He watched closely as the boss asked him about Lexi Walters. His right hand started making circles on the table.
From his focused expression, he appeared to be completely unaware of the action.
Penn kept watching.
He talked about Paula, and the circles began again.
The boss moved on to Helen. More circles on the table.
Penn watched again and noticed something new. The circles were in different places on the table. He felt the excitement churn his stomach. It probably meant nothing, he thought as he grabbed a plain sheet of paper.
He drew a circle on the page and pictured that same circle on the desk in front of Harte.
Lexi Walters. The circles were at ten o’clock.
Helen Blunt. The circles moved to six o’clock.
‘Stace, get a map up and plot the burial sites of the victims,’ he said, checking the movements again, and then a third time.
‘Done,’ she said.
‘You got all three on the screen?’
‘Yep.’
‘Put an imaginary clock around it and put Lexi Walters at ten o’clock.’
‘Er… okay.’
‘Where would you put Paula in relation to Lexi?’
‘I’d go north-east.’
‘Give me a number.’
‘Twelvish.’
‘And where would you place Helen in relation to Paula.’
‘South. Sorry, six o’clock.’
‘Jesus, I think the table is a map in his head.’
Alison rolled towards him.
He played the footage and showed her his drawing.
She took another look and began to nod. ‘Penn, I think you might be on to something. He’s thinking of the last place he left them. He needs to be asked about Grace.’
‘Someone needs to tell the boss.’
Seventy-Nine
Kim sat back at the table and resumed the interview. Both Harte and his lawyer looked at her questioningly. What could possibly be urgent enough to remove her from the room while a suspect was in the process of confessing to the abduction and murder of three little girls? She’d wondered the same thing until she’d heard what Penn had to say.
‘My apologies for the interruption, Mr Harte, but it was important. We have gained access to your phone.’ She paused. ‘We understand you like your tea with one sugar,’ she said so that he knew she wasn’t bluffing.
Kate Swift frowned. She appeared to be irritated that she wasn’t in on the joke.
Harte hid his surprise with a resigned nod of the head.
‘We can see her. She’s safe and well, just as you intended.’
Swift was looking from her to Harte, as though waiting for someone to tell her what was going on.
‘Let’s finish this, Mr Harte. Why don’t you tell us where you’ve put Grace Lennard?’
His lawyer appeared stunned.
‘Who the hell is Grace Lennard?’ Swift asked as Harte’s hand rested on the table.
Kim met Harte’s intense stare and waited.
Swift watched the silent exchange for a full minute.
‘Inspector, I’d like to pause the interview. I need to confer with my client.’
Kim held his gaze for a few more seconds before pausing the interview.
Swift had cut them off quickly, and Kim just hoped her team had got what they needed.
She stepped outside, and Bryant followed, closing the door behind him.
‘What the hell was all that about?’
Bryant didn’t know why she’d been called out of the interview.
‘Something to do with circles on the table. The guys think he’s giving away the locations of the girls unconsciously.’
Bryant looked doubtful. ‘We stopped the questioning because—’
Bryant stopped speaking as the door opened.
Kate Swift exited the interview room and closed the door behind her.
‘I’m sorry, Inspector, but I can no longer represent Mr Harte. He refuses to tell me the truth or listen to my advice; therefore, my presence here is pointless. I’ve recommended alternative legal counsel, but as far as I’m concerned, Mr Harte is now on his own.’
Without giving them a chance to respond, the woman strode towards the doors to the foyer.
Bryant’s stunned expression matched her own feelings, which then turned to irritation. Without legal counsel, they could no longer talk to Steven Harte. Even if they were to appoint a solicitor on his behalf, he was now off limits for hours.
Eighty
It was three minutes past two when Alex heard the alarm in the distance as she sat on her bed. Perfectly timed. The sound was coming from the siren just outside the library. They all knew what it meant. Go back to your cell and await lock-up. Some would go quickly and others would try to linger and find out what the incident was about.
‘What’s going on?’ she asked Emma innocently as she bustled into the cell.
‘Dunno,’ Emma said, throwing herself onto her bed and reaching for her book.
Oh dear, it looked as though the woman still had the hump from their earlier chat. Never mind – Alex would enjoy the peace anyway.
And she knew exactly what was going on. Noelle had made it to the library in time to find Stella grabbing the phone from where she’d stashed it. Without Titch nearby, she was pretty sure Noelle was giving her the hiding she deserved. When the guards searched Stella, they’d find the phone, and as she’d restored it to factory settings, it would never be traced back to her. Just a little bonus.
She could hear the sound of rubber soles heading her way at speed. Any second now an officer would appear to lock them down. Standard practice during an incident.
If her plan had worked how she’d expected it to work, there should be a surprise waiting for them three cells down.
She heard raised, firm voices at the end of the corridor as a couple of prisoners refused to do as they were told. Other inmates were shouting to each other, trying to find out what was going on.
It was music to her ears when the second siren sounded, much closer this time.
She popped her head out of the door and, sure enough, guards were rushing into Lisa’s cell.
She heard frantic calls to each other, movement, panic, urgency and then silence.
Oh dear, what could possibly have happened? she wondered.
A guard appeared in the hallway, smears of blood over her crisp white shirt.
‘Back inside, Thorne,’ she ordered.
‘Of course, Officer,’ she said, returning to her bed.
She would get an update soon enough. But it looked as though her plan had worked.
Two major incidents in one day. And where was the warden during the chaos?
Same place she always went at 2 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon.
Eighty-One
‘Okay, guys, did he give you what you wanted?’ Kim asked, rushing back into the squad room.
‘Three o’clock,’ Penn said.
‘What the…?’
‘In relation to Paula, Grace is north-east and she’s south-east of Helen. So we’ve narrowed it down to this five-mile-square area from Belbroughton down to Bromsgrove to Alvechurch back up to Rednal.’
That was still a chunk of area.