‘I’ve already been through this with one of your colleagues but, yes. Annabel was knocking them back, in fact she staggered out of the pub but Jennifer; she was on lemonade. I wondered how Jen was going to get her home. We joked a bit about that as they left. Earlier, they seemed to be having quite the serious conversation. Maybe Jennifer was comforting Annabel at one point but I couldn’t be sure. They were sitting with their back to me most of the night facing the fireplace.’
‘Did you see anyone approach or speak to them?’
‘No, not at all. They were stuck in their little corner all night talking and drinking. There was something else.’
‘Relating to that night?’
‘No, another time.’
‘How long ago was that?’
‘A week or two ago. It wasn’t in the pub. I saw that Annabel had parked up by the accountants to use the supermarket. The car park was quite full as it was about five when most people finish work. I saw a man with his hand on her arm and it looked like she was pushing him away. It wasn’t her husband as she’s been in the pub with him in the past. It looked like they were arguing. She seemed angry or upset.’
‘What did he look like?’
‘Quite tall. I only saw the back of him but he looked fit. Well proportioned, not in a workout with weights way but slightly broad. I do remember that he got into a silver Fiesta. That’s all I have.’
‘And can you remember the day?’
‘No, I wish I could. At least a week ago, no more than two. Sorry to be so vague.’
Gina knew that Whittle drove a silver Fiesta. He was tall too. ‘Thank you for this, you’ve been really helpful. Is there anything else that you can think of?’
‘No. How do I give you my clothes?’
Gina nodded at a uniformed officer who was guarding the perimeter. ‘I know this is a lot but I will need you to go to the station and give a formal statement? We can guide you through everything there.’
Elouise nodded. ‘Yes. Of course I will.’
‘Thank you. You already have my details if you need to contact me about anything.’ Gina smiled at the PC. ‘Would you take over?’
He nodded and went over to Elouise. Gina waved at Bernard.
‘Gina, come over. I’m ready now.’
She swallowed as she thought about the girl who she’d met at the cabin and the thought of seeing her as a corpse wasn’t sitting well. As she pulled on a forensics suit and got checked in by PC Smith, she glanced at the trees and shrubs. While Elouise was approaching and the boy was in the verge, there was someone else there, watching on. She shivered at the thought.
THIRTY-FIVE
‘DI Harte. Stick to the stepping plates and come over.’ Bernard gave a nod of his head and stepped into the entrance of the tent.
As Gina tried to keep to the plates, she nudged a light, almost knocking it over. A crime scene assistant caught it in time and repositioned it so that it shone brightly into the tent. The rustling of the hood seemed to distort Bernard’s voice slightly. She peered in to where Bernard was standing hunched so that his head didn’t touch the top of the canvas. Then, she allowed her gaze to settle on the body. The tiny woman was lying on her back, limbs bent a little and her face deathly pale. Thankfully, her eyes were closed. Gina swallowed as she saw the blood pooled around her head. If only they’d kept Taylor at the station. This wouldn’t have happened. ‘What do you know?’
‘We’ll obviously know more when we conduct a post-mortem but this is what we have so far. She was killed by a single knife wound to the neck. The carotid artery has been cut with the knife. She would have died quickly and, as you can see, she lost a lot of blood. Death could have happened within seconds.’
‘So whoever did this knew what they were doing?’ Gina shrugged. ‘Or maybe, it’s just common knowledge. Anyone can find out anything on the internet. What else?’
‘We have the weapon and I have briefly examined the wound. It looks to be a match and has blood on it too. Obviously, I can verify that when I get everything back to the lab.’
Gina looked away from the body. Taylor did not deserve this. She’d been foolish and she had betrayed Annabel’s trust, but no one deserved this. ‘Tell me about the knife you found?’
‘It was in the verge, a metre away from the body. I measured it to be thirty centimetres long in total. It’s a common make. They sell them everywhere as individual knives or as knife sets in a block. I know that as I have a set of them at home.’
‘Anything else?’
‘We have picked up a lot of debris. The usual. Cigarette butts. Rubbish. All this will be taken back to the lab. We do have a partial footprint, one of the only clear prints through the cut in the shrubs and we have a collection of prints just behind the tree line. It’s quite a damp evening so we are making moulds. The footprint in the cut through looks to be different to the one in the field. I did notice that the trees could be easily parted for someone to slip through.’
‘The witness I just spoke to said she heard someone behind the trees so that makes sense. We are looking for two people. The boy that she saw at the scene and another person. Do we have the shoe sizes?’
