Little Boy Lost Page 4

  Bruno Perez looked very different back then. He was slim, handsome and smartly dressed in a grey suit with a yellow flower in one lapel. Nothing like the brutal monster who Chloe saw for the first time eleven years later when he turned up at her father’s bar in Spain.

  He was the man they were running from when they fled to England, the man who went on to murder her dad and then force Sophie to take her own life. The man her mother and everyone else described as a violent psychopath.

  Chloe’s eyes settled on another photo and this one caused the breath to freeze in her throat. It was of a tall, ugly building and below it were the words:

  It was from the roof of this warehouse in Deptford, South London, that Sophie Cameron and her estranged husband, Bruno Perez, fell to their deaths as Detective Anna Tate and her daughter Chloe looked on.

  Four weeks had passed since that night, but to Chloe it still seemed like only yesterday. Every time she closed her eyes, she recalled every horrific second of what happened on that roof as well as the events that led up to it.

  It began that morning when she and Sophie were getting ready to go on holiday to Spain, the first time they’d been back there since leaving three years ago.

  Chloe didn’t know at the time that Sophie planned for them to stay and never to return, fearing that Bruno had found out where they lived in Shoreditch and was planning to do them harm.

  After Chloe had packed her suitcase, she pleaded with Sophie to let her go and see one of her friends who lived close by, just a brief visit before they were due to leave for the airport. Against her better judgement, Sophie allowed her to go. But it proved to be a costly mistake because Perez was waiting outside in a van.

  He snatched Chloe off the street and then phoned Sophie to tell her what he’d done. Chloe was in the room when he made the call and she could still hear his violent words, as though it had happened only hours ago:

  ‘You should know that before I arrived at your place today my intention was to abduct you and then make you wish you had never been born. But catching hold of Alice allows me to take your punishment to a whole new level and to make sure your suffering is not short-lived … Alice will be my guest for a couple of days and I’m going to have some fun with her. I even plan to share her with a couple of the guys who work for me … I’ll send you photos and maybe even a video.’

  Perez then threatened to kill Chloe if Sophie went to the police. Sophie knew she couldn’t take the risk so she did the next best thing – which was to enlist the help of the woman she had only just discovered was Chloe’s real mother – Detective Anna Tate.

  Before describing what happened next, the article took readers back ten years to when it all began, and Chloe read it with tears streaming down her cheeks …

  Anna had only recently divorced her husband Matthew following an affair he had. They shared custody of two-year-old Chloe, although the girl resided with her mother.

  Matthew started begging Anna to take him back and when she refused he abducted their daughter after sending Anna a note that read:

  You won’t let us be a family again because I made a stupid mistake. So I’m starting my life afresh with my lovely daughter … Don’t bother trying to find us because you never will.

  Matthew acquired fake passports in the names of James and Alice Miller and moved to Spain where within weeks he met an English ex-pat named Sophie Cameron, who was working in a restaurant. He told her he was a widower and that his wife, Alice’s mother, had died of cancer.

  But Sophie also lied to him by saying that she was single when in fact she was married to a man who was in prison for a vicious assault on another man. His name was Bruno Perez.

  Sophie and the man she knew as James fell in love and spent the next seven years together, during which they did not find out the truth about each other.

  Sophie acted as Alice’s adoptive mother even though she and James never married. The three of them were a happy family in all but name.

  Then three years ago Bruno Perez was released from prison and the life they’d created for themselves came to an abrupt end.

  Perez, who was part of a crime family operating in Spain and the UK, set out to punish Sophie because she had refused to provide him with an alibi that would have kept him out of prison. Instead, she saw his conviction as a way to escape an abusive relationship at the hands of a violent control freak.

  With the help of his family and various contacts inside the Spanish police, Perez tracked Sophie down to Puerto de Mazarron on Spain’s Costa Calida, where she, James and Alice were living. He turned up there and made threats against Sophie, forcing her to confess to James that she hadn’t been honest about her past.

  James forgave her and they decided it would be too dangerous to stay in Spain, so they fled to England and rented a house in Southampton.

  However, Perez traced them again after only a few weeks. James was returning home from the town centre when he spotted Perez following him. He decided to confront the man, but first he phoned Sophie and told her to flee the house with Alice and wait for him to call her.

  But he never did call because he was stabbed to death in a park. Sophie chose not to tell the police that Perez was the killer because she knew they would never be able to prove it. She also didn’t want to take the chance of losing Alice after the authorities discovered that Sophie wasn’t her real mother.

  So she moved with Alice to London, rented a flat in Shoreditch, and worked as a cleaner for three years.

  Meanwhile, Anna knew nothing about any of this until just over a month ago when she found out purely by chance that her ex-husband was dead and that their daughter was last seen three years earlier leaving a house in Southampton with a mystery woman …

  Chloe paused to wipe the tears from her face with a tissue. Her heart started beating rapidly as though it was about to explode in her chest. She blew her nose into a fresh tissue and turned to the fourth and final page of the article.

  The top half contained two photographs – one was of her as a two-year-old and the other was the age progression image that was supposed to show what she looked like now. Even Chloe had to admit that the forensic artist had done a good job. The resemblance was striking.

  Underneath the photos the story continued:

  It was a twist of fate that ended Detective Anna Tate’s ten-year-long search for her daughter.

  She was heading up the investigation into the abduction of nine children from a nursery school in South London and the murder of one of their teachers.

  Anna appeared on television news bulletins and among those who saw her was a man named Paul Russell, who was dying of cancer in a hospice.

  He got in touch with her just days before he passed away and told her that he used to be a master forger and he had produced the fake passports for Anna’s ex-husband that enabled him to take their daughter to Spain. He also revealed that the pair had moved back to the UK three years ago. He knew because he had been approached to provide them with more fake documents.

  Anna hired a private detective who picked up the thread and the mystery started to unravel. Police in Southampton confirmed that a man named James Miller had been murdered in a city centre park three years ago and that he’d been living with a child and a woman who disappeared after he was killed.

  Anna then told this story to the Evening Standard newspaper, which ran it over two nights.

  Sophie Cameron happened to read it, and that was when she discovered that the man she had known as James Miller had been living a lie and that his ex-wife was still alive.

  A heartbroken Sophie realised that the net was closing in and made arrangements to flee the country with Chloe. But Bruno Perez suddenly appeared on the scene again and kidnapped the girl. He took her to one of the warehouses owned by his family, and Anna’s police colleagues traced him there.

  Before they could arrest him he took Chloe to the roof and held her hostage while demanding that Sophie come to him.

  In an interview wi
th this magazine, Anna described what happened – how Perez held on to Chloe and threatened to jump off with her unless Sophie took her place.

  Chloe’s adoptive mother agreed to do so without a moment’s hesitation. She then told Chloe that Perez was the man who had murdered her father and that Detective Anna Tate was her birth mother.

  Sophie Cameron then took matters into her own hands. Rather than wait for Perez to pull her over the edge, she pushed him backwards and they both plunged to their deaths.

  Chloe broke down then and sobs racked her body as that awful scene was replayed in her head. Tears flowed and she felt the muscles knotting painfully in her stomach.

  It was a full minute before she got a grip and managed to stop crying. She inhaled a deep breath and decided to go and clean herself up before Tom arrived.

  But as she rose from the sofa a noise outside seized her attention.

  She stepped over to the front window and pulled back the curtain. To her horror she saw a group of young men with their faces covered marching along the middle of the road. Some were punching the air with their fists while others were holding up placards. On one of them, Chloe saw the words: Kill all cops.

  CHAPTER NINE

  The boy was lying on his back on the inflatable mattress with his head resting on a single pillow. His eyes were closed, his mouth open, and his lips were red and badly cracked.

  He was chained to the brick wall, his wrists shackled by a pair of leather manacles with mini padlocks attached.

  There was no way he could have done anything to escape the fire since the chain was only about five feet long.

  Gayle Western, the forensic pathologist, stood up and turned to Anna. She spoke through her forensic face mask, her voice tense and clipped.

  ‘This is beyond barbaric,’ she said. ‘The poor lad didn’t stand a chance.’

  ‘How long has he been dead?’ Anna asked.

  ‘Only a matter of hours. And it seems obvious to me that death was due to smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning. Tell-tale signs include the colour of his skin and the state of his lips. During the post-mortem I expect to find damage to his upper airways and respiratory tract.’

  The boy was wearing a blue shirt drenched in water, and grey trousers. Next to him on the floor was an uncovered quilt and a pair of black scuffed shoes, along with several empty plastic water bottles and food wrappings.

  Walker drew Anna’s attention to a small polyester holdall between the mattress and the wall.

  ‘It’s filled with sweets, sandwiches and various drinks,’ he said. ‘It suggests to me that whoever abducted him had planned to keep him here for a while.’

  Walker then pointed to something else that Anna hadn’t yet noticed. It was a portable camping toilet with a steel frame and a plastic seat over a disposable bag.

  ‘Seems like his captor – or captors – thought of everything,’ he said. ‘The bag’s half-filled with urine.’

  ‘So if the boy has been here since Monday it must have been emptied on a fairly regular basis,’ Anna said. ‘It means that the perp or perps might have been caught on nearby CCTV cameras.’

  Walker nodded. ‘We’ve thought of that and I’ve already asked for a trawl to be carried out. But we shouldn’t expect results soon. Most local uniforms are dealing with trouble elsewhere.’

  ‘Of course they are,’ Anna said.

  ‘In any case, there aren’t many cameras in the immediate area and some have been vandalised by the rioters.’

  Surveillance cameras had proved enormously effective during the 2011 riots and were instrumental in bringing many offenders to justice. It stood to reason that they’d become prime targets during subsequent periods of civil unrest.

  Anna knew that it was just one of a number of problems that would in all likelihood hinder her investigation. The sheer scale of what was happening on the streets would swamp the Met’s resource structure, slow down communication lines, and make it difficult for officers to move freely, and safely, across the capital.

  ‘The boy’s blazer was hanging from a nail over there,’ Walker said, with a flick of his head towards the opposite wall. ‘It’s already been bagged up. There were no personal belongings in the pockets, but his parents have said that he was carrying a mobile phone and a wallet when he went missing. There’s no sign of them or his school rucksack.’

  ‘Do we know what kind of wallet it is?’

  ‘Just one of those folded Velcro types that kids like, and it had his name on it. He supposedly carried his front door key around in it along with loose change and some sweets.’

  Anna stepped closer to the body and crouched down beside it. As she did so she felt tears push hard against her eyes. She had attended a great many ghastly crime scenes since joining the force, but this was one of the most unusual. An icy chill slid down her back as she took in the marks on his wrists where he’d try to free himself from the cuffs. The sight of his emaciated, tear-stained face caused the heat to rise in her chest.

  A wave of fury rattled through her at the thought of how much the lad would have suffered. And not just when the smoke drifted down into the cellar and started robbing him of oxygen.

  There seemed little doubt that he had been here since Monday when he disappeared, chained up for four days and nights and terrified beyond belief. The questions surged through Anna’s mind.

  Had he spent the nights in total darkness?

  Had he been physically or sexually assaulted?

  Was this the work of one evil monster or several?

  What was the motive?

  Was he a victim of human trafficking or had the intention been to seek a ransom from his parents?

  Anna stood up and said to Gayle, ‘Can you tell if he’s sustained any injuries to his body?’

  Gayle shook her head. ‘His face and hands are unharmed as you can see. I’ve checked beneath his shirt and there are no cuts or bruises on his torso, but I haven’t removed his trousers. I won’t know for sure what he went through until he’s in the lab.’

  Anna dragged her eyes back to the boy and tried to bring to mind the photo of Jacob Rossi that she’d seen on the news. But when that failed, she took out her phone and googled his name. In the picture his family had shared with the media Jacob was in his school uniform and grinning at the camera. He had short, dark hair and a thin face with high cheekbones. It struck Anna that he was the image of his famous father.

  ‘Before we break the news to his parents, I want to talk to whoever has been leading the investigation into his disappearance,’ she said.

  ‘It’s a DI Joe Benning who’s based over in Bromley,’ Walker told her. ‘Control have already been in touch with him and he’s on his way here now.’

  ‘Good. In the meantime, we mustn’t allow the press to get wind of the fact that it’s a small boy who died here.’

  ‘One of the calls DC Sweeny is now making is to the media liaison department,’ Walker said. ‘She’s briefing them on what we’ve found and asking them to ensure the fire brigade keep schtum.’

  Anna asked Gayle how quickly she’d be able to perform the post-mortem.

  Gayle shrugged. ‘I really can’t say for certain. Everything is up in the air because of the riots. I have no idea how many bodies we’ll have on our hands by tomorrow morning. But I promise I will try and prioritise this one.’

  Anna knew that she could depend on Gayle to do her best. The pair had worked cases together for some years, and had become firm friends as well as colleagues. They knew they could count on each other to pull out all the stops when it mattered.

  Anna cast her eyes around the cellar and asked Walker how much more work the forensics team needed to carry out.

  ‘Unfortunately most trace evidence will have been destroyed by the water,’ he said. ‘Everything down here is soaking wet, and they’re concerned that the ceiling is unstable. So the aim is to haul stuff out as quickly as possible after the body has been removed.’

  Anna nodded. ‘T
hen we’d better leave them to it. We need to crack on and inform the parents. After that we have to try to pull together a team and I fear that’s not going to be easy.’

  Anna started towards the stairs just as another suited-up figure came hurrying down them. She saw at once that it was a man because he wasn’t wearing a mask or hood.

  He was somewhere in his forties with closely cropped brown hair and a pale, gaunt face that was tight with tension.

  ‘DI Benning,’ he announced to no one in particular as he held up his ID card. ‘I got here as quickly as I could.’

  Anna pulled down her mask and introduced herself, but instead of making eye contact with her, Benning stared beyond her at the boy’s body.

  ‘Please tell me that’s not Jacob Rossi,’ he said.

  ‘I’m afraid there’s almost no doubt it’s him,’ Anna said. ‘It’s our guess he’s been here since he went missing on Monday.’

  Benning got near enough to see for himself that it wasn’t a mistake and his body went rigid.

  ‘Oh my God this wasn’t supposed to happen,’ he said. ‘I promised his parents that I would bring him home to them.’

  Anna’s heart went out to the detective, who was clearly devastated. He had obviously put everything into finding the boy and in doing so had no doubt got close enough to the family to feel their pain.

  ‘His name tag is on his blazer, which has already been bagged up,’ Anna said. ‘But so far there’s no sign of his phone or wallet.’

  Benning shook his head. ‘My gut was telling me all along that I’d find him alive.’

  ‘And he still would be if a petrol bomb hadn’t been hurled into the building.’

  Benning turned away from the body and looked at Anna. Tears had welled up in his eyes and he spoke through gritted teeth.

  ‘What the fuck am I going to say to his parents? I made them believe that there was hope.’

  ‘You won’t have to say anything to them,’ Anna said. ‘That will be my job. This is now an MIT investigation.’