Maybe her team wasn’t involved.Maybe it was just these two.
She needed to get word to Nhiari, though chances were good that Lee already knew they were involved.
She reviewed the rest of the footage and then took the packaged drone with her as she left her office.Martin and Pierre were back.“I need to run an errand,” Dot said.“I’ll be back in an hour.”
Her stomach rumbled as she left the station.All she’d had was a sandwich Sam had given her.Just another normal day.She stopped by the cafe to get a cream doughnut and was on her way to the airport when Rodney called.
He should be out of mobile range by now.
“Something wrong?”she answered.
“Where’s the drone?”
Her eyebrows raised.Interesting he should notice the drone missing now, when he should be driving straight to Carnarvon, not going through the evidence they collected.“I accidentally tucked it into my backpack when we were carrying things to the boat.I just dropped it at the airport to send to Perth.”
“Sloppy work, Dot.I’ll come back and get it.”
“I’ve already signed the chain of custody.”
Rodney swore.
“Don’t worry.It will be loaded and in Perth before you even get to Carnarvon.They’ve got better facilities there.”
“You need to do better, Dot.”He hung up.
She accelerated, resisting the urge to use her flashing lights.She didn’t want to cause talk, but she had to make sure the package caught the flight.Hopefully she wouldn’t pass Rodney on her way out.
Where and why had he stopped?
Perhaps he’d simply realised he hadn’t seen the drone when they’d loaded the car.
After dropping the drone at the airport, she called the lab to check the status of her fingerprints evidence.
“Dot, thanks for calling me back,” the technician said.“I didn’t want to give details to anyone except you in light of what I found.”
Dot frowned.“Wait.You called the station?Who did you speak to?”
“Colin.”
Who hadn’t told Dot about the call, even though he knew she was waiting for it.“What did you find?”
“The fingerprints belong to Constable Colin Lipscombe.Did he touch the barrels without gloves?”
Dot’s mouth dropped open and her stomach swirled.Not Colin.“No.He wasn’t there.”
The technician swore.“Sorry, Dot.”
“Yeah.Thanks.”She hung up, mind whirling.Colin had always been so eager, so willing to be involved.He’d said his dream had always been to be a police officer, and he’d proven to be a hard worker, always offering to do overtime and extra shifts for the experience.
What had happened?
She debated calling Rodney, but he should be well and truly out of mobile range by now.Plus, she wanted a chance to question Colin first.
She needed another officer with her.Without Nhiari here, it would have to be Martin or Pierre, and while Pierre was more likely to take a neutral stance, Martin was next in the chain of command.They needed to be on the same page.
When she arrived back at the station, all her officers were there.She called Martin into her office.“We have a problem,” she said as he closed the door.
Martin raised his eyebrows.“Another one?”
