‘Mrs Whitlock?’ Pete pushed.
‘No. Good Lord, she’s only thirteen.’ She looked about to crumble again, but held herself together somehow.
‘Of course. But, kids these days – you never know, do you? We also need to know about anywhere she goes regularly. Like for the tennis and swimming. Anywhere she goes with friends. Or with you or other family members.’
Alistair shook his head like a man confused by what was happening around him. ‘She goes into town with her friends, like all teenage girls, and she has school and her sports. That’s it, apart from the occasional party or sleepover and the usual family stuff.’
Pete nodded. ‘If you could make us a list of her friends, with their contact details, and where she goes to swim and play tennis, then, sir.’
‘Right.’ He got up and stepped out of the room.
‘Does she have a favourite place, Mrs Whitlock? Somewhere she might feel safe?’
‘What? Why?’ She looked confused.
Pete shrugged. ‘We have to allow for every possibility.’
Alistair came back into the room, a small beige book and a notepad and pen in his hands. ‘What’s this?’
‘I was asking if there’s anywhere Rosie might consider special. A safe haven. Favourite place. Anything like that.’
Alistair shook his head. ‘We’ve never . . . Why would she need a place like that?’
‘You’d be amazed at what goes on in kids’ heads,’ Jane said. ‘She doesn’t have any history of depression or anything like that, does she? Mood swings beyond what you’d expect from a teenage girl?’
‘No. Certainly not.’ Mrs Whitlock’s eyes grew wide with outrage.
Alistair sat down and took her hand again. ‘She’s just a normal teenager.’
‘What about school?’ Pete asked, thinking of his son, Tommy. ‘Is everything OK there? No undue pressure? Exams coming up?’
Jessica shook her head.
‘Has she been bullied at all? At school or perhaps online?’ Jane asked. ‘All this twittering and Facebook, chat rooms and so on.’
‘She’s not into that kind of thing,’ Alistair said. ‘She uses her mobile a fair amount, texting and chatting with her friends, but that’s all as far as I know. And she’s not bullied. She’s very popular, by all accounts.’
‘We’ll need her computer, tablet, whatever, just to make sure,’ Pete said. He’d still never seen Tommy’s again after all this time, he remembered suddenly. He’d have to ask Simon about that. ‘I expect she had her mobile with her?’
‘Yes,’ Jessica said softly. ‘But it’s switched off. Goes straight to voicemail. That was the first thing we tried when I came home.’
‘OK. We’ll need the number then, and the service provider. I take it it’s all right for us to check the call log?’
‘Of course.’
‘And you, sir. You were already home?’
‘Yes. I worked from home today. I’m a lawyer. Look, is anyone actually out there searching for Rosie, Sergeant?’
Pete paused, writing in his notebook, then looked up again. ‘As soon as we have somewhere to search, we’ll be going over it with a fine-tooth comb, sir. But we need all the information we can get in order to get to that stage. What other relatives are there?’
They glanced at each other and he spoke again. ‘We both still have our parents. I have a brother, Jason . . .’
Pete noticed a faint grimace cross the woman’s face.
‘. . . Jess has a sister, Penny. Penny Child. She’s divorced, but she’s kept her husband’s name.’
‘So, she’s single now?’
‘No,’ said Jessica. ‘She’s got a boyfriend. Michael Gibbons. They’ve been together – what?’ She glanced at her husband. ‘Two years or so? But what’s this got to do with anything? None of the family would have—’
‘And that’s it?’ Pete broke in.
‘Family-wise, yes.’
‘Right. We’ll need a list of contacts – family, friends and colleagues, even if they don’t know Rosie.’
Alistair frowned. ‘Why?’
‘For elimination and for cross-reference. People forget things, don’t notice them, do notice them. You’d be surprised. Tell you what, you’ve got your little book there. While you do that for us, would it be OK if you made us all a drink, Mrs Whitlock? Jane can give you a hand.’
‘OK,’ she said, looking a little surprised by the request. ‘I’m sorry. I should have offered before. It’s just . . .’
‘We understand.’ He nodded to Jane to go with her, then waited until Jessica had led the way out of the room. ‘Jane.’ He got up and went to the door, stuck his head through and said quietly, ‘Ask her about her brother-in-law. And if the girl’s all right around her father as well as anyone else you can think of. Grandfathers, friends.’
‘Right, boss.’
‘What was that about?’ Alistair asked as Pete returned to his seat.
‘Oh, just something I remembered at the last minute. How are you doing?’ He glanced down at the notebook on the coffee table in front of the other man.
‘Coming along.’
‘So, you’re a lawyer. What kind of law do you practice?’
‘Corporate, Sergeant. Company takeovers, property purchases and sales, staff disputes, that sort of thing.’
‘Big money involved at times then.’
‘Yes. But it’s the client’s, not ours.’
‘Nevertheless.’ He glanced around the room. ‘You’re obviously not on the breadline.’
‘And, Sergeant?’
‘Well, one of the things we have to consider in these circumstances is the possibility of kidnapping. For ransom.’
‘What?’ He stopped writing as he stared at Pete in shock. ‘I’m just a West Country lawyer, not some big City banker. Why on earth would that kind of thing affect me?’
Pete shrugged. ‘You never know, sir.’ In his own case, Simon had looked not just at ransom, but at the influence someone might want Pete to bring to any of the cases that were being worked at the time. ‘You haven’t received a demand of any kind?’
‘Certainly not.’
‘If you do, you will tell us?’
‘Of course.’
‘Only, very often, these things include a proviso that you mustn’t contact the police. It’s never a good idea to go along with it. It’s aimed at isolating you, making you more vulnerable, that’s all.’
‘As I said, Sergeant, we’ve heard nothing from anyone. And, if we do, we’ll be sure to inform you.’
Pete nodded.
Alistair leaned back in his seat. ‘Anyway, why are you – a sergeant – handling this? I thought an inspector would have come out.’
‘That’s the TV and the movies, sir. In the real world, especially these days, with all the cutbacks, there’s usually only one DI in a station, if that. And he or she’s in a more supervisory, management-type role than an active investigative one. They allocate cases, oversee progress and chip in