Imogen was shaking her head furiously. She pulled out her phone and started texting someone, her fingers flying over the keys.
‘What were you doing on your boat so late anyway?’ Adrian asked, resting a hand against the door of the cabin.
‘I just like it at night, it’s usually quiet and no one bothers me down here.’
‘Did you see anyone besides the girl?’
‘Not at first, no, but I did see a silver car come and look around.’
‘Did you see anyone in the car?’
‘There was only one bloke in it, I think.’
The detectives exchanged looks. If there was only one person in the car then it couldn’t have been the men from earlier, unless one of them had come back on his own. Or maybe it was Sam Brown. Imogen’s phone beeped.
‘Do you know what kind of car it was?’ she asked the man, her eyes on the phone screen.
‘A saloon, that’s about all I can tell you; like I say, it was really dark and I wasn’t exactly close.’
‘Anything else you remember about the car? Anything at all?’
‘No, I’m sorry. Nothing.’
A phone started to ring on the boat and Imogen looked past the man into the darkness of the cabin. The ringtone was coming from inside.
‘Hmm,’ Imogen said, holding up her mobile, ‘I just dialled DS Bridget Reid’s phone. That’s interesting. You want to tell me why you have it?’
Adrian immediately pushed past the man before he had a chance to react. He went into the cabin and found the vibrating phone resting on a little table to the left of the door. The man raised his hands up.
‘Look, look, OK, I found it in the park. I had no idea it belonged to the girl in the water. How could I?’
‘We’re going to need you to come in and make a statement.’
For a moment, the man looked as though he might be going to resist, but then he nodded. ‘No problem, anything to help the police.’
The detectives watched closely as he locked the cabin door, and followed Imogen and Adrian willingly off the boat.
Imogen watched the man from the boat through the glass window of the interrogation room. He seemed very calm, but there was something about him that made her skin crawl.
‘His name is Ben Vickers and he’s got previous.’ Miles burst in with a file.
‘What kind of previous?’
‘Well, he’s on the sex offenders’ register, for a start.’
‘You’re kidding?’
‘I wish I was. No, he’s been cautioned three times for stalking and he lost his job after he sexually assaulted one of the women he worked with. It wasn’t a violent assault, but still. He was a security guard up at the shopping centre.’
‘Any connection to Bridget Reid?’
‘None that we can see. No connection to that house either. There’s a note here that says he was arrested for soliciting a prostitute, but he got out of it.’
‘It’s tenuous, Miley, but I guess he might have known Bridget through her flatmate or something.’
‘So why aren’t you in there?’
‘He’s waiting for his lawyer. But we can go in now, if you like.’
They stepped into the room and sat opposite Ben Vickers, who had a disconcerting smirk on his weather-beaten face.
‘I don’t expect my lawyer to be much longer,’ Vickers said. ‘I hate to keep you waiting like this. I just know how these things work, and I’m not talking to you without representation. I been stung before, you see. But I expect you know that by now.’
‘Yes, we are aware of your record. It’s not a problem, we don’t mind waiting.’ Adrian folded his arms and settled in, staring down Vickers. Vickers stared straight back.
Eventually, the door opened and in walked the lawyer, a tall man in a sharp black suit. He sat next to his client and addressed Adrian directly.
‘My name’s Jonathan Clark and I’m here to represent Mr Vickers. Can I get a moment alone with my client?’
‘It’s all right son, I got nothing to hide,’ Vickers exclaimed.
‘Mr Vickers, you are not under arrest. We just need you to tell us exactly where you got that phone that was found in your boat,’ Adrian said.
‘I told you, I got it in the park.’
‘When?’
‘Well, I saw the girl come out of the park, the kids’ play area bit, and I saw her get into the water, so after I tried to follow her I went to the park and the phone was there. I was going to bring it in but I forgot.’
‘So the last time you saw her was in the water?’
‘Not exactly.’
‘But you said you couldn’t follow her in the boat and so you went back.’
‘Yeah, that night, that’s right.’
‘OK, so you saw her after that night?’
‘First light I went down to the river and I saw her lying on the grass. I slept in my boat, woke up with the sun.’
‘And you didn’t call the police then either?’
‘Not my business, is it?’
‘What state was she in?’ Imogen said through gritted teeth. What was wrong with people?
‘I’m pretty sure she was asleep.’
‘So did you approach her?’
‘No, I’m not stupid, probably get done for something or other if I did.’
‘Did you even check if she was alive?’
‘Some bloke in a black car came along and lifted her up, she was out of it but she was definitely alive, moaning and stuff she was.’
‘What bloke? What did he do with her?’
‘Put her in the passenger seat of his car, that’s why I thought he probably knew her, didn’t shove her in the boot or nothing.’
‘Jesus Christ,’ Imogen muttered. What upset her most was that this kind of thing wasn’t unusual, people watched crimes take place all the time but didn’t want to get involved. It made her job so much harder.
‘Was this the saloon you told us about before?’ Adrian leaned forward as he spoke to Vickers.
‘No, it wasn’t a saloon, it was like one of them poncy cars’
‘A sports car?’
‘No, no, like a Jeep thing, you know, a four-by-four. One of them what’s got the big wheel on the door of the boot.’
‘Like a Land Rover or something?’
‘Yeah, that kind of thing.’
The door opened and Fraser stuck his head in, nodding for them both to come out. Imogen looked up at the clock before turning to the tape recorder.
‘Interview suspended at 13:41.’ She switched the tape off and then looked at the lawyer. ‘We’ll be back in a bit.’
‘They found the other videos on the laptop,’ Fraser whispered to Imogen once they were outside the room. ‘I think maybe we need to have another word with your ex-partner.’