A Force To Be Reckoned With: an icy detective goes against the tide in this slick mystery by Linda Hagan

Author:Linda Hagan [Hagan, Linda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: THE BOOK FOLKS - bestselling Irish crime fiction publishers
Published: 2021-11-06T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 37

She had gone straight back to her office and was trying to get her paperwork into some kind of order for the briefing when her phone rang again. She sighed. Was she never going to get speaking to the team so they could start on Karen Houston’s murder investigation? The girl had been killed twenty years ago so another few hours wouldn’t matter but she didn’t want any more interruptions.

‘Gawn, it’s Paul. They want you to come down and interview Murphy.’

‘Why me?’

‘Apparently he likes you. They think he might talk to you. They’re not having much luck.’ She heard the chuckle in his voice. ‘Who knew you were a hit with kids? If I’d known that I’d have asked you to babysit years ago.’

‘Don’t push your luck, Inspector.’

She had never had to interview a child before and had little experience of cases involving children or of child abduction. She felt woefully ill-prepared to deal with this little boy and she didn’t want to let him or his family down.

She made her way to the interview suite to be greeted by a young woman.

‘DS Gates, ma’am. We’ve tried to question Murphy but he’s not very forthcoming. We can hardly get a word out of him and his mother won’t consent to a doctor examining him. She says she doesn’t want him traumatized any more than he already is. Inspector Maxwell suggested maybe you would have a better chance of getting him to speak.’

So she had Maxwell to thank for this. She pushed open the double swing doors and saw Seb, his mother and Murphy’s father all sitting in silence on a row of hard plastic chairs outside the interview room. They had been staring straight ahead into space each with their own private thoughts and fears. Seb stood up as soon as he saw her and turned expectantly towards her.

‘Has something happened? Is there news?’

‘I’ve been asked to talk to Murphy.’ She included everyone in what she was saying. ‘I’ll be as gentle as I can. Helen will be there all the time. We don’t want it to be any more traumatic for him than it has to be. Hopefully, you’ll be able to take him home very soon.’

She didn’t wait for a response but walked past them. When she entered the room she saw Helen and her son, looking tinier and more vulnerable than she remembered, sitting on a sofa facing the door. The boy was on his mother’s knee and from the way she was holding his hand and arm it looked like Helen never intended to let him go again. A young policewoman was in the room too.

‘It’s OK. You can leave us to it.’ She waited until the PC had left and then said, ‘Hi, Murphy. I didn’t think I was going to be seeing you again so soon. How are you doing, buddy?’ She smiled and moved closer. She had hunkered down in front of him as she spoke so she was at his eye level.

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