Кара Хантер: Close to Home

At 10.02, the Super clears his throat and reads from the paper in front of him. We’ve had to be more than usually careful what we say, given what we now know. We can’t afford to lie outright, but we can’t afford to tell the whole truth either.

‘Thank you for coming, ladies and gentlemen. Mr and Mrs Mason are going to give a short statement about the disappearance of their daughter, Daisy. This is all we will be saying at this conference today. Our priority is to find Daisy safe and well and return her to her family. We do not have any further information we can share with you at present, and neither the family nor DI Fawley will be answering questions. I appreciate your understanding in this matter, and I would ask you to accord the family the privacy they need at this difficult time.’

Flashlights, people shift forward in their chairs. They’re not interested in what the family say – everyone says the same things if a kid is missing – but they do very much want to hear how they say it. They want to gauge what sort of people the Masons are. Do they stand up to the scrutiny? Do they sound convincing? Do we like them? It’s about character and credibility. And, needless to say, that great English obsession, class.

The Super turns to his left, to Barry Mason. Who opens his mouth to say something but then buries his head in his hands and begins to sob. We can just about hear him mumbling something about his ‘little princess’. A word which is really starting to get on my tits. I make a conscious effort to keep my expression impassive, but I’m not sure how well I’m succeeding. As for Leo, his eyes widen and he shoots an anguished glance at his mother, but she’s looking at the cameras, not at him. Under the table, out of sight of everyone but me, he creeps a hand on to her leg, but she does not move, makes no sign.

The Super coughs. ‘Perhaps you could read the statement, Mrs Mason?’

Sharon starts, then reaches her hand to her hair. Just as she did when she saw the TV crew arrive at the house. And then she turns direct to camera. ‘If anyone knows anything about where our little girl is,’ she says, ‘please, please come forward. And Daisy – if you’re watching this, you’re not in any trouble, darling – we just want you to come home. We miss you – your dad and me. And Leo, of course.’

And then she reaches to put an arm round her son, drawing him close. Into the circle.

***

I watch the footage with Bryan Gow, the consultant we bring in for things like this. You’d probably call him a profiler, but these days they’re wary of anything that smacks of prime-time procedural. Bryan himself, ironically enough, is straight out of central casting: trainspotter, mainstay of his local pub quiz team and amateur mathematician (don’t ask me how that works – it’s always struck me as the ultimate contradiction in terms).

We run the tape all the way through, and then he asks to see it again.

‘So what do you think?’ I say eventually.

He takes off his glasses and rubs them on his trousers. ‘To be honest, where to start. The father definitely doesn’t want to be there, and I don’t believe all that theatrical sobbing.’

‘Me neither. In fact, I suspect it’s just an excuse to put his hands over his face.’

‘I agree – he’s hiding something. But it isn’t necessarily to do with the child. I would look into his background. It’s possible he’s having an affair or involved in something else that means he doesn’t want his face on TV.’

‘He runs a building firm,’ I say drily. ‘I imagine there are plenty of people he might be avoiding. And the boy?’

‘Harder to read. He’s troubled by something, but it could just be the trauma of his sister going missing. Again, I’d check into his behaviour recently. See if something else has been going on that pre-dates the disappearance. How he’s been at school.’

‘And Sharon?’

Gow makes a face. ‘ Curiouser and curiouser, said Alice . Did she come straight from the hairdresser or is that just how it looks?’

‘I got Everett to ask her about that – casually, so as not to spook her. Apparently she said, “You don’t want them to get the wrong impression.”’

‘ Them? ’

‘I noticed it before. She’s clearly paranoid about what other people think, but never actually defines who “they” are.’

Gow frowns. ‘I see. Rewind to where she talks about her daughter.’

Sharon Mason’s face appears, close up, and then freezes, her mouth slightly open.

‘Have you heard of someone called Paul Ekman?’

I shake my head.

‘But you’ve seen Lie to Me? ’

‘No, but I know which show you mean. The one where he works out who’s telling the truth just from their body language?’

‘Right. That character is based on Ekman. His theory is that there are certain emotions that can’t be faked, because you can’t consciously control the muscles in your face that express them. So with sorrow, for example, it’s all about the space between the eyebrows. If you’re really miserable, not just pretending to be, your brows will be drawn together. It’s surprisingly hard to fake that convincingly for more than a minute or two – I know – I’ve tried. If you look at people in TV appeals who turned out later to have committed the crime themselves, you’ll see exactly what I mean. It’s the brows that give them away – the top half of the face doesn’t match the bottom. Try googling Tracie Andrews next time you’re online. Classic example. And now look at Sharon Mason.’

And there it is. There may be tears welling in her eyes, and a quiver to her lip, but her brow is smooth. Untroubled.

I get up to leave, but he calls me back.

‘I would anticipate things getting nasty in cyberspace,’ he says, putting his glasses back on. ‘In cases like this, people often base their judgements on the sort of visual clues we’ve just been talking about, even if most of them don’t know they’re doing it. I suspect the Masons are in for trial by Twitter. Whether they deserve it or not.’

***

I call the St Aldate’s incident room on my way out. Everett tells me there’s no child in a mermaid costume in any of the photos taken at the party, which means we’re going to have to recalibrate the whole investigation. We need to establish when Daisy was last seen, by whom, and where. We need to confirm exactly what she was wearing. We need to question the Masons. And once that gets out, the shit is really going to hit the fan.

***

10.02

ITV News@ITVLiveandBreaking

Watch live: Missing Daisy Mason – family make appeal #FindDaisy

RETWEETS 6,935

10.09

Scott Sullivan@SnapHappyWarrior

#DaisyMason Watching the police appeal – dad looks as guilty as hell – and whats with the mother – cold as ice

10.10

Indajit Singh@MrSingh700700700

Not finding daisy mason parents at all convincing why wont the police let the press ask questions? Suspicious

10.11

Scott Sullivan@SnapHappyWarrior

#DaisyMason Parents will be arrested by the end of the day – just u wait. Seen it all before

10.12

Lisa Jenks@WorldsBiggestManUFan

@SnapHappyWarrior Cant believe your being judge and jury they haven’t even found her – are you for real? #FindDaisy

10.12

Scott Sullivan@SnapHappyWarrior

@WorldsBiggestManUFan Are YOU for real! Anyone can see somethings not right. Look at the other kid – scared stiff

10.14

Danny Chadwick@ChadwickDanielPJ

Never seen a dad cry more than the mum at one of these things. I knew there was more to this than meets the eye #DaisyMason