Like This, for Ever

conscious of every member of the team watching them. There were tears on Gayle Mizon’s face but she was holding it together. DS Anderson was red around the eyes. Even Stenning was the same off-white shade as the paint on the walls. She’d never seen them like this before. And she knew that there was no one she could rely on in the room to back her up. However well disposed towards her they might be privately, they’d support Tulloch when it came to it.
    ‘I can watch CCTV footage, I can trawl through witness statements, I can run HOLMES searches. I’ve got a good eye for detail, you can use me.’ Before the words were out, she knew it was no use.
    Tulloch glanced at the detective closest to the door. ‘Tom, would you please take DC Flint to her car?’ she said.
    A second’s pause, and then Tom Barrett stood up.
    Lacey felt her temper rise like water coming to the boil. Tulloch had no right to put private antagonism before the search for a child. Especially that child. As Barrett stepped towards her, she put up a hand to stop him.
    ‘I have information,’ she said. ‘Directly relevant to the case. If you won’t let me help, then I have to make a statement.’
    Around the room, detectives were sliding glances at each other, then flicking between her and the DI. Tulloch narrowed her eyes and moved closer. She couldn’t have looked more cynical if she’d been practising in front of a mirror. ‘What information?’
    ‘I can tell you who sent me the text about the body at Deptford Creek and I have the name of a possible suspect.’
    The mood of the room changed then, subtly, but unmistakably. When she’d arrived, they’d been sympathetic, even if they hadn’t dared show it. Now, she could sense their allegiance changing as they registered the possibility that she’d been holding out on them.
    ‘Tom, take her downstairs. I’ll be down in five minutes.’
    No, Tulloch was not going to have it all on her terms. ‘I want Sergeant Anderson to take my statement,’ said Lacey. ‘Gayle or Pete can accompany him.’
    Tulloch was close to her now. Close enough to spit, close enoughto strike. Either looked decidedly possible. ‘You do not get to choose to whom you speak,’ she said.
    ‘With all due respect, Detective Inspector Tulloch, I believe you have a personal prejudice against me. If you insist on taking my statement, I want a solicitor with me. If the Sergeant does it, we can start straight away.’
    It took a split second for Tulloch to realize that waiting for a duty solicitor could take an hour or more. Wearing heels, she was almost exactly Lacey’s height, and Lacey could feel her breath on her face as she spoke.
    ‘If anything happens to that child, I will hang you out to dry. Do I make myself clear?’
    Lacey didn’t blink. ‘Likewise,’ she replied, then deliberately turned her head away. ‘Shall we start, Sergeant?’
    ‘Why didn’t you tell us this the night we found Tyler?’ asked Anderson, as she’d known he would.
    ‘I had no proof Barney sent me the text,’ Lacey replied. ‘It was nothing more than a hunch and the fact that very few people have my mobile number. I couldn’t turn a vulnerable child over to a murder investigation without something more than that. I thought I could make him confide in me, that he and I would come in together. I also thought you might be able to trace the text from my phone, but that doesn’t seem to have happened.’
    ‘It was sent from a pay-as-you-go phone,’ said Stenning. ‘Cash transaction, impossible to trace.’
    ‘And the first you’ve heard of his suspicions about his father was tonight?’ asked Anderson.
    ‘Absolutely. I didn’t really take in what he was telling me at first. I felt too bad and too angry that he’d had to find out about his mother the way he did. I thought he was just hitting out. But then, after he disappeared, I started thinking. I know Stewart is out of the house on Tuesdays and Thursdays – I’ve noticed before now that Barney is on his own then. But the security bloke I spoke to at the university said he always leaves at six because he has a young kid. So, he’s telling work he’s leaving early to be with his son, and he’s telling his son he’s working late.’
    ‘So where is he going?’ said Stenning.
    ‘Exactly. And Barney insisted he was at Deptford Creek that Saturday night we found Tyler’s body.’
    ‘That boat was empty when we checked it,’ said Anderson. ‘At least, we assumed