‘Just some dude I had an argument with. I went a bit too far but it was all words, nothing else. You have to believe me, Mum.’
She took a deep breath. She did believe him. ‘Okay, I’ll do it. Now go and get ready,’ she said before ending the call.
She needed to take the laptop to her mum’s. She would not put her son in the frame regardless of what he’d done. Her mind went back to Craig. He was many things but she was sure he wasn’t a killer but… would he do something to cover for their son?
Her thoughts ticked over what Danny had been saying. Maybe Danny did tell Craig that Kain had kicked her. She took a deep breath and tried to calm her banging heart. She shivered as she recalled one of her chats with Kain when he’d been sober. Justine knew it was a mistake to ask her son to help Maura out with a few odd jobs in the garden, especially when Kain had come back really drunk one day. Danny had only tried to defend Maura. It was an accident. He hadn’t meant to push Kain into the sideboard, scratching his head. She had to wonder if there was more to that moment or if it had led on to something else. Her forehead started to ache with tension. She couldn’t help thinking that Danny had been involved in Kain’s murder and that scared her more than anything.
SEVENTEEN
Back at the station, Gina called everyone working on the case into the incident room. Cheese twists spilled out of a torn paper bag onto the centre of the table. She thought of everywhere they needed to be all at once and she swallowed. Justine and Danny would be in for their interviews shortly and she really wanted to speak to Kain’s ex, Sheena May. Lindy also still needed to come in and make a formal statement and she was anxious that Justine hadn’t been able to make contact with her husband. ‘Quick update. Jacob and I have just been to Justine Crawford’s house. We’ve found out that her son, Danny, has a recent conviction for taking a car without consent. Not a biggie in itself but we do know that someone drove Maura’s car off her drive and it wasn’t Kain given the state of the house and his injuries. While at the Crawfords, Jacob spotted a photo on the wall. In the photo, Mr Crawford was wearing a hoodie that looked exactly the same as the one found at the scene. He looks to be of a very similar build to his son and there’s no reason for his hoodie to be at Maura’s house.’
Wyre spoke. ‘Is Mr Crawford coming in for interview? You only mentioned Justine and Danny.’
‘Mrs Crawford couldn’t contact him while we were at hers. She said he was working away in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. I have his work and mobile phone number on this business card.’ She placed it on the table near Wyre. ‘Could you please follow up on that?’
Wyre nodded. ‘I also checked the ANPR for Maura’s car before it had been parked up on Ms Wild’s drive.’
‘Did it show up anywhere?’
Wyre nodded and stood. She grabbed a pencil to point at the map so that everyone could see. ‘When you leave Maura’s house, you turn right onto Cornfield Road for two miles then arrive at the train station which as we know is close to Tina Wild’s house, where the body was found. That road does have an ANPR camera and it didn’t show Maura’s car passing it once. The driver had to have turned left because there aren’t any ANPR cameras in that direction. There is only one route the driver could have taken to avoid ANPR and that would have led the driver to take the right turn onto Tina Wild’s road. On leaving Maura’s house on Friday evening, the journey should have taken no more than fifteen minutes. We know the car was spotted on Ms Wild’s road at around midnight on Saturday the fifteenth.’
‘Do we have any idea where the driver could have gone in that day?’
‘I’ve just followed up on a call that came in after the appeal. A man called us. He saw someone on Haversham Road, which is in our black spot when it comes to ANPR.’
‘What time was this?’
‘Around eleven fifteen on Friday. Not long after Maura’s neighbour saw the car leave the house. He describes the person as wearing a cap and with their back to him. Our suspected killer was leaning over a farmer’s fence and it looked like he was vomiting. He also remembered half of the registrationnumber of the car and we can confirm that it matches Maura’s registration.’
‘That accounts for just over an hour of where the car had been. O’Connor?’
O’Connor nodded as he chewed what was left of his croissant. A tiny spray of crumbs landed on the table as he exhaled. ‘I spoke to PCs Smith and Ahmed, nothing more from the first scene yet but they’re conducting more door-to-door interviews today. As for Kain’s tech, everything had been restored to factory settings but Garth is doing all he can. As for his paperwork, there were lots of overdue notices, threats of court action for not making loan payments and he had been declared bankrupt. All loans and debts seemed to be with banks so I doubt that a loan shark did this.’
‘Great,’ Gina replied. ‘Kapoor, how about you? Any updates? You were looking into Kain’s background.’
‘He doesn’t have a record. The only thing that flagged up was his bankruptcy. He had a Facebook account but from what I can see, he didn’t use it.’
‘Has the cat been returned to Maura’s neighbour?’
Kapoor nodded. ‘Yes, the cat is safe and sound.’
Gina knew they still had to discuss Sheena. ‘On speaking to Danny Crawford last night, he mentioned that something had happened recently between Kain and Sheena. Jacob and I need to pay Sheena a visit. O’Connor, would you please attend the post-mortem. I had an email from Bernard’s team. It’s scheduled for eleven this morning?’
He nodded.
‘Wyre and Kapoor, would you please formally interview the Crawfords and make contact with Craig Crawford? If he’s not answering, please call his employer and find out where he is. It might be that we need to involve the police in Newcastle. We need to find out if the hoodie in the Crawfords’ photo is the sameas the one we found at the scene. The best way to do that is to get the family to produce the hoodie Craig Crawford owns. That would rule him out. I feel that finding Justine Crawford’s card at Maura Pickering’s house and the presence of the exact same hoodie that Craig wears is too much of a coincidence to ignore. If you need to make arrests, then please do so. It’ll give us twenty-four hours to investigate them further and we can apply for an extension if we need to.’
Wyre made a few notes. ‘We’ll do that. We’ll also keep you completely updated with any developments.’
‘Thank you. Finally, can you please call Lindy Pickering. I’d like to interview her when I return later. There was so much friction in this family, we need to get to the bottom of it. Justine and Lindy are friends. There’s something else niggling at me and I can’t fathom it out yet. Hopefully the interviews and the post-mortem will answer some of the unknowns in the case.’
Brodie walked in and cleared his throat. ‘We have a development.’
Everyone turned to look his way.
‘Gina, Jacob, I will need you to head to Kidderminster. A body has been discovered at five this morning by a homeless woman and it’s not a pretty sight. A detective from their local office is there and the scene has been cordoned off. There are similarities to our case. The victim has been drowned in a wheelie bin and next to that bin is a small blue teddy bear. It looks like our killer has a calling card.’
Gina’s personal phone buzzed in her pocket. ‘Excuse me.’ She walked out and headed to the toilets, checking to see that she was alone before answering. There was no one else there. ‘Hello.’
