‘I’m not going to win this one, am I?’
‘Nope.’ Madison shook her head as she dragged her hair from the insides of her jumper. Alice was right with that question.
‘We’re heading to Tyrone’s. He said he saw something last night and he wants to be sure about what he saw before he tells the police.’ Alice paused. ‘It could be dangerous.’
‘I’ve already faced danger. Count me in.’ Madison dragged her hair into a low messy bun and pulled one of Alice’s woolly hats onto her head. As she lifted her arms up, she grimaced. ‘Wow, I stink.’
‘You should stay here and have a shower instead. We’ve got this.’
‘No. You go, I go.’ She paused as she shivered in the thick coat. ‘Do you think we’re close to finding out who attacked me?’
Alice grabbed her tiny rucksack, the one she used as a glorified handbag and she fed her one arm through it. ‘I hope so.’ Within moments they’d left, slamming the main door behind them.
For several minutes Alice had been turning her car key but the little old Fiesta wasn’t having any of it. About a foot of snow had settled on the roof and bonnet.
‘I suppose we should walk. I’ll tell Tyrone we’ll be ten minutes.’ Madison pulled out her phone and removed her gloves to call Tyrone. The phone rang out and went to answerphone after several rings. ‘He’s not picking up.’
‘Try again while I check Facebook.’
‘Still no answer.’ Madison ended the call and they began walking.
‘He hasn’t been on Facebook for three hours according to when he was last active. He knows I’m coming. He called me then to say we were meeting at eight in the morning, at his. He should be up and ready.’
‘What exactly are you both planning?’
Alice stopped, almost slipping on a patch of trodden snow. ‘He wouldn’t say.’
Madison tried his number again. This time it went straight to answerphone.
‘Hurry, we’re already late.’ Alice grabbed Madison’s arm.
‘What if something’s happened to him?’ Alice continued hurrying without answering Madison and she wondered if Alice knew more than she was letting on. For the first time that morning, Alice looked worried.
62
Gina shook her head. ‘With Mr Collins’s confession, all we can possibly have him for is harassing Amber, nothing more and no further evidence to prove otherwise.’ All their theories were slipping away, being disproven at speed when they had no time left. The metaphorical egg timer was running out of sand.
‘We’ve made two arrests this evening but neither has brought us closer to finding Kapoor.’ Jacob sniffed and sat back.
Mr Collins was being charged and so was Vincent Jordan – harassment and drug dealing. On a normal day, those results would be celebrated but now the team seemed more deflated than ever. The stench of frustration and failure filled the room and Kapoor was still missing. Gina stood up straight, trying her hardest to fight her body’s need to curl up into a ball and ruminate. There was no time for that. ‘Jacob, just run through things for us. Let’s start with Corrine Blake’s story.’ Snow blanketed the outer wall of the car park but the road itself had been gritted earlier that morning. Gina wiped the condensation from the incident room window to get a better look and in it she could make out Jacob’s tired reflection.
‘I checked with her again and she says it was a slip of the tongue. Her parents had lived at that address all her life, as had she before leaving for university. She claims she didn’t knowingly give us her wrong registered address and said she kept meaning to change it to the flat on Bulmore Drive but hadn’t got around to it. She seemed to be more worried about her passport and driving licence still being registered there.’ She turned, taking in the length of Jacob’s stubble.
‘Have we checked the addresses, old and new?’
He nodded. ‘Uniform have seen to that. Her parents live at the new address Corrine gave us and the old address has a new family living there. It seems that Corrine Blake is genuinely just a little forgetful.’
‘I honestly don’t know how some people function in life.’ She glanced at the board and three faces stared back at her. Amber, Madison and PC Kapoor. The photo they’d used was a professional shot with a pale grey background that was taken at an awards function. Her face so youthful, smiling in her pristine uniform. The classic shot. The type that families proudly displayed on mantlepieces. Gina remembered her earlier days in uniform and she had a similar photo but it was somewhere in the loft, boxed away no doubt until the day she died, when maybe her daughter Hannah would unearth it. Her stomach fluttered. They were seriously running out of time. She glanced at the other photos, the ones of Amber’s body at the scene and post-mortem. In her mind, she saw Kapoor’s next to them. The spritely young officer, dead and bloated then a y-incision on her chest as she lay on a stainless steel slab as her body gave up its secrets.
‘Guv.’ Wyre entered with a tray of steaming hot coffees. ‘I think we all need these.’
Gina continued to stare at the board. All hope slowly diminishing. She dragged her fingers through her hair, pulling a few strands out before grabbing a coffee. ‘Thank you. We’re not going to find her, are we?’
Each detective was a realist in their own right. If a family member was asking the same question, it would be met with,we are doing all we can,not a promise to find their loved ones safe and alive. No one knew. There were no answers to be had, only a deep sense of hope that a lead would come in fast.
Gina took a long swig of the coffee and hoped that the caffeine would begin to work as she was now struggling to function. ‘The Collinses: nothing. Tyrone Heard: again, nothing. Vincent Jordan: nothing unless you count the drug charges. That won’t save PC Kapoor. The link was looking promising with Madison and Amber – both students, living close to each other, same university. But Kapoor – apart from having a similar hair colour – where does she fit in? They all have their similarities but looking for someone who targets dark hair and not knowing why isn’t really helping us.’
‘There’s definitely a resemblance.’ Jacob took a coffee and thanked Wyre.
