Chapter 21
1st October 2015: 19:08 pm.
“Mr. Rogers at last. We’ve been trying to get a hold of you,” Detective Russell said as soon as I checked in at the reception desk. I was going to ask him how he knew who I was, but then I figured seeing as he had been to the house, he’d probably seen my picture at the house where they’d held the press conference.
“Sorry, I was on business and just got in.” I felt pathetic lying and coming up with an excuse as to why it had taken me nearly ten hours to get here after finding out that my daughter was missing.
He shook his head, “Doesn’t matter. You’re here now. Come through.” He motioned for me to follow him. Dad didn’t even want to look at my face as he took a seat in the waiting room. Bentley, on the other hand, followed me in. His tall frame and stern face made me feel comforted that I wasn’t a suspect. I wondered if that was part of the problem. The police thought that I had something to do with it all and this wasn’t a simple talk to discuss trying to find Barbara. This was a formal interview, which could lead to my arrest.
“Right, let’s get started. This is Detective Dwight, he’s my partner.”
A chubby man shook my hand and nodded as we sat in the interview room. I felt as if I was in an episode of The Bill. For years I had watched actors interview their suspects by bringing them into the same white room that I was sitting in, but there was no mirror. Just a camera which subtly hung at the side of the room. The white table had a recorder, which he explained was for their purposes to record our session. Detective Dwight was the chubby smiling detective, whereas Detective Russell was the more serious one. We could have been the same age. Friends, or even squash partners.
“I don’t want you to be nervous. This is just an informal interview. Your lawyer can advise you when to stop answering questions, or do you want a few minutes to confer.”
Bentley abruptly said, “No. My client will answer all your questions.”
I wanted to stop and ask him that if I was his client, who was Emma’s lawyer? I would have thought that Dad would have assigned Bentley to her. After all, she had been arrested, yet I knew the time to speak wasn’t now as they started to ask questions. I felt as if the whole room was just focusing on me and it made my palms sweat, then again I didn’t even take of my coat. I was completely distracted by the whole change of events and confused.
“This is Detective Russell Cooke and Dwight Stowe commencing our first interview with Ted Rogers and his lawyer, Bentley Wise, at 19.45 on the 1st October 2016.”
“We’ll try and fill in the gaps. So, before today. When was the last time that you were at home? Home being…”
I interrupted, “I know where my home is. I was there two days ago. Just before I went to the Bahamas.”
“And Barbara, was she in the house?”
I looked at Bentley again, but I knew exactly what he was going to say or do. And as predictable as he was, he nodded for me to answer.
“Yes, or rather I think so.”
Detective Dwight asked, “You think so?”
“Well...” I moved in my chair as I started to feel awkward about the line of questions, but I knew that it was the only way. I had to answer them so that they could find Barbara. “I had been working so many hours at the office. I was going away. Things at work were bad.”
“Do you mind answering the question?” Detective Russell interrupted. “This is being recorded remember, and we need to stick to questions and answers only.”
I cleared my throat. “I was out of the house by six every morning and back in by ten. I would go straight to the office.”
“And never look for your wife or child?” Detective Dwight asked.
“Well, I saw Emma, we share the same bed, in the same house. I see her every night and get a quick update if she’s awake.”
“I see,” said Detective Russell.
“So, I would ask if Barbara was fine and she would say yes and say that she went to school. I didn’t see anything strange in what she said at the time.”
“So, when was the last time you saw Barbara?”
I did a quick flashback of this week. I left on Wednesday, Tuesday I was in the office and Monday it was the same. The only thing I did was…
“Sunday! I took her to the park on Sunday that was it. Saturday I was in the office too. I felt guilty about it, so I took her out on Sunday and we spent the whole day at the park.”
“Are there any witnesses that can verify that?”
“Emma. She would know. She came for an hour or so. Got cold and went back home. Or rather wherever she goes when we’re not together. Mostly in the study.”
“Why?” Detective Dwight asked again probably trying to fill in all the pieces.
“She’s always working on that bloody blog of hers.”
“I see,” Detective Russell said once again. His line was actually getting on my nerves.
What was he seeing that I could clearly not see?
“We went Hyde Park. Then Pizza Express.”
“That means you’ll have receipts.’
“No, I used my card, so it would be on my statement. I remember being so tired that I fell asleep on her bed when we got back home.”
“So, you don’t sleep with Mrs. Rogers every night in the same house?” Detective Dwight asked, knowing the answer to his question.
“Yes,” I said annoyed at his observation.
“Where were you between eight thirty and nine thirty this morning Mr Rogers?”
“I was in my hotel in the Bahamas.”
Detective Dwight nodded. “Nice.”
I offered, “I have the receipts to prove that I was on the flight and that I was at the hotel.”
He ignored my statement and moved along to this morning. “Your wife, Emma Rogers, reported that your daughter was missing this morning. She said that she took the underground because her car wasn’t working,” Detective Dwight waited for a reaction.
“I know, she told me on the phone. So?”
“Well, it’s just that there was nothing wrong with her car. We even called the garage, which she claimed called her to tell her that her car was recalled.”
He waited for a reaction, so I chimed in, “So?”
“They claimed that they never called her and that her car should be in perfect working order and it is.”
“That doesn’t make sense?” I started to scratch my head, thinking why would Emma lie about a thing like that? This was so not like her.
“Did you detox my wife?”
“Sorry?”
“She used to have a drug problem, so I was wondering if you ran some tests?”
“So you’re saying that you think that your wife was delusional?”
I nodded thinking, that this must be the only probable explanation for everything.
“Answer the question please, Mr. Rogers. We need it for our records.”
“Yes, maybe.”
“Had she ever been like that before when she was high? What type of drugs are we talking about?”
“Heroin.”
“I see,” Detective Russell said. “How long has she been taking the drugs?”
“Well, she stopped taking nearly three years ago. Before then I am not sure how long she was a user. “
“So, she’s been clean for three years?”
I nodded, and then before he corrected me for talking by action and not talking, I said, “Yes. No. It was four years ago.”
I couldn’t even remember exactly how long Emma had been clean. No, it was four years, not three.
“Why would you think that she would take drugs now if she’s been clean for four years?” Detective Russell asked waiting for an answer. Bentley just nodded for me to answer the question, the one that I didn’t want to reveal.
I threw my head back, “Because I want a divorce.”
“Have you filed for a divorce, Mr. Rogers?”
“No, but she knows that it’s on the cards.”
I was waiting for Detective Russell to ask some more intimate questions, but instead I was rescued by Detective Dwight who asked a completely random question.
“So, when you were in the Bahamas, were you there alone?”
I looked at Bentley who directed me to ask the question, “No.”
“So, who were you with?” Detective Dwight asked, and I avoided looking at everyone in the room as I replied, “Li Xiu Ying.”
“Okay, so now we’ll take a short break and I’m going to stop the recording,” Detective Russell said as he pressed the button of the recorder. It felt weird being reordered, something that had never happened to me before in my life. Even stranger at the thought of being arrested, when my little girl was out there lost. I just knew that Will was looking for her, so I tried to stay focus as my eyes darted towards Bentley who still had the same calm composure that he had when we first stepped into the room.
“What is going on?”
“Off the record, things are not adding up. First you said that you were with…” Detective Dwight looked through his notes. “Li Xiu Ying. And then your wife turns up at the station this morning with her daughter. We need to check something.”
I spat out, “What?”
Bentley said, “Do you need my client to be here any longer?”
I tried to catch my breath. Everything in the room felt as if it was spinning out of control. Emma took her and did what with Barbara? Had I pushed her so far that she had not gone from being a drug addict to completely losing her mind?
Emma wouldn’t hurt a fly. She loved children, that was one reason why our marriage had broken down, she wanted another child. I just had two girls, I just didn’t want any more.
“We are going to end the interview there. This is Detective Russell at 19.55 on the 1st October 2016,” he said as if he was acting for a film, and not heading up an investigation into my missing daughter.
“We need to go. We have everything we need. Sorry to spoil your trip, and thanks for making the effort to come in.”
Spoil my trip?
Then, like a flash of lightening, they got up and instructed us to leave. They were on to something, which was more than I was right now. The only thing I had found out was that Emma had taken Elizabeth and done something to Barbara. The question was what?