The two detectives headed back to Wandsworth in their own cars. On the way Anna called King’s College Hospital to check on Tom. She was told that he’d had a comfortable night and that his condition was continuing to improve.
That put a spring in her step as she walked into the ops room at MIT HQ.
The air in the room oscillated with tension as Anna got on with the briefing. She said that she and DI Benning had been to see Jacob Rossi’s parents and that they’d be going public with Roy Slater’s name at a press conference later.
‘But as I made clear yesterday, I want us to spend today pulling together all the threads and loose ends,’ she said. ‘I’m concerned that there’s still a lot we don’t know, including whether Slater had an accomplice.’
DS Khan had provided the first update. He had followed up the fact that Gavin Pope’s wife had spent two weeks at a recruitment agency in Camberwell.
‘I went there and spoke to the manager,’ he said. ‘But he never heard Mrs Pope mention The Falconer’s Arms and he didn’t think she acted suspiciously at all. Most days they all had lunch together and after work he assumed that she drove straight home.’
‘So now go back and interview her and her husband,’ Anna said. ‘Her working in Camberwell was probably another coincidence, but see what she has to say. And press Pope on his relationship with Slater after they left the Glory Entertainment production company where they worked together. Pope told us he hadn’t spoken to the guy in months, but he may be lying.’
She told the team about the old photograph of Hilary Metcalfe at The Falconer’s Arms pub.
‘It’s a tenuous link to Jacob’s abduction, I know, but it’s a link nonetheless. DI Benning will be looking into it. Those other members of staff in the picture are also named in the caption and they might still be living in the area. So we should see if we can talk to them. At the same time DI Benning will try to find out if Hilary’s son, Joseph, is indeed in Australia. If he is then he’s in the clear, but if he isn’t it raises all kinds of questions. We know from what we’ve been told that he’s harboured a grudge all these years because his father, Isaac, left him and his mother to take up with Emily and her son, Mark. What we don’t know is if Joseph knew Roy Slater and got together to cook up the plan to abduct Jacob.’
Finally, Anna asked DI Walker and DS Prescott to wade through all the documents and personal belongings that were brought back from Roy Slater’s house in Rotherhithe.
‘See if you can find anything that tells us how and why he kidnapped Jacob,’ she said.