‘Nice area,’ O’Connor replied as he swung back and forth on the swivel chair while he munched on a slice of Battenberg.
‘Where does she work?’ Gina was trying hard to zone out of O’Connor’s annoying chomping noises.
Wyre smiled and continued. ‘Altecca Security Systems in Studley. They are a multinational company specialising in top spec security alarms. She works in business development. High level sales management.’
‘Did a background check bring anything up?’ Gina gazed at the notes on the board.
‘No, guv. No record at all. Council records show us that she has lived in Cleevesford most of her life except for when she was at university. She’s a local. She went to school in the area.’
‘Was it the same school as Dale or Susan?’
‘Same as Dale, Saint John’s High School. She was in the year above him though.’ Wyre shivered as she did up the buttons on her jet-black suit.
‘So she and Dale would have known each other better than they knew Susan. When we spoke to Dale’s mother, she recognised Stephanie but couldn’t remember her name. The way she described Stephanie, it seemed she was a little scrawny and timid. Anything on record going back over the years, maybe reports to social services?’
‘Not a jot, guv,’ O’Connor replied as he pulled his chair under the main table.
‘Let’s move on to the search so far.’
Jacob cleared his throat. ‘I’ve just got off the phone from PC Kapoor. She has been keeping us updated from the field. As you know we started where Dale’s body was discovered and we’ve been informed that a small piece of material was found. Mary gave uniform a scarf that belonged to Susan and the dogs sniffed it out. It’s definitely more than a coincidence that this was found close to the scene. The piece of material has since gone to the lab and been added to Bernard’s pile. As is stands, he’s still analysing some of the items from Dale’s house and other items found at the scene of Dale’s body, there’s a real backlog happening. All staff are working round the clock to clear it. He did mention the liquorice and the serrated knife that we spoke about. Find the knife, find the killer. An exact match can be made. He also mentioned that there was a little dent in one of the serrations, this will make any matches even more definite.’
‘Thanks, Jacob. So we are almost certain that we can match Susan to the riverside where we found Dale’s body. Susan was there.’
Wyre twiddled her pen. ‘Are we still thinking that Susan could be person number two in all this? We did find a section of red liquorice amongst her personal items, linking her to Dale.’
‘I know on the surface that this could still be the case, but no. Things have changed with Phoebe missing. Why would she put her daughter through that?’
‘We have a confirmation on the tracker, the one found in Susan’s car. Wyre, you’ve been looking into this.’
Wyre nodded. ‘I do, guv. We can now confirm that Susan had the tracker fitted. It’s a company that locates your car should it be stolen. Nothing sinister in it. I called them up and they remember her bringing the car in herself. One of the guys there remembered her as she was so pretty, can you believe it?’
‘Did the data download reveal anything about her whereabouts?’
‘Only what we already know, the appointments she had that day. Leading up to the day she disappeared, it seems she did spend a lot of time at Dale’s house. No trips to Beech Street, the postcode written in her notes. Maybe she never attended that appointment.’
‘Okay, good work. I know we have a big list of persons of interest building up, but I don’t want anyone brought in until we have something concrete. The case we present to the CPS has to be tight. Anything from any of the appeals?’
O’Connor looked up. ‘Nothing as yet, sorry, guv.’
Briggs entered, passing Gina a wad of paper. ‘Susan Wheeler’s phone records. Check out the last message.’
Gina glanced at the printout.
He’s coming.
‘Who’s coming?’
‘That’s the good bit. This message came from a phone registered to our Stephanie Baxter. Bring her in now. From that message and the call she made to us from the phone box, I’d say she was in danger. Given what has happened to Dale, you have to go now.’
‘Anyone fancy coming with me to Stephanie’s house? We need to find out whoheis.’ Gina could see that they would all like to get out for a while and ditch the paper-sorting but Wyre beat them to the mark.
‘I need to get out for a while. Me, please. I’m sick of wading through all Susan’s paperwork and following up on calls of people who think they’ve seen Susan everywhere.’
‘Great! Quick updates on the media appeals.’ She awkwardly glanced at Briggs.
‘Annie has kept me informed. The appeals are still hitting the local news. Susan has no connections to the wider community, her life existed mostly in Cleevesford so we aren’t spanning the search any further than the Midlands as yet. Our friend Lyndsey Saunders seems to be running with the story in theHerald. It’s been on all social media platforms, appeared in their local papers and she’s keeping us updated with anything she hears.’
‘At what cost?’ Gina knew Lyndsey well. Her help would come with a price.
