True Crime Story(42)
Detective Inspector Gregory James declined to be interviewed for this book, reiterating Greater Manchester Police’s statement that to do so could prejudice the ongoing investigation into Zoe’s disappearance.
FINTAN MURPHY:
Kimberly arrived looking freezing cold. I think she had one of the police officers’ UV jackets draped over her shoulders. DC Manning, Sarah, the liaison officer, the person we dealt with most, said that the police had spoken to security at the site where she was found, that given the circumstances, everyone had decided to let Kimberly’s trespassing misadventure go. Somehow, that had the strange effect of driving home the seriousness of Zoe’s disappearance for me. Round my way, kids aren’t just taxied about by the cops and let off with a warning.
SARAH MANNING:
I offered to help Kim, to get her inside, maybe find her a hot drink and a shower. I’d only just introduced myself to her parents, so that might be why they resisted the idea. They were still being briefed and after all, they’d lost one daughter already that day. On the other hand, I thought they seemed worried by the prospect of Kim speaking to the police. I remember Sally pulling the high-vis jacket off her immediately, putting her own jacket around Kim’s shoulders instead. It’s not that I thought Kim had something to do with her sister’s disappearance. It’s more that her parents seemed to think it.
They acted like they didn’t really know her.
That is, they seemed more comfortable with Zoe’s friends, Fintan and Liu, these people they’d never met before. That feeling lingered for as long as I was around them. The family dynamic—Zoe and Kim’s relationship especially—was anything but simple.
FINTAN MURPHY:
DC Manning took us all aside—this would be myself, Liu Wai, Sally and Robert—and asked if we had any idea what Kimberly might have been doing there, out on this building site in town. We were all at a loss and, quite honestly, still preoccupied with Zoe. Then I saw Kimberly smiling at something. She was sort of wavering off at the side while we talked, just a ghost of herself all in black, makeup streaming down her face. It’s this terrible day, and she’s standing there like that, smiling. She wasn’t wearing any shoes, her feet looked ripped to shreds, so I suggested I take her up to the flat before she face-planted on the lawn.
Mainly, I think I wanted to get her alone.
While we were walking toward the tower, I said, “So what’s so funny?” She scowled at me, then nodded over her shoulder at Robert, said, “My dad’s hair.” He had this half-finished haircut at the time. I couldn’t imagine laughing in that moment, but I thought she was distressed. I wondered if, without the police and her parents and the weirdness of this situation all in her face, she might talk to me. Clearly, she knew something. Clearly, something was going on. In the lift on the way up, she didn’t even look at me. She was just texting someone, like, furiously, furiously texting someone.
The whole fifteenth floor was trashed, like a bomb had gone off at a Christmas market. Once we got to Kimberly’s room and I’d asked if there was anything she needed, I sort of put it to her, you know, “How did you end up at this building site? What’s going on?” She looked at me then all right, and for a long time. I think she wanted me to walk out, but I wasn’t going anywhere. So she started to undress in front of me. I kind of turned away, but I still waited. In the end, she said, “I met a guy. We just needed somewhere to go and fuck.” So I nodded at the wall and walked out.
KIMBERLY NOLAN:
Whatever I did or didn’t say in the moment, obviously that isn’t what happened. If I couldn’t tell my sister about the van, and if I couldn’t tell my friends, then how could I tell this boy I’d just met the night before? I thought Fintan was probably gay, so I started undressing to try and make him feel awkward. I thought he’d leave or at least turn away so I wouldn’t have to lie to his face. And I think I said I met someone. I might have said we got to talking or something, but I never would have said I was “fucking” some guy.
FINTAN MURPHY:
Look, I come from a background of quite brutal honesty—emphasis on the word brutal there. So I suppose when I arrived in England, in Manchester, I was quite na?ve in that sense. I thought grown-ups told the unvarnished truth—that’s just what they did. No one had ever lied to me so brazenly, not about something so serious. In that sense, I’ve always thought of Kimberly, perhaps unfairly, as this master, this originator, of dishonesty.
LIU WAI:
Andrew Flowers came crawling back while Fintan was with Kim. We were all outside. The police were organizing a second search of Owens Park—they hadn’t found anything the first time. We were all standing vaguely at the main entrance when he kind of staggered in, still wearing a Santa Claus hat. His clothes were dirty, shirt all ripped, and his face was just livid with scratch marks. I’d mentioned to the Nolans, to the police as well, that there’d been an argument. I mean, everyone from the party had seen it. There was no secret.
Even so…
To see his face was something else. You couldn’t look at him without thinking, He killed her. He fucking killed her. I mean, Zoe’s parents hadn’t even met him at this point, didn’t know him from Adam, but I could see they thought the same thing. Mrs. Nolan let out this gasp and just kind of fell on her husband.
SARAH MANNING:
Myself and two officers were forced to restrain Rob Nolan when Andrew Flowers arrived back at Owens Park. Rob was swinging his arms, shouting, “Where’s my daughter?” I was still getting up to speed and had to be told that Andrew was Zoe’s boyfriend. His appearance was certainly distressing, concerning even. We asked if we could speak to him somewhere more private, and he just shrugged. He said, “Am I under arrest too?” I thought that was a strange thing to say, but it only occurred to me afterward that it didn’t make any sense. The word too implied that he knew Kim had been arrested earlier, yet they both denied having spoken to anyone.