‘Bones, Steven, and they appear to be human. Is there anything you’d like to share with us?’
‘There are human remains in Hawne Park?’ he asked, bringing his hand to his chin in horror.
His evasiveness and surprise were an act that he wasn’t even trying to conceal.
‘Do you know anything about them?’ she asked.
Repetition, repetition, repetition, Derek Foggarty had said.
‘It doesn’t matter how many times you ask me the same question, Inspector, the answer is going to remain the same.’
‘I don’t recall you actually giving me an answer, Steven.’
‘I’d mind that tone if I was you, Inspector, or else your colleague there might kick you beneath the table for the third time.’
‘Okay, I’m not doing this,’ Kim said, pushing back her chair. ‘I am not going to treat you like a helpful witness when I know full well that you’ve been responsible for the abduction and murder of young girls. Consider this my exit from the game you’re trying to make me play.’
She placed her hands on the table and leaned into him. ‘Leave, don’t leave but know that the next time we meet we’ll be playing by my rules.’
He pushed back his chair. ‘Inspector, you’re going to regret—’
‘Probably,’ she said from the door. ‘But I’ll live with it because right now you’re just wasting my time.’
As she stormed out of the door, Kim could picture Alison shaking her head with despair, but she could bear the man’s silent triumph no longer. Every time he spoke he confirmed his involvement but not in any way she could use.
‘I know, I know,’ she said to Bryant as she leaned against the corridor wall.
‘Surprised you kept your temper that long to be honest.’
‘Yeah but now I’ve completely fucked our chances of—’
Kim stopped speaking as her phone rang.
She watched miserably as Steven Harte exited the building and headed for his car. If Woody had been watching, she knew he would be her next caller.
‘Give me something good, Doctor A.’
‘I give you all that I have, Inspector. The bones have all been recovered and they are of a small person.’
‘Gender?’
‘Unknown at this point, but I’m prepared to say we are looking at a little girl or boy no older than twelve years of age. I will keep you informed of our—’
‘Thanks, Doc,’ she said, ending the call.
Steven Harte’s car was reversing out of a parking space.
Right now, he had the means, motive and opportunity to flee the country and never be seen again.
She sprinted outside and ran past his car as it headed towards the exit.
She stood in its path as it travelled towards her.
His gaze met hers. He didn’t slow down.
She planted her feet and folded her arms.
The car continued to advance towards her.
Bryant headed towards her from the automatic doors.
Her heart was beating wildly in her chest, but she wasn’t moving. She was not going to let him leave.
The car came to a stop an inch from her legs.
She’d never lost a game of chicken in her life.
‘Guv, what the hell are you playing at?’ Bryant growled.
She walked around the side of the car and opened the driver’s door.
‘Mr Harte, please get out of the vehicle.’
He did so with a smile on his face.
‘I thought we weren’t playing anymore. Have you changed your—?’
‘Different game, different rules.’
He tipped his head. ‘No, I don’t think so. I liked the existing rules.’
‘Mr Harte, in about thirty seconds, Bryant here is going to say something that you’re really not going to like. So, before he does, I ask you one more time: what do you know about the abduction of Melody Jones and the whereabouts of Grace Lennard?
He leaned back against his car. ‘I’ve already told you I have nothing else to say.’
Kim turned to her colleague. ‘Arrest him,’ she said, before turning and walking away.
Twenty-Nine
‘For what?’ Woody barked, pushing his chair forcefully away from the desk.
‘The abduction and murder of Melody Jones.’
He rubbed his hand over his smooth head. ‘Under what criteria? You have no—’
‘To allow the prompt and effective investigation of the offence. And I was unlikely to get anything if we’d have allowed him to continue calling the shots.’
‘You had one opportunity to try and prise the information out of—’
‘Sir, forgive my interruption, but Steven Harte has been in control of everything since the minute he walked into the station. He is well aware of our scope while assisting us with our enquiries. I’ve cracked a hundred eggshells while tiptoeing around him in case I make a mistake with which he can beat us later, and I can still, hand on heart, state that he will not share anything he doesn’t want to. I need him here by force not choice. I need the freedom to question him properly.’
During her speech, she could see that some of the tension had left his face.
‘Not one mistake here, Stone. I’m warning you.’
‘He’s with Jack right now.’
After arresting him, Bryant had led Harte to the custody officer, who was advising Harte of his rights. Jack would ensure that someone would be informed of his arrest and that he’d be offered free legal advice. He’d be given the opportunity to view the Police Codes of Practice, offered medical attention if he was feeling ill and be shown a written notice informing him of his rights about regular breaks for food and use of the toilet.
Kim guessed Steven Harte needed no such guidance, but there was a sense of relief that when Jack was done with him he’d be in a cell not the interview room.
‘You do realise that you’ve destroyed any chance of him leading us to Grace Lennard?’
‘He wasn’t going to,’ she replied. ‘We’ve kept him on watch from the minute he left the station yesterday until he returned this morning. If she isn’t in his house, he has her somewhere that she has access to food and water or she’s already—’
‘Let’s not give too much thought to the already possibility,’ he said, rubbing his head again.
He sighed. ‘Leave the search warrant with me. It’s going to take some creative wording to get a signature and I think you’ve got more than enough to do.’
Kim knew the restrictions that lay before her. If she didn’t find something concrete soon, they would need to seek the permission of a superintendent to extend the detainment for a further twelve hours or a magistrate to keep him up to a maximum of ninety-six hours. If he wasn’t charged in that time, they had to let him go. She already knew that getting any kind of extension based on what they had now was going to be like pissing in the wind.
‘You’ve got twenty-four hours, Stone, to come up with something good, so you’d better get out of my sight and make them count.’
Thirty
‘So by three tomorrow we need to charge him or release him?’ Penn asked, frowning.