Page 91 of Stolen Ones

‘Inspector, what is the meaning of this interruption? Your demands will not—’

‘Mr Butler, I suggest we take this somewhere private.’

‘I don’t need privacy to tell you that I am not available to speak right now. Please make an—’

‘This is your last warning to make this private, Mr Butler; otherwise we will have this conversation now and we will have it here.’

He hesitated before huffing and motioning for them to follow him.

They passed the glass meeting room they’d used the day before and entered a much smaller room with a round wooden table and four chairs.

‘Inspector, please give me the name of your superior officer, as I fully intend to make a formal complaint against you.’

‘His name is DCI Woodward and he’s used to it. As you’re in a rush, I’ll get right to it. Is there any reason you chose not to tell us you’re a convicted sex offender?’

He opened his mouth to argue and then fell into a chair.

She waited for an answer to her question.

‘I don’t tell everyone I meet.’

‘Not even the police officers who are investigating the abduction of young girls?’

He shook his head. ‘It has nothing to do with me.’

‘Your company carried out the construction work where our victim was buried. Do you want to tell us more about it or do you want to give your lawyer a call? Either way we’re going to have the conversation.’

‘It was a mistake,’ he said, rubbing furiously at his forehead. Kim was sure Alison would tell her that he was trying to rub the memory away.

She offered her own non-verbal communication. She folded her arms and said nothing.

‘I was celebrating the end of term. I was drunk, and she looked much older.’

‘Which defence would you like to use, Mr Butler?’

‘A bit of both, but I swear I didn’t know her true age. She told me she was seventeen.’

‘And she was?’

‘It happened a week before her fourteenth birthday.’

‘So she was thirteen?’ Kim asked to be clear.

Bryant put his hands in his pockets as Butler winced at her words.

‘She looked much older; she was wearing make-up, mature clothes. She looked old enough.’

‘For sex?’

He nodded. ‘I swear I didn’t know. It was totally consensual. I was roaring drunk. I can’t even remember.’

‘Mr Butler, which defence would you like to stick to: that it was consensual, you were roaring drunk or you can’t remember? Both the second and third would prevent an accurate recollection of the first.’

When his brain caught up with her words, the colour flooded his face.

‘The accusation came from her parents, not the girl.’

‘I would imagine that it was the girl that told her parents. So it’s the same thing really. Ultimately, she was thirteen years old. Were you charged with statutory rape?’