‘Any particular issues between Diana and Ashley?’
Nicola shook her head. ‘Not that I know of.’
‘May I ask how long Ashley has been in the group?’ Kim asked.
‘Oooh, let me think. I’d say three years, maybe just a little longer.’
So the person sending the abuse to Ashley was unlikely to be connected to the netball group. Those had started three years before Ashley had joined. But the recent anonymous message could still be a link.
‘Last question. Have there been any new members recently?’
‘Not since May.’
‘Okay, thanks for your time,’ Kim said, standing.
The seemingly innocent Facebook message could mean more than she’d thought. That person had taken the time to elicit detailed information about the club but had never actually joined. It could be that the person had simply changed their mind… or there was a much more sinister reason.
‘Are you speaking to her supervisor at work?’ Nicola asked as they reached the door.
It had been on the list, but Kim was curious why Nicola would ask.
‘Any reason why we should?’
‘She was having a rough couple of weeks, I think. One family in particular had given her a bit of grief over a protection order, and just last week she was removed from a case by her boss.’
‘Did she say why?’ Kim asked, feeling a stirring of interest.
Nicola nodded. ‘She was removed from the case after a complaint from a family member.’
Kim thanked her again and left with hope starting to surface. By all accounts, the woman was a saint. She was a good friend and colleague and barely had a cross word with anyone. Yet within an hour they’d learned that a couple of fellow netball players weren’t keen on her, that someone else was harassing her on social media and there were complaints against her at work.
Were they finally on the trail of someone who disliked Ashley Reynolds enough to want her dead?
Nine
Penn parked his car right outside the community centre. The boss had told him to retrace Ashley’s steps and that’s what he intended to do. His plan was to walk fifty metres at a time and then take a panoramic video of his location. He was looking for too many things all at once to rely on the naked eye: cameras, dashcams, side roads for access, parking spots, possible witnesses, hidey-holes. This way he could study every video and ensure he missed nothing.
He took his camera out and shot his first panorama. No cameras, no access points and no witnesses. He walked approximately fifty metres and took another video. Two offices that wouldn’t have been open, no cameras and one side street that ran between the two buildings. He moved forward another fifty metres. Two more side roads and a small warehouse. No cameras.
By his calculation, it was a mile or 1,600 metres from the community centre to her home. She had been murdered about halfway, which gave him an approximate distance of eight hundred metres to cover. Yes, he was going to have sixteen bits of footage to look over, but he hoped it would mean that nothing got missed.
* * *
Half an hour later, Penn took his last video at the cordon of the crime scene with a sinking heart. The boss had been right when she’d said there wasn’t a lot to go on. He was tempted to nip in under the cordon and ask for an update but thought better of it. If the forensic team had found anything more, the boss would already know about it.
He was considering his options when his phone tinged receipt of a message.
Stacey’s face appeared beside the text.
Killer may have MSGD on FB for details of netball club. She told him everything. Also abusive messages.
He sent a thumbs up and put his phone away.
That knowledge slightly altered the task he’d been set.
It had been a natural assumption that the killer had followed Ashley as she’d left the community centre and attacked her upon reaching this spot. But if he’d known the times she left and her route home, he could have already been waiting in place. Meaning he could have come from the other direction, which gave Penn another eight hundred metres and a lot more to look at.
He maintained his system and walked forward another fifty metres and took a panoramic view. He checked the footage and nothing jumped out. After fifty metres, he did the same.
