Chapter 52
FIFTY-TWO
JACK
Jack waited in the soulless interview room he’d been shown to, checking his watch irritably as the minutes ticked by, precious time wasted, time Kara might not have.
He gave it another minute then debated whether to just leave.
He was here voluntarily; they couldn’t keep him.
At least he hoped to Christ they couldn’t.
Might they be trying to conjure up some reason to do just that?
Wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, he tried to stay calm.
There was nothing, he reminded himself, apart from an ancient WhatsApp message.
What the hell were they doing? He had to get out of here.
He still had no idea where Evie was. Glancing at the camera, through which he felt he was being observed, he got to his feet.
He was halfway to the door when it opened and DI Blake walked in.
‘Sorry to have kept you waiting,’ she said with an inscrutable smile. ‘The digital forensics investigator was tied up with something else.’
Jack frowned. ‘Digital forensics investigator?’
‘She collects and analyses digital evidence from computers, mobile devices, that sort of thing,’ Blake provided.
Jack felt his gut turn over. Was there something on his phone? Historical information he’d forgotten about? He and Natalia had had a few sharp exchanges via text, but there was nothing incriminating. At least, he hoped there wasn’t.
‘She’s been taking a look at the CCTV footage obtained from the car park roof around the time Imogen Taylor fell to her death,’ DI Blake went on as he followed her out.
Jack took a sharp breath. ‘And this is pertinent to me because…?’ he asked, as she led him a few yards along the corridor and pushed through another door.
Waiting until he was inside, she closed the door and turned to him. ‘As I mentioned, I felt obliged to take another look at your wife’s disappearance after your mother-in-law spoke to us.’
‘And?’ Jack ran a hand over the back of his neck, his agitation and apprehension growing by the second.
‘We hoped you might clarify something,’ she went on, heading for the monitor her colleague was sitting in front of.
Jack followed, cold foreboding creeping through him.
‘Kate,’ Blake gave the woman a smile, ‘could you pull up the custody image we were looking at?’
Custody image? Jack felt his throat run dry. What the fuck was this all about?
‘No probs,’ Kate said, tapping at the keyboard.
A second later, an image of Natalia filled the screen, her sharp grey eyes seeming to peer accusingly out at him, and Jack felt as if someone had just walked over his grave.
‘The photographs I found of her in historical newspaper articles rang a bell,’ DI Blake said. ‘I checked the Police National Computer and this came up. She was arrested for shoplifting, according to the report, approximately four years ago.’
Jack swallowed and nodded. ‘She wasn’t well,’ he said, his blood pumping with confusion and fear as he wondered where this was leading. ‘She had some mental health issues. She—’
‘We gathered,’ DI Blake cut him short. ‘Could we switch to the CCTV images, Kate?’ she asked.
Jack felt sweat break out on his body.
‘This is the footage from the car park I mentioned,’ Blake went on, nodding towards the screen. Jack followed her gaze. ‘See there.’ Leaning towards the computer, she pointed with her pen.
Jack squinted. He couldn’t see much. A grainy image of someone wearing a dark hoodie and jeans exiting the car park area to the stairs was all. He wasn’t sure what comment he was supposed to make.
‘Judging by the height and gait, we’ve established that the person is a female,’ she continued. ‘It isn’t much to go on, but… Can we take a look at the footage from the ground-floor car park exit, Kate?’
The woman obliged.
‘We have more images, as you can see,’ Blake went on. ‘And here,’ she paused to point again, ‘she glances over her shoulder, presumably to see if anyone might have spotted her. Could you get a little closer, Kate?’
Her colleague played the frames back and zoomed right in, freezing the image of the woman turning towards the camera, and Jack’s blood froze in his veins.
Natalia. He felt the breath leave his body. How?