J. Carter - In Safe Hands - A D.C.I Anna Tate thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat

Sarah was shaking now and her breath was coming in shallow gulps. At the same time, her eyes filmed over with tears and it seemed to Anna that the woman was on the verge of breaking down. It was the first time Anna had seen her lose her composure, but she managed to carry on speaking even though she struggled to form the words.

‘So you can probably imagine how I feel right now,’ she said. ‘Everyone will blame me for what’s happened.’

She started to sob then and Anna made sympathetic noises, but she had no intention of halting the interview. There were more questions she wanted to ask about Jonas Platt, the man who was now their one and only suspect.

‘I’m sorry,’ Sarah said after a time. ‘This is all so terribly upsetting.’

‘I can appreciate that, Miss Ramsay, so don’t worry.’

Sarah blew her nose, wiped her eyes, pushed back her fringe.

‘Please carry on, inspector,’ she said. ‘That won’t happen again.’

Anna asked her to be more specific about the threats she’d received from Jonas Platt.

Sarah scrunched up her brow. ‘A week after his daughter’s funeral he waited outside the nursery here for me to close up. He then confronted me on the forecourt and I thought he was going to attack me. Instead, he poked a finger at me and said he would make me suffer for what had happened to Kelly. I was reminded of it earlier when Ruth had a go at me. I expect I’m now in for a lot more of that.’

‘And what other threats were there?’

Sarah leaned forward, resting her arms on the table.

‘Just after I got handed the fine he actually turned up at my home,’ she said. ‘It’s within walking distance of here and I didn’t know if he’d followed me there. I opened the door without knowing it was him and he was verbally abusive. He called me a murdering slut. He was livid that the Peabody Nurseries weren’t being forced to close and said that three hundred thousand pounds wasn’t enough of a punishment. I slammed the door on him and phoned the police, but he was gone before they arrived.’

‘Do you live alone, Miss Ramsay?’

‘I do. I don’t have family in London and there’s been no man in my life for some time so I had to deal with it by myself and it really freaked me out.’

‘Tell me about Mr Platt,’ Anna said. ‘What was he like before his daughter died?’

She shrugged. ‘I never met the man because whenever I dropped in on Lewisham he wasn’t there. I did meet his wife Angela a couple of times, though. She’s a nice lady. But I gather they split up six months after Kelly’s death. He’s now living on his own in a flat in Kennington.’

‘Any idea what he does for a living?’

‘He used to be a builder, but the last I heard he was out of work having lost his job. I did hear that he has a criminal record. I don’t know if it’s true, though. One of the mothers whose son attended Lewisham mentioned it.’

Anna looked at her watch, anxious now to get the word out on Jonas Platt. They needed to find him pronto in order to determine whether or not he was implicated. On the face of it he was an extremely strong suspect. Not only did he have a motive for doing harm to Sarah and her business, but he also sounded pretty unstable. Was it therefore possible that he had managed to get a team together to carry out the kidnappings on his behalf?

‘Look, you’ve been really helpful, Miss Ramsay,’ Anna said. ‘I do have more questions I’d like to ask you but they can wait. Right now I need to pass on the information you’ve given me. I’ll find an officer to go with you to get the detailed paperwork on the staff, then we can arrange for you to be accompanied to your home. If you wouldn’t mind staying there at least for the rest of the day I’d appreciate it.’

‘Of course,’ she said. ‘I want to be as helpful as I can, inspector. If I’d been more careful this morning none of this would have happened. I don’t think I will ever be able to forgive myself for all the pain I’ve caused. I just pray that those children are found safe and well.’

Anna didn’t have a ready reply so she didn’t try to come up with one. Instead, she got up and went back inside the community centre where she told a detective to go with Sarah to her office for the paperwork she’d mentioned.

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