‘Bastard. I knew he couldn’t be trusted.’
They broke off their conversation at the sound of a low whistle from the direction of the whiteboard.
Sharp stood next to Harrison, his eyes blazing.
‘Shall we start this briefing, ladies and gentlemen? We have a lot to work through.’
The team scurried to the far end of the incident room, grabbing chairs or perching on the ends of desks before extracting notebooks. Eventually, the noise died down.
‘Debbie – how did you get on with finding out who owns the property?’
‘The last tenants the council has on record left eighteen months ago, guv. Since then, they’ve had workers go around and check the building – water leaks, security, that sort of thing. Apparently, that hasn’t happened for about six months though – lack of resources, they told me.’
‘Did they give you a note of the last person to attend site?’
‘Yes, and a mobile number for him. Paul Robinson. He’s agreed to be interviewed at three o’clock, when he finishes his shift.’
Sharp checked his watch. ‘In half an hour. Great work, Debbie. Anything else?’
‘There have been no reports to the council about stolen keys or any issues since the last tenants left. The property was simply abandoned. I’m waiting to hear back from the council with details of the last tenants, and I’ll follow that up.’
‘Okay. Piper, Miles – I’d like you to do the interview with Robinson. If he hasn’t been there for six months, I don’t expect much, but find out if he noticed anything untoward.’
‘Guv,’ said Carys. Her pen hovered over her notebook. ‘Do you think he might have gone back in the interim – you know, out of curiosity?’
‘Great idea,’ said O’Reilly. ‘Brilliant – it’s definitely worth asking, Miles. He could be a suspect.’
‘We’ll make a SOCU detective out of you yet, Carys,’ said Harrison.
Sharp cleared his throat, before consulting the notes in his hand. ‘Right, since Hunter and I returned, Harriet has phoned with her preliminary findings. As we suspected, two of the victims had been there for at least a month, given the state of decomposition. The third victim may have been there for only a couple of weeks – Lucas will confirm that in due course. Of note was the fact that the third victim managed to bite through the plastic, and so didn’t die from asphyxiation. Instead, her neck had been broken. Hunter – CSI have also confirmed that the markings we saw on the floor do resemble those from a camera tripod, so we can assume each victim’s death was filmed.’
‘If the third victim had her neck broken, then her killer must’ve been on camera,’ said Kay.
A shocked silence filled the room.
‘If we can locate the film, then we might be able to identify her killer,’ said Harrison. ‘Although I’d be surprised if he didn’t have his face covered.’
‘It’s worth pursuing though – good point, Hunter,’ said Sharp.
He glared as the phone in his office began to ring, and pointed at Debbie. ‘West, get that and if it’s not urgent grab a number and call them back.’
‘Guv.’
He turned his attention to the three photographs now pinned to the whiteboard, their grim portrayals of the three victims all too clear. ‘As soon as Harriet and her team have fingerprints and any other information about these three women available, I want them identified.’
‘What if they’re illegal entrants?’ said Barnes, voicing Kay’s own concerns.
Sharp sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. ‘We’ll do our best for them, is that understood?’
‘Guv,’ the team murmured as one.
‘Inspector?’
All eyes fell to Debbie as she emerged from Sharp’s office, her eyes wide.
‘What is it, West?’
‘That was Governor Bagley over at the prison,’ said Debbie. ‘Bob Rogers has been attacked.’
Chapter Thirty-Three
Kay shrugged her jacket over her shoulders and hurried after Sharp, ignoring the glare from Harrison as he watched them leave.
She had no idea why he and Sharp seemed to be at loggerheads recently, but it seemed to stem from the meeting he said he’d been having at headquarters.
If she were honest, she didn’t care. All she cared about was ensuring they arrested Demiri as soon as possible. She had no time for the politics surrounding the case.
Sharp stomped down the stairs ahead of her, not waiting to see if she was keeping up. She caught the eye of a uniformed sergeant as Sharp stormed past, and he raised an eyebrow.
She shook her head.
Now wasn’t the time for humour, or an explanation.
Instead, she hurried to catch up with the detective inspector, holding her hand out to stop the back door to the police station closing in her face. By the time she’d left the building, he was already starting the car, his black mood etched across his face.
She climbed into the passenger seat and fastened her belt as he accelerated out the car park.
The prison was only a mile or so away from the police station as the crow flies, but thanks to 1960s civil engineering, they had to travel a convoluted route around the ring road to reach it.
Over two hundred years old, the prison housed around six hundred inmates, many of whom were sex offenders. A dark coloured Kentish ragstone brick wall surrounded the prison buildings, obscuring them from public view.
Despite the numerous awards the inmates had won for their gardening efforts, Kay felt repulsed at the undue attention it gave the prison. As far she was concerned, they were there as punishment, and not for recreation, and she didn’t believe any of them could be rehabilitated back into society.
She battened down her thoughts as the car drew to a standstill at the gatehouse, and checked the notes she’d printed out when she’d first suggested they speak with Bob Rogers.
The prison comprised four residential buildings for inmates, however for his own safety Bob Rogers had been sent to the segregation unit.
Kay snorted at the irony.
‘Did you say something?’
‘No, guv. Reading the notes, that’s all.’
Sharp grunted a reply, and wound down
