Chapter 15
FIFTEEN
DAN
It was almost midnight and I was just about to leave the office when the call came through to the incident room. I’d just got off the phone to Fiona to tell her I was on my way home as well. Honestly, it’s like a conspiracy.
We’ve been busy ever since we released Samantha Valentine’s name and sketch to the media.
Sensing there’s more to the story, they’re pumping us for information, and members of the public have begun calling and messaging the incident room.
Already she’s been sighted at a bus stop in North London, and at a petrol station in Penge.
Someone rang in earlier claiming to have seen her on a beach in Broadstairs yesterday, and, roughly at the same time, in Regent’s Park in London – all of which will, I suspect, come to nothing but will need to be followed up regardless.
Interestingly though, no one is yet to come forward claiming to actually know Samantha Valentine personally, or where she might live.
And, perhaps most importantly, she hasn’t come forward herself.
It has of course crossed my mind that, assuming she really does exist, perhaps she doesn’t want to be found, which in itself could be telling. People don’t generally hide unless they have something – or someone – to hide from. My duty, first and foremost, is to make sure she’s safe.
‘What do we know? What don’t we know? And in the middle of that, what do we think?
’ I said when addressing the team this morning, right before I’d released Tilly Ward on pre-charge bail.
Her conditions are that she must relinquish her passport over to us and she has a curfew between 7 p.m. and 9 a.m. while we continue our investigation.
Plus, we’ll keep a close eye on her. Not that I think she will try and abscond.
Tilly Ward is a vulnerable adult who appears genuinely confused and traumatised by what’s happened, and by what she’s done.
This morning, when I asked her if she had the support of family and friends, or a neighbour she could turn to, she said, ‘I don’t have any family, Dan.
Sam was the only close friend I really had. ’
‘I hope you’ve done the right thing, Riley,’ – Archer’s voice had an amber tone to it when I had debriefed her – ‘releasing that name, and releasing our suspect at the same time. I hope you’re sure about this.’
‘I believe her, ma’am,’ I replied. ‘Something is off about this whole case. We’re digging deeper into Tilly Ward’s background now, but so far it seems that she’s pretty much the last person who’d make up such an extraordinary story, let alone murder anyone.
She’s already confessed to inflicting the fatal wound – albeit in self-defence – so why lie about the rest of it? It doesn’t make sense?’
‘To get herself a lesser charge perhaps, Riley?’ she said, tersely. ‘You’ll have every nutcase phoning in now, you realise that, don’t you? And it’ll be more time and manpower and money spent… The press are bloody loving it. That sketch that Tilly drew seems to have ignited the public’s interest.’
‘I thought all publicity was good publicity, ma’am?’
She looked up, sharply.
‘We’re going to look like idiots if it turns out this Samantha Valentine is a non-entity and we’ve released a murderer.
Actually,’ – she pauses – ‘we won’t look like idiots, Riley, you will.
’ Her comment didn’t concern me. I have no problem with looking like an idiot, it comes naturally.
But I do have a problem with not doing my job properly.
And there’s definitely more to all of this than first meets the eye.
‘You’ll have to get this sorted lively, Riley,’ she snapped. ‘I don’t want mistakes made, not while we’re under such scrutiny from your friends in the press.’ She straightens the papers on her desk carefully until they’re all perfectly aligned.
My friends?
‘Anyway, you know as well as I do that we don’t need to prove motive for a murder charge. And you had better hope that Tilly Ward doesn’t run,’ she’d added sagely. ‘Because it’ll be your ass on the line.’
My little chat with Archer had wrongfooted me.
I need Samantha Valentine to come forward or be found quickly, or to somehow prove that she doesn’t exist, so that Tilly Ward can be charged accordingly.
Surely Archer couldn’t argue that her story is such that it needs further investigation?
I mean, a partially deaf, middle-aged bookseller with no previous history of violence, stabbing someone who appears to have been a stranger to death in their home doesn’t happen every day, it just doesn’t.
Add to that Tilly’s bizarre explanation, and I owe it to all involved – not least Milo Harrison and his family – to get to the truth, even though at this point, I have no idea what that truth might be.
It was a good omen that Davis was the one who picked up the call, not to mention timing. I was almost out the door.
‘Gov! Gov… I’ve got a woman on the line… she says her name is Erin Santos and she’s asking to speak to you personally, about Samantha Valentine.’ Her eyes widen. ‘She’s claiming to know who she is, gov…’ I take my arm out of my coat sleeve and double back on myself.
‘Put her through, Lucy.’ I pick up the receiver, clear my throat. ‘DCI Dan Riley speaking…’
There’s a slight pause.
‘You sound exactly as I imagined you would,’ the voice says. It’s soft, with a slight Northern burr to it.
‘How can I help you, er…?’
‘My name is Erin Santos,’ she states clearly. ‘Please call me Erin.’
‘OK, Erin, what can I do for you? Do you have some information for me regarding a missing person?’
‘She’s not missing,’ she says, flatly. ‘She’s hiding. Most likely in plain sight as well.’
I raise my hand to signal to the team that this could be something. I place the call on loudspeaker, start recording it. ‘And before I continue, there’s no point in trying to put a trace on this call, Detective Riley. I won’t be on long enough, and it’s a burner phone anyway.’
The room falls stone cold silent. If someone shed a hair now, I think I would hear it drop from their head.
Davis’s eyes are on mine and I give her the nod to start the trace.
‘Please call me Dan, Erin. And why would I want to put a trace on the call?’
‘You’ll find out soon enough,’ she says. ‘Sounds like the gang is on it already anyway. Are they any good?’
‘Who – my team, you mean?’
‘Yes. Or are they a bunch of incompetents who like a nice clean case to wrap up in a pretty little bow, regardless of the truth?’
I detect a slight malice in her tone for a brief second. I wonder why it’s there.
‘They’re a good team of hard-working detectives and police officers, Erin.’
‘I’ll take your word for that, Dan,’ she says, earnestly this time. ‘You, at least, strike me as the type who believes in truth and justice.’
‘My colleague tells me that you have some information for us, information on a witness we’re looking for, someone called Samantha Valentine, is that right? You said she was hiding?’
‘Yes.’
‘Do you know where?’
She pauses.
‘I know who Samantha Valentine is. Well, I know who she is to me.’
My heart starts beating hard in my chest.
‘Who is she to you, Erin?’
‘What can you tell me about the crime that took place recently? The murder that happened in Stockwell Gardens, the man that was killed…’
I look over at Davis. She’s shaking her head. If she’s using a burner phone without GPS, it’ll be nigh on impossible to trace her.
‘Only what’s already been released to the press. Why? Do you know something about this crime?’
There’s a pause.
‘The woman who was arrested, was she a friend of Samantha’s by any chance? A close friend, someone she trusted?’
OK, now I’m excited.
‘Why are you asking me that, Erin?’
‘Did Samantha tell this woman that she was being abused by the man she went on to kill? Did she engineer such a situation to happen following weeks, months even, spent grooming her, creating a credible, believable story where she was the victim, a story, incidentally, concocted entirely from lies? Oh, and let me guess,’ she continues, almost whimsically, ‘did she stab him in the chest?’
Do I answer truthfully? It’s clear that whoever Erin Santos is, she knows a lot of detail about the crime – unreleased detail. ‘Did she use a kitchen knife? Was it one single, deep and fatal puncture wound, straight to his heart, or something similar?’
My hands are shaking with adrenalin as I think about my strategy. I make a call on it.
‘Yes.’
Silence.
‘Erin? Are you still there?’
‘I’m here.’
‘How do you know all of this, Erin? How do you know Samantha Valentine? Were you also familiar with the victim?’
‘I liked that article that was written about you in the paper the other day.’ She changes the subject. ‘I saw it on social media. You look…’
I hold my breath, hoping that she isn’t going to say, ‘distinguished’. I really don’t think I could cope.
‘… Trustworthy. I see a genuineness in your eyes. You see, my instincts are highly evolved now, Detective Riley. I’ve learned how to read people and situations better than most. I suspect that you’re a very good judge of character yourself.’
Davis is staring back at me, unblinking.
‘It can help with the job, Erin.’ I keep my tone friendly and conversational. I don’t want her to hang up.
‘Gov!’ My finger shoots up to my lips as Mitchell enters the room. She stops, tiptoes towards me, her head shaking in what looks like disbelief as she places something onto my desk.
‘The woman who killed your victim…’ Erin continues. ‘Would you say that she’s the antithesis of a murderer, looking at her? Is she a nice person, a bit vulnerable in some way perhaps, maybe even shy or naive, and definitely not the sort who goes around stabbing people to death?’
Now my heart stops dead in my chest.
‘Do you know the woman arrested at the scene?’
‘Ha! I’m right, aren’t I? And, no, I don’t know anything about her or who she is, even. But I do know that there are two victims in this crime, Dan – the deceased and the perpetrator of that fatal wound.’
‘What do you mean by that exactly, Erin?’
The pause is long enough for me to think she may have hung up.
‘Samantha Valentine is a con-woman.’
I hear her take a sudden sharp intake of breath, as though she’s in pain.
‘Are you OK? Erin… hello? Erin…?’
I hear movement, some shuffling in the background.
‘Listen, Erin, would you prefer to talk in person? I can come and meet you…’
‘You have no idea who you’re dealing with, Dan,’ she interjects, though it’s unclear who she’s referring to exactly, herself or Samantha Valentine.
‘So tell me.’
She’s sucking air through her teeth now – it definitely sounds like she’s in some kind of discomfort.
‘If your team are as good as you say they are, Dan, then my police file is probably on your desk already. Read it. It’ll explain more.’
‘Erin, listen, don’t hang up, take my number, my private number…’
Davis’s eyes widen. It’s not standard procedure, I realise, to give out my personal digits – Archer would have harsh words to say about it, I’m sure – but something about this caller tells me she’s legit, and I want her to trust me.
I recite it to her, though I can’t tell if she’s taken note of it or not.
‘… I have to go now,’ she says. ‘I’m washing my hair. Nice talking with you, Dan. I’ll be in touch soon.’