Kempsey nodded. ‘Of course. I’ll come with you. We can’t disturb anything though.’ Once again, he led the way.
Gina glanced into the cabinets but saw nothing. She bent over and checked underneath. All she could see was a gathering of crisp wrappers. The press was nothing more than the hunk of metal she’d suspected it was. With her gloved hands, she opened the large industrial filing cabinet and stared at the edges of several sheets of paper. ‘Has anyone been through these?’
‘No.’ DI Kempsey stepped in front of Gina and pulled them out. He gently opened them and started half reading bits aloud. ‘“To my darling Nettie, I should never have spoken to you like that. That day, I knew that I had to get out of your life. You’re far too good for me. I hope the boy is doing fine. All those things I said to him about his YouTube channel were cruel. It was the drink but I know that’s not an excuse. You know I didn’t mean them. I was in a bad place. It’s like this darkness comes over me and I can’t escape it. You’ve all been better off without me all these years. If you knew the real me, you’d know that me leaving like I did was the best thing. I know you kept going on at me to open up, to talk about my past but in truth, it was too painful. I only know how to run, and I’m sorry I ran from you, and tell Aunt Alice that I didn’t mean to ruin her party. I think of the day I blew up at you and him and all I can say is that he reminds me of someone from my past. I look at him and he becomes that person. Seeing him just brings everything back and I couldn’t expect you to run away with me and leave your life behind. Run away from what? That’s probably the question on your lips if this letter ever reaches you.”’ Kempsey scrutinised the paper. ‘The rest of this letter is water damaged. There is nothing more than smudges and torn-up paper.’
‘What’s written on the others?’ Gina needed to know more about this man’s life. She watched as Jacob typed out a message on his phone, mentioning Aunt Alice, Nettie and the boy.YouTube. Someone had to be able to make a connection. Their victim had left lots of clues as to his identity.
Kempsey frowned then continued to the next piece of paper. ‘“Aunt Alice, I’m sorry. I was a jerk, a drunken jerk. It wasn’t the first time. You’ll probably be reading this if I’m dead but I want you to know that I’m sorry and I’m sorry that I was never big enough to come and say that to your face.”’ Kempsey started reading the last letter. ‘“Hey Sport, It’s your uncle here. You are amazing. You’re talented and one day you’re going to have your name in lights. Those things I said to you about your music were mean, all spawned from the hangover from hell when you started playing that bass guitar at nine in the morning. I didn’t mean to crush your dreams. I was cruel and I want you to know I’m sorry and I love you. I tried to search for your name on the net, see how you were doing, but I guess you’re in a band and you have a cool stage name.” Again, that’s all there is. There’s only half a sheet of paper here. Maybe the writer finished on that note or there’s more.’
‘We can’t even prove our victim wrote these notes but if he did, what was he running from?’
Gina leaned over for a closer look into the cabinet while Jacob added bass player to his message. ‘Jacob, can you forward that to the team now, see if we can match any of that information to missing persons.’
‘I was about to do that.’ Kempsey’s brows furrowed. She knew she’d just stepped on his turf but she’d lost herself in the moment.
‘Sorry, we’d be very grateful for a photo of the letters.’
He raised his brows. ‘No problem. We all have to work on this together anyway. Let’s just get this murderer caught. There are two victims now. What’s to say there won’t be more.’
‘Thank you. I’ll make sure our team keep you in the loop.’ Gina exhaled slowly from behind her mask. She scrunched herbrows on seeing something caught at the back of the cabinet. ‘What’s that?’ She pointed.
Kempsey reached right in and tugged at what looked like a bit of torn paper and an old photo. ‘Nothing on the paper but it looks like the same paper the letters were written on. There’s a photo.’ He uncrumpled the photo that looked like it had been printed on regular printer paper.
Gina glanced at the man who looked to be in his early fifties, his arm around a woman who looked similarly aged. Her long frizzy brown hair fell over her shoulders. ‘Is this him?’
‘You didn’t see his body earlier with what the water did to it. We need to head out and ask Rita.’ Kempsey called a forensics assistant over. ‘Can you search around here, see if you can’t find any more letters or photos.’
She nodded.
Without hesitation, they all raced out of the building, removed their protective wear and signed out before heading straight to the ambulance. Kempsey waved through the back window at the paramedic. ‘Can we speak to Miss Court?’
The paramedic opened the back doors and the frail-looking woman with huge pupils stared at them before speaking. ‘What?’
‘Can you identify this man?’
‘That’s him.’ She pointed with shaky fingers. ‘The dead man.’
‘How can you be sure?’
‘How do you think I knew who I was talking about?’
‘Please tell us, Rita.’
‘A month ago, he stole those shoes from a charity shop. He didn’t want Ugg-like boots but they were left by the door and they were his size. On wearing them, he said he wasn’t takin’ them off again because they were so comfy despite them probably once belonging to a teenage girl. He’d complained that it looked like someone had trodden in yellow paint and when I saw that body, I really only saw the shoes which is how I know itwas ’im. I gave you a description too, of ’im, and you’ve seen the body. Earring, dark-greying hair.’
Gina knew they wouldn’t have seen the body properly if it had been taken away in the bin. ‘And you don’t have a name?’
‘Nah. Not really but I called him Z. He said call him Z. I thought that was because he was always half asleep.’
Gina’s phone beeped. She read the message from Wyre.
We’ve interviewed Justine and Danny Crawford. Still no contact with Craig, and Justine now claims that Craig did know Kain Pickering. He had put a deposit down on a home security system before he went bankrupt. Mrs Crawford claims that Craig was livid at losing the money. Craig’s phone is off. We’ve checked with his workplace and they say he’s been off sick the past two weeks with flu. We’ve put out an arrest warrant for Craig Crawford and a team are heading over to search the house. If the hoodie found at the scene is the one in the photo, there won’t be one at their house. There is a distinctive snag in the material of the hoodie that shows on the photo and the hoodie found at the scene. We’ll find out soon.
A crime scene assistant began taking off her crime scene suit by the inner cordon. ‘Sheila told me to catch you all before you left.’
‘What is it?’ Kempsey asked.
‘I found another piece of paper. It’s torn from a larger piece and it has names on it.’
