Chapter Forty-Three
THE DETECTIVES TOOK THEIR brEAK IN the open-plan office, perched around Vicki Robb’s desk, wanting to include her as much as they could, filling her in with the details. Wanting her to share in their success. Matthew brought coffee for them all.
‘Let’s think about the next stage of the interview,’ he said. Jen thought he looked tired, but still sharp. ‘Jen, will you take the lead on the boy’s abduction?’
‘Sure.’ The boss was good at that, sharing responsibility, making everyone feel part of the team. It didn’t happen in other places she’d worked. ‘Can we gallop through the facts, so I know where to start?’ Because at the moment the whole episode was as clear as the mud that lined the Taw.
So, they drank coffee and discussed the disappearance of Alex Armstrong, how and why it had happened. How the boy’s disappearance had clarified Venn’s suspicion that Jake was involved, how it had shifted his perspective.
‘At first, I had no thought that Jake was involved in the case at all,’ Venn said. ‘I jumped to conclusions and didn’t keep a sufficiently open mind.’
‘When did you know?’ Jen wanted to ask why the boss hadn’t shared his suspicions. It was all very well allowing the team to take responsibility in the interview, but pretty shit if he hadn’t trusted them enough to try out his ideas with them.
‘Honestly? Not for certain until Alex had been taken, and then not until he’d been missing for a few hours.’ Venn sounded almost apologetic. ‘But in the end it had to be Jake. Nothing else hung together.’
‘How did you work out where Alex was?’
‘It was Ross’s friends, the elderly drinkers, saying they hadn’t seen anything unusual the afternoon that the boy disappeared. What could be more usual than a tractor coming down the track from the farm?’
‘That’s why you asked Ross to phone them?’
‘Yeah.’ Venn smiled at her. ‘I could have been wrong. I’d been so often wrong in this case. I’d stopped trusting my judgement.’
Jen imagined the scene. Alex had been with Jake all afternoon. He’d been playing in the sun, paddling in the stream. Every small boy’s dream. Then Jake had turned up on a tractor and suggested giving him a ride. Her kids wouldn’t have given their mother a second thought when they were young.
Venn was still talking. ‘Of course, the locals wouldn’t have taken any notice of a tractor, but Elaine Cauldwell’s driver confirmed that he’d seen one at the end of the farm track when he drove in.’ He looked at the clock on the office wall. ‘That’s their thirty minutes. You’d better go back in.’
‘Are you not joining us?’
‘No,’ Matthew said. ‘Ross can partner you. I’ll observe. It’ll be good to get a different point of view. Jen’s the lead, though. Okay?’
Ross had no option but to agree – he was being offered after all a kind of redemption – but Jen was aware of him throughout the interview, tense, twitching and eager, desperate to intervene. Hating having to play second fiddle.
Sitting in the grim interview room, with its table bolted to the floor and its uncomfortable chairs, Jen thought Jake Brennan looked very young, no older really than her son Ben. Young and vulnerable.
‘I don’t understand,’ she said, ‘why you felt the need to snatch Alex. He’d been with you all afternoon. He liked you.’
‘I liked him!’ Jake seemed shocked. ‘He was Hannah’s brother. I would never have hurt him. Being with him was the closest I could get to being with her.’
‘But you kidnapped him.’
‘No! It was nothing like that. I just needed to talk to him. We went back to the glamping pod where we’d spent the afternoon, and he fell asleep.’
‘Why did you need to talk to him so urgently?’
‘I still had Hannah’s phone,’ Jake said.
‘I told you. I picked it up the morning she died because I’d left mine in the farmhouse.
Cath Armstrong brought Alex to the farm for lunch and later we all came back to the house.
I took Alex up to my room to play. I had some old games on my computer. I thought he’d enjoy them.’
‘But while he was there, he found Hannah’s phone?’
‘Yeah. It’s distinctive. A pink case covered in rainbow and flower stickers.
It was still in my pocket when your boss came to tell me Hannah and Lottie were dead.
I hid it when he next came, worried he might search my room, but he didn’t.
’ Jake seemed to be reliving Venn’s visit.
‘He was a good guy, easy to talk to. Not like a cop at all. I nearly told him what had happened. Nearly.’ A pause. ‘I should have done.’
‘Alex found Hannah’s phone in your room?’ Jen prompted.
‘Yeah. Sometimes I’d take it out. Just to hold it, you know.
I didn’t switch it on, because I thought that might trigger something, and you might find me.
But I knew her passcode. I thought later, when things had died down, I could go in and look.
There’d be photos of her and me together.
Selfies when we were mucking around. Laughing.
’ He lapsed into silence. Jen let it stretch, sensing Ross, impatient beside her.
At last, Jake started talking again. ‘I hadn’t planned to bring Alex into my room yesterday afternoon. It was on the bed, and he saw it.’
‘He recognized it as Hannah’s?’
Jake nodded. ‘He didn’t say anything, but he must have done. Then Mum called up to say that Cath needed to get off, and Alex ran downstairs.’
He paused and once more, Jen waited for him to speak. Ross fidgeted by her side.
‘I needed to check the water in one of the fields. I already had the tractor in the yard. I didn’t mean to follow the Armstrongs’ car.
How would I know that they’d stop at the pub, that Cath would get out and leave Alex on his own?
Nothing was planned.’ He looked at Jen, begging her to believe him. She thought she probably did.
‘So, you left the tractor at the end of the track, and you went to speak to him?’
‘Yeah. That’s all I was going to do, but Alex had seen the tractor. “Can we go for a ride?” he said. I could tell he was desperate. He had this breathless kind of voice. I thought it would be easier to talk to him if he was in the cab with me. Besides, he’d asked for a ride, and I couldn’t say no.’
Now Ross couldn’t stay quiet. He’d jumped in before Jen could ask a question of her own. ‘Had he told anyone about the phone?’
Jake shrugged. ‘I couldn’t find the words to ask. I lifted him up and he was so excited. So happy. I drove on across the meadow to the river with him at my side. It reminded me of the times I’d used to ride with my father.’
‘Why didn’t you just take him for a ride and drop him back at the pub?’ Jen asked before Ross could jump in again. Her voice was kind, though. She could picture the two of them laughing together.
‘I’m not sure.’ Jake looked at her, begging her to believe him.
‘It just felt good being with him. Peaceful, I suppose, and we carried on into the shade of the trees. And then I realized how long we’d been away and that there’d be a fuss, and I couldn’t face it.
And I still hadn’t asked Alex about the phone.
I felt I was losing it. The stress of having had to hold it all in. I’m not very good at pretending.’
Jen shot a look at Ross. The last thing they needed was some sarky comment from him. He must have got the message, because he kept his gob shut, and Jake continued speaking.
‘When we got to the glampers, I told Alex I’d phone his mum and tell her to get him when she was ready.
After that, we seemed to lose any sense of time; he was just playing and chatting.
I suppose he’d been stuck in that hotel with not much to do for days.
Maybe I was helping him to forget that Hannah was dead.
We lit the fire pit, and we found some leftover marshmallows to roast. He didn’t mention the phone and so I didn’t either.
I knew then that it was all over, that I’d have to tell you what happened, but it was so peaceful and easy there.
It got dark, and he climbed onto the bed in the pod and fell asleep. ’
‘Your mother must have known you had the boy,’ Ross said. ‘When I came looking for Alex, she kept me away from that end of the farm.’
But you didn’t think to look, Jen thought.
‘She was trying to protect me,’ Jake said.
‘She was always trying to protect me. Mum saw me drive across the meadow. When she found us in the glamper, I told her what had happened with Hannah and Lottie. She didn’t seem surprised.
She said I should go to the police, but not now.
Not with everyone out looking for the boy.
It would be a nightmare. Jim Hooper and his mob were out in the combe playing war games, and they’d string me up if they found out I’d taken Alex. ’
Jen thought of Jim Hooper, his anger, his air of barely suppressed violence, his need to find someone to blame, and thought that if she’d been Jake’s mother, she’d have wanted to wait until the search party had disbanded too.
‘What did your mum suggest?’
‘She said we’d have to make sure the kid was found before I gave myself up, but it couldn’t be on the farm.
They couldn’t be involved. She thought we might just drive him back to the hotel in Torr and leave a message with reception.
But Alex was so calm, so deeply asleep. I didn’t think we should move him.
’ He looked up. ‘You know what happened next.’
‘Inspector Venn came and found you,’ Jen said.
‘Yeah. I think Dad wanted to keep up the pretence. He was worried about the farm and the business and what people like the Hoopers would think if they knew I’d abducted a child, but Mum could tell that it was over.
’ Jake looked up. ‘And I didn’t abduct him.
Alex came because he wanted to ride in a tractor, because he wanted to be with me. ’
‘His mother was frantic,’ Jen said.
‘I know. I should have thought about that.’ Jake paused for a moment. ‘Tell her, will you, how sorry I am.’
They were back in the big office, the whole team celebrating a victory now, planning a night in the pub. They clapped Jen and Ross when they came in, but Jen found it hard to feel very much joy. As Venn had said, there were no monsters in the case.
Venn took her to one side. ‘You’re the nearest thing to family liaison. The Armstrongs are still in Torr. They’ll head back to London later today. Will you go to the hotel and fill the Armstrongs in on the details, before Appleyard releases a statement to the press.’
‘Sure.’
‘You can tell them that Jake Brennan confessed to causing Lottie’s death and we believe that she murdered their daughter.’
‘And I can explain where you found Alex?’
He nodded. ‘I can’t imagine them landing up at Millscombe Farm spitting bile at the Brennans. Causing a fuss. Not their style. Besides, they have a right to know.’
Jen thought of Jake’s last words to her in the interview room. Tell her how sorry I am.
The Armstrongs were waiting for her on the terrace.
A parasol fixed to the table kept off the worst of the sun, and it was quiet.
Still a little early for pre-lunch drinks and too late for mid-morning coffee.
They were, it seemed, all packed up and ready to go home.
Jen knew the suitcases would already be in the car.
She could tell from the start that Paul was impatient and eager to set off.
He jumped to his feet as soon as she approached.
Cath had been chatting to the boys, but when she saw Jen, she set up their iPads and told them to put on headphones. A good plan, Jen thought, to keep them entertained and so they couldn’t overhear the conversation.
‘I wanted to tell you we have someone in custody for the manslaughter of Lottie Cauldwell.’ It would be for the CPS to decide on the charge, but Jen hoped that this would be the outcome. Lottie’s death hadn’t been planned, and Jake hadn’t meant to kill her.
‘What about Hannah? Won’t you charge someone for her death?’ It sounded almost as if Paul thought there was some competition, that his daughter was being treated unfairly, left out. ‘And why manslaughter and not murder? Hannah’s death was violent. Horrible.’
So, Jen told Jake’s story, almost word for word.
She started with Elizabeth Kinzalow’s accident and the toxic relationship between the three girls.
‘I think they were all a bit sad,’ she said.
‘But they were bad for each other. They wound each other up. Hannah thought Lottie must be the best friend in the world because she lied for her about Elizabeth’s accident and covered her back.
’ Jen glanced across at Paul. She was looking into the sun and couldn’t see his face.
Perhaps it was just as well. ‘She wanted to protect your reputation. She knew how it would be if her name was plastered all over the press as the cause of life-changing injuries in an American lass.’
Then she described the early morning at Tide House, and the frantic attack on Hannah.
‘Lottie killed her!’ Paul said. ‘That’s not sad. That’s evil.’
Dangerous and sad, Jen thought.
‘We’re not charging Jake with murder,’ she said. ‘We don’t believe he meant to kill Lottie. If the CPS agrees, there’ll be a manslaughter charge.’
‘I think I would have killed her and meant it.’ Cath’s voice was very small. ‘I would have liked to see her die.’ A pause. ‘We’ll help Jake in any way we can.’
Jen was shocked. ‘Jake was the person who took your son.’ She wondered if that might change Cath’s mind. And she launched into that part of the story, keeping it flat, staying with the facts.
‘Alex told me he had the best adventure ever,’ Cath said. ‘We won’t be pressing charges.’
Jen noticed that the woman hadn’t consulted her husband before either statement; in her head she was cheering.
‘That might not be your decision.’
‘I’ll say that I gave Jake my permission to have Alex,’ Cath said. ‘Or that it was all a misunderstanding.’
Paul looked as if he was about to contradict her, but she glared at him and there was an awkward silence.
Jen reached into her bag and pulled out a plastic bag with Hannah’s phone inside.
‘We thought you might like this.’ They stared at it, at the pink case covered in flowers and rainbows, and they both started to cry.
The boys looked up from their devices, anxious, and took off their headsets.
Cath pulled herself together first. She smiled at them.
‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘We’re going home.’
‘The crime scene officers have finished their work on Tide House,’ Jen said. ‘You’re welcome to go in now and take anything you might need.’ She looked across at the boys. ‘The pool’s still empty, though. No chance of a swim.’
‘Perhaps we’ll do that,’ Paul said. ‘A last visit before we go back to London.’
Cath reached across the table and took his hand.