‘We’re here.’
Barnes’s voice jolted her from her thoughts, and she resolved to go back over the Hamiltons and Whittakers’ witness statements in the morning and start again.
Maybe Peter was right.
Maybe they had missed something.
Forty-One
As the group dispersed back to their desks following the afternoon briefing, Carys beckoned to Kay and then called out to Sharp as he headed back to his office.
‘Guv? Could I have a word?’
Sharp peered over her head, and then gestured towards his office. ‘It’s bedlam out here. Sit down, and tell me what’s going on.’
He shut the door behind them, muting the hum of noise from the incident room.
Carys waited until they’d all sat. ‘I got a call via the hotline. A man phoned and said he couldn’t speak for long as he was at work, but said that he went to university at Oxford and recognised Duncan Saddleworth on the news footage of the church service on the lunchtime news.’
‘What did he have to say about him?’
‘He was very cagey. Said he didn’t want to speak over the phone. I’ve offered to drive over to his house at Tonbridge in the morning. All he told me was that he had some information about Duncan Saddleworth that might prove useful.’
Sharp sighed and ran a hand over his close-cropped hair. ‘Are you sure he’s not wasting your time?’
Carys shook her head. ‘He sounded genuine. A bit afraid, too, to be honest.’
‘All right. Take Hunter with you and see what he’s got to say for himself – what’s his name?’
‘Felix Ashgrove. Lives in Tonbridge.’
‘Okay. God knows we could use all the help we can get at the moment. Let’s hope Mr Ashgrove can shed some light on what the bloody hell has been going on around here.’
‘Guv.’
As Kay moved towards the door, she let Carys go out ahead of her, then turned to Sharp.
‘Guv? Could I have a word in private?’
His brow creased. ‘Of course.’
‘Not here.’ She forced a thin smile. ‘Meet you outside in ten minutes?’
‘What’s going on, Hunter?’
‘You’ll find out.’
Kay glanced up as Sharp appeared at the back door to the police station and, seeing her leaning next to her car, wandered over to join her.
‘What’s this all about?’
Kay took a shuddering breath.
On the drive into work that morning, she had rehearsed the conversation over and over in her mind, choosing her words carefully and trying not to let anger cloud her thoughts. Now, faced with sharing her findings, fear writhed its way through her veins.
She was taking a gamble, and there would be no turning back.
She reached into her pocket and withdrew her mobile phone, opened the photo album, and held it up to Sharp.
He blinked before taking the phone from her and cupped his hand around the screen, sheltering it from the bright sunlight. He frowned. ‘This looks like a listening device with a tiny camera attached.’
‘It is.’
‘Where is it?’
‘In the ceiling above my living room.’
His head snapped up, his eyes locking with hers. ‘What?’
‘There’s another one in my kitchen, one in my bedroom, and one in my office.’
‘Who put them there?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Any idea why they’re there?’
‘No.’
‘Does Adam know?’
She shook her head.
‘You’ve left them there?’
‘I was too scared to move them, guv. I don’t know who’s put them there, and I don’t know what they’ll do to me or, worse, to Adam if I remove them.’
He handed the phone back to her and exhaled as he leaned back against her car beside her, his gaze roaming the straggly tree line beyond their position.
She pushed her phone into her pocket. ‘I need your help. I don’t know what to do.’
‘Any idea how long they’ve been there?’
‘Since the burglary. I think that’s what it was – a smokescreen they used to plant the microphones.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘There were a few things like the television that were smashed that had to be replaced. I had some jewellery that went missing, but nothing of great value. Most of it was left to me by my grandmother – it hadn’t been valued at much. Whoever did this made sure they only did enough damage to make it look like a genuine burglary.’ She shifted to face Sharp, although his eyes remained fixed on the horizon. ‘It explains why I thought Carys was the one who told everyone about my miscarriage. When she stayed behind to clear up after the burglary, she and I spoke about it briefly – I keep the baby clothes and things in our home office. It was going to be the nursery…’
She wiped at her eyes and fell silent.
‘What else?’
‘I was chatting to Barnes on my phone after we’d been to the Hamiltons’. He gave me an update about some information we had about Hamilton so I asked him to go in first thing and get his notes entered onto the database before the morning briefing.’
‘You don’t suspect Barnes?’
She shook her head. ‘Definitely not. Not his style, for a start and if he didn’t like something I did, he’d tell me to my face.’
‘True. What made you suspect someone’s been spying on you?’
‘That business with the media finding out we were looking into Blake Hamilton’s finances. Barnes and I have worked together for ages. He’d never gossip, let alone speak to Larch. If Barnes ever had a problem with me or anyone else, he’d talk to you. I couldn’t work it out, especially as Barnes was blamed as much as me for what happened. Same with Carys. She’s never gossiped about anything the entire time she’s been with us. There had to be another reason.’
‘But listening devices? That’s a leap in thinking.’
She shrugged. ‘I was up late watching a spy film. It crossed my mind.’
Sharp blinked and turned to her. ‘Why trust me?’
‘I didn’t know who else to trust.’
He snorted. ‘Last choice, was I?’
‘Okay, and you’ve got an army background. I figured if anyone could corroborate what these things were, it’d be you.’
‘It was a long time ago.’
‘And you’ve never told anyone what you used to do in the army, have you?’
His lips thinned and he fell silent for a moment, his brow furrowed. Eventually he straightened and turned to face her. ‘Anything else you want to tell me?’
She swallowed. ‘I think
