Gina exhaled sharply and looked away. Jennifer lay there, blood matted to her hair. Red smears on her yellow jacket. Her skinny jeans scuffed with dirt and her Doc Martens boots scratched and scuffed; her eyes closed and a deep cut under one of her eyes.
‘An officer and a member of our team went with the ambulance. Her clothing will be bagged up. There may be traces of plastic or paintwork from the car.’
‘We have a missing woman and one of our CSIs in hospital. Was this a random accident that led to someone mowing Jennifer down and taking Annabel or was it calculated? What’s that?’ Gina pointed to the item next to the yellow marker with a number eleven on it.
‘A tiny piece of material that is now bagged. It has some sort of paint on it and a smear of blood.’
‘Can I see it?’
Bernard headed over to the large box and pulled out the bag, passing it to Gina. She held it near a portable light and could see that it was about the size of a cloth handkerchief with rough edges. ‘Is the paint or dye black or blue?’
‘Not sure yet. It looks more like a deep blue but I’ll tell you more when I’ve had a proper look. We might be able to get a paint match which might help.’
She passed the evidence bag back to Bernard.
‘Guv,’ Kapoor called. ‘Dog team is on the way.’
‘Thanks. Has anyone else been admitted to hospital displaying any injuries consistent with being attacked or run over?’
‘We did check for that when we found the other woman’s handbag, but no. Only Jennifer.’ Kapoor paused then continued, ‘A woman in one of the houses is awake and would like to talk to someone.’
Gina felt her heart rate pick up. ‘Did she see anything?’
‘She saw someone.’
‘I’ll catch you later, Bernard. Any updates, call me.’
‘Will do.’ The wiry man turned and joined his colleagues in bagging up the exhibits.
Gina glanced one more time into the darkness around them all. The epicentre of the hustle and bustle lit up in the nothingness around them. Officers had taken a look and found no one injured in a verge or behind a tree. Bernard had confirmed that there was a blood trail that wasn’t from Jennifer’s injuries that simply vanished. Deep down, Gina knew the dogs weren’t going to find a thing. Annabel had been taken and the person who took her had left Jennifer in the road to die.
FOUR
A woman leaned against a huge tree in a grey hoodie and track bottoms. ‘I’m DI Harte. You’re?’
‘Sybil. My baby is a bit fussy, can we go inside to talk while I feed him?’
‘Of course.’
‘That’s why I was awake. I’ve been pacing the floor since early evening, back and forth, feed, cuddles, singing, rocking. It gets exhausting.’
It had been a long time since Gina had done all that for her grown-up daughter, Hannah, but she remembered the exhaustion well. She followed the young woman down the long drive and a stark light flickered on. Sybil’s black hair fell straw-like over her shoulders and a patch of what looked like baby sick had absorbed into the shoulder of her top. She pushed open a huge door and led Gina into a Victorian tiled hallway, where a man rubbing his eyes met her. He passed the wrapped up bawling baby over to Sybil.
‘Follow me.’ She continued to a reception room where she sank back into a nursing chair. ‘Have a seat.’
‘Thanks.’ Gina sat on the battered-looking couch opposite the huge open fireplace.
The woman unzipped her hoodie and opened her nursing top, allowing the very hungry baby to latch on and feed. ‘That should keep him happy for a while.’
‘Thank you for speaking to me. I know you’re very tired and busy so I’ll try to make this quick. Can you tell me what you saw or heard, and when?’
The baby guzzled away. ‘It was probably between ten thirty and eleven thirty. Sorry to be vague but I didn’t look at the clock. My boyfriend was asleep and has to be up early to travel for a meeting in London so I was trying to placate the little one. That’s when I tuned into the noise of a humming engine. It’s normally quiet around here so I was naturally curious. I saw a light flick on, like whoever was in the car had turned on the interior light.’
‘Where was this car parked?’
‘To the right of my drive which is mostly covered by trees.’
‘Can you describe the person in the car?’
