue every possible line of inquiry, and that I have no doubts of our eventual success.’
‘All very well, but what we need is a breakthrough. Instead we’ve been stuck down a blind alley for forty-eight hours.’
Louise Hogg gave a curt nod of dismissal and Janine left, feeling awful.
The team were studiously avoiding eye contact with her, pretending to be occupied as she made her way through the incident room to her own office. Would she lose their trust, their support because of this?
‘Tea, boss?’ Lisa spoke up and Janine felt a moment’s gratitude towards the young DC.
‘Ta, no – make it coffee. Then separate all the data on the boards out, everyone else the same with your reports, divide them into those related to the abduction and those relating to the murder. Meeting in an hour-and-a-half, anyone out in the field call them in.’
Murmurs of assent rippled round the room. Perhaps it was too early to say but she didn’t feel any air of resentment. Maybe they were all as surprised as she had been at the shock revelation. And as gutted.
Her preparation wasn’t as thorough as she would have liked for the new briefing, disentangling the evidence and information of the Sammy Wray disappearance from that of the murder was complicated but Janine felt it was more important to give the team some sense of momentum, to reinvigorate them rather than have all the details finessed and neatly presented.
Once everyone was in the room, including Millie, Louise Hogg joined them, no doubt putting in an appearance to indicate she thought Janine required close supervision. Janine felt as though she had been caught out, found wanting. It wasn’t a sensation she liked. Was she losing her touch? Was there anything she could have done differently? Would another SIO have handled things any better? It was a genuine mistake, assuming the body was Sammy Wray, everything had seemed to point that way.
Now she had to hold it together, give a lead, no matter how badly shaken she was by the turn of events.
Two distinct investigation boards had been established. The one on the left read Murder, it held all the details from the crime scene, information on individuals linked to the location: the builders, the Staffords and the Palfreys, other neighbours. The post-mortem summary was there, as were forensics from the scene.
The board on the right was headed Missing Person: Sammy Wray. Sammy’s photo was there, details about the Wrays and Felicity and Phoebe, information from the park inquiry, including the references to the single woman, elderly couple and the bearded man.
Each board now had its own distinct timeline.
Janine began, ‘We have an abduction and we also have the murder of an unknown child. A week last Saturday, three-year-old Sammy Wray was abducted from Withington Park. Two days ago, the body of a child was recovered from Kendal Avenue, a mile away. This child was of similar age and appearance, but he is not Sammy Wray. Sammy Wray is officially a missing person again. Sammy’s been gone eleven days now. We will discuss that case first. Sammy’s father Clive Wray lied to us about his whereabouts and still has no alibi for the time of the abduction. Mr Wray claims he was driving around in his car after an argument with his daughter Phoebe and can’t remember where he was. He also failed to mention that he had taken Sammy to visit his ex-wife Felicity Wray without Claire’s knowledge. A neighbour reports seeing a woman matching Felicity Wray’s description outside Clive’s house on the Saturday afternoon. Felicity Wray denies going to the park but we are trying to establish whether the single woman from eye-witness reports is her. Latest on that?’ Janine looked to Shap and Butchers.
‘Three witnesses, all agree the woman had long hair, two say blonde, one says brown. Age varies between twenty-five and forty,’ Shap said.
‘Could do a line-up – see if people identify Felicity as the single woman at the park?’ Richard suggested.
Janine nodded. ‘Phoebe’s another contender for that. We talk to her, too. Her mother says she was at home but I’m not sure we can take her word for it. Felicity Wray has made no effort to hide her resentment of the missing child or her belief that Clive Wray belongs with her and Phoebe. She has a stronger motive then Clive, so she is at present our key candidate.’
‘Did you search her house?’ Louise Hogg said.
Christ! What if Sammy was there? Been there all along. Alive? Dead? Did they have enough grounds? Louise Hogg obviously thought so. ‘We’ll get a warrant,’ Janine said decisively, ‘bring her in for further questioning as well as the line up. And,’ she took a breath, ‘look into her recent harassment of Clive and Claire – what threats has she been making? Where are we up to with tracing other witnesses?’
‘We’ve found the older couple from the park,’ Lisa said. ‘They were visiting a relative in hospital.’
‘The weirdy beardy man?’ Janine said.
‘Nothing,’ Lisa said.
‘Other actions?’ Janine surveyed the room, inviting contributions. The team needed to be involved, invested in the case not simply told what to do.
‘Revisit the sex offenders, anyone suddenly gone underground and so on,’ said Shap.
Janine nodded.
‘And if you rule out Felicity Wray?’ Louise Hogg said.
‘The cases could still be linked,’ Richard said, ‘someone targeting three-year-olds.’
‘Or there could be no connection. We deal with these as two distinct inquiries,’ Janine said. If a connection did emerge then so be it but until then the investigations would be treated as distinct and discrete.
‘Reconstruction for the abduction set for one pm tomorrow,’ Millie said, ‘and Press Release in hand informing the media of the new situation.’
‘We don’t want scaremongering, hysteria,’ Janine said to Millie, though she felt close to hysteria herself, panic and confusion inside. ‘We need to reassure people.’