Copycat

by C. S. Barnes

  ‘What happened between you and Jenni Grantham last week?’ Melanie jumped straight into the questioning without missing a beat and Knight was visibly startled. ‘We’ve got footage that shows you were with her, but we can’t seem to find evidence of you two actually knowing each other.’ Melanie fanned out her papers as she spoke, as though looking for something.

  ‘We didn’t know each other,’ Knight replied. His voice was flat, cracking around the edges as though he’d spent a long time shouting.

  When Melanie looked up, she saw how deflated the man was. He was wearing a custody jumper in a washed-out grey – issued after he’d vomited on himself in the early hours, so Melanie had heard through the grapevine – but the tired look of the jumper matched his overall expression. It might have been sleep deprivation – although Melanie doubted it from the view she’d had of him the previous night – but it could also have been a hangover, tiredness, even a growing concern for his freedom that was weighing the man down. ‘We met that evening while I was outside having a smoke.’

  ‘Was she in the pub?’ Melanie asked.

  Knight shook his head. ‘No, she hadn’t been in there, not that I’d seen anyway. But she was walking past and that’s when I spotted her.’ He paused, swallowed hard. ‘That’s when I grabbed her.’ There was a twist in Melanie’s stomach at the thought of where this interview might go, but she knew it couldn’t be this easy to catch a killer – and Knight’s solicitor looked far too relaxed to be representing one. ‘I just wanted to talk to her, genuinely. She was a pretty girl, and I was a drunk idiot.’

  At least he’s honest, Melanie thought. ‘You’re aware of Jenni’s age?’

  Knight sighed. ‘Now I am, yeah.’

  Edd gave his boss a gentle nudge beneath the table. ‘She was a pretty girl though, right?’ he asked Knight, and the man being questioned shot Edd a suspicious glance. ‘We get it.’ Edd gave a deliberate look to Melanie and laughed. ‘At least, I get it,’ he corrected himself.

  ‘If I’d known–’

  ‘But you didn’t know, and that’s not on you. Plus, it doesn’t sound like anything happened, not really, right?’ Edd pushed, his tone chatty, light-hearted.

  ‘Right.’ Knight agreed cautiously, but there was a notable relief in his voice. ‘Literally nothing. I was talking to her, and she freaked out and tried to walk away and because,’ he stalled, as if weighing up what he could say next, how he could possibly phrase it. ‘Jesus, because I was drunk, and an idiot, I didn’t want her to walk away.’

  ‘So, you pulled at her clothing?’ Melanie asked, her tone curt, judgemental.

  ‘It wasn’t like that, at all. I reached for her, I reached for her arm and she moved as I pulled, and her hoodie just came away. That’s literally all that happened.’ Knight’s tone had changed again, shifting back into something more panicked.

  ‘What happened to her hoodie, Mr Knight?’ the DI replied.

  ‘Her hoodie? Christ, she took it. Look, I followed her.’ He paused to let out a hard sigh, as if knowing how bad this admission was beginning to sound. ‘I took like, three steps forward to give her the hoodie back, she snatched at it, and went. That was all.’

  Melanie made a note of Knight’s explanation on a blank sheet in front of her before nodding to Edd, giving him the all-clear to continue questioning.

  ‘You had a little chat with her too though, yes?’ Edd asked. Melanie flicked through the handful of still shots that had been stripped from the CCTV footage and settled on one that showed Jenni in front of Knight. ‘See this one, here,’ Edd said, taking the image. ‘It looks as though she’s shouting something at you, man, like she’s really going for it.’ Edd moved the image forward so Knight could take a look, and the suspect shot a shielded glance at his solicitor. ‘Anything you can tell us about what got said?’ Edd pushed.

  ‘No, there isn’t,’ Knight’s solicitor answered. ‘Not until we’ve had time to discuss this between ourselves.’ Melanie opened her mouth to object, but the opportunity was robbed from her as the solicitor spoke again. ‘My understanding is that you’ve cautioned my client, but you haven’t charged him. If he wants to talk to me in private, he’s entitled to do so.’

  Melanie collected together the scraps of paper from across the table. ‘You’re right, you’re entitled to talk in private.’ She stood, heaving the paperwork up with her. ‘Just like we’re entitled to hold him for a while longer, and just like we’re entitled to interview him again later. Will an hour be long enough for you both?’

  The pair exchanged a look. Knight nodded, and his solicitor conceded that an hour would be enough time for them to talk through their next steps. Melanie and Edd excused themselves from the interview room, shutting the door firmly and knocking off the audio feed connected to the room. It killed Melanie to lose her ear on the situation, but rules were rules.

  Both officers walked determinedly back up the corridor until they were well out of earshot of any interested PCs.

  When they were a comfortable distance away, Edd was the first out of the two of them to crack. ‘He’s a stupid tosser and I hate him already.’

  Melanie exhaled heavily, an almost laugh. ‘Can’t charge him for that though, can we.’

  23

  Melanie faced away from the open-plan office space and stared at the evidence board for what felt to Chris Burton like at least five minutes. As requested, Chris had couriered the DNA sample over to forensics where it had been accepted with a glum expression. ‘Another rush job, is it?’ the technician had asked and Chris had answered in the affirmative, despite the young man’s obvious annoyance.

  Since arriving back at the station, Melanie had collared Chris to look over any loose ends while Carter excused himself for half an hour of so-called personal business. Both officers were fixated on the board – Melanie more so than Chris – until DC Brian Fairer kicked into life at the back of the room.

  ‘Patrick Nelson,’ he said, in an almost-shout.

  ‘What about him?’ Melanie asked, turning.

  ‘Did we talk to him?’

  Melanie thought for a second and shook her head. ‘He was sick, unwell with something earlier in the week. It’s only been a couple of days though, and his mother said she’d call.’ Melanie turned back to the board to look again at the pictures of Jenni, one in particular jumping out as it featured the friend in question: Patrick Nelson stood one side of their victim, while a beaming Eleanor Gregory stood the other. Melanie thought back to the interview footage from Eleanor’s first and only visit; the young girl was more inquisitive than she was sad…

  ‘Did anything strike you as odd about Eleanor Gregory?’ Melanie asked, turning to face Chris.

  The other officer considered this. ‘Not odd, as such. Edd thought it was strange that she wasn’t more upset, I think, but it’s shock, isn’t it? It’ll hit her at some point,’ Chris replied, shrugging off the question.

  But something occurred to Melanie. ‘She was quite interested in the station though, how we record the interviews, that sort of thing.’

  Melanie rubbed at the back of her neck, fingering the tension that was beginning to stretch up from her shoulder blades. When she looked back at the board, it was as though she couldn’t see the evidence at all; instead, one blank space after another jumped out at her, the many holes in Jenni Grantham’s storyline. She looked from friends to the search history to Michael Richards’ victims, and finally settled on Steven Knight. He knew something, of that much Melanie felt certain, but whether he knew what they needed remained to be seen. Melanie turned back to face the room and called for her colleague’s attention.

  ‘Fairer, add a visit to Nelson’s house to your list, would you? Try lunchtime and if that doesn’t work, go for late afternoon. If Patrick’s so ill, he should be there at one time or another.’ Her colleague nodded and made a note of something on a sheet in front of him; whatever else got done today, at least Melanie knew that one loose thread would be tied.

  It had bee
n an hour and twenty minutes since the first discussion when Melanie stepped back into the interview room, this time accompanied by Chris rather than Edd. Despite numerous phone calls, it looked as though Carter was off the grid and Melanie didn’t have time to be put out by it. She’d grabbed her most capable colleague and made fresh introductions on their entry into the room.

  ‘No DS Carter?’ Knight’s solicitor asked, eyeing Chris up and down.

  ‘He’s otherwise engaged, following up on a new lead,’ Melanie said with a tight smile; she enjoyed watching Steven Knight flinch at the comment. ‘If we may, we’ve got one or two questions that we’d like to ask.’ She paused for their approval. Knight shot a look at his solicitor who nodded and that seemed to be permission enough for the suspect to turn back and face Melanie again. ‘Good. For starters, we’d like to know what you and Jenni Grantham were talking about on this film footage.’

  Knight let out a slow sigh. ‘I don’t remember.’

  Melanie and Chris shared a sceptical look. ‘You don’t remember?’ Melanie asked, her disbelief creeping through her tone. ‘Mr Knight, you remember seeing her, and interacting with her, you even remember disrobing her at one point–’

  ‘Detective Inspector, please, stick to what you’re good at. This isn’t a courtroom,’ the solicitor snapped, and Melanie threw him a look that could land a man six feet under.

  Chris flicked through still shots until she found the one of Jenni, arms spread, and mouth contorted into what looked like the beginnings of rage. In the image, Steven Knight could be seen staring at the girl, wearing a near-smirk. Chris laid the image flat on the table and pushed it towards the suspect.

  ‘You’re telling us you don’t remember what got said here?’

  Knight stared down at the image. ‘She was angry, I remember that much.’

  ‘I think we could have got there ourselves,’ the DI interjected.

  ‘DI Watton, might I remind you that you’re yet to charge my client, and by my workings, you’ve already had him here for a good…’ The solicitor paused to check his watch. ‘Getting on for eighteen hours, wouldn’t you say? Your time might be better spent asking questions, rather than making snide remarks.’

  Melanie flashed the same tight smile from earlier. ‘Might I remind you, we’re entitled to hold a suspect for up to ninety-six hours if the crime they’re potentially involved with is of a serious nature.’ She paused for a rebuttal, but nothing came. Instead, the solicitor eyed his client and gave Knight a slight nod, as though encouraging something from him. ‘Maybe we should start this line of enquiry again, Mr Knight, see if these other images prompt anything for you.’ Melanie thumbed through still shots as she spoke, but Knight quickly broke the silence.

  ‘Jesus, she was going somewhere, alright? I don’t know where, she didn’t tell me. But when I stopped her, she said she couldn’t talk because she had somewhere to be, and she was running late. That’s as much as I know,’ he said, laying his hands flat on the table. ‘She was angry because I made her late, and now I wish I’d made her even more bloody late, for all the difference it might have made.’ He leaned back in his chair and stared at the table top, avoiding eye contact with the other three individuals in the room, all of whom were looking at him.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell us this earlier?’ Chris asked.

  ‘Please, I know why I’m here,’ he replied, sounding spiteful. ‘You think I did it.’

  ‘We don’t think anything at this stage, Mr Knight.’ Melanie leaned back in her seat to match the man’s position. ‘But we also can’t rule anything out, and you’re the last person to see Jenni alive, as it stands. So, naturally…’ She let her sentence trail off, lifting her eyes to make contact with the man in front of her. Despite it having only been an hour, Steven Knight looked considerably more tired than he had done earlier in the morning.

  ‘Naturally I’m a suspect?’ Knight said.

  Chris flipped to a fresh page in her notebook and picked up a pen. ‘This would be so easily resolved, you know, if you could just tell us your whereabouts after you saw Jenni. Could you walk us through what happened in the hours after this, perhaps?’ Chris pointed to the still shot of them arguing, spread out on the table.

  Knight rubbed at his eyes. ‘I was in The Black Hound for another hour or so, then I went home. While I was there I would have seen Tony, and Harry, he’s the landlord so he’ll have been there. Mary might have too, I can’t remember.’

  Chris allowed him to rattle out one name after another, noting them down as he spoke. When Knight came to an abrupt halt, Chris’s head snapped up to take a look at him.

  ‘That’s all I’ve got,’ he explained.

  ‘They’re people from the pub,’ Melanie said. ‘What about after that?’

  ‘I already said, I went home.’

  ‘No one can verify that?’ the DI pushed, upright in her seat.

  ‘I live alone, who would be able to?’

  Melanie threw Chris a look and both officers packed away their respective paperwork. The men opposite them sat in silence throughout the process, and it was only when Melanie pushed her seat back from the table that Knight finally spoke. ‘Wait, are we done here?’

  ‘He’s free to go?’ his solicitor chimed in.

  Melanie fought hard to bite back a smile. ‘No, I’m afraid not.’

  ‘We’ll chase these names up, see how far we get with them. We may need your help if there are people we can’t track down,’ Chris added.

  ‘But I’ve got an alibi,’ Knight protested.

  ‘Not yet you haven’t,’ Melanie said, standing as she spoke. ‘You’re entitled to more time with your solicitor, of course, but I’m afraid we’re within our rights to hold you a little while longer while we verify one or two things.’

  ‘What’s a little while longer?’ Knight’s solicitor asked, cutting across his client who had no doubt been about to protest his treatment.

  ‘Until we can verify these alibis and get his DNA dismissed from the suspect pool,’ Melanie explained before turning to walk toward the door. ‘Knock when you’re finished, and the officer outside will see that you both get where you need to be.’ The DI opened the door and stepped aside to let her colleague leave the room first, flashing both men a thin smile before exiting. Melanie had been expecting to see a police constable lingering close by but instead, as she pulled the door closed behind her, she nearly stepped into DC Lucy Morris.

  ‘News?’ Melanie asked.

  ‘The tech team have finished with Jenni’s computer. She was a smart kid, or she was talking to smart people, either way she had things hidden that I couldn’t find, and the other team have only found just now. But there are conversations, long and detailed conversations, with someone called…’ She paused and checked her hand, the relevant information hastily scribbled across her left palm. ‘With someone going by the user name The Real Michael Richards.’

  24

  JenniGRR:

  So we’ll do on it Halloween

  TheRealMichaelRichards:

  Makes sense to me

  I think it’ll have the most impact that way too

  JenniGRR:

  In the evening yeah

  TheRealMichaelRichards:

  Yeah

  Doing it in the daytime won’t get much attention

  Plus people will find you in the morning

  Think what a shock that will be haha

  Melanie set the transcript down and stared across the desk to DS Edd Carter, DC Chris Burton, and DC Lucy Morris. The DI had been reading the document aloud for the benefit of the former two officers, but Morris had stared on passively, already familiar with the contents of the conversations after having spent the last day sifting through their fine details. In that time, Melanie had asked Steven Knight for access to his computer and, to her genuine disappointment, he’d complied with the request. His laptops – work and personal – were in the capable hands of the force’s tech team and so far they had found two fifths o
f nothing.

  ‘I can’t make any fucking sense of this,’ the DI announced.

  ‘Was she planning her own murder with someone?’ Chris asked tentatively, knowing how ridiculous the question would sound.

  ‘Who would do that?’ Carter chimed in. ‘Why would Jenni do that? She was a good kid.’

  ‘We keep saying that, Carter, but we’re not seeing a huge amount of evidence towards it.’ Melanie stood from her desk and paced about the small space that the furniture afforded her. She pushed her fingertips hard into her forehead and exhaled deeply. ‘Okay, we need to think about this logically; what else do we have between Jenni and this online character?’

  Lucy shuffled through the pile of papers in front of her and began to read.

  JenniGRR:

  Why do we need a practice run though

  I mean how hard can it be haha

  TheRealMichaelRichards:

  Better to be safe than found out

  Right?

  Jen are you still there?

  JenniGRR:

  Sorry Mum came in

  Yeah I guess you’re right

  Just seems like a lot of effort

  When did you want to do it?

  Lucy halted her reading of the transcript. ‘Between the two of them, they plan for whatever the practice run is to take place four nights after the night Jenni actually died. At least, that’s what their conversation suggests. But there’s a later conversation.’ She paused to thumb through documents. ‘Yep, this one, a later one, only by a day or so, where Jenni asks a particularly interesting question.’

  JenniGRR:

  Why are you using that screen name anyway?