‘You say you knew some of the party attendees, did that include Francesca Carter?’
Jaw clenched, he half smiled. ‘No. I didn’t know Francesca Carter.’
‘Where were you last night?’
He grinned and leaned back. The little bit of cooperation they were receiving had come to an end. Briggs nodded her way.
‘Robin Dawkins. I’m arresting you on suspicion of the murder of Francesca Carter on the evening of Monday, the eleventh of May. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.’ She only hoped that twenty-four hours would be long enough to gather the evidence needed but with another bridesmaid in potential danger, she couldn’t let him back out on the streets without doing all she could. He had size nine feet and he had no alibi during Francesca or Holly’s murders. He also had opportunity in both cases.
‘I’m not saying another word until I speak to a solicitor.’ He kicked the table leg and turned to the side, refusing to look at her.
‘Interview terminated at seventeen twelve. Let’s book you in.’
Her thoughts drifted to Phillip Brighton and his interview. She hoped that her colleagues had managed to get more out of him. She was missing something that was right in front of her. Phillip Brighton and Robin Dawkins, both of them refusing to speak, both of them not having alibis. Maybe there was a connection between them. She had to keep the possibility of there being more than one person involved at the front of her mind. Two similar murders but different murder methods.
Briggs hurried to her side as she left Robin with the desk sergeant and a PC.
‘Maybe a few hours in a cell will make him remember where he was and hopefully his solicitor will drum some sense into him.’ Gina paused. ‘I can’t stop thinking about the girl he assaulted all those years ago. Can a person really change that much and not have the same urges, or maybe he needed to go further to satiate his urges? And, if Robin Dawkins gave into such urges, what would have triggered him to have done so? The party maybe?’ The questions were coming thick and fast and she had no answers.
‘We have twenty-four hours to work that one out. Wyre and O’Connor should be back soon. Maybe the post-mortem will tell us something.’ Briggs smiled.
As they entered the incident room, it seemed a little quiet. The Phillip Brighton interview was still going on and most of the others were chasing up leads. PC Kapoor walked in.
‘Any updates?’
‘No, guv,’ PC Kapoor replied before turning to Briggs. ‘Only the press. They keep calling. Annie told us that she’s preparing a press release for you.’
Briggs nodded. ‘Great. I best head over to corporate communications and get onto that. I’ll catch you later.’
Gina hoped he wouldn’t. She needed a rest from everything and she needed to find out why her daughter hadn’t called back. She hurried to her office and logged onto the system. Samuel Avery still hadn’t been located. At the very least, she had Trevor Reed’s statement about his behaviour towards Francesca at the wedding reception. There was a knock and her door was pushed open.
‘Alright, guv. We have news.’ Jacob sidled into her office and sat.
‘Hit me with it.’ She needed news. ‘I have a list of suspects with no concrete evidence and I’m now on the twenty-four hour timer with Robin Dawkins. Is it to do with Phillip Brighton?’
‘Yes, we’ve just finished his interview. He was on a bus at the time of Francesca’s murder. With stops, that takes care of forty minutes. We’re just checking out the pubs in Redditch he said he was drinking at. I suspect he went there to deal but we’re not likely to get a confession out of him.’
That wasn’t what she wanted to hear. She wanted something that could tie him to Francesca Carter’s murder.
‘We’ve had to let him go for now.’
‘Okay, thank you.’
‘We’ll catch this person.’
She smiled. There didn’t seem to be enough to go on. ‘Organise a search of Robin Dawkins’s flat for first thing but in the meantime, keep digging. We can speak to his girlfriend too. A six o’clock wake-up call will ensure she’s in and catch her off guard. Does Cassandra Wilson have a record?’
‘No, not a jot.’
‘Have we managed to crack Robin Dawkins’s phone?’
‘Not yet, but that should come back soon. It takes a lot to keep our tech team out.’
‘At least he has a phone. We still haven’t come across the phone or tablet that Holly Long had been using.’
‘Oh, Wyre and O’Connor are back.’
‘It’s all happening at once. I’ll come through in a second. Maybe Francesca Carter’s post-mortem will tell us something.’ She quickly scanned the system. Holly Long’s bank statements had been fully uploaded. She needed to delve further into Holly’s life and take a closer look at the flags against certain transactions.
