Mike and Ed found the young reporter in a coffee bar near the offices of The Chronicle. Dressed in a T-shirt and jeans with one Converse-covered foot tucked under her thigh, she was sitting alone at the back of the room with a bottle of water and an open laptop. Short fair hair, a flat chest and narrow hips gave her an androgynous and innocent look. Absorbed in her work, she was unaware of the detectives until they arrived at her table but, before they’d taken a seat, she’d closed her laptop.
‘Rebecca Hawthorne? I’m DS Ogborne and this is DS Potts. We’d like a word about your recent article in the national press.’
‘I can’t reveal my sources.’
‘We’re not interested in your sources. Our concern is not where you got your information but what you chose to reveal in your article.’
‘Freedom of the press.’
‘Don’t quote platitudes to me.’ Ed leant across the table towards the young reporter. ‘Your articles have disrupted our investigation. We were holding back what we knew about the Teresa Mulholland case so that the perpetrator wasn’t aware we were using information from that abduction to aid our inquiry into Lucy Naylor’s disappearance. You’ve blown that approach out of the water. The Chief Superintendent is considering pressing charges.’
A flicker of anxiety crossed Rebecca’s face. ‘You can’t—’
‘You’d be surprised what we can do. A word of advice: your more experienced colleagues realize that they get more by working with us than against us. You cross us and you’ll be the last to know when we’re making an arrest. On the other hand …’
‘Why should I share my information with you?’
‘Well … apart from potential charges of obstructing a police investigation if you don’t, you could also discover that working with us won’t do your budding career any harm.’
‘So, you want us to pool our resources?’
‘Not exactly, but if you tell us what you know, as soon as we can release information without harming our inquiry, you could be the first to learn of anything new. Even if what you have is incomplete and doesn’t make sense to you it may fit the broader picture we have and thereby advance the investigation to our mutual advantage.’
‘What about the charges you mentioned?’
‘Our Super looks favourably on citizens who cooperate with the police.’
‘What do you want to know?’
‘This is the first time we’ve spoken.’ Ed glanced at Potts. ‘Let’s get some coffee and then Ms Hawthorne can start at the beginning and tell us all she knows.’
‘I was asked to do a piece linking the Lucy Naylor and Kimberley Hibben abductions. I thought Kimberley was my best bet. It was easy to befriend her. She’s not in a good place at the moment and appreciated someone to talk to, a little bit of tender loving care. She liked the sound of more cash than she’d seen in her lifetime just for telling a story that’s from way back in her past. What you’ve read is pretty much what I got.’
Ed made a mental note that the Kimberley Hibben case had not been Saunders and Potts’s finest hour. ‘What about Teresa Mulholland? Did you trace and interview her?’
‘No, she and her family moved out of the area a year after the abduction.’
‘Where are they now?’
‘I haven’t been able to trace them.’
Ed disguised her disappointment. ‘Go on.’
‘I used The Chronicle’s files to read what was written at the time. Only a fraction of what was in the file went into the article published in 2002.’
Rebecca waited while Mike put down the coffees and resumed his seat.
‘Teresa came from a respectable churchgoing family, her father made a small fortune as a solicitor and they lived in a substantial detached house in Nackington Road. On Friday, 8 March 2002 she was on her way home from a Bible study class when she was snatched around 6 p.m. in sight of her home. Five weeks later she was found by a Mrs Siddenham, unconscious but alive and well, in the porch of St Mary’s. According to Siddenham, six weeks after Teresa was found, the family went abroad for a holiday. The father came back after a couple of weeks but Teresa and her mother remained on the continent.’
‘Are the Mulhollands still abroad?’ asked Mike.
‘No. As I told your colleague, when mother and daughter returned a year later they were not back in Canterbury for more than a couple of weeks before the whole family moved away. Siddenham happened to meet Teresa in the street one morning. She said she was well and going to train as a teacher but she said nothing about the family’s imminent departure.’
‘In today’s Virgin Births article you don’t say very much about Teresa but you imply that all three cases are linked.’
Rebecca smiled. ‘I need material for a follow-up. Teresa’s story will be better when I can get the details directly from her mouth.’
‘Your article implies that Teresa and Kimberley were not sexually molested but both were pregnant. At the moment you only have Kimberley’s word for that.’
‘Come on, Detective Sergeant, why else would the Mulhollands go abroad? My guess is that she had an abortion in a private clinic on the continent.’
Ed drank some of her coffee but Rebecca ignored the one Mike had put in front of her.
‘In your article you also imply the third victim, Lucy Naylor, will be found unharmed but pregnant. What do you know about Lucy?’
‘Probably less than you but my piece will bring the national, perhaps international, press to the Naylors’ door. If Lucy is returned and the family have the press dogging their footsteps for a week or two I reckon they’ll be only too glad to talk to a sympathetic young reporter from the local paper.’
Mike stopped scratching the side of his nose. ‘I thought you’d left The Chronicle.’
Rebecca turned to face him with a smile. ‘I’m sure I’ll be able to finesse that issue should it arise.’
Cynical bitch, thought Ed as she brought the interview to an end. ‘Thank you for your cooperation, Ms Hawthorne, I’ll be sure to mention it to the Chief Superintendent. We shall probably want to speak to you again. Give DS Potts your contact details and let us know if you plan to leave town.’