Chapter 38
Eve booked a visit for Thursday afternoon, then opened her laptop, feeling sure about her instincts that the prosecution witness Joe had met with was the same woman she had seen leaving his house on Friday.
He hadn’t wanted to talk about it over the phone, but he hadn’t denied it either, and although Eve still couldn’t understand why Joe would have taken this risk, there had to be a reason.
The most obvious and important prosecution witness in the case against him was Christy’s daughter, Bella.
She had been just seven years old at the time of her mother’s death, which would make her twenty-seven now, the same age as Mackenzie.
This fitted with the woman Eve had seen.
Eve was surprised she hadn’t thought of this before.
So that’s why the police were watching Joe.
They must have been aware that he was meeting Bella.
Eve couldn’t deny they had grounds to be concerned, since Joe was prohibited from having any kind of contact with her.
But a stakeout? At the house of the neighbour across the road?
Tailing Bella out of the street, and presumably all the way home?
It seemed extreme, too extreme, if they were simply trying to protect her.
And were their tactics even legal? Eve knew that under Clare’s Law, the police were within their rights to come to her house and tell her about Joe, but she was pretty sure they had no right to contact her family members or her employers, not unless Joe really had been on campus.
But Joe said he hadn’t been, and Eve believed him.
She picked up the phone. ‘Iwan?’
‘Eve. You got the email?’
‘Yes. But—’
‘I don’t think we should discuss it on the phone.’
‘I’m not phoning to discuss it,’ Eve said.
He paused. ‘So how can I help?’
‘I want to know who the police officers were who came to see you.’
Another pause.
‘The names of the police officers,’ she repeated. ‘Do you have them?’
‘There was just the one. A detective.’
Eve felt a lurch in her stomach. ‘What did he look like? Can you describe him?’
‘Why do you want to know this?’
‘Because he’s lying, Iwan! Joe was never on campus.’
‘Eve, have you talked to the union yet?’
‘Can you just tell me what car he drove?’
‘I don’t think this is an appropriate conversation for us to be having. I’ll be in touch about the meeting.’
‘Fine,’ Eve said. ‘But I want evidence. I want firm evidence that Joe has been on campus, not just spurious gossip or rumours. I will be there at your meeting, and yes, I’ll have my union rep with me.
And I’ll look forward to seeing the evidence, because if you don’t have it, then I’ll be making a complaint about this officer and my rep will want to know who he is. ’
When she got off the phone, Eve googled ‘DI Jon Carver, Thames Valley Police’. She searched through news reports, and the Police Federation and IOPC websites, but nothing came up.
She was going to find him, one way or another.