Suzanne pointed towards the window. ‘I have cameras out there. I can prove I never left the house.’
Kim folded her arms. ‘Suzanne, I had no suspicions about you when I walked in here, but you’re looking very guilty of something right now.’
‘I’m not saying another word until I’ve spoken to my lawyer.’
‘Why? No one is trying to… oh, hang on,’ Kim said as a thought occurred to her. ‘You’d only need to be worried if she was working at the time she was killed, but she wasn’t on a modelling job.’
‘Please leave, Inspector,’ Suzanne said, standing by the living-room door.
Kim made no move to stand as she considered all the information she had. The increase in company revenue, the recording device, the behaviour that Penn had described from Rita’s statement.
‘Ah, now it makes sense. Nadine was a honey trapper, wasn’t she?’
Suzanne said nothing but didn’t move from the door.
Nadine had been recording the conversation to use against their target.
Kim slapped her own forehead, unable to believe it had taken so long for her to put it all together. ‘The guy with the camera. He works for you too?’
Nothing like a bit of photographic evidence to back up the audio file.
‘I need you to leave.’
‘Give me the name of the man Nadine met today and I will,’ Kim said.
According to Rita, he had not been a happy chappie when he’d left the pub. If he had a lot to lose, he was the first person she wanted to speak to.
‘I’m giving you nothing until I’ve spoken to a solicitor.’
This woman was not bound by any confidentiality laws, and there was no protected medical or financial information, but by the same token Kim couldn’t just order her to start opening filing cabinets without the correct authorisation.
‘You do understand that this is a murder investigation and one of your employees is dead?’
‘I do.’
‘And you’re aware that there are obstruction charges at our disposal?’
‘There are also pieces of paper that would grant you access to my files that you don’t have right now,’ Suzanne answered, meeting her gaze.
‘I will be able to get a warrant for your records,’ Kim said icily as she stood.
‘I’m sure. By which time I will have spoken to my lawyer and I’ll be ready to hand over whatever I’m legally required to surrender.’
Kim brushed past her as she headed for the front door, knowing she could do nothing more until she had that warrant and the name of the man whom Nadine had seriously pissed off.
As she headed for the car, she began to summarise the case in her mind. She could imagine suspect names dropping from the whiteboard in the squad room.
Harriet and anyone else connected to netball practice were long gone. Daniel Reynolds had been hiding nothing more suspicious than Ava’s true parentage, and even Warren Chance had fallen by the wayside.
Unless they found some kind of link between Ashley and Nadine, she and her team were going to have some serious explaining to do.
Forty
It was almost seven when Kim pulled up at the social services office in Dudley.
She had called the number Penn gave her to be told that Gloria Lincoln wasn’t going home any time soon and that it was fine for her to stop by. The woman herself was waiting to let her in the building. From the looks of her, Kim was guessing that their days had been equally as long. Much as she ached to go and collect Barney, she had promised Daniel she’d check on Ava, and that’s what she was here to do.
She knew Ava’s well-being was not their responsibility, which was why she’d waited until after hours to check on her. Her team was exhausted from twelve-hour days and, despite the second victim, they were no good to her dead on their feet.
