Chapter 46
Sarah was still reeling from Phillipa’s revelation as she walked through the shopping precinct in the direction of the tube station.
As she looked around at the shoppers going about their everyday chores, it felt strange to be back in this world, the world where shopping got bought and food got eaten and ordinary things were busy happening to ordinary people, although, of course, what happened to Phillipa could and did happen to anyone.
Sarah let out a long breath. So often, she lived through other people’s trauma, and there was no way to offload the horror – she wasn’t allowed to.
She wondered how on earth Phillipa had survived such a horrific attack without telling a single person.
But now, more than ever, she was convinced that ‘Mitch’ was also Christy’s attacker.
It was too much of a coincidence. The choking.
The violence. The degradation. The abuse of his power.
The connection in time and place between the burglary and Christy’s murder, not to mention his physical presence at the crime scene.
A surge of anger rose inside her at this, and she quickened her pace to expel some of her pent-up energy. How dare someone like him be first on the scene? How dare he get to see Christy’s poor body like that? How dare he?
But he hadn’t gone back to gloat. He had gone back to control the investigation.
As she waited at the crossing for the lights to change, she realised that it was all beginning to make sense.
Did Robyn think that could be his DNA on Christy’s top, and was that why she had told Sarah to forget about the sample sitting in the lab?
Robyn knew that Sarah’s expert would be wasting time testing it.
They would never get a match, because Christy’s killer was never going to turn up on the Police National Computer, not if Christy’s killer was a policeman.
They would need some other evidence to link him first.
As she entered the tube station, she pulled out her phone to message Will.
On my way back, she typed. Her finger hovered over the call button, but she knew she couldn’t speak to him.
He knew her too well. He would know she was upset, and although Phillipa wasn’t her client, she felt the strong need to keep what she had been told to herself, at least for now, out of decorum and respect for Phillipa and because, first, she needed to get home to her laptop and see it. Know it. Mitch.
She needed to know his name.