by Carla Kovach
She placed her finger to her lips. ‘Thank you.’ She smiled as she spoke over him. There was a look on his face, like he was faraway.
‘No one can hear,’ he whispered as he pointed at the board.
The chatter turned to a quiet hum, then silence.
‘Right, gather round.’ Gina leaned over the desk and smiled at Bernard. ‘I know you need to get off as soon as you can and I appreciate you coming given your workload is so huge. Can you please go first?’
Bernard nodded and opened the brown paper file that lay flat on the desk in front of him. ‘As you know, the post-mortem happened earlier today. DC Wyre was present throughout and we spoke after. I’ll start with the stab wound to the chest. Her heart was pierced and the wound is six inches deep. The blade used was not serrated and the thickness of the knife was four millimetres. That would mean we’d expect a lot of blood at the scene where she was killed. From the nail samples, we found some skin cells and there were enough to obtain DNA. It didn’t belong to the victim so I’m surmising that she fought with her attacker at one point.’
Wyre nodded, confirming that fact. ‘No matches have been found to those we have on the database.’
Gina picked her dry lip. ‘So we are looking for someone without a record.’
Bernard continued. ‘The cause of death was the stab wound to her heart. She did not drown. There was no presence of diatoms from the lake in her body and the state of her lungs wasn’t consistent with drowning.’ He flicked to another page and held up a line drawing of a body sitting with elevated feet in a chair with shading of the buttocks, thighs and calves. ‘I mentioned this when I saw the body at the lake. Lividity – this shows the position she would have been in at the time of death. It looks like she was sitting in a chair with her feet elevated.’ He grabbed a pen and drew black lines across the neck, wrists and ankles on the picture. ‘Ligature wounds show that she was restrained in these places. Then there were the marks on the sides of her mouth. She’d been gagged too at some point.’
‘And talk us through the superglue residue on her lips.’ Gina turned to look at the boards.
‘Our tests are conclusive. The superglue residue that was left is layered on top of the wounds on her mouth suggesting that she was first gagged, then the gag was removed and then her lips were superglued together. There’s something else.’
The room went silent.
‘A minute strand of green fibre found in her nose, just the tiniest strand.’
Jacob dropped his pen on the table. ‘Any sign of sexual assault?’
‘There was no evidence of sexual assault or rape.’ He checked his watch. ‘I’ll move on to the scene at the lake. After going over it again, we found what looks like a drag mark on the verge at the back of the car park and traces of blood, but the drag mark completely vanishes, suggesting that the perpetrator lifted the body up. We have loads of footprints and partial footprints, all over-trodden by others including dogs and birds. With the thaw, we couldn’t take a clear mould of any. Same with tyre tracks leading in and out. So many people had been there and parked after, the evidence has literally been trampled on but we will keep going through it. No weapon was found at the scene after an extensive search by us in the immediate surroundings and uniform over the wider area.’ He paused again as he tried to read his messy writing. ‘I estimate that the body had been in the water from the time of midnight to three in the morning of Monday the twenty-fifth of January but this is just an estimate based on water temperature during the early hours.’ He checked his watch.
Gina knew time was clocking on and she wanted Bernard back on the case without delay. ‘Can you tell us what forensics found at Amber Slater’s flat on Bulmore Drive and the car park?’
He stroked his neat beard and clenched his teeth momentarily. ‘The pills that you bagged were definitely MDMA. There were also a lot of prints to work through but nothing that matched to the database. No sign of blood. She wasn’t killed there. As for the flat itself, it was secure. The windows were locked and the door lock hadn’t been tampered with and that goes for the main door to the block too. Due to staff shortages, we’re going to have to go back to do a deeper search so I’ll keep you updated. The victim’s father is happy for us to go back. It definitely wasn’t the scene of the crime. As for the car park, apart from the bit of pink material that was found out there we didn’t find anything else that was directly linked to Amber Slater. There’s evidence bags full of litter and cigarette butts, which we’re still working through. It’s going to be a mammoth task. All bins in the vicinity were checked for the murder weapon but again, no knives or blades were found. I will have to keep you updated on that. There are eighteen bags of rubbish to sift through. In fact, I’m heading back in a minute to help Keith, Jennifer and the team. It’s going to be a long night. I can’t yet confirm how the covers for the two street lamps were smashed but it could have been a rock or a brick, something had been thrown at them until they shattered. They are the old-fashioned type with the large bulbs which are in keeping with the older part of Cleevesford.’
Gina took a step back and glanced at Amber’s photo on the board, the one of her alive and looking well. Then she glanced at her waxy body on the shore of the lake and shivered. ‘Thanks, Bernard. Anything else that will help us right now?’
He shook his head. ‘Not that I can think of but I will email you my full report when I’ve finished it. Obviously what I’ve just said is only a brief summary. We’re not finished processing everything from the known scenes but as I find out anything, I will let you know in real time and then after, you’ll have my detailed report.’ The man rubbed his eyes and yawned.
‘Thank you. I won’t keep you any longer.’
He smiled and packed his notes back into the file and stood. ‘Back to work it is and thanks for the food.’ He gave a little wave as he left with a tuna sub under his arm.
Gina underlined the word CCTV on the board. ‘Have we found anything useful on the CCTV we’ve obtained or from the door-to-doors?’
Wyre rubbed her hands together to warm them. ‘I’ve been collating all that information, guv. We already know that Amber didn’t make it to the Fish and Anchor and she didn’t get on the bus. Uniform conducted the door-to-doors in the area and it appears that no one saw anything or anyone who was out of place. She lives in a large converted house that is set back behind trees, which would have worked to the killer’s advantage. We have managed to gather a bit of private CCTV from some of the houses on the main road but the images are poor. We’re working on it at the moment. I’ll keep you updated.’
‘Good work. If we can get any registration numbers – any one of those cars could have had Amber in them.’
‘I have seen a bit, guv. That might be wishful thinking.’
Gina ticked CCTV off her list. ‘Persons of interest.’ She turned to the board and pointed to the list of names. ‘Top of the list, we have the Collinses, that’s Clayton Collins and Mrs Collins. Jacob, will you please follow up on her statement and head over to Tesco for the CCTV footage. It’s only a small thing but I want to confirm how true her statement is. She claims to have been at the main Cleevesford Tesco at ten in the morning on Saturday and that she and her husband were together all weekend. I want to know if she was there and if he was with her. Get the car park footage too. Whoever did this to Amber would have needed a lot of time over the weekend. They took her on Friday, she turned up dead on the Monday morning. What did they do with her all weekend? We know she was restrained and held against her will.’
Jacob leaned back. ‘I’ll do that before heading home.’
Gina glanced up at the list again. ‘Other people I want you to keep in your minds at the moment – Otis Norton, the man who found the body. Again, what was he doing at the lake? He also claimed to have seen someone suspicious hanging around. Any follow ups on that?’
O’Connor lifted his head up, his round chin red at the bottom like he’d shaved too closely that morning. �
�I looked into Mr Norton. No record at all. I can confirm that he does have a sick wife at home who he cares for.’
‘Great work. I still don’t feel he was giving us the full story. He wasn’t dressed for a walk. He was up to something. Maybe we need to follow up on that. Next… Jake Goodman, the chef at the Fish and Anchor. When I showed him the photo of Amber Slater, I’m sure he recognised her.’
PC Smith interjected. ‘That name does come up on our records. He got into trouble as a teenager for basically stealing women’s clothes off washing lines, including underwear.’
‘That’s a worry. I’ll head back over to the Fish and Anchor at opening tomorrow. What about Amber Slater’s neighbours and the landlord, Vincent? Do we have a surname for him?’
Wyre nodded. ‘It’s Vincent Jordan. He lives in a bungalow at the back of the apartment block that he manages. He’s in his late thirties and lives alone. I know uniform have taken a brief statement. He said he didn’t really know any of the tenants and only saw them when something needed fixing or when he cleaned the communal areas. In his words, he had nothing more to do with any of them as long as they paid their rent and kept the noise down.’
‘Any CCTV on his property that may just have covered the back of the apartment block?’
Shaking her head, Wyre continued. ‘No, he said he’s never had any CCTV. He said he lives close by so is able to keep an eye on the property himself.’
Gina pointed to the board. ‘Moving on to the other tenants. I spoke to Curtis Gallagher. Lauren Sandiford came in to report Amber missing. Who else lives there?’
O’Connor tapped his fingernails on the table. ‘Uniform managed to speak to Corrine Blake and Tyrone Heard, both students too. Corrine and Tyrone claimed that they barely knew Amber and only spoke to everyone else when they got together for a drink in the block. Both of them also said that they were at home between seven and seven thirty on Friday night. Corrine showed uniform the log of a call she was on with her mother and Tyrone was Facebook messaging another man during that time.’
‘Facebook messaging. I suppose he could have done that on the move.’ Gina glanced across at the other details on the board. ‘The superglue. Why do it?’
Wyre scrunched her brow. ‘It’s like whoever did that wanted to permanently seal her lips.’
‘Budgets don’t allow us the luxury of a profiler so we have to bear that in mind all the time. Okay, let’s bat a few theories around. Why? Maybe our killer would do anything to keep something a secret. Did Amber know what that secret was? Maybe she was going to say something, which is why her lips were glued. We need to allow ourselves to think like this person, imagine why they’d do this. What is it they don’t want anyone to know? Look as deeply as possible into everyone who flags up. It’s about the detail, something small from their past.’ She stared at the board wondering what the killer didn’t want Amber to say. Clayton Collins? Did he do something to Amber that he couldn’t bear the world to hear about? Mrs Collins? Gina was seeing her as a pawn in his game, nothing but an alibi. Her mind mulled over Amber’s injuries and an image of blood, lots of blood flashed through her mind. Poor woman, murdered before being dumped in a lake, early on a cold January morning. Her date… ‘Anyone here have experience with AppyDater? I’m sure I’ve heard a few of you mention it.’
Kapoor put her hand up and started speaking too quickly. Gina could barely process her words. ‘Say that all again but slower.’
‘It’s an app that really is for dating. It encourages lots of dates, as many as possible. It’s not about finding the one, it’s about finding fun company but it’s not as crude as a hook-up.’
‘Okay, slow down a bit more while I catch up.’ Gina began writing a few bullet points on the board.
‘Sorry, guv. Talking fast in Brummie is my speciality. I forget that a lot of people struggle to catch every word. It’s about the going out and the socialising and more, if you want it. I joined about a year ago and have had a couple of dates. It’s fun and easy. If you like someone, you just click on the smiley and that alerts the other person that you want to go on a date. After that, you can private message. You arrange a date and the guidelines recommend that this is always in a public place. A restaurant, a busy park, something like that.’
The young police officer waited for further questions and smiled, glad to be able to have an input.
‘Anyone else on AppyDater? I’m not prying but we will be looking deeply into it so best say now. I joined earlier today for research purposes. No one is making a judgement here, I just want to understand the app better and the way it works and I’m likely to come across your profiles. We know Amber was on it as she had an account set up.’
Briggs looked away. ‘I am.’
Gina’s stomach sank and her legs came over with that jellied feeling. She glanced at Briggs but he wouldn’t look her way. The other night… it was obviously nothing to him. Again, she had been the one taking all the risks. If their relationship, fling or whatever it was, had come out, she would have been sent to work somewhere else, not Briggs. He was her senior. She glanced at the table leg and wanted to kick it. She’d been stupid, so stupid. Maybe AppyDater was her own pathetic future. If it was good enough for Briggs and he was moving on, maybe she could. Maybe anyone would do and maybe there would be sex after. She kept her eyes on him but he wouldn’t look her way.
Clearing her throat, she continued. ‘Okay, I’m not suggesting our killer operated through this app. Amber was meant to meet her date at the Fish and Anchor but she never arrived. The booking was a no-show but her date would have known what time she’d have had to have left to arrive on time. This seemed well planned. Smashed street lights, being there at the right time to snatch her.’ Gina paused. ‘We don’t have Amber’s main phone but we have applied for the records. What we do have is another phone that Amber used. We need to find out who AdamzFun, BearBoy, NoName and BigBoz are. NoName stands out. I want to know who this is. I’ll be checking out AppyDater later to see if I can find any links. Are we all clear on what we’re doing next? Wyre, first thing tomorrow before the Fish and Anchor opens, we’re going to see Vincent Jordan. Okay?’
Everyone nodded and began to disperse, including Briggs who was the first to leave the room. Wyre held back. ‘I’m on AppyDater, guv. I didn’t want to say anything in front of everyone because they don’t know what happened between me and George and part of me feels stupid as it’s so soon. I was curious.’
‘Thanks for telling me. Like I said, you won’t get any judgement here. I’m glad you’re putting yourself first.’
‘When those smiley’s hit, it’s a boost, do you know what I mean? I want to meet new people.’
Gina smiled. ‘Of course. You have to think of you and if it’s making you happy, right now, then that’s good. Just be careful.’
‘Careful is my middle name.’
Kapoor ran back in, grabbing the notebook that she’d left on the table. She stopped and smiled as she checked out the beep on her phone. ‘I got me a date.’
‘Stay safe,’ Gina called as the woman left as quick as she entered.
Wyre let out a titter. ‘It surprised me that Briggs was on it. I mean he virtually comes across as celibate. I only remember him dating Annie for a short while and that was it. Hey, you really get to know everyone when you ask a question like “Who’s on AppyDater?” Fess up.’ She laughed.
‘And now it looks like we’re all on it.’ Gina checked her phone and noticed she had a smiley on her fake profile. ‘Looks like I’ve pulled. I only joined for research purposes.’
‘Yeah right, guv. No one will judge you either. You do know that, don’t you? I’ll see you in the morning. There’s a ready meal for one calling me home.’
‘Catch you tomorrow. I’ll message you the times in a bit.’ Gina glanced at the smiley. If it was good enough for Briggs, it was good enough for her. She headed towards his office and saw him standing in the corridor staring at his phone.
‘Gina.�
�� He started walking towards her.
‘I don’t want to talk about it.’ She swallowed as she headed back and turned the fan heater off.
‘Can I see you tonight? I need to explain. Nothing is going on, I promise.’
Feeling his breath on her forehead, it would be so easy to believe him right now and say yes to seeing him. He’d been in her bed, telling her how much he thought of her, making her feel like she was worth something and now, she didn’t know what to believe and felt the fool in all this. ‘You lied to me.’
‘I haven’t lied.’
‘Come on, all those things you said at my house. It’s easy when you’re about to get laid.’
‘Gina, you’re being unreasonable. This app, I haven’t done anything with it.’
‘Nothing?’ She stared at him and he looked away. ‘Right, another lie. I’m too old for this. I should know better.’ She pushed past him and hurried out of the room, leaving him standing there. Flicking through the app one more time, she wondered if she should… if she could. What the hell. She deserved to have a bit of fun. Everyone else was doing just that.
27
Madison pulled the awkward, bulky wheelchair to the entrance of the hospital, leaving her nanna next to a seating area in the foyer. She flicked on the brakes with her foot.
‘I’m sorry to be a burden, Maddie, love.’ A tear formed at the corner of her nanna’s crinkly eyes. It had been a long day for the old woman.
She bent over and hugged her. ‘Never say that, Nanna. You are not a burden. We are going to get you home, get you washed and in your nightie and I’m going to make you some dinner, then we’ll watch TV together. I’m staying the night so we can spend some girly time together. I saw a huge box of chocolates in your cupboard and there are some reruns of Morse on later. We like Inspector Morse, don’t we?’