Laura glanced out of the car window and felt a tickle of nervousness. She took a couple of deep breaths and brushed the lint from the front of her suit.
She strode up to the door of Don Roberts and pressed the bell. The electronic chime echoed inside and she looked around as she waited, turning back when she heard the click of the door latch. When the door opened, she saw that it was Don, wearing the same clothes as the day before, a plain black T-shirt with gold necklaces dripping across his chest. Tough guy caricature.
‘Hello, Mr Roberts,’ Laura said, trying to sound friendly, so that he might forget for a second that she was a police officer.
He considered her for a moment, his teeth clenched, and then, to Laura’s surprise, he stepped to one side.
‘Come in,’ he said, although it was more of a command than a welcome.
As she walked past him, she saw things she hadn’t noticed the day before, when her focus had been on breaking the bad news. There were reflective stones set into the stairs, so that each step shone like a glitter ball, and the wallpaper was thick black flock, but when the sunlight caught it, there was a red underlay to it, something more special than a roll from the local DIY shop. It was always the way with crooks, that they can’t bank the money and so they spend it, usually on cars and chandeliers.
Laura was even more surprised when she went into the living room. The room was the same as the day before, bright red leather sofas in front of a large television, with white ornate dog figures in the corner, but this time it was filled with people, and it didn’t look like the family had gathered to offer their condolences.
There were six men sitting down, every available piece of red leather taken up, and all of them looked to be from the same mould, with muscles stretching their T-shirts, the blue and black curls of tattoos stretching down their forearms. They wore their hair shaved or cropped short and their mouths were set into scowls.
Laura tried to stay relaxed, nothing was going to happen to her, although she felt her mouth go dry and her heart hammer in her chest.
‘We need to speak in private,’ she said to Don.
‘Do you have a suspect?’ he said.
‘I would rather we discussed this alone.’
‘I wouldn’t,’ he replied sharply.
‘I didn’t come here to be a sideshow, Mr Roberts.’
He nodded towards the door. ‘That’s the way home, sweetheart.’
She looked down for moment, and then she sighed. ‘Okay, if this is how you want it,’ she said. ‘No, we don’t have a suspect, although it is more difficult when the victim’s family won’t help. Why won’t you help? You’ve nothing to hide, I presume.’
She fought the urge to take a few steps back as Roberts clenched his jaw and took some deep breaths through his nose.
‘You can call me many things, but I would not harm my daughter,’ he said, his voice turning into a growl. He looked at the men on the sofa, and a quick glance from Laura told her that they were shocked. Roberts turned back to her. ‘You think you are doing a great service, ticking your boxes. Spoken to bereaved family. Tick. Tried to find boyfriend. Tick. But you’re wasting your time, because people won’t want to talk to you.’ His lips curled into a smile, but his eyes remained dark and cold. ‘People will talk to me.’
‘But how do you know you’re going to get the right answers?’ Laura said. ‘People will just give you what you want because they’re scared of you.’
‘I’ll know,’ he said, speaking slowly now, ‘because I’ll make it clear that I’ll be back if I get the first whiff of bullshit.’
Laura looked at the men sitting on the sofas. She noticed a few fists clench. ‘You know that this house will be the first place we look if any of the local perverts wind up dead,’ she said.
No one said anything.
‘Did any of you see Jane on the night she went missing?’ she asked.
Still silence.
Laura realised that if she was going to get a reaction, she was going to have to provoke it.
‘Come on, fellahs,’ she said. ‘It’s not a hard question. I bet some of you liked her. Pretty young woman, nice body, the key to Don’s empire. Are you sure one of you didn’t want her a little too much?’
‘That’s enough,’ Roberts barked.
‘And what about Deborah Corley?’ she said, ignoring him. ‘Did you see her around?’
Laura heard Roberts step closer to her. She could smell his breath, no sleep and cigarettes, and she noticed a few people shifting uncomfortably in their seats.
‘Are you all going along with this to protect yourselves?’ Laura continued. ‘Perhaps you’ll blame it on some local pervert?’
‘Stop!’
It was a female voice.
Laura whirled around. It was Don’s wife, Helen. Jane’s mother. There were tears streaming down her face and her eyes were red.
‘Stop, please,’ she said, her voice quieter now, her hand gripping the door frame for support. ‘This isn’t about scoring points.’
‘So help us then,’ Laura said. She turned to Don. ‘You conduct your own enquiries, fine, but don’t shut us out.’
Don Roberts looked at his wife, and then back at Laura. He pursed his lips a couple of times, and then said to Laura, ‘Time to go.’
Laura looked at Mrs Roberts, who was staring at her husband.
‘Tell me one thing,’ Laura said. ‘Does the name Emma mean anything to you, in connection with Mike Corley?’
Don blinked, but then he clenched his jaw and pointed towards the door. ‘Like I said, you’re done here.’
‘Okay,’ Laura said. ‘I’ll go now, but come and see me if you want to talk.’ She was looking at Mrs Roberts as she said it.
Laura went towards the front door, and as she heard it slam behind her, she looked down at her hands. There was a tremble to her fingers. She wasn’t sure how many friends she had made in there, although when she glanced back, she saw a face move quickly away from the glass in the door.