Chapter 106

Chapter 106

‘Tell me where she is.'

Helen leant forward on the table, her face just inches from the suspect. Normally, she would have taken her time to work her adversary over, luring him into a trap before confronting him with the evidence, but there was no time for that today. Every second counted now if she wanted to find Naomi alive.

‘You're beaten all ends up, Dave. And the road in front of you is not a pretty one. But if Naomi dies, your situation, your life, gets a whole lot worse. So tell me where she is.'

Reynolds remained unmoved, lifting his eyes briefly in the direction of his lawyer, Eleanor Higham, before returning them to rest on Helen. Having kicked and screamed during his arrest, he'd now lapsed into sullen silence.

‘Why won't you talk to us, Dave? You must see the hole you're in,' Helen persisted, her passion clear. ‘The evidence is overwhelmingly stacked against you. We have footage of you raping Naomi. Statements from Graham Armstrong and James Peters, specifically naming you as a serial abductor and abuser of women. This is seventh circle of Hell material, the stuff of nightmares … and yet you can still be the hero, Dave. You can still do the right thing. Naomi's mother is desperate to have her home safe, to help her heal, to help her embrace the long life she has ahead of her. You can make sure that happens. At the eleventh hour, you can prove to the world that there is good inside you, that those same instincts that prompted you to become a police officer in the first place remain undiminished. Show them, Dave, show them what you can do, how you can make a difference, how you can save the day.'

Reynolds' right eye twitched slightly, but otherwise the disgraced PC seemed inured to her compliments, her bribes. Maybe he smelt a rat, knowing that his image was already tarnished forever, his future in ruins, or maybe he just enjoyed frustrating her. Either way, Helen was no further forward, the fate, the location, of Naomi remaining oblique.

‘What's this about, Dave?' Helen said, maintaining her total focus on the suspect opposite her. ‘Is it about control? About power? Did you enjoy making Naomi suffer? Do you enjoy frustrating me? Is that what's happening here?'

His eyes narrowed slightly, his expression intensifying, as if he wanted to respond but clearly didn't trust himself not to give too much away.

‘Don't get me wrong, I can see why. I mean I've looked at your background, your upbringing and I do understand. I went through something similar myself. Abandoned by your parents, brought up in a number of children's homes, one of which was later found to have been run by a serial sex offender … I can appreciate what you've been through, what that must have been like. No control, no sense of security, no love . Who knows, perhaps you were even a victim of abuse yourself?'

Reynolds' expression hardened slightly, encouraging Helen, who felt sure she was on firm ground here, his chaotic, hurtful upbringing still biting.

‘I don't know what happened to you in those homes, and I don't need to know. My experiences were not dissimilar and, honestly, they scar me to this day. I understand the anger, the pain, the desire to make people suffer for what you went through, but there is another way, a better way. Rather than hurting people, of behaving like your tormentors, you can offer the helping hand that you were never given. Think back, Dave, think back to how you felt all those years ago – helpless, hopeless, doomed to suffer. If someone had offered to help you then, to pull you out of that awful place, taking you somewhere warm and safe, you would have seized that offer. Don't use your power to hurt, to degrade, to kill. Use it to save Naomi, to save Mia. Do it to save yourself .'

Helen came to a halt, breathless and impassioned. Reynolds digested her words, toying with his wedding ring nervously, before looking up once more.

‘Mia who?' he offered casually.

Immediately, Helen felt anger surge within her.

‘Don't play games with me, Dave. Mia Davies, who you abducted three months ago, before you kidnapped Naomi Watson.'

‘I'm sorry, you've lost me …'

‘Don't you dare deny it!' Helen cried, jumping to her feet. ‘We have video evidence, PC Reynolds, footage that you shot yourself of you attacking Naomi Watson—'

‘That's not me,' Reynolds interrupted, shaking his head.

Helen stared at him, aghast.

‘It's one hundred per cent you,' she fired back. ‘And it is very clearly Naomi Watson too. That footage was taken not two days ago—'

‘It's fake,' the suspect intervened once more. ‘These things are easily done. Where did you get it from?'

‘That's not your concern,' Helen countered angrily. ‘The point is—'

‘I mean, if you got it from this Armitage guy—'

‘Armstrong.'

‘Whatever, if you got it from some nonce who's into internet abuse and whatnot, then it's highly likely he created it, either to deflect blame from himself, or distract attention from the case.'

‘Can you even hear yourself?' Helen raged, aghast. ‘We have money recovered from your wife's purse with Armstrong's fingerprints on it, plus very detailed testimony from the man himself as to your longstanding criminal association—'

‘He doesn't sound a very reliable witness to me; hard to make his testimony stick, I would have thought,' Reynolds goaded.

‘On the contrary,' Helen responded. ‘He's been very accurate, very detailed in his statement. Times, dates of your various sessions, plus details of the money he gave you, including the PO box address he sent it to. I'm assuming the post office in question has CCTV that will have picked up yourself, or your wife, collecting those envelopes of money. Suddenly she gets dragged into it then, your own wife, maybe even your son. What then?'

Reynolds was about to spit back some curse, his mouth suddenly curling up into a snarl, before he caught himself.

‘They know nothing about any wrongdoing. And neither do I. As I've said from the start, you're barking up the wrong tree on this one, DI Grace, serving only to make yourself look foolish in the process.'

‘Bullshit. You've been lying to me since day one. Lying to your colleagues, your family. And we can prove it. We've got you trapped, Dave. You're on a one-way ticket to a whole life sentence and I will personally make it my mission to—'

‘OK, you say I've taken these girls, hurt them?' Reynolds interjected forcefully. ‘So where's the evidence? Where's the tangible, physical evidence that I had anything to do with these alleged crimes?'

Helen glared at him, her fury rising with each passing second.

‘Go on, show me,' Reynolds persisted. ‘Where are they? Where's this secret lair they are supposed to be being held in? Where?'

Helen stared at him, not trusting herself to speak.

‘You say I'm all these things, but I don't recognize your version of events at all . I'm an honest copper, a good husband, a decent guy. I've done nothing wr—'

But before he could finish, Helen was upon him. Launching herself over the table, she grasped a surprised Reynolds by the throat, dragging him physically backwards. As his chair clattered to the floor, the suspect staggered back under her attack, before slamming hard into the wall. Gripping his bulging throat, Helen hissed at him.

‘You are a rapist and a killer. And you will tell me where Naomi Watson is.'

Reynolds' lawyer was clawing at her, trying to pull her off, but Helen maintained her grip.

‘This is your last chance, Reynolds. Or I promise I will send you to Hell.'

She increased the pressure, the suspect gasping under her attack. But now finally Eleanor Higham found purchase, yanking Helen's hand from Reynolds' throat and thrusting the police officer away from her spluttering client.

‘DI Grace, this is wholly inappropriate and unacceptable. I demand that you suspend this interview immediately.'

Breathless, consumed by red mist, Helen glared at the outraged solicitor, before turning and walking back to the table.

‘Interview suspended at 14.52,' she barked, before stabbing the stop button.

Enraged, Helen hurried to the door, turning on the threshold to look back once more at the suspect. Reynolds remained pinned up against the wall, shocked but triumphant, a smile slowly spreading across his face. Helen had felt sure she had the evidence, the momentum, to finally break him, to reveal his depravity for the whole world to see. But looking at him now, his eyes blazing, his expression victorious, Helen realized with a shudder that PC Dave Reynolds would rather let Naomi Watson die than admit his guilt.