I was somewhat taken aback, Bob rarely showed emotion about victims, he was always impassive, a professional trait. This expression of disgust and anger was unlike him; however, I knew that we all felt the same. We knew we had to catch who had done this and soon.
Something was on my mind, I walked through the back door of the house, calling out as I stepped into the front room where the two ladies were.
“Hilary, I saw the camera’s mounted on the buildings. Do you have CCTV recordings?”
“Yes… The insurers required it, the horses are worth a fortune as is the tack and equipment.”
“Can I see the system please?”
Hilary walked me through to a cluttered office, the desk piled high with paperwork and magazines, Horse and Hound mostly. She cleared a space, knocking papers onto the floor and sat down, booting up the computer which eventually came to life. Clicking the mouse, the screen filled with images of the yard, I could see my colleagues milling around, John in the tack room, again on his phone.
“Are there any camera’s where Olivia was found?”
“No, I’m sorry they didn’t need the muck heap covered. The closest would be the rear yard.”
“Thank you. If I may I’ll have a look through some of the recordings.”
Hilary nodded; she was looking tired. I waited for her to leave the office before starting to look around the camera system. It was pretty high tech; someone had sold her top of the range kit. The images were clear and it looked as if there were recordings for each stream in real-time. I started to go through the images from the night before, hoping that I may see something.
I dragged the timeline back to the previous afternoon. On the screen, I could see tiles from each camera. I clicked on one and saw a very much alive Olivia speaking with Hilary on the main stable yard. From then on was the arduous task of going through the footage from the night. I watched the two women leave the yard before someone returned later. I paused the video. Opening the full video screen, I looked at the image, this was not Hilary or Sally. I stood up and walked back to the front room asking Hilary if she could come with me.
“Do you recognise this person?”
“Well, that looks like Adam, he’s my other working pupil.”
“What? Sorry, where is he now?”
“Well, he went home to Cumbria early this morning.”
“And you didn’t think to mention this?”
“I…” Hilary stuttered, tears in her eyes.
“Sorry. I apologise, could you please tell me how we can get in touch with him. We would need to have a word with him.”
“Of course…”
Hilary’s omission to even mention this other person surprised me. I’m sure it was due to nothing more than shock, but I needed to know more. He had left the scene in rather a hurry before the girl had been found. Call it a copper’s instinct, but I felt I needed to find this guy quickly. I pressed on.
“Right, I didn’t see Adam before that time, and when we do see him here is quite late at night.”
“No, there’d been a bit of an issue in the morning in the arena. I’d sent him off the yard after that.”
“I’m sorry? Can you explain what happened? A bit of an issue, you say? Can you tell me exactly what you are referring to?” I watched as Hilary looked down.
“Adam argued with Olivia during a coaching session.”
“An argument? What sort of argument?”
“She rode a bit aggressively, made a mistake and Bob, that’s one of my horses, rode into the arena wall. Adam got cross and…”
“And? It’s important I know of anything which happened, no matter how trivial.”
“I don’t think he could have done anything to her?”
“Hilary, please, just so I can understand, please tell me what happened?”
“He hit her with her riding crop?”
“He did what?”
“She beat Bob, the horse. So, Adam rode up, grabbed her crop and hit her.”
“He hit her? So, where did this take place?”
“It happened in the arena.”
“And you said it was in the morning?”
“Yes… Just after eleven.” Her voice became quiet.
“Thank you, Hilary.”
I waited until she had left the room and then clicked on the arena image tile on the screen. Enlarging the image, I saw there was a clear picture of everything which happened within it.
I scrolled back through the timeline until I found images from the previous morning. I watched the sped up reverse images until I saw a man riding towards Olivia. I reversed more before playing back, full screen. I could see a silent film of her clearing the jump. I gasped as she rode into the wall, hard, her horse falling back. She started beating the horse about his head. I watched as Adam rode up, grabbing her whip from her hand striking her hard across her ribs. Grabbing my phone, I called John.
* * *
“Sally, did you mention Adam to the police?”
“No… I didn’t think…”
“I just did and about what happened in the arena… Look, he couldn’t…”
“Hilary… It’s what I said, he was really mad with her…”
* * *
“Look at it John, he really lays into her. I mean that would be a clear GBH if she wasn’t dead. Then we don’t see him until, twenty-three forty-seven and, surprise, surprise he left in the early hours.”
“Christ!”
“More than that. I spoke with the groom about the necklace. Asked her if she recognised it at all. She said it was his. He always wore it.”
“Shit! Where the hell is he?”
“Cumbria, near Grange Over Sands.”
“Okay, I’ll get on the phone and
