“No.” She pointed to the cabin. “Not until every inch of that place has been searched.” She looked into his eyes. Saw the worry and concern that were there. Heikkinen had known her for a lifetime. Dearest Heikkinen, the man she’d always admired. The person who lived for his job, but was never happier than when he was on his own. He was more than a work colleague. Much more. “Honestly, I’m fine.” She managed an apologetic smile. “And thank you. For everything.”
They walked away from the crime scene, retracing their footprints in the snow.
“It’s not as if I don’t know her...” He was talking about Liisa. “I care about her, too.”
“I know.” Her words were little more than a whisper as she kept her emotions in check. At least he was still talking about her daughter in the present tense.
Heikkinen checked over his shoulder before closing the gap between them. “It wasn’t my decision, Elea. You didn’t have to go it alone.”
“No regrets,” Elea replied, eyes shining. “Not now.”
“Of course.” He cleared his throat. Took a step back. This was the socially inept man that she knew and loved. Her time with Heikkinen had been fleeting, all those years ago. Her decision to carry on with the pregnancy had been monumental. Heikkinen had offered more, but his heart wasn’t in it, and Elea was satisfied with the trust fund that he contributed to every month. He watched over them both from a comfortable distance. Elea had made it clear from the start: nobody could ever know. She had no time for the judgements that would follow. For the whispers behind her back. For the career opportunities that she would have missed. Heikkinen had never wanted children and that was entirely fine by her. Her subsequent failed marriage to Swann was proof enough that Elea was better off as a single mum.Only...She walked towards the cabin where Swann was on the phone. No. She couldn’t think that now. But the thought came anyway.Only, when was the last time I was a mum?
She watched Swann fumble with his forensic suit, unzipping it to shove his phone into his pocket. Watched him scan the forest where Heikkinen was working, relaxing as he turned to his right and found Elea by his side.
“Want to help me search this shithole?” Elea said on a frosted breath. Officers had already checked each room, but there were notebooks, books, old electrical devices—something would surely provide them with more clues.
“I’ve got to get back.”
“Fine. I’ll do it myself.”
“You’re coming, too.”
Elea frowned. “No, I’m not. There could be anything in there.”
“We’ve got a lead. A good one this time.”
Elea didn’t dare to believe it. She’d been down this road before. Swann saw her mistrust. He fumbled once more, then handed Elea his phone.
“What’s this?”
“CCTV captured in Lincoln just an hour ago.”
Elea stared at him, then back to the high-res black-and-white image on the screen. It looked like her, twenty years ago. Why was he showing her this? She blinked, peered closer. Her plump lips, open in surprise. Her arched eyebrows. Her strong cheekbones. Her long blonde hair. A ghost of her former self, trapped in time. But it wasn’t her. It was someone who carried the same genes. Slowly Elea’s hand cupped her open mouth.
“Where did you get this?” She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the image.
“Mitch picked it up,” Swann said. “She checked into the Castle Hotel, along with a man fitting Anu’s description, the same day he left the rental house.”
Elea’s voice would not come. She was locked in that moment, staring at the image of a beautiful young woman. A woman who looked so much like her little girl, all grown up. False hope was a dangerous thing, but she was ready to jump in, feet first, yet again. “How...” she managed to say.
“Digital breadcrumbs. We found burner phones in a bin in the alleyway at the back of the rental house. Mitch worked with the tech team to analyse them and that’s when they discovered the hotel booking.”
But this wasn’t enough for Elea. “More. I need more.” Swann was a dinosaur when it came to technology. “I need to speak to Mitch.”
“Bloody hell, all right then, if my word isn’t good enough for you,” Swann grumbled. “But inside. My toes are going to fall off if I stand here any longer.” He gestured towards the van that had pulled up to the busy scene. Hot drinks were being handed out, and it didn’t take a lot of persuading for Elea to follow Swann.
He handed her the phone as soon as they were safely inside the warm vehicle. He’d attached his mobile to a battery pack. The cold weather was zapping his battery fast. With a paper cup of coffee in one hand and Swann’s mobile phone in the other, Elea settled down to make the call. Mitch seemed happy to relay the news that Elea was desperate to hear.
“OK, talk me through it,” she said, relishing each word.
Mitch explained how the cyber-crime team had accessed the suspect’s metadata and call-logs that had been wiped. “He was using a VPN to cover up his tracks. But it must have dropped out and connected to the rental home’s Wi-Fi when he made the hotel booking. It pinged back to the house’s IP address.”
“Good,” Elea said, pleased with the strong chain of evidence. But there would be no case to answer. In that moment she’d forgotten that her main suspect was dead. She brought herself back to the present moment. She was running on adrenaline. “So what now? You think the woman captured on CCTV is returning to the hotel?”
She didn’t dare to call her Liisa. Not yet.
“She checked out. Dropped her key in the box,” Mitch replied. “We’ve got eyeballs on both the rental house and the hotel, just in case.”
