‘Yes. The shoeprint at the cut through is a UK size ten, the same as the field print. The footprint in the field looks like it belongs to a person with a limp, not the same as the ones around the cut through. The right foot touches the ground in a lighter way. You’ll see what I mean in the report.’
‘Any prints detected on the knife?’
‘No. Whoever did this was wearing gloves.’
‘Anything else?’
‘I’m afraid not. Not until I get everything back to the lab and the post-mortem happens. Will you be attending?’
Gina had so many interviews to get through and she needed to be there, to see the reactions of everyone she spoke to. ‘I’ll do my best but probably not. We have too many leads to follow up. I’ll task DC O’Connor with that one. Will it be done tomorrow?’
Bernard looked down at the body. ‘I spoke to the pathologist and he will do it tomorrow lunchtime. I’ll get all the details to you as soon as.’
‘I really appreciate you getting that organised quickly. Do you know the approximate time of death?’
He smiled. ‘That I can help with. We know that she died from the stab wound. Given the temperature of her body and the state it’s in, I’d say time of death was between eight thirty and nine. That might help with your timeline. I need to get on. Photos and video of the scene have been taken so I’ll get all that emailed to you ASAP. We need her moved before rigor mortis sets in and that won’t be long.’
‘Thank you so much. Right, unless there’s anything else you can tell me now, I’m going to see how things are going on the ground.’ She caught the sound of an engine cutting followed by that of a van door opening. ‘I bet that’s the dog team.’ That’s when she heard a dog bark, confirming what she’d suspected.
As she left the tent, she caught sight of Wyre passing PC Smith’s cordon. ‘Guv.’ She waved.
Gina hurried over and updated her colleague.
‘Guv.’ A PC ran up the lane and stopped in front of the two detectives while he got his breath back. ‘We have a witness.’
THIRTY-SIX
Omar
‘Where have you been?’
That’s my mother’s voice. I know I should have called her to say I was with a friend. I got scared of being seen by the police so I stayed behind that sign for ages. ‘I… err, I was at Max’s house.’ She doesn’t reply. She’s doing that thing where she stares at her hands on the table, her brows arched in disappointment. ‘Sorry, Mum.’
‘You weren’t answering your phone.’ Still, she doesn’t look up. Instead she picks up her phone as if to emphasise her point.
‘Sorry. It needed charging. I should have taken my charger with me.’ I wish she’d let me go to my room and not have to sit through a lecture. I haven’t got time for this. My legs are shaking and I know if she looks at me, she’ll see. I can’t exactly tell her I saw someone get murdered and that the murderer might be after me now. I can’t tell her about the secret, about Annabel, or about the threat I’m under. Everything is a big fat mess.
The woman who runs the pub looked at me but it was as if she was staring right at me at one point. I remember my mouth filling with spit and I couldn’t swallow. I thought I could just say something, anything that might put her mind at ease that I wasn’t a threat. I was going to tell her that I didn’t kill Taylor but I couldn’t speak. Instead, I stood there staring and that must have seemed menacing, then I hit her phone. Everything is out of control. I stuffed up. She’ll definitely think I killed Taylor.
‘I was worried.’ My mother pauses and slaps her lips together, making a pop sound. ‘I kept looking at Facebook, mostly your profile, and then I saw that there’s been an incident on the lane at the back of the pub. Until you walked through that door, I thought it was you. I kept calling and calling you. I was so close to calling the police.’ She trembles as she picks up a glass of water and sips. ‘Don’t you ever put me through that again. You’re fourteen. You have to tell me where you are and keep your phone charged. I’ve never been so scared.’ She stands and grips me close to her, almost squeezing the breath out of me. ‘You’re shaking.’
I can’t deny that. My body is trembling like a road drill. ‘You just scared me, Mum, when you said something has happened out there tonight. I promise I won’t leave the house with an uncharged phone again.’
She lets me go. ‘Sit.’ Her worried tone is now serious. That, I wasn’t expecting. I sit. ‘There’s something else we need to talk about and it’s important that you tell the truth.’
For a minute, I hold my breath. Does she know everything? She’s been through my things, my iPad or my wardrobe. She must have. She doesn’t trust me. She knows I’m distracted and up to something. Why wouldn’t she? She’s my mum. She knows me better than anyone and I’ve let her down. ‘Okay.’ My voice is nothing more than a crackled whisper.
‘You’ve driven my car again, haven’t you?’
I shakily nod my head. Is that all she knows?
‘I know we’ve been through some bad times. You lost your father a couple of years ago and things haven’t been the same. I’m always at work. Maybe I don’t give you enough of my time. I don’t know whether you’ve got into a wrong crowd or what, but you promised you’d never drive my car again. Is it Max? Is he telling you to do all this? Staying out late and not answering your phone. Are you using drugs, out there drinking in parks?’ She shakes her head. ‘Tell me you weren’t.’ She doesn’t wait for me to answer. ‘You were always such a good boy, Omar. You’re clever, sensitive, smart and loving. What you did wasn’t you. Your father will be turning in his grave. I don’t want you seeing this Max again. Okay?’
I nod. ‘I wasn’t taking drugs or drinking, I swear on my life. You can smell my breath if you want.’ There is no Max, I made him up. I needed someone to blame when my mum saw me pulling back up in her car that one time. I wanted to drive it. I mean it’s easy to drive with it being an automatic. She doesn’t know that I’ve driven it many times, that’s how I’d got so good at driving. I liked being able to go anywhere, quickly, and to race it around the country lanes when it was quiet. Recently, I needed it to watch Annabel. I didn’t want to use my bike all the time. It’s hard in the night and it’s not like she notices it missing if I plan when I take it. ‘Okay. I won’t hang out with him. He’s moving anyway.’
‘Sometimes as a parent you have to do the right thing. If I keep letting you get away with breaking the law, you’ll never know the consequences of your actions. You could kill someone. You don’t have insurance and what you’ve being doing is stealing my car.’
‘Please don’t say anything, Mum. It might stop me getting into university or getting a job. Please?’ I beg her. She can’t tell on me. Not only that, the police will blame me for everything. I need to find out who killed Taylor, only then can everything fall apart underneath me.
