Matilda remained standing. Her arms were folded across her chest and the steely look on her face showed she meant business and was in no mood for wasting time when Keeley was still nowhere to be found.
‘My brother?’ He looked up, his eyes barely open. ‘What’s Calvin got to do with this?’
‘He’s out of prison and he’s not at the address he gave his parole officer. Where is he?’
‘I’ve no idea. I haven’t seen him for a few months.’
‘Why not?’
‘Why do you think? I’m a teacher and my brother is a child rapist, for crying out loud. That’s not going to look good, is it?’
‘You told his parole officer you’d vouch for him.’
He looked down at the table. ‘Mum didn’t want him living in that halfway house. She wanted him to get back to normal life as soon as possible.’
Matilda rolled her eyes. ‘Why did you run after we interviewed you?’
‘I don’t know,’ he said, his head sinking as if it was too heavy to hold up.
Matilda pulled out a chair and sat down. She stared at him, waiting for an answer. Christian remained standing by the door.
‘I panicked.’
‘The reactions of a guilty man.’
‘I’m not guilty.’
‘Then why panic?’
‘Because …’
‘Because is not an answer. Keeley Armitage is missing. I need to find her.’
‘Honestly, hand on heart, if I knew where she was, I’d tell you.’
Matilda exhaled loudly. ‘And Calvin?’
He shrugged.
‘What about his friends, family, fellow child rapists?’ She asked, clearly angry with his answers.
‘I feel sick again.’
‘I don’t care. You’re not leaving this room until you tell me where your brother is,’ she shouted.
‘Ma’am,’ Christian said, as a way of telling her she was taking this too far and she should allow him a comfort break.
‘Oh for fuck’s sake. Put him back in his cell.’
‘What shall we do with him? We can’t hold him for much longer without charging him.’
‘Whatever you can charge him with, do it; drunk and disorderly, criminal damage, concealing a convict, kidnapping and seriously pissing off a DCI.’
Matilda stormed out of the interview room and headed for her office.
By the time she’d climbed the stairs and entered the HMET suite she hadn’t calmed down. Her face was still thunderous and she could feel the blood pounding in her ears. She felt faint and needed something to eat. She pulled open the bottom drawer in Sian’s desk and grabbed a handful of chocolate bars before storming into her office and slamming the door so hard behind her the glass rattled in the frames.
Sian entered the suite, heard the banging, and headed for Matilda’s small office in the far corner of the open-plan room. ‘Is everything all right?’
‘No. A nine-year-old girl is missing, and everybody keeps asking me if everything is all right as if I’m going to break into a thousand pieces.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘And stop apologising.’
Matilda looked at Sian. ‘I’m sorry, Sian. I know you’re only trying to help.’ She sank into her chair, tore into a Mars bar and ate half of it in a single bite. ‘Why haven’t we found her yet?’ she asked with her mouth full.
‘I don’t know. I’ve had the results back from her iPad if you’re interested.’
‘And?’
‘You’re not going to like this.’ Sian swiped her own iPad into life and opened the email she’d received from forensics. ‘It seems that Jodie was mistaken. Keeley wasn’t only on Snapchat; she was on Facebook and Instagram. The photos on Instagram are … very grown up.
‘How do you mean?’
Sian showed her the iPad. The photographs showed Keeley fully made up, her hair stylishly arranged. Her clothes were tight and revealing and Keeley was seductively pouting into the camera.
‘Oh my God. She looks like a completely different girl,’ Matilda said.
‘I know.’
‘She looks older than nine too. Who is she sending these pictures to?’
‘Nobody. She’s posting them online. And she’s received some very unsavoury comments.’
‘Do we know who’s posting these comments?’
‘Yes. We’re following them up. It’s going to take time though.’
‘I don’t care how long it takes. I want every single person questioned. We’re going to need to talk to Craig and Linda about these pictures too, see if they knew she was taking them.’
‘Ellen did say that Riley got a lot of attention,’ Sian said. ‘Maybe Keeley has felt left out. The middle child often does. Maybe she’s getting the validation she needs from elsewhere.’
‘But this kind of validation?’ she asked, showing Sian a photo on the iPad of Keeley wearing only a bra and sucking on a lollypop, staring into the camera with heavily made up, sleepy eyes.
‘Why would a nine-year-old feel the need to dress like this and take these kinds of pictures?’
‘Maybe somebody asked her to pose like that? Sian, we really need to find Calvin Page. He seems to have gone missing. Get on to his parole officer and see what they’re doing to find him.’
‘Will do,’ she turned to leave.
‘Hang on a minute,’ Matilda said. She enlarged a photo of Keeley looking seductively over her shoulder, into the camera. She held the iPad up and showed it to Sian. ‘What do you notice about this photo?’
Sian studied it. There was a look of sadness on her face. ‘I’m not sure.’
‘It’s not a selfie.’
‘What?’
‘She’s got her back to the camera; she has her arms wrapped around herself and she’s looking over her shoulder into the camera. Someone took this photo. Someone asked her to pose like this and she complied.’
‘Who?’
‘I know who my first guess would be.’
‘The father?’
‘Well, look at the background. That’s definitely Keeley’s bedroom. I want the whole family interviewed separately.’ The iPad was shaking in her hands.
‘Mat, do you think you should take a step back from this?’
Matilda’s bottom lip wobbled. ‘No. I need to do this. Sian, if I don’t find Keeley Armitage, I’m going to resign.’
‘What?’
‘I can’t have a second missing child on my conscience. The press are already making comparisons with Carl. They’ll turn on me next, I know it. If we don’t find her, it’ll kill me. I won’t be able to do this anymore. It’ll finish me.’
Chapter 24
Everything to the east of Stannington Road within a twenty-mile radius had been searched: Stannington Park, farms and their out buildings, open fields and the new housing estate, but to no avail. To the west of the main road lay more open fields and pockets of woodland. These were the areas now being targeted. If Keeley Armitage wasn’t found here, the search would have to be widened and continue over the border into Derbyshire. With nothing but sprawling acres of green land, the search would be arduous. More officers would need to be drafted in and other forces asked to join.