Authors: Cath Staincliffe
‘
Nothing. I don’t know anything about it, I swear,’ he said.
‘
How do you account for the fact that a screw of the same type to that missing from your glasses was found in the sheet wrapped around the child’s body?’
‘
I don’t know.’
‘
You told us before that the manhole cover had been closed and that you had no need to access the drainage tunnel. So how come your glasses screw ends up in the drain, inside the sheet covering the child.’
‘
I don’t know,’ he said, looking away.
Janine could see a pu
lse ticking fast at the side of his neck.
‘
We have a witness who heard your vehicle arriving at the address at six-fifteen on the morning of the nineteenth of April,’ Richard said.
The solicitor interrupted,
‘Is this witness able to distinguish individual vehicles by the sound of their engines?’
Janine knew it was a
fair point.
‘
A diesel engine, a sound the neighbours had become familiar with over the course of the weeks you were working there,’ Richard said.
‘
I was at home then,’ Breeley said.
‘
I don’t think that’s the case. When did you break your glasses?’ Richard said.
‘
I don’t remember.’
‘
Where did it happen?’ Richard said.
‘
Not at work,’ he replied.
‘
The screw must have worked loose, dropped onto the sheet. Later, as you were moving the body, your lens fell out and broke,’ said Richard.
‘
It’s not mine,’ Joe Breeley said. He rubbed his jaw.
‘
We can identify the prescription from the fragments. It matches yours,’ Richard said.
‘
You’re bound to find traces of me all over the shop. I worked there,’ Joe Breeley said.
‘But you have just told us that you didn’t break your glasses at work. I’m confused,’ Janine said.
‘You went to work early, in the van,’ Richard said, ‘you put the little boy there, left. Came back at nine. What happened, Joe?’
He refused to answer.
‘How did particles of glass that match your missing lens come to be on the driveway at Kendal Avenue?’ Richard said.
He shook his head.
‘I don’t know.’ Temper or desperation edged his reply.
‘
We’ve taken a DNA sample from you along with hair from your head. Will we find that matches material recovered from the victim?’
Breeley still
ed though Janine was not sure why but then he recovered. Had he remembered something incriminating? She decided to push this topic a bit further.
‘Anything like that could have come from the house,’ he said, ‘we use the basin, the toilet.’
‘
And how might that have got inside the sheet? Or onto the child’s body?’ she said.
He swallowed, closed his eyes momentarily.
‘I don’t know.’
‘
Let’s back up a little. Friday afternoon, the eighteenth of April. You left early?’ Janine said.
‘
Yeah, Mandy was going shopping. I had the kids.’
‘
She didn’t take them?’ Janine said.
‘
No – John’s got the chickenpox,’ he said.
‘
So Mandy went shopping, she came back when?’
‘
She was late – the car broke down. Be going on five when she got back.’
‘
And that evening where were you?’ Janine said.
‘
Just in the house,’ Breeley said.
‘
Neither of you went out?’ Janine said.
‘
No, honestly. Ask Mandy. She’ll tell you,’ he said.
‘
Oh, we will,’ Janine said, ‘I promise you that. Saturday morning what time did you leave home?’
‘
Nine o’clock, like I said.’
Jo
e Breeley maintained his story, refusing to be drawn, then there was a knock at the door. Richard suspended the interview, paused the tape and went to answer it.
He ca
me back into the room and nodded to Janine. It must be something important.
‘
We’ll take a break now, half an hour,’ she said to the solicitor.
‘
You’re keeping me here?’ Joe Breeley said.
‘
For as long as it takes,’ Janine replied.
‘
Millie’s found something in Breeley’s background,’ Richard said in the corridor once Breeley had been escorted to a cell.
‘
Where is she?’
‘
Incident room.’
Millie held a sheaf
of printouts. She handed Janine the top one. Janine scanned the headline.
Tot’s Death Inquest
. She checked the date, 12th February 1991. Janine started to read,
The county coroner opened an inquest yesterday into the death of Gary Breeley (3) who died at the family home in October 1990.
‘
Fractured skull,’ said Millie. ‘Joe Breeley had a little brother, Gary. Joe was looking after him when Gary died. He fell down some steps, fractured his skull. They ruled accidental death, though there were rumours.’
‘
Did he fall, or was he pushed?’ said Janine.
‘
Exactly,’ said Millie, ‘Joe was ten at the time.’
The same cause of death. What were the chances? Was family man Breeley repeating an earlier crime?
‘We can use this,’ she said to Richard, ‘we should put this to him.’
While
they waited for the half hour to elapse, Janine checked on responses to the Sammy Wray reconstruction. ‘The phones are red hot,’ Shap told her, which could mean anything or nothing. Perhaps Sammy had been snatched and taken abroad, at best for an illegal adoption and at worst as a victim for the men who get pleasure from abusing children.
‘
Joe,’ Janine said once they had resumed the interview, ‘we really need to sort this out. You need to start telling us the truth. We have good reason to believe that you were involved in the death of the child found at Kendal Avenue. You’ve not been in to work since. Bad back you said, then excuses about the weather, then you claimed you stayed at home to help Mandy. Not like you to blob work according to Donny McEvoy. This is why, isn’t it, Joe? You couldn’t do it. Go back and carry on knowing that child was down there in the dirt. Alone. You couldn’t stomach it.’
He looked down at the desk, close
d eyes. When he raised his head and stared at Janine, he looked tired, cynical, his cheeks hollowed.
‘
We know about your brother. About Gary,’ she said.
Joe Breeley jerked as if she had slapped him then sat back his eyes blinking rapidly, his face tight and Janine could see how close he was to breaking point.
‘Oh you do, do you? You know all about that,’ he said bitterly.
‘
He had a fractured skull, too. Same age. What happened this time, Joe? Another accident?’
Joe Breeley
’s mouth was rigid, his face pale. His upper body was shaking and Janine realised his leg was bouncing up and down as it had at the house. A nervous tic. He didn’t answer.
‘
Who is he?’ Janine said.
He looked down, put his head in his hands.
Janine spoke quietly. ‘Someone out there is worried sick because their little boy is missing. You’re a father. Imagine that? That little boy needs a name. We need to find out what happened to him and return him to the people who love him so they can lay him to rest.’
She kept pushing b
ut keeping her tone soft, full of concern. ‘Where he is, he’s no name, no identity, like a bit of rubbish that no-one cares about. He has a mother, he has a father, they deserve the truth. That’s all they can have now. That little soul needs peace. I think you do too.’
He raised his head, tears leaking from the sides of his eyes, anguish
stretched across his face.
‘
Where did you find him? Who is he, Joe?’
He shook his head
, raised his hands to his face, pressed his fingers against his lips as though he’d stop the words. Gave a sob.
‘
Joe, please, who is he?’
‘
He’s my son.’ His arms fell, he cried to the heavens. ‘My boy. He’s dead and he’s my son.’
‘Is he losing it, or what? Has he got another kid?’ Richard said as soon as they were alone, after the solicitor had insisted on a break and Janine agreed without argument. ‘Is there a previous relationship?’
‘
Not that we know of,’ Janine said. ‘They’ve the baby – and John,’ Janine recalled the photos, the child crying from upstairs.
Miserable with chickenpox.
‘And no-one’s reported a child missing, anyway. Apart from Sammy. If he was from a previous relationship surely the mother would have … John Breeley’s been sick,’ she was thinking aloud, ‘we didn’t see him. We heard him though.’
She looked at Richard. Her stomach turned
over and her bowels turned to water. ‘We heard a child. We were told it was John.’
Richard narrowed his eyes
, listening intently to her.
‘
There is a connection,’ she said, her mouth dry and heart thumping. ‘This is John, our victim. The child we heard upstairs – I think it’s Sammy.’
The way
Breeley had hesitated when Janine mentioned DNA. He must have thought then that they’d soon identify the relationship between father and son, that the game was up. That no matter how vehemently he denied all knowledge of the crime, the science would blow it all wide open.
‘He killed his son and took Sammy?’ Richard said.
‘The timing would fit. He puts John there early Saturday morning, goes away and comes back just after nine. He works the morning…’
‘Goes to the park,’ Richard said.
‘That’s why we’ve had no reports of another missing child.’ She could feel her pulse racing, a buzzing in her head.
‘We arrest Mandy as an accomplice and remove the children,’ she said.
‘
You sure?’ Richard said.
‘
That it’s Sammy? Hell, yes. This time I’m sure.’ She was trembling with adrenalin but she needed to focus, to use the energy to concentrate on the task in hand – recovering Sammy from Mandy Breeley.
There was no reply at the house. Janine peered through the letter box, no sign of life, no sounds from upstairs. Shap checked around the back and found the same. They began knocking on doors along the street.
A neighbour opposite reported seeing Mandy leave with the children in the car only a few minutes earlier. She knew the family well and was able to tell them where Mandy’s mother lived.
‘Richard and I will go round there now,’ Janine told the team who stood, poised to act, outside the Breeley’s house with all the neighbours watching. ‘Shap, flag up the car registration so we can try and catch her with ANPR if she’s done a runner,’ referring to the automatic number plate recognition technology they could use. ‘Butchers, get onto telecoms, we want to pinpoint her location if she uses her phone – Joe Breeley will have her number in his. Be prepared to instigate a child rescue.’
Janine rang Lisa and brought her up to speed. ‘M
ap out radius, probable distance travelled and time projections. Set up a child abduction alert. Shap will give you the details.’
Shap got out his phone. As Janine hurried to her car Shap began to speak to Lisa, ‘
Maroon Vauxhall Astra registration mother 635 x-ray, lima, hotel. Full alert all ports and airports. Occupants twenty-five-year old white female, long blonde hair, believed to be travelling with infant boy and three-year-old boy …’
Mandy’s mother lived about a mile away and looked disconcerted when she opened the door to police officers.
‘Have you seen Mandy today?’ Janine asked her, once she’d identified herself.
‘No.’
‘Have you heard from her?’
‘No. Why? What’s going on?’ she said.
Janine didn’t have time to go into a full blown explanation so said instead, ‘She’s missing from home and we’re anxious to speak to her.’
‘About what? What on earth’s the matter?’ the woman’s voice rose.
‘I’m sorry, I can’t discuss that with you now but please if you do hear from her will you let us know immediately?’ Janine passed her a card. The woman opened and closed her mouth, her forehead creased, eyes bewildered.
Knowing what she did, Janine felt a moment’s pity for Mandy’s mother. Whatever happened in the hours to come, her life was about to be torn apart as she learnt about the death of her grandson and the abduction carried out by her son-in-law. ‘I’m sorry,’ Janine said, ‘I have to go.’