Nowhere to Run

‘OK. We haven’t spoken to Mr Sanderson yet. We’re just compiling backgrounds and alibis for now. But if you could point him out?’ Pete turned in his chair.

‘There, second from the right.’

‘Dark-haired guy with the blue and yellow check shirt?’

‘That’s right.’

‘And his mate – Tony?’

‘Sitting across from him.’

‘Right. Well, we don’t want to disrupt your day any more than we have to. Is there somewhere we could have a word with Tony?’

‘We have a conference room. Grand title for an office not much bigger than mine, really, but it has a table and a projector with a screen for talking to clients and so on. It’s next door.’

‘That would be perfect.’

‘Right.’ He stood up and went to the door. ‘Tony. Have you got a minute?’

The man looked up, then stood and came towards them. As he stepped into the small office, Richards said, ‘Tony Stillwell, DS Gayle and PC Clewes. They’d like a word if that’s OK. I said you could use the conference room.’

Pete stood up and held out his hand. ‘Nothing to worry about, sir. We just need to ask you a few questions about a friend of yours, that’s all.’

Stillwell’s handshake was tentative. ‘OK.’

Sophie moved to replace her chair in the corner.

‘Don’t worry about that, I’ll get them,’ Richards told her. ‘If you want to take them through, Tony . . .’

‘Uh . . . Yes, sure.’ He led the way back through the studio to the reception and past the receptionist’s desk to the door at the other side of it. ‘Here we are.’

There was a table big enough to seat ten people. A projector on it was aimed towards a screen on the far wall. Stillwell went around to the far side and took a seat, the windows behind him. ‘So, what’s this about?’

‘A young girl went missing yesterday,’ Pete told him. ‘Her best friend is the daughter of a friend of yours, Neil Sanderson, so we need to ask you about him.’

Stillwell relaxed visibly. ‘OK. No problem.’

Pete saw Sophie readying her notebook from the corner of his eye. ‘First, as a matter of protocol, where were you yesterday morning, between eight and nine o’clock?’

‘Me? I was on the way here, I suppose. At least part of that time. I leave home around eight-fifteen, get here about ten to nine, as a rule.’

‘And that was the case yesterday?’

‘Yes.’

‘Can anyone verify that?’

‘Yes, I suppose. I thought you wanted to ask about Neil?’

‘We do, but we have to establish reliability. Who can verify where you were? Do you drive in with someone?’

‘No. My wife saw me off from home. Bridget out there saw me arrive. What do you mean, “reliability”?’

‘And was Mr Sanderson here when you arrived?’

‘Uh . . . No, in fact, he was late yesterday. He didn’t get here until just after nine-thirty. Said he’d had a flat tyre.’

Pete glanced at Sophie, who was writing swiftly.

‘I see. And how well do you know Mr Sanderson?’

‘Pretty well, I guess. We hang out together sometimes. Go to the pub on a Friday night, or bowling. Play five-a-side. The odd barbie.’

‘You know his family, then?’

‘Yes. We were over there on Sunday.’

‘We?’

‘My wife and I.’

‘I see. Who was there, apart from you and your wife?’

‘Neil, Geraldine, Becky, her friend Rosie and her parents, Alistair and Jess. Then there was another couple, Derek and Polly Howe, and their daughter Karen. I think she’s at school with Becky and Rosie. They were off on their own most of the time, of course – the three girls, I mean. And Jerry and Linda Bateman.’

Alistair had included the Howe family on his list, but Pete didn’t recall the Batemans. He wrote the name down, followed by the note: ‘Party Sunday’. ‘How do the Whitlocks know the Batemans?’

‘I think Jerry and Alistair were at school together or something. It goes back a lot of years, anyway.’

‘And Neil and Alistair?’

‘Uni, I think.’

‘OK. And you just know Neil through work, yes?’

‘Yes. We met when I started here five years ago.’

‘And you share a number of interests.’

‘Yes. Look, what’s this all about?’

Pete drew a breath. ‘How’s Neil around Becky and Rosie?’

‘What? Fine. What is this?’

‘The girl who went missing is Rosie Whitlock, Mr Stillwell. You’ve confirmed that Mr Sanderson wasn’t at work at the time. We need to make sure he’s not involved in her disappearance. We’re looking at all known associates of hers and her parents. It’s standard procedure. So I’ll ask again. Have you ever noticed Neil take anything other than a normal interest in Becky or Rosie, or the girls to have any reluctance or excessive keenness to be around him?’

‘No. He has a perfectly normal father–daughter relationship with Becky, as far as I’m aware. Why would you ask these things?’