Make Believe Read Online Free

for example.  There’s no sign of sexual abuse.  The child was wrapped in a sheet, generic poly-cotton, chain stores carry them, catalogues.  Clothes as per description: popular high street range.’ Janine pointed to the photograph from the poster-appeal and to the recent images of the tattered T-shirt taken from the child’s body.  ‘But footwear, socks and trousers are still missing.  Estimated time of death is at least a week ago but that is only an estimate.  We do not at present know where the primary crime scene, and by that I mean the site of death, is.  The property at Kendal Avenue is being examined.  The pathologist reported two hairs found on the body, short, straight, brown so not belonging to the boy,’ Janine said.  ‘ OK, ideas: family?’
    ‘ The Wrays kill him then they report him missing as a cover up,’ Shap said.  ‘Kendal Avenue, that’s only a few streets away from the Wrays’ house.’  Everyone knew the statistics, inside out and upside down.  Eighty-eight percent of victims knew their killers.  For kids it was even higher.
    ‘ But Claire was seen at the park with Sammy,’ Janine said. 
    ‘ Clive’s got a dodgy alibi though: no-one to verify where he was,’ Richard said.
    ‘ Claire didn’t see anyone making off with the child,’ Janine said.
    ‘ She was distracted and whoever did it moved quickly and had the advantage of the slide obscuring them from view,’ Richard pointed out.
    ‘Unless she’s covering for him,’ said Shap.
    P eople did sometimes, Janine knew only too well, they were persuaded into deceit because they were too fearful to tell the truth, or because they were complicit in the behaviour that led to a death, or because they believed the murderer, who said it was an accident, or a mistake, or a moment’s folly.  But a child, an only child, she found it hard to credit that Claire Wray would do such a thing.  The woman was heartbroken, it didn’t seem plausible that she’d be able to maintain any fiction about events.
    And Clive?  Clive felt harder to read.  Janine sensed something off-key, small but resonant when they talked to him, as though there was some other business claiming part of his attention.
    ‘ Then why draw attention like that?’ Janine said.  ‘Why not hide the whole thing instead of crying abduction?  If she was colluding, she wouldn’t have raised the alarm.’
    ‘ Perhaps Claire only discovered later that Clive was involved.  Yet chose to stand by him,’ said Butchers.
    Janine shook her head.  It didn’t mesh with what she’d seen of Claire so far.
    ‘So Clive does it on his own.  Grab the kid, turn and walk away.  Pretends it’s a game: let’s hide from mummy,’ Shap said. 
    ‘Suppose he was involved – why bury Sammy so close to home?’  Janine indicated the locations on the map.
    ‘ Opportunistic?’ said Lisa.
    ‘ Perhaps,’ Janine said.  ‘Can we examine that lack of an alibi?  Shap, get onto the wardens, park rangers whatever.  See if they can help.  CCTV between here and Hayfield, speed cameras. Anything that’ll flag up Clive Wray.’
    Shap gave a groan and Janine saw Butchers gloat at the mention of CCTV, it was a tedious task at the best of times.
    Janine saw Louise Hogg nod approval and gave herself a mental pat on the back.  She didn’t usually have the boss in on her briefings and it always unsettled her, though of course, Hogg was a far better prospect than her former boss Keith Hackett who had taken great delight at undermining her at every turn.
    Janine gestured to the whiteboards.  ‘Moving on – the crime scene.  The Kendal Avenue property is being refurbished.  We’ll be talking to the contractors.  Butchers, you lead door-to-door with the neighbours.  Why this place?  We know the child was already dead when he was put in the drain.  Was it simply handy?  People panic when they kill.  Most murders aren’t meticulously planned and executed, people have to