Stephanie took the cup from her and sipped the drink as she clutched the cup in her jittery hands. ‘I’ve been attacked.’
Gina pulled out a packet of tissues from her bag and handed one to Stephanie. ‘I can see you’re hurt. I want to help you. Can you tell me what happened?’
‘I was walking, trying to remember…’
‘Remember what?’
‘Don’t you see? I can’t remember. I was walking and someone came up behind me and went to grab me. I hit him back so hard, jabbed him with my umbrella.’
‘Someone attacked you? When did this happen?’ Gina sat next to Stephanie. She could see the anguish the woman was going through. Her teeth gritted as if she was trying to stop herself from talking. Her knuckles white as she gripped the cup, spilling bits of tea onto her lap as she trembled.
‘Just… just before I came home.’
‘Where did this happen?’ As soon as Stephanie said the word, she would have a team out looking for her attacker. She felt for her phone, ready to pull it out. ‘Where, Stephanie? We need to catch the person who attacked you. I know this is hard and I know you’re upset.’ Gina felt her heart humming away as she thought of Phoebe. She needed to find the girl and that started with Stephanie talking to them but she could see how delicate the woman in front of her was. Her mind was running through the scenario that Stephanie had escaped from the same attacker and the ticking clock was making her head ache. ‘Stephanie, where did this happen? Where?’
She slammed the cup on the coffee table, spilling half the contents. ‘I don’t know. Leave me alone. I can’t tell.’
‘What can’t you tell?’
The woman shook her head back and forth as tears slipped down her face, one after another. Her puffy eyes refused to make eye contact with Gina or anything else. The wall was the only thing she would look at. Gina caught sight of her mucky fingernails and spotted a red streak mixed in with the dirt. ‘Stephanie, my colleague, Detective Constable Wyre has called an ambulance. We need to check you over. I can see you have an injury to your head and wrist and you’re in shock. I see blood under your fingernails. You defended yourself against your attacker, you say? Could that be your attacker’s blood?’ Gina wanted her nails swabbed.
Wyre came back in and nodded. Gina knew the ambulance was on its way.
‘Is there anything you can tell me about your attacker?’
She shook her head. ‘I need to speak to Susan, first.’
‘We don’t know where Susan is. Maybe if you tell me what you do know, we might be able to find her.’
Stephanie shivered and her teeth sounded like castanets clacking together. Gina spotted a snuggle-blanket on the floor by the window. As she went to reach for it a knife dropped to the floor. A mid-length serrated blade. At once she stiffened up.
‘Stephanie, how did this knife get here?’
The woman’s gaze moved from the wall to the knife.
‘The knife. Is it yours?’
She bent forward and sobbed. ‘Yes.’
The case flashed through Gina’s mind then her thoughts stopped at the piece of liquorice forensics had pulled from Dale’s throat. It had been cut with a serrated knife. The only way to tell if this knife had cut the sweet was to have it analysed at the lab. In front of her she had a distressed woman who had just been attacked. She tried to picture Stephanie strangling Dale or being there when it happened. She couldn’t be one of their suspects, could she?
‘Stephanie, it’s really important. What were you trying to remember?’ Gina went to place her hand on Stephanie’s arm and she flinched.
The woman shook her head, an expression of fear on her contorted face as she thought. ‘I don’t know.’ She clenched her eyes closed and held her breath before shouting. ‘The door beyond the door, beyond the other door.’
Susan’s poems mentioned a door, more than one door.
‘Susan mentions a door in her poems. Is it the same door?’
Stephanie paused and held her breath. As her face reddened, she exhaled and shrugged her shoulders.
‘Stephanie, this is really important. We have a missing child, Phoebe Wheeler. She’s only eleven and she’ll be scared. We need to find her and we think you can help. Why do you have this knife, here?’
She shrugged.
Gina spotted Wyre picking up the teabag to bin it. The lid opened. ‘Guv, come here.’
‘I’ll just be a moment,’ she said to Stephanie.
