‘That isn’t what she said, love,’ Keith said wearily.
‘Look at her,’ Linda continued. ‘She’s gloating. She’s got what she wanted. My Sian. My—’
Keith stayed in his seat as Linda sprang from hers, kicking over the remainder of the tea as she ran out of the room.
‘I’m sorry about that,’ Keith said, wincing when a door, somewhere upstairs, slammed shut.
‘You should have someone with you, when you attend the identification,’ Henley said gently. ‘You shouldn’t be alone.’
‘Linda’s brother, Alfie, is going to come with me. Better to get it over with.’
‘Keith, I’m not going keep you,’ Henley added. ‘We just wanted to ask you a few questions about Sian. How she was when she came home and her last movements before she went missing.’
‘The officers who were here when she didn’t come home that night said that Sian had been to see you. Been to your house,’ said Keith.
‘Not at my house exactly, but yes she was on my street.’
‘Did she threaten you?’
Henley hesitated.
‘You don’t have to spare my feelings, Inspector Henley. She wanted to throw it in your face, that she was out,’ Keith said matter-of-factly. He looked at Sian’s wall. ‘I don’t know where she gets it from. That need to see how far she can push people.’
‘Whose idea was it to put the money up for Sian’s bail?’ Ramouter asked.
‘That was her mum. She wanted her girl home. Linda and I had bought a flat donkey’s years ago. We moved out when our first son was born but we kept it and rented it out. We sold it four years ago and we did well on it. Really well. I didn’t want to put our money at risk because who knows what the hell might happen.’
‘But Linda insisted?’
‘Threatened to leave me if I didn’t get our girl home.’
‘Did you want her home?’
‘No,’ Keith replied his voice breaking. He sniffed and rubbed roughly at his tear-filled eyes. ‘No, I didn’t. We … the family. My grandkids have been through enough.’
Henley raised her head at the sound of creaking floorboards. ‘When did you last speak to Sian?’ she asked.
‘Tuesday morning. I wake up early. Always have done. I was a train driver and can’t break the habit of being up at 4 a.m.,’ said Keith. ‘Sian must have come downstairs at about quarter to seven. She was already dressed and impatient, counting down the minutes until her curfew ended. She was pissed off. Throwing a strop. Just like when she was a teenager but worse.’
Henley asked the question she already knew the answer to, ‘She knew that you didn’t want her bailed to your house?’
Keith nodded. ‘As soon as the clock hit 7 a.m., she was out the door.’
‘She left early because she had to be on the telly.Good Morning Britain,’ Linda said, reappearing in the doorway. She sat next to her husband. ‘She was also onNewsnighton Monday, but they pre-recorded that early because of her bail conditions.’
‘I offered to drive her to the studios, but she wasn’t interested,’ said Keith.
‘How did she get there?’ asked Henley.
Keith shrugged. ‘Bus, or maybe she took a cab. She had Linda’s card.’
‘We’re still waiting for the monitoring company to give us a full report of Sian’s movements, but did she tell either of you if she was meeting anyone? Her legal team, friends, any—’
‘Sian didn’t have any friends,’ Keith said firmly. ‘No one wanted to be associated with her, not after what she did.’
Henley glanced at Ramouter. It wasn’t lost on them that Keith wasn’t jumping out of his seat to defend his daughter and protest her innocence.
‘What about her husband? Her children? Did she have any contact with them?’ Henley asked.
