Wasn’t it natural that he’d want to regain his untarnished reputation?
Natural too that Patrick Sutherland would want to protect his own good name. And the access Long Fleet gave him to vulnerable women who would be susceptible to the gentle manner and easy charms which he used to groom them.
Nadia Baidoo was in love with him. Believed in him. Trusted him.
Did she want to protect him now just like he’d protected her?
‘Do you buy the sleeping pill story?’ Zigic asked.
Ferreira grimaced. ‘I don’t know. It’s really convenient from a self-preservation point of view, but I was surprised she didn’t cover for Sutherland given how she was going on about him.’
‘She didn’t drop him in it either,’ he said. ‘Basically, we can’t charge her with anything and until we find some compelling evidence to place Sutherland at Ainsworth’s house, we can’t charge him either. They’re both safe from us.’
‘But you still think one of them’s responsible, right?’ Ferreira asked, her tone making it clear that she did.
‘I’m not sure the break-in is a motive,’ he admitted, eyeing the names on the board behind her.
Names which they’d drifted away from but hadn’t fully ruled out. The girlfriend, the protestors, all the guards who’d lost their jobs thanks to Joshua Ainsworth.
He felt like they had the right people in custody, that they had most of the pieces they needed to prove guilt, but still that vital something was missing.
Kate Jenkins had been in touch to say she was starting work on Sutherland’s car. There had been some delay getting it released from the car park at Long Fleet, but it was in the station garage now and he knew she would be giving it her fullest attention.
They were well overdue something useful on the forensics front.
‘Do you want anything from the canteen?’ he asked, hauling himself up.
Ferreira shook her head. ‘Oh, actually, some chocolate.’
‘I meant proper food.’
‘And a Coke, please.’
‘You’re going to rot all your teeth right out of your head,’ he told her as he left the office.
Downstairs he got what was going to pass for Mel’s lunch from the machine, grabbed himself a chicken sandwich and a smoothie, thinking about Nadia hiding in the wardrobe as Joshua Ainsworth came up the stairs. Tried to imagine how that had felt, knowing what she’d done to him, how much he must hate her.
And then how Sutherland had felt when she told him about it.
Even without his own selfish motives he would have wanted to protect her, Zigic thought. Assuming Sutherland did love her.
He wasn’t sure he believed that either. Was finding he believed nothing Sutherland said. The man was clearly an arch manipulator. Seemed to have even drawn Ferreira in for a while there and, God knows, she had a cynical streak half a mile wide.
They would have to be careful with him. Go in with a plan and not deviate from it.
Back in the office Ferreira was at Bloom’s desk, both of them standing looking at something on the screen, expressions giving nothing away.
‘Come and see this,’ Ferreira said. ‘Keri, tell him what you’ve been up to.’
‘I just thought I’d check through Sutherland’s record again,’ she said, vaguely apologetic about it.
Because it hadn’t been her job, Zigic thought, and she probably felt like she was stepping on someone’s toes.
‘What did you find?’ he asked.
‘Five days ago we’ve got a ticket on his number plate for jumping a red light in Werrington. So I pulled the image from the camera,’ she said, moving aside so he could see the photo she’d found, blown up on her screen. ‘It’s not brilliantly clear, sorry.’
It wasn’t, but it didn’t need to be. Even with the pixels breaking apart Zigic could see that Patrick Sutherland was in the passenger seat. Nadia Baidoo driving.
‘That changes things a bit,’ he said.
‘Just because she can drive, it doesn’t mean she drove to Ainsworth’s place and killed him.’ Ferreira took her chocolate from his hand and ripped it open. ‘We weren’t ruling her out just because she couldn’t drive.’
‘No, but we were adjusting our likelihoods based quite heavily on the fact that we didn’t think she could get to his house,’ Zigic pointed out.
They’d come a long way in a little over a week, made more progress than he’d expected them to, but the finish line still wasn’t quite in reach.
If anything it felt further away now than it had this morning. The path to it split suddenly. Nadia Baidoo down one lane, Patrick Sutherland the other.
And he didn’t know which way to go.
CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE
Sutherland was on his feet when they entered Interview 1, staring up at the high window as the guard in the corner watched him with indifference.
His solicitor, Ben Lawton, sat in the seat against the wall, typing something out on his mobile, thumbs skipping fast across the screen. He made a show of switching it off as they approached the table, and slipped it into his jacket pocket.
‘How’s Nadia?’ Sutherland asked.
‘She’s fine,’ Zigic told him.
‘I hope you haven’t questioned her without a solicitor.’
‘Why would she need a solicitor?’ Zigic asked innocently.
Sutherland spread his hands wide. ‘She’s a vulnerable young woman who’s been grossly mistreated by people in positions of authority.’
‘People?’ Ferreira said. ‘Plural?’
He looked at her, flustered. ‘The whole system. Everything she’s been through. The last police officers she saw snatched her out of her life and locked her up. Do you think being here is going to be easy for her?’
Ferreira sat down at the table and set up the recording
