‘Thank you for getting here so quickly. We are so worried about our daughter.’ His creased polo shirt hung over his large belly. He rubbed his eyes, leaving one of his brows sticking out a little.
‘We’re so sorry and we’ll do everything we can to find her.’
‘She’s my only daughter, the baby of the family… we’re beside ourselves. Her brothers are out looking and my wife is having a nervous breakdown. If anything happens to her, I don’t know what we’ll do.’ He gasped and walked through to the kitchen, then stood at the worktop staring out at the car park.
Gina and Wyre followed. ‘I know this is going to be hard but I need to ask you a few questions. We have everyone at the station on alert and looking for her. Are you okay to talk?’
He went to speak and placed his shaking hand on the worktop. ‘Yes. I just want her to come home.’
‘Can you tell me when you last had any form of contact with Jhanvi?’
‘My wife was on the phone to her last night. She’s a wonderful girl, always calls us. We always say that we are blessed to have her. Jhanvi knew my wife was getting her results this morning and she was desperate to know the outcome. She wouldn’t not call, you know. Something’s happened to her, I know it has. This is so out of character. Look.’ He pointed out of the window where the uniformed officers had set up a cordon. ‘Her car is still there. She didn’t even go to work.’
Gina led the trembling man over to the tiny kitchen table against the wall and he sat. ‘Can you tell me what Jhanvi and your wife spoke about?’
‘I heard them chatting about her brothers and her niece who’s just started nursery. They spoke about my wife’s cancer and how nervous she was of getting the results. And they always ended the conversation with the words “love you.”’ He placed his head in his hands and slumped over the table.
Shivering, Gina sat opposite him. The heating must have gone off when Kapoor left. From looking at the rotas Gina knew she had been due in at six thirty that morning. ‘We know PC Kapoor as a lovely person and a brilliant police officer but we don’t know much about her personal life. Can you tell me a bit about her? Was she seeing anyone?’
His face scrunched a little as he thought. ‘She didn’t have a boyfriend. She was seeing someone three years ago called Ben, but I think she slowly became married to her job so that didn’t last long. She never mentioned anyone else to us. She spent most of her free time with her older brother and niece. She loved little Alisha and often took her out to give her parents a break.’ He began to bite his thumbnail.
‘Is there anywhere you think she could be or might go?’ Gina had to ask the question. Deep down, she hoped that Kapoor could just be working through something no one knew about but the sick feeling in her stomach told her that was wishful thinking.
He shook his head. ‘No. She was always at home, shopping or hanging out at one of our houses when she wasn’t working. If she did go anywhere else, she never told us.’
‘May we take a look around her apartment?’
‘Of course. I’ll just go outside to give my wife a call. She’s beside herself and she keeps messaging me.’ Standing, he walked to the door. ‘I’ll be back in a minute.’ The front door slammed closed.
Gina made a quick call to PC Smith. ‘How are the door-to-doors going? Has anyone seen PC Kapoor this morning?’
‘No luck, guv. Not one person saw her. The resident underneath her heard her door bang around six in the morning but that’s it. Not many people are at home but we’ve left cards and we’ll knock again at the end of the working day.’
After ending the call, she placed her phone in her pocket and followed Wyre through to the other rooms. She checked the corners, not noticing any alarm sensors. Glancing up, she saw a smoke alarm and stared at it, wondering if a hidden camera could be inside the device. There was a knock at the door and Keith entered. ‘Good to see you. Could you carefully check the fire alarms or anything else that could hold a small surveillance device? We need to know if PC Kapoor was being watched and I want that checked before Mr Kapoor comes back up. The last thing I want to do is worry the man even more than he already is.’
Keith walked lopsided, the weight of his toolbox causing him to lean. ‘Yes, I’ll get started.’ He pulled a forensics suit over his shirt and trousers and popped some latex gloves on.
Gina and Wyre gloved up too as they entered the bedroom. The smell of washing powder lingered in the air. Kapoor’s quilt lay in a crumpled heap on one side of the double bed and a pile of books sat on the floor, empty crisp packets being used as bookmarks.
‘I had no idea she was living like this, guv. It looks like she eats crisps in bed and there’s empty pop bottles lined up against the wall and her clothes are just piled up on a chair. Her curtains don’t quite cover her window and her carpet is coming up round the edges of the room. This flat is cold and it’s not one bit homely.’ Wyre walked over to the window and looked out to the large wall of the block of flats opposite.
Gina didn’t want to say that she often had empty sandwich wrappers on her bedroom floor and she lived in chaos too. She imagined Wyre to be pristine at home, just like she normally was in appearance. ‘She has a busy life.’
‘Don’t we all but this room still makes me sad.’ Wyre glanced around. ‘Anything seeming out of place?’
Gina shook her head. ‘I’m going to head to the bathroom.’ She left Wyre in the hallway and took a turn into the small wet room. She placed the back of her hand on the hanging towel. It was damp. She pictured Kapoor getting up early, taking a shower. In her mind, someone was watching through her bedroom window, catching small glimpses of her getting ready through the gaps in the curtains. How long had they waited for her? Maybe they waited in the knowledge that today might not be the day they take Kapoor but the opportunity arose and they took it. Maybe they had studied her routine and knew her shift pattern well enough to be sure that she would be coming out of her apartment at a specific time in the morning.
They had no idea who they were dealing with. An image of Vincent Jordan virtually throwing them out of his bungalow filled her mind.
What did they have? Kapoor was missing and not answering her phone. Kapoor’s car was still in her allocated parking space. Kapoor had got up for work, took a shower and left around six to start her shift at the station, but she never arrived.
Keith made her jump as he poked his head around the door. ‘There’s no sign of any surveillance wiring or equipment in the fire alarms or any of the cupboards. I’m going to take a more thorough look around so it might be best if you head out soon so that I can work my way through the apartment. Mr Kapoor has given me the go-ahead to check whatever I need to. Oh, I didn’t tell you what I did find after I called you earlier. This, you’re going to like.’ He flinched and held his back as he straightened up.
‘What?’ Gina felt more awake in that moment than she had all morning.
‘We found a nice full fingerprint on one of the pipes in Amber’s airing cupboard behind the hidden cupboard where we think some of the surveillance equipment might have been set up. The same print also appeared on the sensor in the hallway where we found remnants of a surveillance device. The print is being run through the system as we speak. There were a few partials too, all fresh and not Amber’s.’
A smile formed across her face. ‘There has to be a match. We could have a name soon and, in turn, a lead on Kapoor.’ A lump in her throat formed.
