Cath Staincliffe - Make Believe

‘Did you notice anything that might help us?’ Richard said, ‘Either today or at anytime in the past nine days.’

‘Nine days,’ McEvoy nodded his head as if wise to some great secret. ‘That’s ‘cos you think it’s Sammy Wray, isn’t it? Nine days since he was snatched.’

The avid gleam in his eyes, the spit that glistened at the corners of his mouth revolted Janine. He was a ghoul, one of those amateur sleuths who liked to think they could compete with the police, who got a prurient kick from being close to sudden violent death. Was it any more than that? McEvoy had access to the drains. Had he any previous form? Her mind was running ahead, something she cautioned in her officers. Gather the details, steadily, precisely, then analyse.

‘Did you notice anything?’ Janine said, coldly.

McEvoy shook his head. ‘I’ve been wracking my brains. And it was a fractured skull,’ he said swiftly, ‘do you know if he was killed somewhere else and moved? There was this case in Florida-’

Janine held up her hands to stop him. ‘Thank you Mr McEvoy. If you do think of anything that may be significant please get in touch with the inquiry. Where can we find Mr Breeley?’

Joe Breeley was outside his council house working on a maroon Vauxhall Astra with the bonnet raised. Janine took in the neglected front garden, grass and long weeds, a pallet and some bags of sand, a white van parked alongside the car.

‘Not too sick to play mechanic,’ Richard said as they went to greet him.

‘Joe Breeley? DCI Lewis.’ Janine introduced herself as the man raised his head from over the engine.

‘DI Mayne.’ Richard showed his warrant card.

‘You may have heard the body of a child was recovered from the site where you are working on Kendal Avenue,’ Janine said.

Joe nodded. ‘Saw the news,’ he said. He closed the car bonnet. ‘Terrible.’

‘Could we have a word inside?’ she said.

He wiped his hands on the front of his jeans and took them into the house.

‘I couldn’t believe it,’ Breeley said leading the way into the living room. ‘Mandy, it’s the police. They’ve come about that little kiddie. Here, sit down,’ he said, clearing a pile of children’s clothes off the settee.

‘It’s horrible,’ Mandy said. She was winding a baby, rubbing at its back, the empty bottle of feed on the side table. Janine guessed she was in her early twenties, a little dishevelled. Probably too busy with the baby to get time for herself.

The room was scattered with toys, more baby clothes draped over the large fireguard in front of the gas fire. Daytime TV was on but Joe Breeley muted it with the remote. On the walls Janine saw the family photos, Joe and Mandy and two children. A good looking family, the children fair like their mother. Mandy was attractive, slim with huge eyes and long, fine hair.

‘How long have you been at the site?’ Richard said.

‘Six weeks, it’s a big job. Place needed gutting,’ said Breeley.

‘And when were you last there?’

‘Week last Saturday. Till lunchtime,’ he said.

Janine heard the rising wail of a child from upstairs.

Mandy got to her feet. ‘You take him,’ she said to Breeley and handed the baby over to him. ‘Our John,’ she explained, ‘miserable with chickenpox.’

Janine groaned in sympathy, Charlotte had it only last month, it had gone round the neighbourhood like wildfire, left her little girl with three pockmarks on her face despite Janine’s best attempts to stop her scratching.

Mandy left them.

‘And who’s this?’ Janine nodded at the baby.

Joe Breeley smiled, ‘Aidan.’

‘Did you see anyone acting suspiciously, or anyone close to the main drainage?’ Richard said.

‘Is that where they found him?’ Joe Breeley frowned. ‘Christ! When you’ve kids of your own, you…’ He shook his head. ‘No. No-one,’ he answered.

‘You’re not at work today?’ Janine said.

‘Bad back,’ he grimaced.

He’d looked fine bent over the car Janine thought. She glanced at Richard, sharing her scepticism and they waited it out.

Joe Breeley sighed, looked slightly shamefaced as he added, ‘Well, weather like we’ve been having. The rain – takes twice as long to do a job. And with John being ill… We’ll finish on time. Get paid by results.’ Then it seemed to dawn on him that no work would be happening at Kendal Avenue for some time to come, in the light of events. ‘Course… now…’ he faltered.

Mandy came back in and took Aidan from Breeley. The baby had drifted off and didn’t wake as she lifted him up and cuddled him.

‘Last Saturday,’ said Janine, ‘what time did you start work?’

‘Just after nine.’

‘And lunchtime was when?’ she said.

‘One-ish. Came back here,’ Breeley said.

‘And that afternoon?’ Janine said.

Joe Breeley gave a shrug. ‘We just did stuff in the house.’

Mandy gave a small laugh. ‘He’s that busy fixing other people’s houses, I’m always on at him to sort this place out.’

‘Was there ever any sign of intruders in the property, anything odd like that?’ Richard said.

‘No, nothing,’ Breeley said.

‘If you do think of anything that might help please get in touch,’ Richard said, ‘anything at all.’

Breeley nodded.

‘It’s awful,’ Mandy said again and hugged Aidan tighter as if she was anxious to keep him safe.

Claire Wray felt numb, crushed by the dreadful news. It was as though she had been pulled frozen from the cold sea, no sensation anywhere beyond a gnawing dark ache in every muscle, deep in her bones.

Her mind stumbled around knocking into memories of Sammy: his birth over-shadowed by the theatrical antics of Clive’s ex Felicity who had claimed the spotlight with a cruelly timed suicide bid; their worries when they first realised Sammy couldn’t see properly and all the worst scenarios of blindness or worse plagued them until the tests had all come back and it was known to be simply short-sightedness; Sammy’s passion for tractors and diggers and steam-rollers; the slight lisp he had; the feel of his hand in hers.

Then her thoughts would trip over the grim facts, the drainage tunnel, a sewer, her baby in a sewer. Preposterous. Life wasn’t meant to go like this. Sammy was supposed to grow and thrive, become a schoolboy, a teenager, a man. All those futures.

She shuffled on the sofa, pressed Sammy’s fleece to her cheek. Who would do such a thing?

At the back of her skull she felt the tingle of unease, the mistrust that had been growing there ever since Sammy had gone. And Clive had come home.

Something about Clive’s manner, almost imperceptible but a taint of distance, of awkwardness, she could sense even in her distress and anguish. He was holding back. He was guarded.

At first she took it to be Clive’s way of masking his criticism of her, of hiding how he blamed her. She had lost sight of Sammy and Sammy had been taken. Her watch. Her fault.

Clive was a good man, she believed that, a kind man. He rarely raised his voice, she had never seen him lash out, couldn’t imagine him being violent. But perhaps he was a little too kind. Weak. Like the way he fell for Felicity’s stunts time and again, instead of accepting that he couldn’t be held responsible for her actions.

But as the days had gone on, interminable and tense, as they had waited for sightings, for leads, for fresh appeals, as Sammy’s disappearance fell from the news bulletins and front pages, Claire began to wonder whether Clive was- too hard to put into words, something so foul, so unnatural. He loved Sammy. He was walking that day, wasn’t he? If only he’d gone with a friend then she wouldn’t even be thinking like this. But he’d been alone, unaccounted for, if you like. And that reserve in him had not eased; if anything it had grown stronger. While Claire blabbed about everything she could, dredging up memories from the park, keen to colour in every last detail, Clive’s responses to the police and investigators was always vague, muted, minimal.