Chapter 36

Chapter 36

‘Have we done the right thing?'

Helen's question was terse, her tone solemn, as she paced the interview suite in front of Charlie, their prime suspect long since departed.

‘We don't have enough to hold Marwood. We had to let him go,' Charlie responded evenly.

‘Do you think we pulled him in too early?' Helen insisted. ‘Should we have put him under surveillance first?'

‘Maybe, but the evidence was there to bring him in – a strong, credible link to the abduction vehicle. And, besides, his mother was calling 999 when our officers arrived. We had to act.'

Helen nodded distractedly, Charlie's words providing little comfort. Marwood was clearly holding out on them, desperate to conceal the full extent of his offending, and it stuck in Helen's craw to let him walk out of the station a free man.

‘We could have held him though,' Helen persisted, unable to stop picking at the sore. ‘We could have made him spend a night in the cells, sweated him again in the morning …'

‘He's not going to tell us anything,' Charlie replied calmly. ‘He's never going to admit anything incriminating because he's terrified of going back inside. The best thing we can do now is let him think that he's won, that we can't touch him. If we're lucky, he'll get overconfident, maybe he'll lead us straight to the van, or better still, the girls.'

‘Even so, it's massively risky, especially for Naomi and Mia. If he goes to ground now, or somehow manages to steal away …'

‘He won't, he can't. Our people are all over him.'

‘Sure, but you know what this guy's like,' Helen persisted, uneasy. ‘If he can slip the noose now, he will, and then what hope have we got of finding our girls?'

‘Look, would it help if I took personal charge of the surveillance? Would that reassure you?'

To Charlie's surprise, Helen broke into a broad smile.

‘Sometimes I think you can read my mind,' she replied, smiling gratefully.

‘OK, I'll do it. So try not to worry. Marwood's too reckless, too impulsive to keep up an innocent front for long. If we keep a close eye on him, he will lead us to those girls.'

Relieved, Helen nodded, stoically, hopefully. She was about to say more, to express her gratitude for her friend's loyalty and support, when a sudden knocking made her look up. Grimacing apologetically, DC Japhet Wilson entered.

‘Got a minute, boss?'

Immediately, Helen was intrigued, her colleague's tone anxious and tense.

‘What have you got for us, Japhet?'

‘Well, I …' he responded hesitantly. ‘I did a bit of digging on PC Reynolds, like you asked, and I was, well I was a bit surprised by the results.'

He handed Helen photocopied documents from Reynolds' official personnel file.

‘It seems that three official complaints have been made against him during the last ten years or so. All by young women who said he propositioned them, then sexually assaulted them whilst on duty.'

Helen stared at the sheet of paper in shock, barely crediting what she was reading.

‘All the complainants withdrew their allegations before he even got close to being charged, hence why's he still working, why none of us had any idea about this. Obviously he's not been convicted of anything, but I have to say, guv, it doesn't look great.'

Helen looked up at Wilson, lost for words. Too right it didn't look great. What the hell was this creep still doing in uniform?