‘I am so sorry. I should have let you finish.’ Gina had let the briefing go off on a tangent knowing that Bernard couldn’t stay long.
‘The killer has slipped up.’
‘How?’
‘The forensics team found a tiny trace of blood under the cat’s claws. It isn’t a match for Craig’s. We have the DNA of someone else who was at the scene.’
‘And we know the cat had been trapped in the bedroom. Is there a match on our database?’ Gina felt her heartbeat ramping up.
‘No, but the DNA from the cat’s claws did match that on the disposable vape.’
‘Well, that is a breakthrough and links the two scenes nicely.’ Gina paused and turned to Jacob as he’d been looking into Fabien that morning. ‘What do we know about Fabien?’
Jacob popped his pen on the table and cleared his throat. ‘Fabien was never convicted. His DNA is probably not in the database. Back then it probably would have been taken and then destroyed. As for Craig, he’s never been arrested.’
‘Is Fabien Instagramming at the moment?’ Gina asked.
‘Yes.’ Jacob scrolled. ‘It looks likely that he’s at his office, although he could be posting from another location. He’s just this moment tagged Fab Stone Collection Services Ltd. Looking at the name of the business, he is the owner. I’m not sure if it’s just him as he doesn’t mention any other staff.’
‘We have to go. Lindy has been gone since yesterday evening. I can’t let myself believe that it’s too late for her,’ Gina said.
PC Smith ambled in.
Gina glanced across the room. ‘We have to find Craig. Keep all units on alert.’
PC Smith nodded.
‘And we need uniform to assist us. We’re heading to Fab Stone to bring Fabien Stone in.’
‘I’ll get onto that now, guv,’ PC Smith said as he turned around and left the room.
Brodie exhaled. ‘I’ll get on with the press release. We have a team of journalists waiting for yet another update. This case is getting hotter by the minute and the national press are here now. We have decided to put Craig’s face out there.’
‘But what if he has Lindy, and gets desperate and kills her?’
‘We have looked into this and we believe she doesn’t have much time either way. We need to find her and our last hope is that the public come forward to help.’
Gina swallowed. This was a risky strategy but he had made the decision. She only hoped they could get to Craig and Fabien first. ‘Can you wait until we have Fabien? Please, just give us that.’
He looked at his watch. ‘You have sixty minutes until we go public with Craig.’
Sixty minutes seemed like mere seconds. She grabbed her coat and nodded to Jacob to follow. She flung the last bit of pear into the bin. ‘Kapoor?’
‘Yes, guv.’
‘I’m worried about Justine and her son, Danny. Get a family liaison officer over to be with them. She’s at her mother’s. The address is on file.’ She mulled over the friendship group. Pia, Lindy and Justine. Justine was a concern with her being Craig’s wife. Lindy had been taken and Pia had been having an affair with Craig. ‘I also want someone to check on Pia. These three women are all connected to this case in some way and I don’t want anything to happen to them.’
Gina glanced at her watch. Fifty-seven minutes. The clock was ticking. ‘The race is on. PC Smith is arranging backup. Given Fabien’s link to Craig, Sheena and Kain, we need to investigatehim further and having a business premises might provide the perfect place to hide and hurt Lindy. We also can’t risk that Fabien will warn Craig if they are in this together. On a normal day, we could have brought him in for questioning but a life is in imminent danger. Let’s arrest Fabien and bring him in.’
THIRTY-NINE
Gina parked in front of a newsagent’s shop alongside a busy road. She dashed out of her car with Jacob close behind, then she glanced at her watch again. Twenty-two minutes left before Craig’s face went out to the press. The three-storey building next door with its slightly dilapidated warehouse attached to the right had a sign pointing to the car park around the back but Gina didn’t want Fabien to see them coming. She glanced at the main space at the front and a Mercedes parked in the space marked up for the managing director. Fabien’s number plate partially spelled his name. ‘It looks like he’s in.’
Gina watched PC Smith pull in behind her and then another two police cars followed. It was too late to stay hidden. One glance out of any front-facing window, and Fabien would know they were coming. She looked at the warehouse, knowing how easy it would be to hide two people in there. The main house also had a cellar. She could see boxes piled up through the tiny strip of a window below.
‘Head around the back,’ she called to PC Smith, ‘and you two go with him.’ She nodded towards uniformed officers. ‘Make sure you cover the back of the main building and warehouse.’
She then nodded at Jacob, PC Benton and two more officers. ‘Can you all cover the front and side of the buildings?’ She pressed the buzzer and waited with Jacob on the front step. Two bay windows overlooked the frontage but the rooms seemed empty of life. Gina spotted a large boardroom table that seemed to be covered in archive boxes and crusty-looking mugs. The other bay window appeared to be an unsupervised reception with a dead spider plant on the windowsill. Eventually the intercom system crackled and a girl’s voice came through it. ‘Hello.’
