DAN
It was almost midnight and I was just about to leave the office when the call came through to the incident room. I’d just got off the phone to Fiona to tell her I was on my way home as well. Honestly, it’s like a conspiracy.
We’ve been busy ever since we released Samantha Valentine’s name and sketch to the media. Sensing there’s more to the story, they’re pumping us for information, and members of the public have begun calling and messaging the incident room. Already she’s been sighted at a bus stop in North London, and at a petrol station in Penge. Someone rang in earlier claiming to have seen her on a beach in Broadstairs yesterday, and, roughly at the same time, in Regent’s Park in London – all of which will, I suspect, come to nothing but will need to be followed up regardless. Interestingly though, no one is yet to come forward claiming to actuallyknowSamantha Valentine personally, or where she might live. And, perhaps most importantly, she hasn’t come forward herself.
It has of course crossed my mind that, assuming she really does exist, perhaps she doesn’t want to be found, which in itself could be telling. People don’t generally hide unless they havesomething – or someone – to hide from. My duty, first and foremost, is to make sure she’s safe.
‘Whatdowe know? Whatdon’twe know? And in the middle of that, what do wethink?’ I said when addressing the team this morning, right before I’d released Tilly Ward on pre-charge bail. Her conditions are that she must relinquish her passport over to us and she has a curfew between 7 p.m. and 9 a.m. while we continue our investigation. Plus, we’ll keep a close eye on her. Not that I think she will try and abscond. Tilly Ward is a vulnerable adult who appears genuinely confused and traumatised by what’s happened, and by what she’s done. This morning, when I asked her if she had the support of family and friends, or a neighbour she could turn to, she said, ‘I don’t have any family, Dan. Sam was the only close friend I really had.’
‘I hope you’ve done the right thing, Riley,’ – Archer’s voice had an amber tone to it when I had debriefed her – ‘releasing that name,andreleasing our suspect at the same time. I hope you’re sure about this.’
‘I believe her, ma’am,’ I replied. ‘Something is off about this whole case. We’re digging deeper into Tilly Ward’s background now, but so far it seems that she’s pretty much the last person who’d make up such an extraordinary story, let alone murder anyone. She’s already confessed to inflicting the fatal wound – albeit in self-defence – so why lie about the rest of it? It doesn’t make sense?’
‘To get herself a lesser charge perhaps, Riley?’ she said, tersely. ‘You’ll have every nutcase phoning in now, you realise that, don’t you? And it’ll be more time and manpower and money spent… The press are bloody loving it. That sketch that Tilly drew seems to have ignited the public’s interest.’
‘I thought all publicity was good publicity, ma’am?’
She looked up, sharply.
‘We’re going to look like idiots if it turns out this Samantha Valentine is a non-entity and we’ve released a murderer. Actually,’ – she pauses – ‘wewon’t look like idiots, Riley,youwill.’ Her comment didn’t concern me. I have no problem with looking like an idiot, it comes naturally. But Idohave a problem with not doing my job properly. And there’s definitely more to all of this than first meets the eye.
‘You’ll have to get this sorted lively, Riley,’ she snapped. ‘I don’t want mistakes made, not while we’re under such scrutiny from your friends in the press.’ She straightens the papers on her desk carefully until they’re all perfectly aligned.
Myfriends?
‘Anyway, you know as well as I do that we don’t need to prove motive for a murder charge. And you had better hope that Tilly Ward doesn’t run,’ she’d added sagely. ‘Because it’ll be your ass on the line.’
My little chat with Archer had wrongfooted me. I need Samantha Valentine to come forward or be found quickly, or to somehow prove that she doesn’t exist, so that Tilly Ward can be charged accordingly. Surely Archer couldn’t argue that her story is such that it needs further investigation? I mean, a partially deaf, middle-aged bookseller with no previous history of violence, stabbing someone who appears to have been a stranger to death in their home doesn’t happen every day,it just doesn’t. Add to that Tilly’s bizarre explanation, and I owe it to all involved – not least Milo Harrison and his family – to get to the truth, even though at this point, I have no idea what that truth might be.
It was a good omen that Davis was the one who picked up the call, not to mention timing. I was almost out the door.
‘Gov! Gov… I’ve got a woman on the line… she says her name is Erin Santos and she’s asking to speak to you personally, about Samantha Valentine.’ Her eyes widen. ‘She’s claiming to knowwho she is, gov…’ I take my arm out of my coat sleeve and double back on myself.
‘Put her through, Lucy.’ I pick up the receiver, clear my throat. ‘DCI Dan Riley speaking…’
There’s a slight pause.
‘You sound exactly as I imagined you would,’ the voice says. It’s soft, with a slight Northern burr to it.
‘How can I help you, er…?’
‘My name is Erin Santos,’ she states clearly. ‘Please call me Erin.’
‘OK, Erin, what can I do for you? Do you have some information for me regarding a missing person?’
‘She’s not missing,’ she says, flatly. ‘She’s hiding.Most likely in plain sight as well.’
I raise my hand to signal to the team that this could be something. I place the call on loudspeaker, start recording it. ‘And before I continue, there’s no point in trying to put a trace on this call, Detective Riley. I won’t be on long enough, and it’s a burner phone anyway.’
The room falls stone cold silent. If someone shed a hair now, I think I would hear it drop from their head.
Davis’s eyes are on mine and I give her the nod to start the trace.
‘Please call me Dan, Erin. And why would I want to put a trace on the call?’
‘You’ll find out soon enough,’ she says. ‘Sounds like the gang is on it already anyway. Are they any good?’
‘Who – my team, you mean?’
