She forced a smile, realising and accepting — however harsh it sounded — that it simply wasn’t her problem. She was more than happy to be a friend and confidante, but they were at work and she wasn’t employed as an agony aunt. In any case, she had problems of her own to attend to.
27
Amie let out a deep sigh and stared at the ceiling. It wasn’t the first time. She felt sure it wasn’t even the hundredth time. There was little else to do in her cell other than sigh and stare.
Her solicitor had assured her she had very little to worry about, and that the police were just fishing. She wanted to believe him — she desperately wanted to trust every word — but she was starting to feel sure that she’d been deliberately set up.
After all, it wasn’t the first time. The same had happened when Russell died. If she was honest with herself, she still struggled to get over that. Even the coroner’s report said it had been an accident. She could still recall the interview room, the way the officers had looked at her. It was almost as if she were a zoo exhibit rather than a human being. She’d been young. Impressionable. And it had given her a deep distrust of the police.
The moment she’d heard Martin had been found dead and the police were investigating it as suspicious, she knew what would happen next. She had no reason to be worried, of course. She hadn’t seen Martin for days, and she couldn’t remember the last time she’d been anywhere near the viaduct. So why had she been brought in? She’d asked herself these questions a hundred times since she’d been put in this cell.
Surely it hadn’t been purely down to the argument? People argued at work all the time. And yes, she’d been suspected of murder in the past, but surely the police could see it had been deemed an accident and that she had nothing to do with it? Whichever way she looked at things, all she could see was the police trying to pin something on her. It was ridiculous, especially as it had been Monique who’d been leading Martin on for so long.
They’d mentioned Gavin having been her alibi on both occasions. Of course he had! He’d been the friend she’d gone to after walking out on Russell, and they’d later married. Who else was she going to be with on a Monday evening? The whole thing was ridiculous. But she couldn’t shake that nagging worry…
They had no evidence. Of course they didn’t. There wasn’t any. At least, not any real evidence. But if someone was going out of their way to make it look as though she’d done it, would they have gone as far as to fabricate something? She didn’t know how, but the possibility worried her.
She’d wanted to tell her solicitor her concerns. He’d asked her for her account and had seemed happy enough with her explanation. He seemed to believe her. He’d asked her twice whether she thought there’d be any evidence to the contrary, or anything he should be aware of, and twice she’d said no. Both times, she’d been on the verge of telling him she was worried someone might have deliberately planted evidence, but there seemed to be no right way to word it. There wasn’t anyone she could suspect of doing that. She hadn’t made any enemies. Mentioning it at that point would just make her sound paranoid. Suspicious, even. So she’d kept quiet.
Her solicitor had told her he didn’t think she’d be kept beyond the standard twenty-four-hour custody period. Apparently the police could apply for extensions to that if they had reason to, but he thought her arrest was speculative and the evidence too spurious to get authorisation for that.
As she turned these thoughts over in her mind for the thousandth time, she heard the sound of her cell door unlocking. A young male officer looked at her and asked her to follow him.
They made their way to the custody desk, where the sergeant told her she was being released on bail without charge.
‘So I’m free to go?’ she asked.
‘Yes and no,’ the sergeant replied. ‘You’re being released on bail under Part 4 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. It means we’ll be continuing our investigation and that you’re still under suspicion, but you won’t be detained here. There are conditions for your bail, though. You’ll have to remain in the country and surrender your passport until the end of the bail period, and must remain at your home address overnight. You’ll be asked to report here once every seven days until the end of your bail period.’
Amie was desperately trying to listen, trying to understand everything, but all she could think of was getting out of here, getting home and seeing Gavin and the kids. Anything else could be dealt with later.
‘Do you understand everything?’ the sergeant asked.
Amie nodded. ‘Yes. Yeah, that’s fine. Thank you.’
‘Would you like to call someone to come and pick you up?’
She thought for a moment, but couldn’t override the deep uneasy feeling that had settled in her gut. Yes, she was going to need a lift back to Market Overton. And she knew exactly who she should call. It would be Gavin. Obviously Gavin. So why did she feel so uneasy?
28
He stared intently at the rear-view mirror and watched as Amie perched against the wall at the front entrance to Oakham Police Station.
He’d picked the
