Chapter 47
FORTY-SEVEN
Gina bagged up the laptop, ready for evidence, but she knew exactly what she’d seen from the hallway.
She listened as Brodie relayed what had happened to Wyre over the phone.
Danny was in the frame for Kain’s murder.
She didn’t know how he tied into the murder of Zavier but Craig had to be involved too.
Parts of the evidence weren’t making any sense.
There were two murders, Lindy’s kidnapping and Briggs’s attack.
The thing that linked the friendship group was the video but so much was still unknown.
The teddy bears were a link to the past and future, and who was Barry?
She had to look into a case involving someone called Barry, thirty years ago at Kidderminster.
Somehow, Lindy was the connection between the past and present.
She took the bagged laptop out of the sewing room and saw PC Masondo. ‘We need all units on alert for Danny. We need to bring him in for the assault in the video and on suspicion of committing Kain Pickering’s murder.’
‘I don’t know where he is at the moment. I asked Mrs Crawford, but she just said he was out.’
‘Thank you. Can you get his number from her?’
He nodded and walked off towards the dining room where Justine’s mum was trying her best to find out what was going on.
Gina headed to the kitchen and waited by the door as Brodie finished his call.
She kept replaying the video over and over again in her head and the sound as Danny’s boot met his victim.
Brodie popped his phone in his pocket. ‘I think we need to speak to Justine back at the station. It looks like she was perverting the course of justice by hiding that laptop so I’m going to make the arrest.’
She nodded. ‘I agree. We need to question her further and find out if she’s hiding her son as well as her husband. This laptop belongs to her son and it wasn’t in her home when we searched it.’
‘Guv.’ PC Masondo knocked and entered. ‘I have her son’s phone number. His nan gave it to me. I’ve tried to call but the line is dead.’
‘Right, let’s get Justine to the station now. You arrest her, I’ll call it in,’ Brodie said as he grabbed his phone again.
Gina followed PC Masondo along the hallway, back towards the kitchen and Justine’s mother sat on her own at the head of the table holding the dog in her arms. ‘Where’s Justine?’
The woman shrugged. ‘She said she didn’t feel so good. She went to the loo.’
The dog escaped from Justine’s mother’s arms and ran through the hallway and into the living room.
Gina and the PC followed. The voile that had covered the French doors at the far end was open.
Gina ran straight to it and opened the unlocked door.
The dog ran out and barked frantically at the back gate.
‘Sir,’ Gina called in the hope that she’d shouted loud enough for Brodie to hear.
He came running into the living room. ‘What’s happened?’
Gina pointed to the slide lock on the gate and it was unlocked. ‘Justine has run.’
‘She can’t have got far,’ he replied.
PC Masondo headed out to the garden and Gina followed. She ran with him outside the back gate and along the lane. There was just a long row of back gardens with a road at either end. ‘I’ll head this way, guv.’
PC Masondo ran in one direction and Gina ran in the other, trying to take in all the cut throughs between the shrubs and there were loads.
Eventually, she reached the end of the path which led to a small road that led out of the estate, neatly hidden behind a row of garages.
That’s when she spotted a bit of bloodied material tucked up against the kerb, the same bit of material that Justine had been pressing against her bloodied finger.