Tuesday 25 January, 17:00
There’d been no obvious signs of a struggle or anything out of place at Pearce’s flat. Forensics had gone over it and sent some traces of blood to the lab, but the result would take a few hours to come through. Pearce’s BMW had been completely clean.
Loxton decided to try Gabriella again before she went into the interview with Pearce. She wanted to hear her friend’s opinion of the man. He hadn’t run for no reason. She went into a side room away from the main office.
‘Hi, Alana, what’s up?’ There were voices and music and Loxton had to strain her ears to pick out Gabriella’s voice. Loxton felt a rush of relief at finally getting hold of her.
‘Are you in a bar? Can you go outside for a minute?’
‘I can’t hear you,’ Gabriella shouted down the phone. ‘I’m going outside.’
The noise was deafening, life happening in London on a Tuesday evening. Had that really been her, Emma and the others just a few days ago? She marvelled at how everything could change in a heartbeat.
‘What’s up?’ Gabriella sounded cheerful, the alcohol working its magic.
‘Emma’s been missing since Saturday.’
‘Since our night out? Oh my God, what happened to her?’ The voices in the background became quieter as Gabriella moved further away from the bar.
‘It looks like she didn’t make it home.’ Loxton tried to keep her voice steady. ‘Do you know anything about a boyfriend, Gabbie?’
‘Yeah, I met him once,’ Gabriella said. ‘His name was Luke. He was a real dick. Started flirting with me when Emma was in the toilets, wanted my number. I told him to his face he was an arsehole and when Emma came back I told her he was trying to get my number. We had a little falling out about that. We’d been drinking. She said I was jealous, so I left them to it. She was distant with me for a while but I think she ended it a few weeks back.’
‘Did you ever see him again?’
‘No, never. He was weird though, Alana. I didn’t like him. Why, do you think he has something to do with Emma going missing?’
‘We’re not sure yet.’
‘Well, from what I saw, he’s definitely someone to look at closely.’ Gabriella sounded worried, she hadn’t said it, but they both knew that two women a week were murdered by their partners.
‘What about Barratt? Don’t you think it’s strange that he tried to escape just last week? I’m worried this is about him. That we’re not safe.’
‘Barratt’s in Broadmoor.’ Gabriella’s voice hardened. ‘This isn’t him. I think it’s that prick, her ex. I could tell he had a nasty streak in him. Have you arrested him?’
‘I’m about to interview him. Did Emma say anything to you about him harassing her? Or hurting her?’
‘No… No, she didn’t. But he’s that type. I’m sure he is.’
‘Okay, thanks, Gabbie. Do me a favour and take care of yourself, okay? Can you get someone to pick you up? Maybe stay with friends for a few days?’ Loxton didn’t like the idea of Gabriella out in town. The winter evenings had drawn in and there weren’t as many people out after all the partying of Christmas and the New Year. She already had one friend missing; she didn’t want to lose another one too.
‘I’ll head home now. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. Keep me updated.’
‘I will,’ she replied, and hung up.
‘There you are,’ Kowalski said, coming into the side room.
‘I’ve just spoken to Gabriella Caselli. She’s convinced that Pearce is no good and that he’s got something to do with Emma’s disappearance.’
‘Anything concrete?’ he asked.
‘Not really. Just that he was a sleazebag and she got a bad feeling from him.’
Kowalski nodded. ‘I know what she means; there’s something about him.’
Loxton walked towards the door but Kowalski put his arm out. ‘Just a minute,’ he said. ‘I need to talk to you.’
With a sinking feeling, she turned back to him.
‘Are you okay?’ he asked.
‘I’m fine,’ she lied.
He pulled a frustrated face at her. ‘You shouldn’t have approached Pearce on your own; you could have got hurt.’
Loxton knew he was right; going after Pearce in the garage on her own had been reckless, but instead she said, ‘There was no time and I didn’t want him getting away.’ She didn’t want Kowalski to know how much she was struggling. She needed to find out what had happened to Emma at any cost, to make up for leaving her on her own on Saturday night.
‘You should have waited for me. We’re a team. You’re not alone in this.’ Kowalski failed to keep his voice steady. She could see he was worried about her.
‘It was a split-second decision. We got him, didn’t we? Another minute and he would have driven out of there and disappeared.’
Kowalski hesitated before speaking. ‘This case is too personal for you.’
Was he going to talk to Winter, insist she be taken off the case? She couldn’t have that. ‘It was a bit close, but we got him. That’s what matters.’ She left the room.
He followed her. ‘I just don’t want you getting hurt, that’s all. Emma going missing, it’s just made me think how anything could happen to any one of us.’
She kept walking, not turning back to him, wanting the conversation to be over. Kowalski was rattled and she didn’t want him to see that she was too. She felt on edge all the time, like someone was watching her, waiting for her to make a mistake. She was normally so sure of herself, of her place in the world as a protector, hunting out dangerous people and stopping them. But with Emma being missing, everything was suddenly the wrong way around.
Pearce’s eyes were bloodshot and there were deep shadows under them. His solicitor, in contrast, sat stiffly next to him with his pen poised above his notes.
‘Why did you throw a crowbar at me and make off in your van when I tried to talk to you?’ she asked.
‘I didn’t throw the crowbar at you; it was more towards the floor.’ Pearce looked nervously at his solicitor. ‘I ran because I just panicked. I can’t explain it any more than that. I’ve had a bad time with the police before.’
‘You weren’t running because of what you’d done to Emma?’ Loxton stared at him.
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. ‘I haven’t done anything to Emma. I had a bad time in the Czech Republic last year with the police there. They can be pretty brutal. I thought you were going to be the same.’
‘What happened in the Czech Republic?’ Loxton asked. Pearce had come back clean. No arrests. What had they missed?
‘I got arrested six months ago in Prague.’ He shrugged at her. ‘I got into a fight.’
‘That’s not come through yet, but it will. Tell me about this fight.’
Pearce looked crestfallen that he’d brought it up. ‘It was with my ex. It was a shit holiday. We were arguing, she was drinking too much. She was driving me mad. On the way to the hotel I pushed her and a local went ballistic, got the cops involved. I was arrested over nothing. They beat the crap out of me at the station. I thought I was going to die. And then they gave me a caution and we had to fly home. We broke up a few weeks later.’
‘Did you have a fight like that with Emma?’ Loxton asked, trying to keep her voice steady.
‘No, nothing like that. Emma and me are great.’ Pearce kept eye contact with her.
‘When did you last see Emma?’ Loxton asked.
‘I haven’t seen her for a couple of weeks. She’s been busy at work and with her mum.’
‘You don’t seem worried that she’s missing,’ Kowalski said.
‘Worried? Should I be? She’s independent, always doing what she likes.’ He shrugged at them. ‘She’s probably gone off with some of her girlfriends for a spa getaway or something like that. Half the time I can never get hold of her.’
‘She didn’t show up for work last night,’ Loxton said. ‘Does that sound like Emma to you?’
‘I don’t really know much about her work.’ He rubbed at his hand as if it was bothering him. Loxton noticed the knuckles on his left hand were grazed, as if he’d fallen over or been in a fight. ‘She didn’t like talking about work to me, although she always seemed to be there. Maybe she got pissed off with it and decided to have a break?’
Loxton was appalled that Emma had been seeing this guy. Sure, he fit the picture of what Emma liked – big muscles, brown eyes, handsome – but Pearce had a temper and was impulsive. Had he hurt Emma?
‘Can you give me a list of her friends?’ Loxton asked.
‘Don’t you lot know? I only met a couple of them once. They were all police officers. I don’t remember their names. We’ve only been dating for a few months.’
‘Can you tell us what you’ve been doing since Saturday at around 10pm?’ Loxton asked.
‘Saturday? Christ. Well, I had a few beers with my mates in town. We were in Shoreditch, at the Bedlam bar at one point, after that it’s a bit of a blur. I got a night bus home, but I can’t remember what time – I was wasted. Sunday, I was hungover – the day was a complete write-off. Then Sunday evening I went down my local for a couple of beers. I was at work from 7am on Monday, out all day on deliveries. I finished quite late, past 7pm. I left the van at work and drove my car home. I grabbed a drive-through at McDonald’s and then drove back to my flat in Bromley. Then I walked to my local for more beers and then went home.’
Loxton was amazed at the detail. As if it was rehearsed. Kowalski threw her a brief glance that told her he thought the same.
‘What time did you get home last night?’ she asked.
‘Just before 11pm. Got myself a bit of a hangover today, that’s why I was late in.’ He rubbed his eyes and sighed. ‘Look, I’m in the shit with the boss already. You guys haven’t exactly helped with that. Can I go now?’
‘How did you get the grazes on your knuckles?’
He looked taken aback for a moment and gazed down at his hands, as if seeing the scratches for the first time. ‘Oh, that. I was loading the van yesterday and almost knocked a stack of boxes over. Ended up scraping my knuckles on the brick wall when I was stopping them from toppling over.’
‘Did anyone see you have this accident?’
‘No, I was in there on my own. But you can see it’s scabbed over, it’s an old graze.’ He held his hand out, as if that proved the injury was an accident and not caused by punching something with force.
‘Did you hit Emma? Is that how you got those injuries?’
Pearce looked at his solicitor, shocked. ‘I told you, I scraped them on the wall. I haven’t seen Emma for a few weeks.’
Loxton tried to contain her cold fury. This man may have wiped her friend out of existence. He could have reduced Emma to a memory. And when Emma’s mother was dead, when most of her colleagues had moved on, lost other people, forgotten their old friend, then Emma Robins wouldn’t even be a memory anymore.
‘Are you and Emma still together?’ Loxton thought of the torn photo in Emma’s flat.
‘Yes.’ Luke looked defensive, anger flashing in his eyes for a moment, but he managed to gain control of himself. ‘We’re just focusing on work, that’s all. And her mother got worse recently, dementia or something. Emma was talking about setting up carers. She was busy with that.’
‘Forensics are checking your flat and car. What do you think they’ll find?’
‘Nothing. It’s a waste of your time. My boss is going to do his nut with you lot swarming all over my car at work. He’ll already be pissed off that I got nicked there. And the neighbours are going to think I’m a criminal if you have people in forensic suits coming in and out of my flat.’
‘Let’s worry about your girlfriend being missing for now, shall we?’ Loxton said. ‘When did you last speak to Emma?’
‘I don’t know. She’d been so busy recently. A few days ago.’
‘Luke, we know Emma stopped calling a few weeks ago.’
Pearce’s eyes darkened. ‘You’ve been checking my phone? Are you lot even allowed to do that? Okay, we had a few issues, a bit of a row a few weeks back. I told her she wasn’t putting enough effort into our relationship. But we were sorting it out.’
‘She hasn’t returned your calls for two weeks, Luke. That doesn’t sound like you were sorting it out.’
He shook his head, waved his hand dismissively at her, as if he could brush her words aside. ‘All couples have problems. We were just going through a rocky patch. She just needed some time, that’s all.’
‘Why did you stop calling on Saturday night? The night it looks as if she went missing?’
‘Like I said, I was out with the lads on Saturday and then I had the hangover from hell. And I finally figured that Emma needed some space and time. I thought I’d wait for her to call me.’
‘Are you finished, officers?’ the solicitor said in his rich velvet voice. ‘I fear we’re about to start going around in circles and I’m sure you’re both very busy searching for this missing detective.’
Kowalski nodded at Loxton. They weren’t going to get anything else out of Pearce. He was sticking to his story, refusing to budge.
‘We’re done for now; I’m terminating this interview.’ Kowalski hit the stop button on the digital recorder. ‘But he’ll have to stay in until we have the results back from the forensic team.’
Loxton didn’t know if Pearce was responsible for Emma’s disappearance, but she didn’t like the way he talked about her in the past tense.