Behind Dead Eyes (DC Ian Bradshaw #2) - Howard Linskey Page 0,139

cooperating.

‘You want to help us find Diane, don’t you? I thought she was your friend.’

‘She is my friend,’ answered Callie firmly.

‘Then help us to find her,’ said Helen, ‘please.’

‘Fuck off,’ snarled Callie and she began to walk purposefully away from Helen.

‘Callie, please don’t do this.’ Helen had no idea how to stop the girl from going to the cab rank but she was determined to try, so she went after her. ‘We both want the same thing. We both want to find your friend.’

‘That why you ain’t been back since?’

‘I’m sorry,’ Helen told her, ‘we’ve been looking for her.’ She didn’t want to reveal the reason they had not been back sooner. Annie’s death was too recent, too raw.

Helen drew alongside Callie then and the younger girl stopped. She turned towards the reporter and shouted, ‘Fuck … off!’ then started walking again. She’d barely gone three yards before the car moved off and pulled in next to her.

Tom leaned out of the window and in a loud and aggressive tone called, ‘Callie!’ She spun round to face him. ‘Get in the car!’ And when she hesitated for a second, ‘Do you want to earn this money, or what?’

Without another word Callie went to the car, opened the back door and climbed in. Helen followed and Tom drove them away.

‘What do you want from me?’ Callie asked them. ‘I told her before I don’t do …’

‘Shut up, Callie,’ Tom ordered her, ‘just shut up,’ and she fell silent. He was angry and tired and was gambling that poor Callie was used to being told what to do by men. He felt bad about that and knew Helen, the voice of his conscience, would probably give him a hard time afterwards, but she had tried to reason with Callie and it simply hadn’t worked. ‘We told you, we just want you to look at some photos then pick out the man you told us about,’

‘Oh,’ she said, looking nervous now, ‘him.’

‘No one will ever know it was you. We won’t need you to do anything except point at a picture and say, “That’s him.” It’ll be the easiest money you ever earned.’

They took Callie into the front room of Tom’s house and sat her down. Helen took the file from her bag and drew out the photographs she had brought with her. She now understood why Tom had wanted to bring the girl back here to his home, away from the taxi rank and Meadowlands; places filled with threatening figures who would view what she was about to do as treachery. Now that Callie was in his home, she felt safer. Helen could sense it.

She knew there was a strong chance that Callie would identify Jimmy McCree, Joe Lynch or even Alan Camfield. If she really opened up about the abuse going on at Meadowlands they had agreed to phone Ian Bradshaw, who could immediately take Callie into protective custody.

Helen spoke to Callie before letting her see the photographs: ‘I want you to take a look at these men, Callie. I want you to tell me if any of them have ever …’ she hesitated for a moment while she chose the right words ‘… been with you or hurt you in any way? I want you to tell me if the man who hurt your friend Diane is here. Will you do that for me?’

‘Okay,’ said Callie, who did at least appear to be taking this seriously.

Helen realised she was holding her breath as she removed the first photograph from the file and placed it face up on Callie’s lap. The first image was Alan Camfield.

Callie leaned forward, took her time examining the photograph then said, ‘No,’ and she shook her head, ‘not him.’

Both Helen and Tom were watching her, searching for any sign she might be lying or was simply too scared to implicate anyone, but neither of them detected any hint of evasion from Callie.

Helen placed the second photograph face up on Callie’s knee. This time it was a stranger Helen had fished from the newspaper’s photographic archive, a head-and-shoulders shot of someone who had been awarded the MBE for services to charity. Callie shook her head, so Helen withdrew the photograph and produced another.

The hard face of Jimmy McCree stared up at young Callie but the girl didn’t flinch. She just shook her head. ‘No, I never seen him.’

Helen and Tom exchanged glances before Helen showed Callie a fourth photograph. It showed the smiling face of a local