before her death. Jenny checked her bank statements and realized there were none on the file after January.
DI Vernon Goodison was a hard man to get hold of. It took three separate calls to track him down to a CID office in Trinity Road police station, and impatient threats to a junior detective to extract his mobile number.
'Jenny Cooper, here. Severn Vale District Coroner. I understand you led the investigation into the murder of Eva Donaldson.'
'Ah, the infamous Mrs Cooper.' She could picture his patronizing smile. 'I was the interviewing officer. DI Wallace was heading up the investigation.'
'It's your signature certifying that the unused material handed to Craven's solicitors was complete.'
'I think I remember that.'
'There appear to be documents missing.'
'Then I suggest you contact the solicitors. We had no reason to hold on to anything.'
'They're missing from your lists. You can't tell me you didn't find mobile phone bills or bank statements after January. It looks as if the deceased had a computer, but there's no mention of you having seized one.'
'Have another look at the exhibits list. Have you got a copy?'
'Fire away.'
'Top of the second sheet, as I recall.'
Jenny turned the page and read, 'Item: document shredder.'
Goodison said, 'A woman with a bit of a past, you might say. Wouldn't want things falling into the wrong hands I expect. You can understand why.'
Jenny said, 'How far did you dig?'
'We don't spend money for prurience alone, Mrs Cooper. Once we'd established Craven was our man, we moved on.'
'What happened to the computer?'
'As far as I know, we never found one. You know as well as I do it'd be the first thing in the bag.'
'Did you check her email server?'
'We searched her one known address. There should be a statement in the file covering that. She was a scrupulous woman, liked to cover her tracks. I suppose she had plenty to cover.'
Jenny opened the file containing the prosecution statements. She must have missed it the first time she skimmed through. A single paragraph from DC Anya Singh recorded the fact that a search had been made of Eva's only known email account and that it had been closed down at the request of Eva herself on 12 February. There was no surviving record of her previous email correspondence on the operator's server.
'Did you find out why she closed the account?'
'No. The best guess is that she was doing a spot of housekeeping before this bill came before Parliament. You can imagine the kind of press attention she would have attracted.'
'And ditched the computer for safe measure?'
'Put it beyond reach, that's for sure.'
Jenny instinctively mistrusted the DI and had to remind herself to remain objective, to remember that the police had no interest in gleaning the whole truth, only in gathering sufficient evidence for a conviction. Once they had a confession, details such as Eva's tattoo or why she might have dumped her computer would be of no concern to them.
But she couldn't resist a final dig. 'I read your interview with Craven. Seems like you had to tease it out of him.'
Goodison laughed. 'Not at all, Mrs Cooper. He couldn't wait to put his hands up. He was good as gold.'
No money. No phone. No computer. A contractual dispute with an adult movie company and a new tattoo two weeks before she died. Eva had been in a mess and Jenny felt a sudden and profound shift in her feelings towards her. She wasn't a porn star or an evangelist, she was a lonely and frightened young woman whose short life was heading for disaster. If she didn't try to understand her, no one ever would. But why Eva more than a drowned boy or the innocent victims of a crane collapse? Jenny didn't have an answer, only a powerful feeling that if she were to turn her back on Eva now, she wouldn't be able to live with herself.
Alison bustled in with coffee from their local Brazilian cafe balanced on top of a tray of mail. Ever since the good- looking new waiter had greeted her as 'my pretty lady' she had been making daily trips.
'Good weekend, Mrs Cooper?'
'Yes,' Jenny lied. 'You?'
'Oh, all right.' There was something uncharacteristically girlish in Alison's non-committal reply.
'Not too lonely without Terry?'
'Goodness no. I think it's probably been good for both of us. Things get a bit stale after thirty years. We probably both felt like a bit of excitement, only he was the one who acted on it.'