Chapter 68
Sixty-Eight
Penn parked the car outside Holloway Butcher’s in Stourbridge, happy to be finally out of the office.
Without Stacey beavering away in the corner, the squad room was a different place, and he had no idea how she spent so many hours alone.
He had found it lonely and depressing and had welcomed the opportunity to hotfoot it out of there.
Locating Ava’s natural father had not been quite as easy as he’d hoped. Thankfully, he had been listed on the birth certificate, but Thomas Smith was a pretty common name.
A general search of the area had produced over seventy results within a ten-mile radius. He’d written off continuing that search when he’d realised that the man might not even live within the immediate area.
He’d contemplated speaking to Ashley’s colleagues or friends to narrow down his search, but he suspected that they wouldn’t be able to cast any light on a man who had been out of Ashley’s life for seven years.
Likely, they’d only know his name, and he already had that.
While examining Ashley’s financial records, Stacey hadn’t turned up any incoming payments for child support, so he was guessing she’d never pursued him for support. Another dead end.
Then he’d had an idea. Housekeeping of social media. He knew that most people, in the event of a relationship breakdown, cleaned house. They removed photographs, deleted posts and erased the person from their lives. But not everyone.
Many people did it as a statement to both the world and themselves. Others did it to remove reminders of a painful time. And others never did it at all.
Ashley and Thomas had been serious enough to have a baby, and by all accounts Thomas had been with her until the birth.
It had taken Penn almost an hour to scroll back to Ava’s birth on Ashley’s Facebook page. After it, there was no mention of Thomas Smith, but before it, he was alive and well and tagged in the majority of her posts.
Penn didn’t mind admitting that he’d high-fived himself when he’d pulled up the man’s profile and discovered that not only did he still live in the area, but he also worked just a few miles away.
He glanced in the shop window before entering, recognising Ava’s dad from Ashley’s Facebook immediately.
He was interacting with a customer in a friendly, jovial manner as he added her steak to a plastic bag and carried it to the door.
She thanked him as she left, and Penn took his opportunity to go in.
‘What can I get ya, fella?’ Thomas Smith asked, sliding back behind the counter.
Penn held up his ID, and the man didn’t seem surprised.
‘It’s really true then?’ he asked, moving to the side of the counter so there was no barrier between them.
‘I’m afraid so,’ Penn answered.
‘Shit, she was a good person. She didn’t deserve that. How’s the kid doing?’
‘Ava’s bearing up quite well, considering. Have you got time for a couple of questions?’
‘Sure, but if someone comes in, I gotta bail for a minute. I’m on my own today.’
‘No problem,’ Penn answered. Who was he to stand between a man and the sale of a pork joint? ‘Was there any bitterness between the two of you?’
Thomas leaned against the counter and crossed his arms. ‘Oh yeah. Afterwards, she called me to tell me I was a loser, and I couldn’t argue with her. I bottled it. I loved her, but I wasn’t ready for a kid. I was there when she was born, and I panicked. I left the hospital, and I never went back.’
Penn tried to imagine what that must have felt like for Ashley. A new mum, just given birth to a child, and her partner just disappears.
‘Not my proudest moment,’ he admitted, looking genuinely shameful. ‘Sickens me every time I remember it, but at the time I just needed to get away.’
‘She did good,’ Penn said, feeling the need to let him know it hadn’t broken her.
‘I knew she would.’
‘You have any contact with her afterwards?’ he asked.
He shook his head. ‘She never came after me for money or anything. I looked for her on Facebook, you know, just to see what the kid looks like, but she’s locked up pretty tight, and I didn’t think she’d appreciate hearing from me.’
‘I’m here because we’ve got a situation involving Ava,’ Penn said, wishing the man would at least learn his child’s name.
Concern etched his features as a woman in her early thirties entered the shop. ‘Sorry, mate, gotta sort this.’
Penn nodded his understanding and waited patiently as he served the woman minted lamb chops and a homemade apple pie.
‘Sorry, you were saying?’ Thomas said, resuming his position.
‘Ashley’s husband, Daniel, he stepped up. He’s been in Ava’s life since she was two years old. He loves her so much, but he has no legal right to her, and Warren Chance is trying to gain custody.’
Thomas looked horrified. ‘He’s a lowlife. No way they’ll give her to him.’
‘There’s a very real possibility they will,’ Penn said. ‘He knows how to play the system and put on a show, and Daniel has no parental rights.’
‘Fucking hell, mate,’ he said, running his hand through his hair.
‘I don’t suppose you’d be able to take her until—’
‘No chance. I don’t know her. That ship sailed a long time ago. I’ve got two young ones at home and another on the way. My missus doesn’t even know what a prick I was back then, and I ain’t about to tell her.’
He was resolute, and Penn knew there was no point pushing it. It had been a shot in the dark, and anyway it wasn’t the real reason he was here.
‘Listen, Daniel loves that kid like she’s his own, and she adores him, but he has no legal standing. The Chances want her solely for the financial rewards.’
He nodded. ‘Already worked that one out. They’re scum.’
‘I need to ask you, Mr Smith, would you be prepared to sign over your parental rights to Daniel Reynolds?’
His face showed an array of emotions from sadness to regret to indecision. Despite his lack of involvement, it was clear that he felt some kind of connection to Ava.
Penn waited for his answer with no idea what it was going to be.