Кара Хантер - In the Dark

‘I was thinking about Vicky,’ he says. ‘About what sort of family she must have come from that she doesn’t want them to know she’s OK.’

‘She may have run away from home. Which could be why no one reported her missing.’

He turns to stare at the girl’s photo again. ‘You’re probably right.’ Then he turns back. ‘Sorry, you didn’t come here to listen to me thinking aloud. What was it?’

She holds up a piece of paper. A print-out.

‘Last night,’ she says, ‘I suddenly had this hunch. If Harper’s first wife came from Birmingham then she might still have family there. And if the “John” Mrs Gibson thought was Harper’s son also had a Birmingham accent –’

He’s there already. ‘Then it might be a relative of the wife.’

‘Right, sir. So I checked and it could be.’ She hands him the paper. ‘Nancy Harper had a niece and a nephew. The niece, Noreen, is a doctor’s receptionist and lives in Berwick. But the nephew, Donald Walsh, teaches history at a small private school in Banbury. He’s fifty-three. I’m trying to get a picture but on the face of it he fits the description.’

Fawley looks at the print-out. ‘This is good work, Somer. So your theory is it wasn’t John, but Don?’

‘I think so, sir. It would be easy for Mrs Gibson to have heard the name wrong. I don’t think her hearing is all that great.’

‘So do you have an address for this Donald Walsh?’

‘Yes, sir. I’ve tried calling, but no answer. I think someone should go up there – given it’s so close. Even if he’s away, we may find out something from the neighbours. How often he comes to Oxford. If he and Harper are in touch.’

‘And that’s why you were looking for DS Quinn? To get that arranged?’

She wills herself not to blush, but she’s not sure if it works. ‘Yes, sir. So he can organize someone.’

‘Well, he’s not going to be back for an hour or so. And DC Everett’s still at the hospital, so why don’t you find DC Gislingham and tell him I’ve OK’d it.’

‘What, you mean, I should go?’

He looks just a tiny bit irritated now. ‘With Gislingham, yes. There isn’t a problem, is there?’

‘No, sir.’

‘Good. Let me know what you find out.’

***

Phone interview with Beth Dyer

4 May 2017, 2.12 p.m.

On the call, DC A. Baxter

AB: Miss Dyer, it’s DC Andrew Baxter, Thames Valley. I believe you called the station after the press conference?

BD: Oh yes. Thanks for getting back to me.

AB: Did you have something to tell us?

BD: Yes. It’s, well, it’s a bit difficult.

AB: If it helps, we’ll do our best to keep what you tell us confidential. But that rather depends on what it is you have to say.

BD: That policeman on the TV, Detective Inspector Fawley. He said that the body you found was Hannah.

AB: I don’t believe that’s yet been officially confirmed –

BD: But it’s her, isn’t it?

AB: [ pause ]

Yes, Miss Dyer. We believe so. Mr Gardiner has been informed.

BD: How did he take it?

AB: I’m not able to discuss that, Miss Dyer. Was there anything else?

BD: Sorry, that must have sounded awful. I’m a bit all over the place right now. It’s just that – well, that’s why I called. It was about Rob.

AB: I see. I believe that when Mrs Gardiner first went missing you told us you thought her husband might be having an affair?

BD: Yes, I did. But it’s not about that. Well, not directly.

AB: So was he having an affair or wasn’t he?

BD: I don’t think he was. Not then. But it started pretty soon after. That childminder – nanny. Whatever it is she calls herself. Pippa something. I saw them with Toby about three weeks ago in Summertown. I reckon they’re definitely an item – she was all over him. Men can be so gullible.

AB: And how does this relate to the disappearance of Mrs Gardiner?

BD: I’m getting to that. When it all happened, you said – the police – that she’d disappeared at Wittenham. Only now you say she never left Oxford at all.

AB: That does appear to be the case.

BD: So how did her car get there? How did Toby get there?

AB: Well, clearly whoever was responsible for the death of Mrs Gardiner must have taken the car to Wittenham, knowing that was where she was supposed to be that day. To make us think she was there. As a decoy.

BD: But how many people knew that – that she was supposed to be at Wittenham?

AB: She’d arranged to do an interview at the site. There was a BBC crew. A number of people must have known.

BD: But this man Harper. At Frampton Road. The one you think killed her. How did he know?

AB: I’m afraid I’m not able to comment on the current investigation.

BD: But Rob knew, didn’t he? He knew where she was going. And it’d make more sense that Toby was there, if it was Rob.

AB: I’m not quite sure what you’re trying to tell me, Miss Dyer. Are you suggesting that Mr Gardiner killed his wife and abandoned his two-year-old son alone up there –?

BD: [ becoming agitated ]

Look, there’s something I didn’t tell you at the time. A couple of weeks before it happened I saw Hannah. She had a mark on her face. A bruise. She had make-up on it but I could still see.

AB: Did you ask her how she got it?

BD: She said it was Toby. That he was getting to be a handful and had caught her face with a toy car by accident.

AB: Did that seem feasible to you?

BD: I suppose it could have happened like that. Toby was a bit hyperactive – I thought he might be ADHD but she told me I was being ridiculous. But she had definitely been preoccupied those last few weeks. I’m sure she was worried about something. And she was very guarded about Rob that day. I think they were having problems. I do know she wanted another child but he wasn’t keen.

AB: Why didn’t you tell us this two years ago, Miss Dyer?

BD: The press kept saying that you had that other suspect - the one who was at the camp. And there were all those people who saw her there – so I thought it couldn’t be Rob. But when you didn’t charge that man, I thought –

AB: Yes?

BD: Well, to be honest I thought she might just have left him. Rob, I mean. Made it look like she was dead just to get away. So no one would look for her. I saw a TV programme like that once. One of those crime things. And her parents live in Spain so I thought she might have gone there.

AB: That strikes me as highly unlikely, Miss Dyer. Abandoning her child. No passport, no documents –

BD: I know. It sounds crazy.

AB: And wouldn’t she have got in contact with you? If not immediately, then some time later, when the dust had settled?

BD: [ pause ]

AB: After all, you were her best friend, weren’t you? Or have I got that wrong?

BD: [ silence ]

AB: Miss Dyer?

BD: Look, if you must know, we didn’t part on the best of terms. That time I told you about – it wasn’t the last time I saw her. We had a row after that. She claimed I was after Rob. That I’d been flirting with him at her birthday party.

AB: Was that true?

BD: He was flirting with me . Of course he told her it was the other way round – well, he would, wouldn’t he. But it wasn’t. And in any case nothing happened . Even if he’d – even if –

[ pause ]

Look, I wouldn’t have done that to Hannah. OK?

AB: I see.

BD: And all these years you never found a body. I suppose I just wanted to believe that meant she was alive somewhere. But now I can’t. Because now I know she’s dead and I can’t get rid of the feeling that he had something to do with it.