There were not many options now to who had taken it. He had left it on his desk, he was adamant of that, it had to be either Stephanie or Rachel who had picked it up. It could be innocent, he was thinking somebody had taken it maliciously, maybe Rachel had come by, noticed it there, realised he had left it and took it home.
He wondered for a second, but then she had never mentioned it to him when she arrived home last night. She would have told him at least or left it where he could have seen it. She hadn't. Stephanie was the more obvious choice. She had full access around the University and she was incapable of keeping her nose out of everybody's business on campus.
Marching his way up to Stephanie's office he had carelessly forgotten that he had a seminar in ten minutes to deliver and picked up the speed through anger rather than time restraints. He walked straight past Stephanie's assistant, ignoring her protests and slammed the door behind himself, straight in her face millimetres away from catching her nose.
'Nathan, I am snowed under at the moment, so what ever bee you have in your bonnet this morning, I'm sure it can wait till later!' demanded Stephanie.
'Where is my fucking laptop?' he yelled at her.
Stephanie stopped immediately what she was doing, looked up from her desk and placed her hands on her hips looking disgusted by Nathan's accusation. 'You have come storming into my office! Disturbing my work! Just because you have mis-placed your laptop?'
'I know you have taken it and all I need to know is what have you done with it?'
She shook her head is disbelieve, 'I have no idea where your laptop is and I would appreciate it Nathan, if you would kindly leave my office, so I can carry on with what I was doing?'
'You really expect me to believe you? I know what you are like Stephanie and this is getting your own back on me!' he stated.
'Are you joking?' she asked sternly looking at him, he did not respond. 'The amount of leeway I have given you, you are accusing me now of being petty and stealing your laptop! Am I correct?'
'I have come to my office this morning and it is no longer there, I know I forgot to take it home with me last night.'
'Was it locked away in your office?'
Nathan paused for a moment, before Stephanie coughed demanding an answer from him, already knowing what the most likely words were to come from his mouth.
'No.'
Stephanie laughed at him. 'You have left a University laptop, one that I paid for out of my budget, in a readily accessible place, leaving it open for anyone to pinch and I'm the first person you think off. There could have been a million people who took it.'
'It was Rachel I thought of first, actually.'
Stephanie sat down in her chair behind her desk, the thought cogs were starting to turn inside her head. Why would he be so concerned with Rachel, unless there was more to the story. 'What was on that laptop Nathan?' she said firmly with a dash of disappointment echoing through.
He didn't really want to answer, but now he realised he had backed himself into a corner and Stephanie would now be sharpening her teeth reading to sink them in at the earliest opportunity. 'Just a couple of photographs, Stephanie, that's all.'
'Let me guess, photographs of you and Catherine?'
'Yes,' he reluctantly answered.
'Rachel knows about them?'
'I'm not sure.'
'You are a fucking idiot. Nathan that bus is getting closer and don't think I'm kidding when I tell you that I am preparing to throw you under the it right now. Enough is enough and it's beginning to make a lot of sense. I had that DC Langley asking questions yesterday about what I knew about yours and Catherine's affair. I denied any knowledge but if they ask me straight,' she paused. 'I am going to tell them exactly what I know and that you threatened my life if I said anything!'
Nathan had knew all along that Stephanie was a bitch, a first degree bitch too, how dare she threaten him! 'Go ahead Steph and that threat will not be a threat any longer.'
'Nathan, I am not scared off you-'
She didn't have time to finish her sentence before Nathan had launched himself over her desk and wrapped his hands tightly around her throat, pushing with all of his force, suffocating the very life from her as her eyes bulged and she struggled to take the smallest breath in. She could feel the oxygen being drained from her body and she began to feel light headed, he was strong, way to strong for her to fight him off. Her eyes became heavy and see was struggling to stay in the room her hands and arms were feeling heavy and soon drooped down by her side. He was going to kill her right there with her assistant sat just outside the door at her desk. Stephanie had always insisted on privacy, something she now was regretting, her assistant wasn't ever allowed in her office unless Stephanie had requested.
Everything was vanishing in a bright blur in front of her eyes and then suddenly everything jerked back into crystal clear focus and she took a large gasp as the surge of oxygen filled her lungs and she could breath again. She sat back in her chair with the tingling sensations of pin and needles running the full length of both of her arms and legs. Nathan just standing now at the opposite side of the desk watching her, the silhouette of his tall physique filled the centre of her vision and it wasn't long before the sinister smile on his lips came into focus. That moment there she hated him, actually hated like she had never before hated anyone, sheer despise now filled her.
'That's a warning Stephanie, next time I won't be stopping.'
He turned away from the desk and headed towards the door, sure he had admitted Stephanie to her rightful place beneath him.
Chapter 38
'Are you going to be quiet this time?' Logan asked Tanya, who was sat on the back seat of Rachel's car.
'You still afraid I'll do a better job than yourself, DC Langley,' she jabbed back at him.
The car went silent before Rachel clicked on the radio, the sound of soft rock music danced around the interior of the car. Rachel relaxed, pushing her back into the padded racing style drivers seat and tapping her fingers against the steering wheel, along to the beats of the music. She didn't look at Logan or even Tanya once all the way to the University, the clock on the dashboard read just before ten in the morning. Mark would be finishing his lecture around quarter past ten, just over fifteen minutes to get in a position to catch him before he went to his next one. They all knew what to do without a word being said between them. In perfect synchronisation they all opened their doors and exited the car.
It was a brisk ten minute walk from the car-park over to the English building and then it was only a short wait before students started to exit the building. All three of them were immediately on alert looking for Mark. Moments later and Tanya could see Mark, nudging Rachel on the arm gently and pointing in the direction. Rachel opened her eyes wide as she caught Mark hand in hand with Daisy. What had changed in less than a week that would re-join that pair.
Mark and Daisy were chatting to each other as they exited through the main entrance and hadn't noticed the three of them standing there waiting. Rachel was less than a couple of feet away from the pair when he noticed her.
'What now,' he said deflated. 'Just when I thought my day was going well. Let me guess, you still haven't figured out whose Catherine's killer was and you need my help. Well, I don't work for any less than a thousand a week. That's non-negotiable.'
'As much as I'm sure you would be invaluable to the case Mark, we have a few questions first and then I'm sure all three of us would be open to your interpretation.'
'Oh,' replied Mark with a shrug. 'What's your questions?'
'Maybe some where more private.'
Mark looked at Daisy, she raised her eyebrows, he move his head down and kiss her softly on the lips. Looking back up at Rachel, 'you can ask whatever you came to ask in front of Daisy.' We don't have any secrets.'
'Did you both have secrets from Catherine?' snipped Logan. He looked at both of their hands, grasped together by their sides. 'How long have you both been an item,' he added pau
sing, before adding, 'again!'
'Is that relevant?' asked Daisy.
'Maybe you could tell us, young lady,' Logan said patronisingly as ever.
'How would I know?' replied Daisy flippantly.
'Well. The way I see it is this. Catherine was murdered. Her boyfriend was devastated by that murder. He claims that his ex-girlfriend had made death-threats against his life and Catherine's. He also claimed to be studying at the campus university, which since we have found out not to be accurate and then when we come to ask him where he was he is standing in front of us holding hands with the very same ex-girlfriend that had previously made death threats against him. All this a less than a week after the death of Catherine. Answer me this, young lady, how does that not all seem too suspicious?'
Daisy was unsure how to answer, she know what they were attempting to say, but she still trusted Mark more than the detective standing in front of her. 'I really don't know what suspicions you would have!'
Logan looked across at Rachel who was standing just behind the pair. She nodded to Logan to press more, she knew they hiding something. 'It just seems a little too convenient that you two seemed all loved up after she supposedly wanted you dead and Catherine was the only true love of your life. The reality could be that you two planned to murder Catherine and now you giving us the run around hoping you will be able to get away with it. If I'm right you are both in serious trouble even if only one of you actually murdered Catherine.'
Rachel moved over towards Daisy and put her hand on her shoulder, 'why don't you go with PC Scott here and whilst DC Langley and I have a little chat with Mark?'
'It's fine Daisy,' Mark said noticing the worried look she was giving him.
Off to the right of where they had all been standing was a plain old wooden bench, weathered extensively but still solid enough to take three grown men without collapsing. Rachel asked Mark to sit in the middle while her and Logan took either side. For a minute they sat there in silence, Rachel allowing tempers to cool off a little before she started questioning Mark's whereabouts after he left the library.
'Where did you go after you left the library on Friday night Mark?' Rachel asked casually.
'I've told you before, I went straight back to my dorm and went to bed.'
'That's not exactly true, is it? We know you left thirty minutes after you arrived. Where did you go?'
'I was at the library until after one in morning and then I left to go back to my dorm. I didn't leave before then.'
Rachel nodded and smiled at him, the wind starting to build as she fastened up the rest of the buttons on her coat so that the collar fit around her neck snuggly. 'It's getting cold, isn't it?'
Mark simply nodded without a sound.
'It will be a lot colder in prison. PC Scott is talking to the young woman who was holding your hand a moment ago. Do you really want to see her in one of those places?'
'Daisy hasn't done anything wrong, so it would be very difficult to imagine her in prison.'
'So, if she hasn't done anything wrong, what have you done wrong?'
'I've done nothing wrong either, I did love Catherine very much. Daisy is offering me comfort, as I am with her.'
Rachel chuckled as Logan stated the connection between the pair was nothing more than sex. Time was up and now the pathways around them all were empty, the next lectures and seminars had begun and the pair were eager to carry on with their day.
'DS Lambert I did not murder Catherine! Are we done?'
'I'm afraid not Mark, we have CCTV footage showing you left the Library thirty minutes after you arrived and we need to know where you went at that point. You have no alibi anymore. You need to tell us or I can handcuff you here and we can continue this conversation at the police station,' Rachel said sternly.
'I fancied something to eat. I left the library and made ,my way across to Pizza Perfection, not that there pizza's are anywhere near perfection, but I like their garlic mushrooms and I fancied some. I ordered, ate there and returned to the library to carry on with my studies.'
'We have the report that shows you did indeed sign back in an hour and half after you left but one thing I'm curious about.'
'What's that DS Lambert?' Mark asked.
'Did you use your student card or somebodies else's?'
'My own I believe.'
'You used Zac's student card. I understand you and him are friends!'
'We are,' Mark replied to the point without elaborating.
'Why did you use his card?'
'I found it earlier that day in one of the lecture rooms. I figured he had left it by accident and I picked it up to hand it back to him later.'
'I find it strange that you would use his card to sign out of the library and then accidentally use his again to sign in. I find that peculiar. Once could be explained as an accident but twice! Especially when it conveniently shows that you stayed in the library collaborating your alibi.'
Rachel remained quiet, waiting for Mark's response, Daisy was still talking to Tanya. He looked over at her and catching her eye, he smiled at her. She smiled back.
'It is just a coincidence,' he replied defiantly. She know she had no definitive evidence and that arresting him at the moment may not reveal anymore. She needed to dig a bit deeper yet. Something inside her believed his story and yet another part of her knew there was a lot more he simply refused to admit to. Her intuition sensors were tingling away.
'I have requested local CCTV and I will find out the truth one way or another Mark. For now you free to go,' Mark standing straight away when she said that. 'Mark,' she said as he paused and turned to look at her. 'It would be a lot wiser just to talk to us, rather than trying to hide. Just worth thinking about that!'
Chapter 39
Mark and Daisy walked away from the trio, hand in hand as Tanya joined them all in line watching the pair as they entered the humanities department across from the English block.
'What do you make of that?' asked Tanya.
'It all seems suspicious if you ask me,' said a usually sceptical Logan, who was standing with his arms crossed. The wind was howling past them now as it cut like ice around the buildings, been forced their way and swirling around them. Rachel suddenly felt the vibration of her mobile inside her pocket against her thigh and reaching inside she quickly looked at the caller ID without allowing the others to see. It was her friend in forensics. She had been expecting the call, but she couldn't allow Logan to know about the laptop, she still needed to keep him at a distance, for the time being anyway. She choose instead to send the call to voice-mail, with the intention of getting him out of the way and then she would call back later when he wasn't around.
'Logan. I need you to go and chase up the CCTV footage with Campus Security. Let's find out where Mark did go after he left the Library. I'll take Tanya with me, I need to follow up on some paperwork.'
'Paperwork or you going to sneak off to see Nathan?' he jabbed at her, not wanting an answer.
'Logan, Nathan will be in the middle of one of his lectures and I need to catch up with a little bit of paperwork. Now if you don't mind.'
'Of course not DS Lambert,' he said subserviently. Muttering under his breath as he walked away to the security office, quiet enough that Rachel could hear what he said.
Rachel never said a word to Tanya, just began walking off to the car park to retrieve her car. She clicked the unlock button and jumped into the drivers seat, she had already pulled out her mobile from her pocket and was checking her voice-mail as Tanya jumped in the passenger seat beside her. She listened carefully as the voice of her friend, Ian Hart, he had pulled all the photographs from Nathan's computer, not that they were well hidden. Rachel had an idea they probably wouldn't have been but wanted it fully checking out by Ian, who knew far more of what he was doing than she did. He had not revealed what he had found but had asked for her to meet him at the police station in his office.
Forty minutes later after beating their way through the
early morning traffic they pulled up in the car-park at the police station and were heading inside. Tanya wasn't aware of what they were doing, Rachel had just informed her they needed to check out something that Logan couldn't be made aware of. She knew that was code. Rachel had clearly dug up more evidence about Nathan that she wasn't ready to either accept or acknowledge at the very least. Tanya had known Rachel for long enough to that she was struggling to cope with the prospect that Nathan was having an affair. It was a route she had to leave Rachel to explore and prepare to be there when the storm came, she knew it inevitably would do, probably sooner rather than later too.
They walked through the station and was soon upon Ian's office. If that's what you could call it anyway. Rachel couldn't remember exactly, but she was adamant it had been used as a storage cupboard at some point. It was only wide enough to fit the length of a desk across, with a couple of feet left over for Ian to walk around to his desk chair. Even the chair wasn't a purpose bought one, it looked like it had been donated by the public library. Solid plastic back and seat with the thinnest of cushions attached and metal legs. There were marks underneath where the bare metal had been scratched over the dull stained linoleum. On top of the desk was a metal desk-lamp, it was essential as there were no windows allowing any form of natural light in, but it was cheap and barely served the purpose it was designed for. Strangely, despite being head of forensics, there was no computer on his desk.
Just a blank open space with only a notepad and pen accompanied the other solitary item of a picture frame containing a photograph of Ian and his wife. She was beautiful, stunning even, with fire flamed red curly locks and bright blue eyes that somehow looked out of place against the hair. Had she dyed it wondered Rachel, surely that can't have been her natural colour, either way it brought out her natural beauty. It was not a surprise though, Ian was one of the most handsome men Rachel had ever seen, despite being a computer geek - his own reference to himself - he was built like a sports player and had the square chiselled jaw line of a professional wrestler. They were a stunning couple and even though the photograph was most likely only taken by a standard off-the-shelf camera, the photograph belonged on the front of a glossy magazine.
Catherine Page 19