She kept pushing but keeping her tone soft, full of concern. ‘Where he is, he’s no name, no identity, like a bit of rubbish that no-one cares about. He has a mother, he has a father, they deserve the truth. That’s all they can have now. That little soul needs peace. I think you do too.’
He raised his head, tears leaking from the sides of his eyes, anguish stretched across his face.
‘Where did you find him? Who is he, Joe?’
He shook his head, raised his hands to his face, pressed his fingers against his lips as though he’d stop the words. Gave a sob.
‘Joe, please, who is he?’
‘He’s my son.’ His arms fell, he cried to the heavens. ‘My boy. He’s dead and he’s my son.’
Chapter 26
‘Is he losing it, or what? Has he got another kid?’ Richard said as soon as they were alone, after the solicitor had insisted on a break and Janine agreed without argument. ‘Is there a previous relationship?’
‘Not that we know of,’ Janine said. ‘They’ve the baby – and John,’ Janine recalled the photos, the child crying from upstairs. Miserable with chickenpox. ‘And no-one’s reported a child missing, anyway. Apart from Sammy. If he was from a previous relationship surely the mother would have… John Breeley’s been sick,’ she was thinking aloud, ‘we didn’t see him. We heard him though.’
She looked at Richard. Her stomach turned over and her bowels turned to water. ‘We heard a child. We were told it was John.’
Richard narrowed his eyes, listening intently to her.
‘There is a connection,’ she said, her mouth dry and heart thumping. ‘This is John, our victim. The child we heard upstairs – I think it’s Sammy.’
The way Breeley had hesitated when Janine mentioned DNA. He must have thought then that they’d soon identify the relationship between father and son, that the game was up. That no matter how vehemently he denied all knowledge of the crime, the science would blow it all wide open.
‘He killed his son and took Sammy?’ Richard said.
‘The timing would fit. He puts John there early Saturday morning, goes away and comes back just after nine. He works the morning…’
‘Goes to the park,’ Richard said.
‘That’s why we’ve had no reports of another missing child.’ She could feel her pulse racing, a buzzing in her head.
‘We arrest Mandy as an accomplice and remove the children,’ she said.
‘You sure?’ Richard said.
‘That it’s Sammy? Hell, yes. This time I’m sure.’ She was trembling with adrenalin but she needed to focus, to use the energy to concentrate on the task in hand – recovering Sammy from Mandy Breeley.
There was no reply at the house. Janine peered through the letter box, no sign of life, no sounds from upstairs. Shap checked around the back and found the same. They began knocking on doors along the street.
A neighbour opposite reported seeing Mandy leave with the children in the car only a few minutes earlier. She knew the family well and was able to tell them where Mandy’s mother lived.
‘Richard and I will go round there now,’ Janine told the team who stood, poised to act, outside the Breeley’s house with all the neighbours watching. ‘Shap, flag up the car registration so we can try and catch her with ANPR if she’s done a runner,’ referring to the automatic number plate recognition technology they could use. ‘Butchers, get onto telecoms, we want to pinpoint her location if she uses her phone – Joe Breeley will have her number in his. Be prepared to instigate a child rescue.’
Janine rang Lisa and brought her up to speed. ‘Map out radius, probable distance travelled and time projections. Set up a child abduction alert. Shap will give you the details.’
Shap got out his phone. As Janine hurried to her car Shap began to speak to Lisa, ‘Maroon Vauxhall Astra registration mother 635 x-ray, lima, hotel. Full alert all ports and airports. Occupants twenty-five-year old white female, long blonde hair, believed to be travelling with infant boy and three-year-old boy…’
Mandy’s mother lived about a mile away and looked disconcerted when she opened the door to police officers.
‘Have you seen Mandy today?’ Janine asked her, once she’d identified herself.
‘No.’
‘Have you heard from her?’
‘No. Why? What’s going on?’ she said.
Janine didn’t have time to go into a full blown explanation so said instead, ‘She’s missing from home and we’re anxious to speak to her.’
‘About what? What on earth’s the matter?’ the woman’s voice rose.
‘I’m sorry, I can’t discuss that with you now but please if you do hear from her will you let us know immediately?’ Janine passed her a card. The woman opened and closed her mouth, her forehead creased, eyes bewildered.
Knowing what she did, Janine felt a moment’s pity for Mandy’s mother. Whatever happened in the hours to come, her life was about to be torn apart as she learnt about the death of her grandson and the abduction carried out by her son-in-law. ‘I’m sorry,’ Janine said, ‘I have to go.’
They drove away, the woman still standing in her doorway, as if frozen by dread.
Janine requested that Joe Breeley be returned to the interview room.
He came in walking slowly, face drained of colour. He sat beside his solicitor and rubbed at his face with his palms, like he was trying to wake himself up.
‘Joe, Mandy’s missing,’ Janine said.
‘What about Aidan?’ He looked alarmed.
‘She’s taken him, and Sammy.’
He froze and looked at her, he obviously hadn’t realised they had made the connection. Did he think he could hide the abduction from them?
‘I don’t know anything about Sammy.’
Lying.
‘Are you telling us you didn’t abduct Sammy Wray?’ Richard said.
‘I didn’t,’ he said.
‘We heard him at the house,’ Janine said, ‘remember?’
His face crumpled. He sniffed. ‘I can’t-’
The lone woman in the park. Janine’s stomach fell. Mandy! Mandy, deranged with grief, had substituted someone else’s child for her own. And Joe was trying to shield her.
‘Mandy,’ she said. He flinched, wouldn’t meet her eye. ‘We’re very concerned for their safety. Where would she go?’
‘You’ll take him off her, Aidan.’ He shook his head. ‘You’ll charge her. I can’t do that to them.’
‘And if it all goes wrong?’ Janine said.
‘No,’ he said.
‘If you help us, Joe, that will be taken into account,’ Richard said.
‘I don’t care about that,’ he exploded. ‘Christ, do you think that matters?’ He put his hands on his head, pulled at the hair there, his knuckles white.
‘We need to contact her friends. Perhaps she’s left the children with someone or asked somebody for help,’ Janine said.
There was a long pause. He seemed torn. ‘I can’t,’ he said eventually.
They examined his phone anyway and Shap began ringing round all the contacts in his list.
‘Mandy went out shopping on Friday afternoon,’ Janine said. The car broke down. You were on your own with the boys, tell me what happened.’
‘It was an accident,’ he said, his voice shaking. ‘I just wanted him to stop messing about.’ He shook his head.
‘Joe?’ she prompted, ‘What was he doing?’
‘He was having a tantrum, chucking his food all over the place, kicking me. He’s screaming his head off. I pick him up and-’
He stopped short, lips crimped together, his fists clenched, miming how he held the child by the shoulders.
‘You shook him?’ Richard said.
‘Yeah, and he’s yelling and I just…I-’
‘Go on,’ Janine said.
He took a rapid breath in. ‘I just put him down, too rough and he goes backwards, hard against the wall. Then he’s quiet.’ Breeley began to sob, his shoulders heaving, saliva at the corners of his mouth. ‘She wouldn’t let him go,’ his distress was palpable, Janine felt her throat tighten.