Chapter Fourteen #2
Judith went to the nearest coffee machine, where she made a long black with an extra shot.
She added two sugars to her cup, and took it not to her desk, but down another five floors to level three, where the audiovisual room was located.
The room was large but basic; windowless and charmless.
There were three big screens mounted on the wall, and two computers that had a lot more firepower than the desk PCs in the squad room.
The room was empty except for one technician, who was reviewing black and white security footage from what looked like a new car storage facility.
‘Hey Arnie. What’re you working on?’
‘Jude.’ He gave her a wary look. ‘Are you supposed to be in here?’
The audiovisual room was restricted. It was for technicians’ use only, probably because they didn’t trust ordinary cops not to screw up their precious machines.
‘Now, Arnie, let’s not start things off on the wrong foot.
’ Judith took a seat at the second station, and logged in.
She called up internal security footage from the station from the previous Monday, specifically camera footage of the corridor outside the interview room where she’d met with Alexis Turner.
The footage appeared on one of the big screens.
‘You can look at that at your own desk,’ Arnie said. ‘This room’s supposed to be for techs only.’
Judith ignored him. She sat back in her chair and watched as the video played, and Alexis Turner walked down the six metres of corridor that led to the interview room.
‘You got lucky, didn’t you?’ Arnie said.
‘How did I get lucky, Arn?’
‘Well, I heard that Walker got topped. I also heard that he’d made a complaint about you. I put the two together and figured out that you’re off the hook. That’s what we call a deduction.’
Judith shook her head and gave him the half-smile he was looking for.
She wasn’t quite as confident as Arnie that the complaint would just go away.
Walker’s wife was a woman with resources.
If she didn’t want to let it go, and if Eddie Fraser didn’t want the complaint to die, things could still get pretty uncomfortable.
Judith leaned forward, focusing her attention on the footage.
The camera captured nothing of Alexis’s face.
She was wearing that hoodie, of course, with the hood pulled up, a few strands of dark hair poking out, and her face was in shadow.
Judith watched the video play three times, taking in every detail she could.
Alexis was wearing wide leg jeans, runners, and the hoodie.
She was a little shorter than Judith, so maybe around a hundred and seventy centimetres.
The clothes were too big for her. Her body was overwhelmed by them.
But her body language, as she walked the hall, was purposeful.
Judith leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes, calling up her memories. She saw Alexis Turner again. That hair falling forward over her face. Bitten fingernails. Blue . . . no, brown eyes. She was almost certain they’d been brown. Claire Holdsworth also had brown eyes.
‘Is she doing that deliberately?’ Arnie asked.
Judith opened her eyes. The video was still playing in a loop. Arnie had abandoned his car park footage. He’d scooted his chair over a little, and his attention was on Judith’s screen.
‘Doing what?’
‘Hiding her face.’
‘Probably.’
‘There’s a camera at the entrance to the station and one in the waiting room. You could check those. See if she took it down on the way in or out.’
Judith waved her hand at the console in a knock-yourself-out gesture. She suppressed a smile. Arnie was a genius at this stuff, and he was easily distracted by anything new. You just had to put it in front of him.
‘What date was this, the twelfth? Around nine forty? Okay.’ Arnie’s hands flew over the keyboard, and the big screen divided into four.
One screen continued to show Alexis Turner walking down the corridor to the interview room in a continuous loop.
Another showed the waiting room, and the third and fourth showed the outside of the station from two different angles.
Arnie rewound the video until he found the right moment, and soon they were watching Alexis approach the building, talk to the cop on the desk, take a seat in the waiting room, and eventually, leave it.
None of the cameras caught a direct shot of her face.
‘Why didn’t someone tell her to pull her hoodie down?’ Arnie asked.
‘This might come as a shock to you, Arn, but when a young woman comes to us to report a sexual assault, we’re not usually in a rush to give her directives like that.’
‘Oh. Right.’
‘Thanks for your time, big man,’ Judith stood.
‘Hey Judith?’
‘Hmm?’
‘They went too far, messing with your bike. It was a dick move. I’m glad you got to the bottom of it.’
Judith looked at him blankly.
‘Rocky hasn’t told you?’
She shook her head.
‘Then you should ask him. It was good work. Really good work.’
* * *
She got to Rocky’s office just as he was stepping out. ‘Have you got a minute?’
‘Walk with me,’ he said.
She followed him back to the lift. ‘Arnie told me you figured out who screwed with my bike.’
Rocky gave her a tight, vicious smile. ‘I told you I’d get the little bastard.’
‘Okay, so who was it?’
‘Hold the lift!’
They both turned to see Lucy Phillips hurrying towards them, carrying a file and a tablet in her hands. Rocky blocked the lift door from closing.
‘Rocks, who was it?’
‘I want you to leave it with me. I’m handling it.’
‘What the hell does that mean?’
‘It means I know what I’m doing and you’re going to have to trust me.’
Lucy joined them. ‘Thanks,’ she said.
‘Not a problem.’
There was a moment of tension, a moment when Judith did not want to back down. Rocky raised an eyebrow at her. The truth was that she did trust him. She’d always trusted him. He’d never given her reason not to.
She stepped out of the lift.
‘You’re not coming?’ he asked.
‘Coming where?’
‘We’ve got Robert Walker’s murderer in a cell downstairs. I thought you might like to watch the interview.’