The briefing room was packed to capacity, and the atmosphere was heavy and sombre. A woman who had killed at the age of eleven had changed her name and identity to live a quiet and peaceful life below the radar. She had succeeded in never drawing attention to herself. She had a menial job and kept her social life to a minimum. Yet someone had found her. Someone had gone to great lengths to identify her, track her down, and execute her. This was an intelligent killer who would stop at nothing to make his chosen victims pay for their crimes. Suddenly, the game had been raised. Every person in the briefing room knew this killer was virtually unstoppable.
Matilda explained who, on the surface, Katie Reaney was. She then handed over to Sian to fill in the gaps on her past.
‘Katie Reaney was born Naomi Parish in 1987. She lived in Hastings, in Kent, on the south coast. In 1998, when she was eleven years old, she was babysitting one-year-old Alistair Macintosh when she shook him to death.’ Silence gripped the room, and Sian paused.
On the whiteboard was a photograph of a smiling Katie Reaney. Her husband had told them it had been taken on New Year’s Eve last year. She was dressed up for a night out, freshly dyed blonde hair perfectly styled, make-up understated yet glamorous, and she smiled into the centre of the camera, showing off her dazzling white teeth. She looked happy, content with the world. Behind the sparkling eyes was the soul of a child killer. Had she managed to put her past behind her, forget all about her crime, or was she simply a very talented actress?
Sian continued. ‘Her defence was that Alistair wouldn’t stop crying, and she was trying to get him to go to sleep. However, in a statement from Alistair’s mother, he wasn’t a crying baby. He rarely made a noise and was a peaceful sleeper. He wasn’t ill, didn’t have a cold or anything, so there was no reason why he would have been crying to the extent Naomi said he was. The jury took less than one hour to find her guilty of murder.’
‘What was she sentenced to?’ Faith asked without looking up from her desk.
‘She was sentenced to life in prison to serve a minimum of seven years. She was released in 2005 from a Young Offenders Institute in Birmingham and refused lifelong anonymity by the Home Office. Now, according to the paperwork found by Aaron in Katie’s bedroom, she changed her name by deed poll in 2008 to Katie Simpson. She met Andy Reaney in 2010 and they married within the year, when she became Katie Reaney.’
‘So there we have it,’ Matilda said, standing up. ‘Naomi Parish became Katie Simpson who became Katie Reaney. What we need to find out is who the hell knew?’
‘Did she tell her husband any of this?’
‘Andy isn’t in a fit state to be fully interviewed at the moment,’ Christian Brady said. ‘He’s told us the bare bones of their life together, and he hasn’t mentioned anything about her past. He either doesn’t know, or he’s protecting her.’
‘Christian, I want you and Sian to interview him when he’s ready. If he really doesn’t know, then you’ll need to break it to him,’ Matilda said.
‘Is the husband a likely suspect?’ Faith asked.
‘No. He was in Ripon last night and didn’t leave until after eight o’clock this morning,’ Scott said flicking through his notebook. ‘I’ve already called Andy’s parents and they’ve confirmed this.’
‘Thank you, Scott.’
‘So, who is a suspect then?’
‘Someone with a great deal of time on their hands,’ Rory said. ‘I’ve been online and there’s no mention of Katie Reaney anywhere. She’s not on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any of the other social networking sites.’
‘Hardly surprising really, if she’s wanting to live in the shadows,’ Scott said.
‘Naomi Parish is all over the Internet. There’s articles about the court case and being sentenced, even when she was released. After that, nothing. There is no way Naomi Parish and Katie Reaney can be linked just by looking online,’ Rory said.
‘What about photographs of Naomi Parish? Can you see a resemblance between Naomi the child and Katie the adult?’ Sian asked.
‘No,’ Rory answered. ‘She was quite a chubby child, and she’s got dark brown hair. Katie is slim with dyed blonde hair. It seems like she went to great lengths to avoid any connection to her former life.’
‘So it’s somebody with access to more sophisticated files,’ Matilda said. ‘Sian, throw us a Mars bar, will you?’ Scott cleared his throat, and Matilda looked up at him. ‘Actually, don’t bother. I’ve got a high-energy protein bar in my desk.’
‘Should we contact the parents of Alistair Macintosh?’ Faith asked.
‘I think so. Sian, can you deal with that?’
Faith rolled her eyes but quickly turned away when she saw Matilda had noticed.
‘We need to know who was in Katie’s life, who trusted her,’ Christian said. ‘What about that housebound neighbour, Debbie?’
‘They’ve been friends since college,’ Scott said. ‘They were on the same night school course. Debbie missed most of her education due to being in hospital. She took A-levels at night school, as did Katie when she was released from prison.’
‘Could Katie have confided in Debbie?’
‘We didn’t go into too many details about Katie’s past, I didn’t know myself then, but she just said Katie was a lovely, quiet woman who lived for her husband and children.’
‘She’s going to need interviewing again too. Right,’ Matilda said going over to the whiteboards. ‘The one connection two of our victims have is probation officers. Katie Reaney and Brian Appleby will both have had probation officers. I want them identified. I want their alibis for all the murders. Christian!’
‘Leave it with me.’
Matilda ran her fingers through her hair; they came away feeling greasy. ‘I want statements from neighbours, colleagues and family members. How close were Katie and Andy? Don’t reveal Katie’s past to anyone. This is where we have the upper hand over the press. The only people who know are us and the killer. I know we’ve found out the killer is giving information to Danny Hanson, but if I do find out anyone in here has been talking, I will hang you myself. Understand?’
She left the question unanswered and strode from the briefing room, slamming the door behind her.
On her way to the ACC’s office for another meeting with Valerie, and James Dalziel, Matilda dug out her phone and searched for a number. She hoped it was still the right one. It rang and was still ringing when Matilda arrived at Valerie’s office. Eventually it went to voicemail, but she decided against leaving a message. As much as she wanted to believe Ben Hales was innocent, she needed to know his movements for last night.