Close to Home (DI Adam Fawley #1)(22)

AF: Perhaps you could do that, Mrs Mason. Given that you won’t allow us to conduct a proper search ourselves.

[pause]

GQ: What time did you pick the children up from school?

[pause]

SM: Actually, I didn’t.

AF: I’m sorry? Are you saying you didn’t collect them after all? You specifically told us you’d picked them up –

SM: No I didn’t. I said I drive them to school. And I do. There and back. I just didn’t do it on Tuesday.

AF: Do you realize how serious this is – how much time we’ve wasted? If you’d told us Daisy came home alone -

SM: She wasn’t alone. Leo was with her. I told them both that morning they’d have to walk for once.

AF: And why didn’t you tell us this before?

[pause]

SM: I knew you’d only get the wrong idea. That you’d start blaming me. And it’s not my fault. I can’t be in two places at once, can I? Do you know how much work a party like that creates? Barry was supposed to help me - he said he’d take the afternoon off, but then he called and said he’d be late. As usual.

GQ: What time was that – the phone call?

[pause]

SM: I’m not sure. Perhaps about four.

GQ: We can easily check with the phone company.

AF: And you’d told Leo that morning that he had to walk his sister home?

SM: Yes, I told both of them at breakfast. I told Daisy to make sure to find Leo, and not run off on her own.

GQ: Was she in the habit of doing that?

SM: Not in the way you mean. She was always very sensible. But she’s interested in things. Animals and such. Insects. She gets distracted sometimes, that’s all.

AF: I gather she wants to be a vet when she grows up? That’s a long training.

SM: Daisy knows how important it is to work hard at school and get a good job. She’s extremely bright. She got 97 out of 100 in a maths test last term. The next best after that only got 72.

AF: So to get back to Tuesday afternoon. What time did the children get home from school?

SM: Daisy came in about 4.15. I was in the kitchen. The door slammed and she went up to her room.

AF: You saw her?

SM: No. Like I said, I was busy. She was really banging about upstairs so I guessed there must have been some sort of squabble on the way home.

AF: Do the children argue a lot?

SM: Sometimes. No more than other people’s children, I daresay.

[pause]

Perhaps a bit more lately.

AF: So why’s that?

SM: Who knows, with children. You could drive yourself mad working out why they do this and that.

AF: Has it been one child rather than the other who’s been acting up?

SM: Oh, Leo. Definitely Leo. Adolescent boys can be so moody.

GQ: He’s ten years old.

[pause]

SM: Barry thinks he might be worried about his SATs.

AF But that’s a whole year away. He’s only in Year 5 now, isn’t he?

SM: He’s not as clever as Daisy.

[pause]

AF: I see. So going back to Tuesday afternoon. Daisy gets back at 4.15. When did you next see her?

SM: I called out and asked her if she wanted anything but she didn’t answer. I assumed she was sulking.

AF: So you didn’t actually see her? Not then, and not earlier, when she got home?

[pause]

SM: No.

GQ: What time was that, when you called up to her?

SM: I don’t remember.

AF: So when did she come down for the party?

SM: People had started arriving by then. It was all a bit chaotic. I remember seeing her running about with her friends. Like I told you.

[pause]

AF: I see. And what about Leo? Was he with Daisy when she got back from school?

SM: No. I saw him later.

AF: How much later?

SM: I don’t know. About a quarter of an hour. Something like that.

AF: So about 4.30. What had happened, Mrs Mason? Why did they not come back together?

[pause]

Mrs Mason?

SM: He said they’d had an argument and Daisy had run off.

GQ: What was this particular argument about?

SM: Like I said, no doubt something and nothing. I couldn’t get a word out of him.

AF: So you didn’t go upstairs and talk to Daisy about it?

SM: No, of course not. I told you already. She was obviously OK, wasn’t she? She didn’t need me fussing over her. She was always saying she hated that. And in any case, I don’t see what difference it makes.

[pause]

What? What are you looking at me like that for? It’s not my fault. Whatever it was that – that - happened, it must have been after that, mustn’t it? Someone must have taken her at the party.

AF: We’ve already established she was never at the party, Mrs Mason.

[pause]

The first guests arrived at about seven, I believe?

SM: Yes. Around then. Though they were invited for earlier. People can be so rude.

AF: So your contention is that sometime between 4.15 when she got home, and seven when the first guests arrived, your daughter disappeared from under your nose – from her own bedroom?

SM: Don’t you dare take that tone with me. What do you mean ‘my contention’ – it’s not my contention, it’s what happened. She was in her room. There was music on – it was still on when I got back. Ask Barry – he heard it too - when he finally deigned to show his face -