by Carla Kovach
‘I don’t believe he did it but we have to make sure we follow up properly.’
‘Jake Goodman’s brother said the neighbour knocked while they were on the phone with a parcel for Jake. It had been delivered earlier in the day when he was out. I asked uniform to check this out and they found the neighbour who has confirmed that Jake was in at the time Amber was taken. Given when he arrived at work, he could not have been involved.’
‘Great work in eliminating him. Any news on Mr or Mrs Collins?’
Jacob shook his head. ‘Both of them are apparently off work today, unauthorised absences, and neither are at home, which is odd.’
‘Try to track them down. She’s a teacher and he’s a lecturer and it’s a school day. That’s not sitting well with me and neither are their lies. Keep digging and put out an ANPR on their vehicles. I want them brought in.’
He sat at the main table and made a note. ‘I’ll get straight on to it.’
Wyre entered with Briggs, mid-conversation about the press release. She reached up and rubbed the large bruise on her head.
‘Sorry about this morning, guv.’ Wyre sat at the table and Briggs headed to the board where he glanced back and forth at the updates.
‘That’s okay. You got me worried and that text didn’t seem like one you’d send.’
‘I think I knocked myself a bit sick. One minute I was about to step out of the shower, the next I’d hit my head on the toilet bowl and I knew I was going to be late.’ The red lump on the top of Wyre’s head was evident.
‘Have you been checked out?’
‘I was going to but after half an hour and a cup of tea I felt okay so I thought I’d see how things go. I’m just a bit sore, that’s all.’
Gina raised her brows.
‘Okay, if I feel anything that I shouldn’t, I’ll go straight to the hospital.’ Wyre shivered and did her jacket up. ‘I can’t believe the heating’s still out. These fan heaters are rubbish. I thought it was getting fixed today.’
‘No, the company have cancelled because of the weather. I’m seriously worried about Kapoor.’ Gina glanced around the room. ‘She wouldn’t just go off radar like this. Does anyone know her outside work, maybe a little more on a personal level?’
Everyone shook their head.
Briggs turned. ‘All I know is that she’s never had a sick day.’
‘I’m calling it now. Kapoor not being at her home or contactable is a worry. Her father called again to say none of the family have heard from her.’
Briggs pointed at the board. ‘Look.’
‘I know. Amber Slater, Madison Randle and Jhanvi Kapoor – similar in features, same build. Amber and Madison are both twenty, Kapoor is in her mid-twenties. All three were on AppyDater and live locally. We’ve been grasping at the student link.’ Gina felt the weight of what they were seeing bearing down on her chest. She gasped a little before staring at the board. ‘This can’t be happening. Maybe she’s just…’
The room was silent.
‘No.’ Gina stood and paced, accidentally kicking the waste-paper bin over. ‘We need to put out a press release. Get her face out there for everyone to see. We need to see her flat, now. Where’s her car?’
‘Her father said it’s still in her parking space, behind her apartment block. Just before coming here, I asked uniform if they’d head over and cordon it off. I haven’t had any word back yet.’ Briggs sat down.
Gina glanced at the board. Their persons of interest list was still high. The Collinses, Vincent Jordan and there was another. ‘Otis Norton, the witness at the park. He’d have seen Kapoor there on the day we found Amber Slater’s body. While we’re in process with everyone else, I want him brought in. Can you do that, Jacob?’
He nodded.
‘O’Connor, Jacob, I have the login for Madison Randle’s AppyDater account. She’s given us permission to take a look at it. I’ll leave that with you both. It may throw up some leads. Cross-check any names with Amber Slater’s burner phone contacts, see if there are any patterns in the way the messages are worded – anything!’
‘Yes, guv.’
‘Wyre, are you up to heading over to Kapoor’s apartment with me?’
‘Definitely, guv.’ She rubbed her head.
‘Right, don’t let me stop any of you.’ As everyone prepared for their next tasks, Gina headed over to Briggs. She pulled her gloves from her bag. ‘Are you going to prepare the press statement? Do you need me to do anything?’
He rubbed the back of his neck. ‘I’ve got it in hand. I’ll get on to that right now. I can’t believe this might be happening to one of our own. We have to find her.’ His stare met hers.
‘I know we do. I’ll keep you posted.’ She hurried out, knowing that time was of the essence. Amber Slater’s timeline was all she had to go on. Amber went missing around six thirty on the Friday night and was found dead on the Monday morning. Several hours had already passed. The clock was ticking.
The incident room phone rang and O’Connor grabbed the receiver. ‘Keith. What have you got for us?’ O’Connor stopped biting the end of his pen and gazed at everyone in the room as he listened to Keith in forensics. ‘It’s Amber Slater’s apartment. With her father’s permission the team went back and did a more thorough search. They found some very discreet wiring running from a dummy burglar sensor in Amber’s hallway that is next to the airing cupboard. Whatever was in the sensor has been snipped out with a pair of scissors. Following that lead, it led to a false cupboard that originally looked like the back of the wall and inside that was nothing but a lead and a plughole. If the dust is anything to go by, it looks like someone has recently removed some equipment from the base of this hidden cupboard. There were also several old unused sensors and all were untampered with except one.’
‘Are you saying that she could have been under surveillance and whatever was there has been removed recently? Maybe it was run through the Wi-Fi, enabling whoever was watching her to see her every move.’
‘Yes.’
Gina felt her face flushing and her heart rate pounding. ‘Someone had been watching Amber and it looks like they had easy access to her apartment as this equipment has now been removed.’ Her mind flitted between the landlord or maybe one of her neighbours. ‘We need to find out who had a key to her apartment? Vincent Jordan isn’t sitting well with me. He’d definitely have a spare key being her landlord. His father owns the block. He manages the block and he maintains it. Contact all her neighbours and her father too. I know he has a key and maybe her friend Lauren Sandiford did too. O’Connor, Jacob, contact Madison. We need to check to see if she was under any kind of surveillance.’ She checked her watch. ‘Right, I have to get to Kapoor’s apartment.’ She swallowed and took a deep breath.
40
Gina hurried up the stairs to the third floor of Kapoor’s apartment block with Wyre hot on her tail. Only one of them was breathing heavily as they reached the top. ‘I’m getting so unfit,’ Gina panted. Knocking on Kapoor’s door, they waited a few seconds and Mr Kapoor opened up.
‘Thank you for getting here so quickly. We are so worried about our daughter.’ His creased polo shirt hung over his large belly. He rubbed his eyes, leaving one of his brows sticking out a little.
‘We’re so sorry and we’ll do everything we can to find her.’
‘She’s my only daughter, the baby of the family… we’re beside ourselves. Her brothers are out looking and my wife is having a nervous breakdown. If anything happens to her, I don’t know what we’ll do.’ He gasped and walked through to the kitchen, then stood at the worktop staring out at the car park.
Gina and Wyre followed. ‘I know this is going to be hard but I need to ask you a few questions. We have everyone at the station on alert and looking for her. Are you okay to talk?’
He went to speak and placed his shaking hand on the worktop. ‘Yes. I just want her to come home.’
‘Can you tell me when you last had any form of contact with Jhanvi?�
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‘My wife was on the phone to her last night. She’s a wonderful girl, always calls us. We always say that we are blessed to have her. Jhanvi knew my wife was getting her results this morning and she was desperate to know the outcome. She wouldn’t not call, you know. Something’s happened to her, I know it has. This is so out of character. Look.’ He pointed out of the window where the uniformed officers had set up a cordon. ‘Her car is still there. She didn’t even go to work.’
Gina led the trembling man over to the tiny kitchen table against the wall and he sat. ‘Can you tell me what Jhanvi and your wife spoke about?’
‘I heard them chatting about her brothers and her niece who’s just started nursery. They spoke about my wife’s cancer and how nervous she was of getting the results. And they always ended the conversation with the words “love you.”’ He placed his head in his hands and slumped over the table.
Shivering, Gina sat opposite him. The heating must have gone off when Kapoor left. From looking at the rotas Gina knew she had been due in at six thirty that morning. ‘We know PC Kapoor as a lovely person and a brilliant police officer but we don’t know much about her personal life. Can you tell me a bit about her? Was she seeing anyone?’
His face scrunched a little as he thought. ‘She didn’t have a boyfriend. She was seeing someone three years ago called Ben, but I think she slowly became married to her job so that didn’t last long. She never mentioned anyone else to us. She spent most of her free time with her older brother and niece. She loved little Alisha and often took her out to give her parents a break.’ He began to bite his thumbnail.
‘Is there anywhere you think she could be or might go?’ Gina had to ask the question. Deep down, she hoped that Kapoor could just be working through something no one knew about but the sick feeling in her stomach told her that was wishful thinking.
He shook his head. ‘No. She was always at home, shopping or hanging out at one of our houses when she wasn’t working. If she did go anywhere else, she never told us.’
‘May we take a look around her apartment?’
‘Of course. I’ll just go outside to give my wife a call. She’s beside herself and she keeps messaging me.’ Standing, he walked to the door. ‘I’ll be back in a minute.’ The front door slammed closed.
Gina made a quick call to PC Smith. ‘How are the door-to-doors going? Has anyone seen PC Kapoor this morning?’
‘No luck, guv. Not one person saw her. The resident underneath her heard her door bang around six in the morning but that’s it. Not many people are at home but we’ve left cards and we’ll knock again at the end of the working day.’
After ending the call, she placed her phone in her pocket and followed Wyre through to the other rooms. She checked the corners, not noticing any alarm sensors. Glancing up, she saw a smoke alarm and stared at it, wondering if a hidden camera could be inside the device. There was a knock at the door and Keith entered. ‘Good to see you. Could you carefully check the fire alarms or anything else that could hold a small surveillance device? We need to know if PC Kapoor was being watched and I want that checked before Mr Kapoor comes back up. The last thing I want to do is worry the man even more than he already is.’
Keith walked lopsided, the weight of his toolbox causing him to lean. ‘Yes, I’ll get started.’ He pulled a forensics suit over his shirt and trousers and popped some latex gloves on.
Gina and Wyre gloved up too as they entered the bedroom. The smell of washing powder lingered in the air. Kapoor’s quilt lay in a crumpled heap on one side of the double bed and a pile of books sat on the floor, empty crisp packets being used as bookmarks.
‘I had no idea she was living like this, guv. It looks like she eats crisps in bed and there’s empty pop bottles lined up against the wall and her clothes are just piled up on a chair. Her curtains don’t quite cover her window and her carpet is coming up round the edges of the room. This flat is cold and it’s not one bit homely.’ Wyre walked over to the window and looked out to the large wall of the block of flats opposite.
Gina didn’t want to say that she often had empty sandwich wrappers on her bedroom floor and she lived in chaos too. She imagined Wyre to be pristine at home, just like she normally was in appearance. ‘She has a busy life.’
‘Don’t we all but this room still makes me sad.’ Wyre glanced around. ‘Anything seeming out of place?’
Gina shook her head. ‘I’m going to head to the bathroom.’ She left Wyre in the hallway and took a turn into the small wet room. She placed the back of her hand on the hanging towel. It was damp. She pictured Kapoor getting up early, taking a shower. In her mind, someone was watching through her bedroom window, catching small glimpses of her getting ready through the gaps in the curtains. How long had they waited for her? Maybe they waited in the knowledge that today might not be the day they take Kapoor but the opportunity arose and they took it. Maybe they had studied her routine and knew her shift pattern well enough to be sure that she would be coming out of her apartment at a specific time in the morning.
They had no idea who they were dealing with. An image of Vincent Jordan virtually throwing them out of his bungalow filled her mind.
What did they have? Kapoor was missing and not answering her phone. Kapoor’s car was still in her allocated parking space. Kapoor had got up for work, took a shower and left around six to start her shift at the station, but she never arrived.
Keith made her jump as he poked his head around the door. ‘There’s no sign of any surveillance wiring or equipment in the fire alarms or any of the cupboards. I’m going to take a more thorough look around so it might be best if you head out soon so that I can work my way through the apartment. Mr Kapoor has given me the go-ahead to check whatever I need to. Oh, I didn’t tell you what I did find after I called you earlier. This, you’re going to like.’ He flinched and held his back as he straightened up.
‘What?’ Gina felt more awake in that moment than she had all morning.
‘We found a nice full fingerprint on one of the pipes in Amber’s airing cupboard behind the hidden cupboard where we think some of the surveillance equipment might have been set up. The same print also appeared on the sensor in the hallway where we found remnants of a surveillance device. The print is being run through the system as we speak. There were a few partials too, all fresh and not Amber’s.’
A smile formed across her face. ‘There has to be a match. We could have a name soon and, in turn, a lead on Kapoor.’ A lump in her throat formed.
‘I like Kapoor. She’s a good constable.’
The skin around Keith’s eyes crinkled. She’d never heard him pass a comment on anyone. ‘She is, and we’re going to find her. Now get me a match on that print. Call me as soon as you know anything.’
‘Will do.’ He turned away and headed to the kitchen.
Gina met Wyre by the door. ‘Anything of interest?’
‘I found a pad in her kitchen drawer and she’s written something on it. I’m not sure if it’s anything to do with the case but she’s written down a time and date, three a.m. this morning, and then there’s the briefest of descriptions. Tall, male, too dark to see. Then she drew a line through it. I wonder if she saw something in the night and, being a police officer, instinctively noted it down. On the other pages she has random notes and dates but nothing for the past three weeks.’
‘What type of notes?’
‘Things like youths hanging around by bin cupboard. Drunken woman falling asleep in communal area. Graffiti appearing on the fence at the back. Kids having a fight but no one hurt. The smell of weed. It’s like her own personal little log.’
Gina headed through to the kitchen to see for herself. ‘Let’s bag it up.’
Wyre took an evidence bag from her pocket and sealed the notebook in it.
‘She saw something in the night and then thought nothing more of it. If only she’d called it in for us to investigate.’ Gina placed her hand over her mouth and grimaced.
&
nbsp; Wyre didn’t reply. They both knew that if their killer had Kapoor, there was a chance they’d never see her again.
Gina’s phone rang. ‘Jacob,’ she answered. ‘Right. We’re on our way back now.’ She ended the call and headed to the door. ‘We’ve had a breakthrough.’
41
The record comes to an end and Jhanvi hopes it’s the last time she has to hear it. She sees the flashing lights again. Keep your calm – he’s trying to confuse you. He hadn’t left earlier. She’d felt his breath on her neck as she remained in pitch-black darkness. It was like being with a ghost. Maybe he’d gone for a while, maybe not, but he was definitely back now.
She then hears him breathing from all parts of the room and pictures him watching through some night vision goggles.
Trying to loosen the binds around her wrists, she knows there is no point. The sores are just getting deeper and deeper and she’s not getting any closer to escaping.
He wants something but what is it? Think like a police officer not a captive. Better still, think like him. What does he want? The constant music is messing with her senses. He’s trying to break her, but why? What happens if it doesn’t or if she tries to yell and escape? She shivers as she thinks of Amber and what the post-mortem report had said. Amber’s lips had been superglued.
Panic builds up and the urge to throw all her strength into trying to break free overwhelms her. Her whole body aches for the chance. She wants a free hand so that she could punch him in the throat if he comes close enough. She might be small and slight but people underestimate her strength.
‘I’m not the enemy, you know.’ His voice is gentle.
Her chest feels as though her heart might explode from it at any moment. Her eyes searched for any glint of light in the darkness but there was none. Not a spec. She didn’t try to answer, leaving him to do the talking. Everything she could think of saying might antagonise him. He’d expect the following: Please let me go. Why me? My family will miss me. Someone will know I’m missing. They’re on to you. Please don’t hurt me. Amber Slater must have said all those things but he didn’t let her go. He stabbed her through the heart and dumped her body in the lake.