‘I have that authority, Ms Seager,’ he smiled, unruffled. ‘And I shall exercise it just as far as I feel appropriate, believe me. As far as our enquiries at Silvermeadow are concerned, you’ll be aware that our officers have almost completed interviewing tenants and centre staff. We’ve also finished our forensic investigation in the service road area for the time being.’
He reached for a tiny asparagus and prosciutto roll.
‘Is that all?’ Bo Seager said.
‘All?’
‘What about outcomes? What’s happening?’
Brock savoured the roll, then took a sip of wine. He felt sympathy for her, despite her attempts to manipulate him. She was obviously under some pressure to make things happen, presumably from this Tindall, whom she clearly didn’t much like. ‘There’s not much I can say about outcomes just at present, Ms Seager.’
‘How about the compactors, Mr Brock?’ Jackson broke in impatiently. ‘Have you got a positive link with the girl?’
‘We’ve got a stack of laboratory tests to be completed first, Harry.’
‘But no forensic proof of a connection so far?’ Tindall insisted. ‘So the whole basis of your enquiries here may be completely flawed.’
‘It seems unlikely, Mr Tindall, from what we know.’
‘And what exactly is that?’
‘Nathan…’ Bo Seager began.
‘No, sorry, Bo, bear with me, please. I just want us to be absolutely clear about this. As I understand it-correct me if I’m wrong, please-you have found a young woman’s body several miles away from Silvermeadow, and near it the remains of packaging probably originating from Silvermeadow stores. Is that right? Well, I’m not familiar with police procedures, but simple logic tells me that that really doesn’t prove that she was ever at Silvermeadow, does it?’
‘Mr Tindall,’ Brock said as patiently as he could, ‘your desire for absolute clarity is understandable, but in my experience it’s a rare commodity at the beginning of a murder inquiry. In this case, the circumstances in which the body and the packaging were found make it highly likely that both were processed through one of your compactors some time between the sixth and eighth of December. We haven’t spent all day taking them apart for fun, believe me.’
‘Have you any other evidence at all about where she went after she left her home?’ Tindall insisted harshly.
‘It seems she was planning to hitch-hike to her father in Germany.’
‘Well then!’ Tindall looked around the room, eyebrows raised, hands spread. It occurred to Brock that he’d probably picked up the posture from watching courtroom dramas on TV. ‘Rather makes my point, doesn’t it? Why would she have come here?’
‘She might have been brought here by whomever she got a lift from. That’s why we’ve been particularly keen to identify people who made deliveries here during the period. Or there could be another explanation. You’re on the M25 here, a good place to pick up a lift to the coast. Ms Seager pointed out to us before that your customers come from all over, including the Continent. Kerri could have picked out a suitable car in the carpark with Belgian or German plates, and approached the owner for a lift. Better that than standing thumbing on some motorway slip road in the rain. Or she may have met someone previously, someone who calls in at Silvermeadow on their way to the Continent, a regular traveller, someone who comes to the food court for a meal before heading down to the coast, maybe.’
‘But someone like that couldn’t access the service areas, Mr Brock,’ Harry objected. ‘They wouldn’t have the code.’
‘But she did, Harry. She had it. She’d been sent on errands back there more than once, and the Snow White’s Pancake Parlour code was used several times on the afternoon and evening of the sixth, and subsequently.’
He let that sink in, then added, ‘So that’s why it’s important to trace any sightings of Kerri here on that day, and to do that we intend to hold a reconstruction, or rather a walk-through in the mall with a girl similar in appearance and clothing to Kerri, as well as a leaflet and press campaign. Monday, the same day of the week, would be ideal for the walk-through, but there’s no reason why we shouldn’t run it on Tuesday as well.’
‘No reason!’ Tindall exploded.
‘It’s a perfectly normal procedure, Mr Tindall.’
Tindall’s face flushed darker, but before he could respond, Harry Jackson cut in with a conciliatory flutter of his big hand. ‘I think you could say that there’s a slight conceptual problem here, Mr Brock. By which I mean that you may still be thinking of Silvermeadow as some kind of super high street, a public thoroughfare with shops down each side and a bit of a roof overhead. But it isn’t that, not really. The mall here is more like a living room than a street. It’s private property, it’s looked after as well as if it were your own house, and it’s as safe. Think of it that way. How would you like a crowd of coppers marching through your living room and staging a walk-through, eh?’ He chuckled.
Tindall clearly found Harry’s homely little clarification irritating. ‘You might as well put up a sign in flashing lights, “Beware-this place is dangerous”,’ he grated. ‘“Serial killer on the loose”.’
‘This is important,’ Bo Seager came in. ‘Our whole ethos is built around this, Chief Inspector. People must feel completely comfortable and safe here. What you’re suggesting simply isn’t acceptable. It would create a perception, perhaps even panic.’ She closed her mouth firmly, as if the point were settled.
There was something very irritating about all this, Brock felt, as if the team had been on some management course together-How to Get Your Way in Meetings-and had worked out beforehand how they would tame him, while Lowry and Kathy were left to sit in silence on each side of him like a pair of china dogs. Kathy might have read his mind, for she broke her silence.
‘That’s an interesting choice of words, Mr Tindall,’ she said. The finance manager glanced at her in surprise, as if she should know that she didn’t have a speaking part. ‘“Serial killer on the loose”. Has there been any suggestion that this may have happened before?’
Brock saw a look of shock flare briefly on Tindall’s face, and also a rapid exchange of looks between Jackson and Lowry.
‘What the hell do you mean by that?’ Tindall snapped, recovering himself.
‘The victim’s mother, Mrs Vlasich,’ Kathy continued, ‘mentioned in interview that she was frightened for her daughter’s safety if Kerri had come to Silvermeadow, since she had heard rumours that girls had disappeared from here in the past.’
Jackson and Tindall immediately began protesting together, shaking their heads in disgust, while Bo Seager looked merely irritated, Brock thought, and Kathy expressionless, watching them. He couldn’t see Lowry’s face, but it was he who restored calm, speaking without raising his voice.
‘We were aware of that,’ he said, addressing himself alternately to Brock and Bo Seager. ‘One of our officers checked out the stories when Mrs Vlasich first raised it. We found no basis whatsoever. It’s just hysteria.’
‘Yes,’ Jackson nodded. ‘We did the same. Nothing to it. Rumours, hysteria, like Gavin says.’
Bo leant forward intently towards Brock. ‘Well, it just confirms how important it is to avoid encouraging ideas like that.’
‘Rumours grow on secrecy,’ he replied. ‘Far better to have it out in the open and eliminate the possibility if we can. I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist on our plan.’
For a moment it looked as if Bo was going to fight, but then she shrugged and conceded with a smile. ‘Okay, but let our publicity people work with yours on handling the press, please?’
‘Certainly.’ Brock got to his feet. ‘Thanks for the snack, and for your co-operation, Ms Seager. We do appreciate it.’
She laughed out loud at this. ‘Just so long as we can speak frankly, Chief Inspector.’
When they reached the front door Lowry hung back to speak to Jackson, and Kathy and Brock went out alone into the mall crowd.