Alfie looked up. Helen slipped her warrant card onto the table.
“This is my police badge. Do you know what a police officer is?”
“You catch burglarers.”
“That’s right,” Helen said, suppressing a smile. “And do you know what this is?”
She slid her police radio onto the table.
“Cool,” he said, immediately picking it up.
“Press that button there,” Helen suggested. Alfie did so and got a good blast of static for his trouble. He seemed pleased. As he toyed with it, Helen continued:
“Would you mind if I ask you a few questions?”
The boy nodded without looking up.
“I want you to know that you are not in trouble at all. It’s just that the lady with the box—the lady you saw—well, she might have taken something that didn’t belong to her. So I need to find out who she is. Did she talk to you?”
Alfie shook his head.
“Did she say anything at all?”
Another shake.
“Did you see her face?”
A nod this time. Helen hesitated, then pulled a photocopy of the e-fit from her bag.
“Was this the lady you saw?”
She showed him the picture.
He looked up from the radio, took in the picture, then shrugged and returned his attention to the radio. Helen put a hand on his, gently stopping him. He looked up.
“It’s really important, Alfie. Could you take another look at the picture for me, please?”
Alfie obliged with good grace, as if he were getting another go in a game. This time he looked at it more carefully. There was a long pause and then he half nodded.
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“She was wearing a hat. It covered her face a bit.”
“Like a baseball cap?”
Alfie nodded. Helen sat back on her haunches. They could ask him some more questions—about her height and build—but it would be hard to get a positive ID off him. He was only six, after all.
“What did she do?”
“I’m sorry?”
“What did she take?”
Helen shot a look at Alfie’s mum, then lowered her voice.
“Something very special.”
