The rest of the office contained a single metal filing cabinet that was tucked in behind the office door, that had a chunk missing from it, when it had been opened a little to vigorously onto the corner of the cabinet. The other space was standing room only, even one more chair would have restricted access in and out of the office. Rachel knocked on the closed door and entered when there was no reply, poking her head around the corner, Ian wasn't there. They had looked through the window of the forensics lab and that had been empty also. Where was he? She couldn't help but wonder and as she turned, closing the door behind her, a familiar voice called her from down the corridor.
'My apologies Rachel, I had to make a call of nature and grab another cup of coffee.'
'That's OK Ian, still can't sleep?'
'No. I've been to the doctor and all he wants to give me is some sleeping tablets and I'm refusing to put that shit into my body. Louisa has got me some herbal ones from the natural store down in the city centre and I've told her to throw them in the bin also.'
Rachel couldn't help but laugh, aware of the irony of refusing to take a tablet, yet pumping his body full of caffeine instead. She wasn't a doctor, but knew if he had one good nights sleep, he wouldn't need to be keeping himself awake with caffeine through the day. A vicious cycle really, but he refused to listen to her in the past when she had pointed that fact out to him. It was his choice at the end of the day.
'Come on in,' he said as he walked between the pair, opened his office door and squeezed around the side of his desk but looking uncomfortable as he took a perch on his chair.
'Tanya knows Ian, just to let you know. What have you found?,' she asked as Tanya finsihed closing the door behind them.
'Are you ready for this? It's not going to be pretty and I certainly don't think it's going to be what you want to hear.'
Rachel took a deep breath in, almost evacuating the room of any oxygen, 'I'm ready Ian. I need to know whatever.'
'OK,' he replied before placing Nathan's laptop on his desk, he had it tucked up under his arm when he returned. He flipped open the top and clicked on the welcome screen, he had disabled Nathan's password entrance and the files on the left hand-side of the screen one by one came into focus, icon by icon. Nathan clicked on the documents folder and then quickly clicked through the various files until he landed on the folder containing the photographs of Nathan and Catherine together. Before taking the final click and opening the folder for Rachel and Tanya to be able to see, he looked up at Rachel. 'One last chance, Rachel. Do you really want to see what's inside this folder?'
Rachel nodded without a word coming from her lips and Ian clicked. Within a second the folder opened and the photographs come into focus, only small thumbnails, but still large enough for Rachel to make out the figure of her husband with Catherine. Ian clicked on the first photograph, causing it to open in to full screen mode filling every inch of the laptop screen. She gasped at the first one.
'BASTARD!' she exclaimed loud enough for the entire police station to hear. Rebecca had been right and her worst nightmare was now becoming reality. In that very moment she felt nothing but anger, consuming every fibre of her being, her fist became clenched and her cheeks were red and hot. The first photograph was Nathan with his arm clearly around the shoulder of Catherine and her arm around his waist. It was clear from that one photograph that was not just the typical relationship between professor and student. She wasn't just angry at him though, for that moment she was actually glad that Catherine was dead. She would have been tempted to kill her, herself, only somebody had got there before.
'Do I continue?' asked Ian, clearly seeing how upset this had made her. Tanya placed her arm around the should of Rachel, only for it to be shook off.
'Yes, I want to know what else had happened between them.'
Ian did as she ordered, clicking one photograph at a time and waiting for her to nod before moving onto the next one. The photographs were all the same, the image of a happy couple enjoying time together, enjoying pizza and ice-cream together, having fun bowling and catching a movie, like a pair of love-struck teenagers. All this had been going on when, was the question burning into Rachel now. Had she been at work? What about the conferences she had attended? She wondered if the pair had had sex in her bed, laughing about it whilst she was away, blissfully unaware of the deceit going on back at her house. It was her house too, Nathan had been reckless with his money before he had met her and was unable to obtain a mortgage together. So, yes, the deeds for the house and the mortgage was all in her name.
'Rachel these photographs don't prove they were ever intimate with one another,' Tanya stated. She was right, the photographs only ever showed them with their arms around one another. There was no other physical intimacy caught on camera.
'There's more,' Ian said hesitantly. 'A lot more graphic.'
Ian closed the window the current photographs were shown on and clicked on a different file. They were far more personal photographs now on screen. The pair of them naked and very intimate. Rachel closed the laptop, she didn't want to see anymore after the first couple.
Chapter 40
Rachel had stormed out of Ian's office, not intentionally being rude, but all the same Tanya had apologised to him on her behalf. He had accepted the apology, acknowledging there was no need and she had gone after Rachel finding her outside by her car with her arms resting on the roof of the car and the tears flowing freely down her cheeks.
'Get in,' Tanya ordered Rachel after snatching the car keys out her hand and unlocking the car. Rachel solemnly sat in the passenger seat and without a word being said, Tanya pulled quickly out of the car-park and heading towards the nearest bar. A stiff drink is what was required now, she was in no state to focus on the case and worried about what may happen if she returned home. The tyres on the car screeching all the way as Tanya placed her foot to the floor on top of the acceleration. Pulling up in the nearest available parking spot, she turned to Rachel who had her head down and the tears still streaming down.
'You need a drink, Rach. Now wipe your tears,' she said sternly handing her a tissue out of her pocket and thrusting into the hand of Rachel. 'We're going to have a few drinks and talk this out. You need to calm down and be sensible before you do anything stupid.' The moment the words had left her mouth, she was only too aware of how ridiculous that sounded. Emotions fuelled by alcohol were always a recipe for disaster but Tanya know she had to get Rachel through to the point and then beyond before letting her go home to Nathan. She was hoping to convince Rachel to make an excuse up and sleep on Tanya's couch for the night. That she wasn't sure she could do though.
Rachel wiped her tears and checking in the mirror on the sun-visor she straightened herself up and wiped her spoiled make-up with a couple of wet-wipes taken from the packet she always kept in the glove-box. She then re-applied some fresh and was ready for that stiff drink Tanya had promised her. She was not one for letting her emotions getting the better of her but this was not her everyday routine. Her husband was a cheating bastard and was now definitely in the frame for his lovers murder.
The pair walked into the bar. Christie's Bar was dingy and not the place that would be frequented by police officers. Tanya had been ordered by Rachel to join the team in plain clothes as not to attract any unwanted attention whilst they were making their enquiries. Their presence in the bar didn't turn any heads or start any tongues wagging filled with idle gossip.
Just through the aged creaking wooden door were several old, battered and bruised wooden tables with uncomfortable and falling apart wooden chairs - Rachel had noticed one being held together by no more than a piece of string wrapped around the legs holding each one of them in place - with a young couple sat on the one to the left. They were early twenties, the woman having a short bob-cut style and wearing glasses that looked too big for the frame of her face opposite a man whose face held two to three days stubble. He had a shave head that was dotted with chunks missing and his nose was bent
out of shape. She predicted he could have been one of the local amateur boxers from the gymnasium around the corner from the bar.
They would hold fights every week on a Friday night, attracting a rather modest crowd of no more than twenty to thirty spectators, it was enough to keep the gym going and at least it kept some of the young males out of trouble. That was the idea, anyway and certainly over the past two years the amount of incidents reported in the area involving fights and arguments with young men had declined significantly. It had kept her bosses happy, less work for them meant less stress. Neither of the couple acknowledged Rachel and Tanya's presence, too busy involved in their own conversation to pay that amount of attention.
The pair of them moved over towards the bar, Tanya leading. 'What do you fancy?' she asked as Rachel joined her at the side.
'Vodka,' Rachel replied with conviction.
'Cola also?'
'No as it is and make it a triple.'
Tanya nodded at the barman and then placed her own request of a Gin and orange. Rachel chuckled when she saw the confusion on the face of the barman, it was highly unlikely he would have that request often. The bar was long and narrow, stretching over fifty feet from one side of the room to the other, nothing fancy, a highly polished oak timber bar that was currently stained a reddish bronze colour, with curved edges meeting the straight front face and a brass foot rail screwed three inch from the floor around the bottom of the bar. It was functional, but definitely now out of date and required renovation. Behind in the centre of the bar was two tills with several fridges running underneath on either side and a line of a variety of spirits hanging upside down in optics running above, practically the full length of the bar.
Rachel looked across the line as far as she could read the labels, almost thirty bottles later, she could not believe the amount of different varieties of whiskey and gin the owner of the bar, preferred to stock. Surely there was not the demand in this part of York. She was not here to discuss economics of the modern day bar, she had come along to sample the delight of the alcohol. To let it soak deep inside her body, to push the pain she was feeling straight out through her pours and let it drift away on the cold January air. The barman returned with two straight glass beakers and placed Rachel and Tanya's respective drinks in front of them.
Tanya had barely placed her finger around and gripped her glass when the rim of Rachel's glass was already touching her lips and in one large gulp, almost a third of the contents had gone. This caused Rachel to cough as the raw strength of the alcohol caught in the back of her throat.
'Steady,' Tanya said before taking a sip of her own. 'I am not phoning for an ambulance if you start choking Rach. Not tonight, I will stay on this bar stool and while you crawl to the hospital I will enjoy a drink or two.'
Still coughing, Rachel slapped the back of Tanya gently and made a disgusted look at her. She didn't mean it nastily, she knew Tanya was joking and would at least call a cab to take her to the hospital. That level of compassion demonstrated the respect and love between the two of them. 'Thanks Tan, I don't know what I would do without you,' Rachel replied sarcastically.
'You're welcome.'
Rachel chuckled, before taking another bite at her drink. This time a more modest portion that allowed her not to cough instantly after. Her mind was spinning filled with thoughts of what to do next, she was still undecided as she reached the bottom of her glass, another one was in order and Tanya obliged with a signal to the barman.
'Are you going to inform DC Langley?' Tanya asked as Rachel had begun her second triple vodka.
'I don't know Tanya. After the fuss I made that I was capable of completing this investigation, I really have to see it through.'
'That was before you knew what you do now Rach. I don't think there will be any harm in at least informing DCI Jepson. If Nathan is the-'
'Tan, I don't know at the moment, can I please just enjoy my drink?' Rachel interrupted abruptly and angrily. The barman had been standing just a few feet away and had been clearly listening to the conversation between the pair of them. Rachel caught his eye and he quickly moved to the other side of the bar, collecting a few glasses on his way before loading them into the dishwasher behind the bar at the side of the fridges.
'I have my father visiting me this weekend,' Tanya said changing the topic of conversation, it was merely just to break the silence between the two, she knew Rachel wouldn't really be paying attention to the subject.
'I'm guessing you are not looking forward to it?' Rachel responded hearing the reluctance in Tanya's voice. Her parents were going through a trial separation and her father had been at a lost ever since. His life had circled around his work and he had neglected her mother for many years, when he retired he promised to make up for all those years he had missed spending time with her. Ironically it was due to this why her mother had felt suffocated by him over the last two years and now, according to her father, she couldn't stand to be around him anymore.
'Not really, I love him to bits, but if I have to hear now how my mother doesn't appreciate his intentions and that she should be grateful that he wants to spend every waking minute with her, I will honestly scream.'
'Is he really that bored?'
'Yes. I keep telling him to find an hobby, but his only hobby had been work and now he hasn't got that left to do, he now wants my mother to be his hobby. He is driving me crazy, but he will not listen.'
Two hours later, more vodka's than she could count and every possible conversation topic discussed apart from the murder it was now pushing upwards to eight o'clock and Rachel's head was becoming weary from the amount of alcohol serging around her blood stream. It was decision time, Tanya had promised her a bed - well a settee at least - for the night or was she going to face the music. The barman had walked across to them, informing them that there was a taxi outside waiting for them. The pair staggered out of the door of the bar and into the back seat of the taxi.
◆◆◆
Logan was muttering under his breath after leaving Rachel and Tanya. He had been benched from the action, doing the grunt work that would have been far more appropriate to the pay grade of PC Tanya Scott. What could he do though? Rachel had been hand-picked by DCI Jepson and despite his convincing and well-founded arguments of why she shouldn't be in charge of the case, his objections had been cast in the rubbish like an empty sandwich wrapper. There was no fighting that, so now he had to play ball, he had no other option. He was not aware of what the pair were up to but out of the corner of his eye, he could see them heading for the car park.
He reached the security office to be met with a tall, clearly stretching upwards of six and half foot, with short spike hair, clean shaved, brown eyes and a physique that Logan wouldn't have attempted to take on, even in his younger fitter days. Standing just slightly inside the room beyond the door, he stepped forward when he saw Logan approaching. He had already been informed that a detective would be on their way to collect the CCTV footage from the night of Catherine's murder and it was already sealed in a plain white envelope and he was now holding it.
Once Logan was near enough that the pair could have a conversation without the requirement of having to shout to be heard, the security guard confirmed the identification of Logan. Once within arms reach the CCTV footage was handed to Logan and just as quick he had 'thanked' the guard, turned and was now heading for his own car. He was on his way back to the police station. He planned to view the footage and then make a decision of the next step from there. He had received a message just moments ago that the footage from the camera's dotted around the city centre had also been forwarded to him. The footage unfortunately did not provide a full trail to Catherine's apartment but it would be able to confirm whether Mark did stop of at the takeaway or whether he had gone past.
'Where's DS Lambert?' the custody sergeant enquired as Logan entered the police station.
'Following some new leads,' Logan responded politely. 'She should be in later,' he added n
ot breaking his step as he continued past the front desk, heading to the investigation room and his computer.
He clicked the power button and slid in the memory stick in to the nearest available USB reader and waited for the files to become available on the screen in front of him. With the smell of a fresh cup of coffee, he had grabbed on his way, he lifted it to his lips as he watched the spinning circle rotate freely waiting for all the files to load. Seconds later they were ready to be viewed and he clicked on them one by one.
They already knew from the footage obtained from the library that when Mark had left he had taken a right turn. Logan had loaded up also a map of the area and was plotting possible routes that he thought Mark would have taken based on his story. Walking straight after he had turned from the library would take him down the footpath leading to Maine Street, the road went straight past Pizza Perfection. If he was heading there, this would have been the quickest way, he would not need to take any turns or side-roads. Logan suspected he would have been telling the truth, he has in mind set on who the real killer was!
Logan had set the footage to start playing from two-minutes prior Mark leaving the library, just in case there was any discrepancies between the time set on the two CCTV systems. In fact, there was and less than thirty seconds playing, Logan caught a glimpse of Mark heading towards Maine Street. He had been telling the truth, Logan continued to watch him take step by step, getting yard by yard closer to the takeaway. His pace, that had been best described as frantic, now slowed and he stopped outside the main window of the takeaway. There was a large printed menu attached to the large front window and Mark was now studying his available options.
Catherine Page 20