Cold Justice (14 page)

‘Toby and I have agreed that we aren’t helping one another. He has decided he can’t bear to leave this flat. But I’m going to get out and look for Samuel.’

‘I don’t recommend it, Lauren. You need to show a united front.’

‘I’ve made up my mind. I can’t stay here with Toby. I’m sorry, but I can’t cope with the breakdown of my marriage as well as the loss of my son.’

‘Lauren, please let’s sit down and talk about how we can help,’ Jeanie suggested.

‘I can’t stand it here any more. If Toby won’t leave, then I must. I’m going down to Cornwall. If that’s where Carter and Willis have gone, then I’m going there too. My bag is packed. I’m going down to see if I can find my son there,’ said Lauren.

‘It is only one more line of enquiry. They may be back tomorrow,’ Jeanie said reassuringly.

‘I’d still rather not be here. I feel like I’m dying in this flat.’

‘Shall we move you to a hotel near here?’

Lauren shook her head. ‘It’s up to you, of course,’ said Jeanie, still looking at Toby, who didn’t move. ‘We will need to know where you are staying, though.’

‘Yes – I’ll stay at Toby’s father’s house in Penhal. I’ve made up my mind.’ She walked past Jeanie and picked up the cage with the dog in it. Russell crouched low in his basket inside.

‘Please, Lauren, wait while I talk to the boss.’ Lauren set the dog back down with an irritable sigh and Jeanie stepped outside to phone Carter.

‘Lauren wants to come down to Cornwall,’ Jeanie said from the landing outside the flat. ‘There’s such a lot of tension here between her and Toby, she wants to be away from it all. I think they will have to be split up for now – they’re not helping one another. If she had a relative nearby, I would suggest she go there, but she hasn’t. She wants to go down to Penhal. She wants to stay in the house. Is that possible? She’s determined.’

‘It’s possible,’ Carter said. ‘It’s been searched. I suppose it won’t hurt to split them up, especially if they’re at one another’s throats. We don’t have time to nursemaid her. We will need to find a Family Liaison Officer for this area. Or do you want to come down?’

‘I’m better off staying with Toby, I think. He knows me now. He’s not as tough as Lauren. I’ll be able to support him better.’

‘Okay, but tell her she has to be escorted down: she can’t drive herself. If you don’t get anywhere with Toby today, I want him brought in for questioning,’ Carter said. ‘We can’t afford any mistakes. He still isn’t painting the whole picture for us. Now we know he’s been lying about his trips to his dad’s apartment with Gareth too.’

‘I’ll work on him the minute Lauren is gone, and, if I don’t get the information we’re looking for, I’ll bring him in,’ Jeanie promised.

When Jeanie went back into the lounge neither Lauren nor Toby had moved.

‘It has been approved, Lauren. You can go to Cornwall in your car but with a police driver. I’ve phoned and that’s being organized right now. He will be with us shortly.’

‘I don’t want an escort.’

‘It’s a long drive and you’re tired, stressed. You could have an accident. Plus, we are in the middle of this investigation. We need to know where you are all the time. I’m sorry, but that’s the way it has to be. Believe me, it’s for the best; we need to protect you now.’

Jeanie looked at Toby. He was still staring out of the window. ‘Toby, are you all right about Lauren going to Cornwall?’ He nodded but he didn’t turn.

‘It’s not up to Toby,’ Lauren snapped. ‘I can’t stay in this flat a moment longer and do nothing. The press is camped outside. We’re prisoners here,’ Lauren said as she walked out of the room.

Jeanie looked at Toby. ‘Toby?’ He nodded. ‘I’ll stay here with you.’

His hands were raised to the window as if to reach out for someone. He leaned towards the glass, with his forehead touching.

‘Toby?’ He didn’t answer. Jeanie walked towards him. The sky was a swirl of grey cloud. ‘Toby?’ Jeanie’s phone rang. The police driver had arrived to escort Lauren.

Lauren came back into the room. She picked up her keys. ‘I saw a police car arrive outside; I presume that’s for me? I’ll phone you,’ she said in Toby’s direction.

‘Lauren, Ebony will be down there to meet you and stay with you in the house. Okay?’

Lauren looked about to object but then nodded. A detective from the local police station walked up the stairs as Lauren was collecting the last of the things together at the door. He showed his badge.

‘Mrs Forbes-Wright? I’ll be driving you to Cornwall today.’ He picked up the dog cage. ‘I’ll give you a hand to the car.’

Jeanie went out with Lauren to talk to her.

‘Are you sure about this, Lauren?’

‘Yes.’

Jeanie hugged her before returning inside. ‘She’ll be all right, Toby,’ Jeanie told him as she came back into the lounge.

He shook his head slowly. ‘All this. All this mess. It’s all my fault.’ He had retreated further into the sofa, doubled over as if in pain; he hugged his legs.

Jeanie sat next to him.

‘You’re doing all right, Toby. I know it’s hard. It’s so tough on you all.’

‘But, it all comes back to me. My father left all this stuff for me to deal with. Did he hate me so much that he didn’t want us to have any happiness from the minute he died?’

‘I don’t think he hated you, Toby.’

‘Then you don’t understand anything.’

‘Tell me.’

He took a deep breath and stood. ‘Do you mind if I go out?’

‘No, of course not.’

‘I want to walk up to the Observatory.’

‘Come on, we’ll get some fresh air.’

Toby nodded, his eyes on the floor as he got his coat and waited for Jeanie at the door. They walked down the stairs and through reception. As soon as they came in view of the press twenty feet away, the cameras started flashing. Toby turned his head away. Questions were shouted at him about his father, about Lauren and his relationship. A reporter asked if, given Toby’s job, it was possible Samuel had been abducted by aliens. Jeanie glared at them all. They passed a police officer standing outside the entrance to the apartment block who was taking the full brunt of the bitter wind off the river.

‘Make sure you step outside if someone approaches the building,’ Jeanie said. ‘Don’t let anyone but residents in – with proof of residency. But get out of the wind, shelter in the foyer.’

‘Yes, thank you, ma’am.’

Jeanie stopped to look back at the front door. When they were out of sight of the press and protected by an escort of five officers, Jeanie turned to ask, ‘Toby, when you got back here and you saw the empty buggy, where did you think Samuel was? What was the first thought that came into your head?’

‘I thought he had undone his belt and run off.’

‘Has he ever done that before?’

‘No, I don’t think so.’

‘Can he undo his own belt?’

‘I don’t know. But, maybe I didn’t do it up properly?’ He shook his head anxiously.

‘Do you think you would have noticed before then that the belt wasn’t done up?’

‘Yes, I suppose so, but I just didn’t understand where he could be. That was the only explanation I could think of.’

‘The whole time you were out with him, he never got out of the buggy? You didn’t have to take him to the toilet? You didn’t have to make him walk a little way?’

‘No. He was not himself. He was grizzling a lot and then he fell asleep. I was so relieved that he was not making a fuss any more that I just didn’t check on him.’

Toby looked at Jeanie. She nodded, smiled sympathetically. She knew very well that there wasn’t a parent out there that wouldn’t have understood.

‘Listen, I have a little girl,’ she said, ‘and I understand the pressures. I know what it’s like. I would have felt the same way – thank goodness she’s fallen asleep, I can have a little browse in the shops, have a little peace.’

‘Yes, I suppose so.’

‘You don’t have to feel guilty for feeling that, Toby. It’s natural. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad parent.’

Toby looked over at Jeanie and shook his head.

‘Lauren does all the parenting with Samuel. I’m still a novice.’

‘Just because your dad wasn’t a good parent, Toby, doesn’t mean that you can’t learn to be. Your wife tends to take the reins, I understand, but you love your son just as much as she does, I’m sure. Don’t you? We’re all human and when our mind’s on a million things we take our eye off the ball just for a few seconds. Did you leave him outside a shop, even for a minute?’

‘Yes,’ Toby blurted, relieved to get it out. ‘I left him when I was looking at the saxophone. The pop-up shop that has second-hand instruments.’

Jeanie’s mind was working out the CCTV coverage. ‘Let’s walk, show me the shop.’

They crossed over the busy centre of Greenwich and headed towards the park and then took a side road that ran up and beside it.

‘Is this it?’ They stopped outside a small temporary shop with writing across the window.

‘Yes, I left him here.’

Jeanie looked around. The place was about ten feet from the start of the park. It was a dark side street that would have been known only to those that already knew of its existence. There were no cameras on the street that she could see. They stepped inside.

‘Hello.’ Jeanie showed her badge. ‘Mind if I ask you a few questions?’

The lad with the ginger dreadlocks and the piercings nodded, bemused; he was looking at Toby curiously.

‘Go ahead.’

Jeanie turned and pointed to Toby.

‘Do you remember seeing this man Monday afternoon?’

Ginger Dreadlocks nodded. ‘You were after the sax, right?’

Toby nodded meekly.

‘How long do you think he was in here?’ asked Jeanie.

‘About twenty minutes. We had a good chat about music, didn’t we?’

Christ,
thought Jeanie.
He completely forgot about Samuel
.

‘While this gentlemen was in here, looking at the horn—’

‘Sax – a horn is a different instrument,’ corrected Ginger Dreadlocks.

‘While this customer was in this shop, did you notice the buggy parked outside?’

‘No, I can’t say I did.’

‘Not at all?’

‘No. I was more interested in serving this customer; I never imagined he would have a buggy outside.’ As he was talking the penny dropped and he realized who Toby was. ‘Sorry, man.’ He shook his head. ‘I didn’t realize.’

They left the shop and passed by the search going on around the area where the suit had been found.

‘Toby, stay here, please.’ Jeanie left him and walked across to the commander in charge of the search operation. She updated him, then rang Robbo.

‘We have confirmation from Toby that he left the buggy unattended outside a pop-up music shop on a side street, just off the beginning of the park. It’s about a five-minute walk from where the suit was found. I’ve updated the search parties. The assistant confirms he spent some time in the shop.’

‘Okay,’ Robbo said. ‘I’ll get two officers down there to interview the assistant and find out more. We’ll get straight onto this and see if we can find any CCTV to back it up.’

Jeanie walked back over to Toby. She squeezed his arm and smiled, trying to ease his worried expression. She indicated that they should keep walking. They took the path up towards the Observatory.

‘I have held everything up, haven’t I?’ Toby asked.

‘I won’t lie, Toby, we could have done with knowing this straight away.’

‘I was just so worried about what Lauren would think of me, what everyone would think. I thought he would be found by now. I’m so sorry.’

‘It is done, Toby, and you weren’t responsible for taking Samuel. We need to push forward now and you need to tell us everything you remember about this walk,’ Jeanie said firmly. ‘This must be quite a climb with the buggy,’ she said as they headed up the steep last section. Above them the Royal Observatory was still closed to the public. Toby stopped and looked at the ‘closed’ signs. He’d been quiet since they’d left the shop.

‘When will it reopen?’ he asked. ‘We can’t afford the loss of revenue.’

‘I expect it will be a few days,’ Jeanie answered, trying to hide her surprise at him asking.

‘I’m sorry, it’s just that I don’t want everyone to suffer because of what’s happened.’

‘You really love this place, don’t you?’ Jeanie asked, smiling.

‘Yes, I suppose I do.’

‘Did Samuel like coming up here?’

‘I never brought him up here before Monday.’

‘Did he like it then?’

‘I don’t know. He was asleep.’

They passed through the entrance and Jeanie nodded at the police officer on duty. A group of officers were clearing a drain.

‘We’ll stop here, Toby,’ said Jeanie.

‘What are they doing?’ asked Toby.

‘Looking for any clues, anything that might have been dropped. We haven’t found Samuel’s hat and boots yet.’

Toby stood beneath the bright searchlight as the white-suited forensic team knelt beside the drain.

‘Oh God. Do they think he’s down there?’

‘No, they’re looking for something someone might have dropped by accident or on purpose. You mentioned Gareth, is he your friend here?’

Toby’s head snapped round to look at Jeanie and then, just as quickly, he returned his stare to the forensic team.

‘Gareth works here, that’s all. We’ve become friends.’

‘Do you see Gareth outside work?’

‘Sometimes, we meet for a beer sometimes.’

‘Has Gareth got a partner? Is he the same sort of age as you?’

‘I don’t think he does have a partner at the moment. He’s a bit younger than me, I think.’

‘So you’re like his mentor.’

‘I don’t know about that.’

‘He looks up to you, I expect?’

‘Not really. We just get along.’

‘Have a laugh?’

‘Yes.’

‘What about Lauren?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Does she like Gareth?’

‘I haven’t bothered to introduce them. Lauren has her own social life. She works very hard, long hours. Luckily there is a crèche where she works. She isn’t much of a socialite. She goes to the gym in her spare time.’

‘But – do you think she’d like Gareth?’

‘I can’t see why not. I also can’t see what this has to do with anything.’