Tania Carver - The Surrogate

Sophie, shaken from Anni’s previous words, trotted out the same story Clayton had heard the previous night. She was seeing one of Ryan’s competitors, she heard there was a job going, she applied, was taken on, then dumped her boyfriend and took up with Brotherton. Anni listened, nodded, said nothing.

There was silence while she consulted the file once more. Clayton watched the monitor helplessly. There was nothing he could do. Anni was controlling things now.

‘Did you know Susie Evans, Sophie?’

Sophie seemed to be deciding on what her answer should be. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘But not very well.’

‘You got pulled in with her. On a raid.’ Anni read down. ‘Couple of raids.’

Sophie nodded, but said nothing.

‘Did Ryan, your boyfriend, know Susie Evans?’

Clayton saw the fear and desperation in Sophie’s eyes as she stared at Anni. ‘No. I don’t know. Not that I know of.’

‘Which one is it?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘You don’t know.’

‘If he did, he never mentioned it.’

‘Right.’ Anni flipped over a few pages, brought out another sheet of paper. ‘Funny, that, because his name has come up a couple of times where hers is concerned. Quite a few times, actually. And yours is there too.’

Sophie again looked round, trying to find help and support from some corner of the room, fear now rampant in her eyes. Clayton, in the office, looked at Anni, knew that look on her face. She was trying not to smile. She had something.

‘Yes. When you and she were picked up a few times, he was picked up too. Never charged, which was why it took me so long to find the information, but his name was taken. Don’t you think that’s a strange coincidence?’

Sophie looked at the table. ‘Yes. It’s a coincidence.’

‘A coincidence. Right. So it’s a coincidence that you knew Susie Evans. Worked with her. And that Ryan Brotherton knew Susie Evans. And that Ryan is now your boyfriend. And Susie Evans is dead. Murdered. And Ryan’s ex-girlfriend, Claire Fielding, is also dead. And Ryan, your boyfriend, the one you were eating takeaway food with and watching DVDs with the other night, has a history of violence towards women. A problem with women, in fact. A very serious problem.’ She sat back, her eyes locked on to Sophie like laser beams. ‘Quite a coincidence.’

Sophie looked frantically at Anni.

Anni leaned forward. ‘You want to tell me the truth now?’

Sophie’s head dropped into her hands. ‘No… He’ll kill me…’

‘Yes,’ said Anni, her tone conciliatory yet steely. ‘He very well might. So I’m your only chance, Sophie. You’d better talk to me. Right?’

She nodded.

‘Truth this time.’

‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘The truth.’

Phil walked back into the interview room holding a document file. On the file was Ryan Brotherton’s name. He set it on the table, resumed his seat. Brotherton looked expectantly at him. Phil opened the file, glanced at the contents. Raised his eyebrows.

‘Oh, Ryan…’

‘What?’ Brotherton craned his neck forward, trying to see what was written there. Phil moved it further away from him.

‘Jesus, you have been a naughty boy…’ He held his gaze on the pages for a few more seconds, just long enough for Brotherton’s anxiety levels to increase, then flipped the cover of the file closed and looked levelly at him. This was a different Phil from the one who had left the room. He had appeared to be Brotherton’s friend, someone on his side. This new Phil was something different. A professional. A heat-seeking missile zeroing in on his target. And he wasn’t going to miss.

‘Where were you on the night of Wednesday the seventeenth of November?’ he asked.

Brotherton looked startled at Phil’s abrupt tone.

‘Where were you?’

‘I was…’ His eyes slipped away to the left. ‘At home. With Sophie. We watched a DVD, I told you this.’

‘Liar. Where were you?’

‘I told you where I was…’ Eyes straight ahead, imploring, trying to hold Phil’s gaze, saying: Would I lie to you? ‘That’s the truth.’

‘You’re lying, Ryan. Where were you? Between eight p.m. and two a.m.? When Claire Fielding, your ex-girlfriend, the mother of your child, was being murdered, where were you?’

‘I’ve told you.’ Eyes left. ‘At home. Watching a DVD. With Sophie. Ask her.’

Phil gave a small, tight smile. ‘We will. Don’t worry about that. Can you trust her?’

‘What?’

‘Can you trust her? To lie for you?’

Eyes away to the left. Thinking. ‘I can trust her. Yeah.’ Defiance in his voice.

Phil sat back, not taking his eyes off the other man. Time for something else. ‘When did Claire first tell you she was pregnant?’

Brotherton thought, looking down to the right. ‘About… five, six months ago.’

‘And what was your reaction?’

‘I’ve told you. I didn’t believe her.’

‘But you soon did.’

Brotherton shrugged.

‘She soon convinced you. Because you told her you wanted her to get rid of it, didn’t you?’

Brotherton stared at him, said nothing.

‘In fact you said that if she didn’t, then you would. With your own hands. Isn’t that right?’

Fear appeared on Brotherton’s face. ‘I… I want my solicitor… I’m not sayin’ another word without my solicitor bein’ present.’

‘We’ve called her, she’s on her way.’

Rage and fear clouded Brotherton’s face. ‘ She? What the fuck d’you mean, she? Where’s Warnock?’

Phil could barely keep the smile off his face. ‘We phoned your solicitor, Mr Warnock. He’s… unavailable, apparently. But they’re sending someone from the practice. Bit young, but very good, they say.’The smile appeared. ‘She’s just finished working with victims of domestic abuse in a women’s refuge, I think they said. I’m sure she’ll be very interested in all this.’ Phil didn’t know anything of the sort, but he knew what kind of effect his words would have.

Brotherton said nothing. Phil knew he had hit the bullseye. Brotherton would talk to him now.

‘So you offered to give Claire Fielding, your girlfriend, an abortion. With your own bare hands, is that right?’

‘It wasn’t like that…’

Phil leaned across the table. ‘What was it like then, Ryan? Tell me. Make me understand.’

‘She… I didn’t believe her at first. But then I had to.’

‘And you got angry.’

He nodded.

‘You didn’t want a kid around the place. It would stifle you, tie you down, that right?’

Another nod.

‘Too much responsibility. So you made that very generous offer.’

Brotherton said nothing.

‘And what was Claire’s response?’

Brotherton still said nothing.

‘No? I’ll tell you then, shall I? She left you. Summoned up the courage to walk out on you.’

‘No she didn’t. I threw her out.’ His eyes away to the left as he spoke.

‘No you didn’t. That’s a lie. She left you. But you could-n’t take it, could you? Couldn’t take some piece of skirt walking out on you. Especially not a pregnant one. How hurt was your pride?Your ego?’

Brotherton shrugged. ‘Same as anyone else’s.’

‘Same as anyone else’s. So what did you do next?’

‘Nothin’.’

‘Liar.You phoned her. Texted her. Threatened her.’

‘No I didn’t…’

‘Yes you did, Ryan. We’ve got her phone records.’ Not strictly true, thought Phil, but they were on the way. He was confident they would show that he was telling the truth.

Brotherton’s head went down. Phil had been right. He didn’t have time to gloat; he had an advantage. He had to press it.

‘You stalked her?’