began tossing the marker pen he was still holding from one hand to the other.
‘Nope. Just adding what the Met told us this morning. Which is sod all.’
Helena sighed again. A senior detective from the Metropolitan Police had called an hour ago, to inform the team that they had now taken a fresh look at the two murders in London and, other than the previously unremarked upon fact that the two victims did indeed closely resemble each other physically, they could find no other connections between the two cases.
‘The two men didn’t know each other, lived in different parts of London, had no friends or hobbies or anything else in common,’ Mike, who had taken the call, had said.
‘The victim in Richmond Park – his name was David Reynolds – had no criminal record. But the Hounslow tube station car park guy, name of Anthony Daniels, had a bit of a past – a few burglaries, some low-level dealing. That was one of the reasons they didn’t even think to link the two cases at the time last year – they thought Daniels’s death was probably related to his drug connections. Both did die from head injuries, attacked with some sort of blunt object which was never found in either case though. So similar MO to our two cases here. And obviously, there’s their physical appearances. The guy I spoke to didn’t sound entirely convinced though, and they can’t help us with any forensics or anything – they didn’t have any. But they say they’ll keep an open mind about a possible link. We’ve agreed to keep in touch.’
Now that the press had decided to link the cases regardless though, and had splashed their unsubstantiated musings all over the front pages, Helena knew that the pressure on her to come up with some sort of result would become intense. She’d already had a terse phone call from her boss, Detective Chief Superintendent Anna Miller, earlier that morning.
‘Miller’s been on,’ she said morosely to Devon, who was still skilfully juggling his pen. ‘She’s a very angry Geordie today. She wants an arrest, pronto. Wondering why we haven’t got Gemma O’Connor in custody. I told her we just don’t have enough on her … well, anything really. Nothing that would stick.’
‘Agreed. Nowhere near enough for the CPS, that’s for sure,’ Devon agreed. ‘Pity the forensic report on her house wasn’t more conclusive. That would really have helped if it had backed up the theory that she’s lying about Danny ever having made it to Bristol.’
Helena nodded. The Crown Prosecution Service would want a lot more than they currently had to make a charge stick to Gemma O’Connor, and the forensics report had been another blow. Traces of Danny O’Connor’s DNA, along with his fingerprints, had been found in numerous parts of the Clifton house, although in vastly smaller quantities than those of Gemma’s. They had already known from speaking to the letting agency that Danny had spent a night there with Gemma in mid-January, so that wasn’t unexpected. But the lab had been unable to give any firm answer on exactly how much time he’d spent in the place.
‘It’s impossible to say. Depends how often the house is cleaned, what cleaning products are used. He’s been there, that’s all we can say for definite. Can’t tell you how recently, or for how long, unfortunately.’
It was something they wanted to speak to Gemma about, but as they’d been about to contact her earlier, she had unexpectedly phoned the incident room, saying she needed to speak to them. She was due to arrive any minute, and just as that thought crossed Helena’s mind, her desk phone rang.
‘She’s here,’ she told Devon when she’d replaced the handset. ‘You coming?’
‘Definitely.’
***
When they were settled in one of the interview rooms, Helena decided to let Gemma speak first. The woman looked better than she had on their last meeting, she thought – a little more rested, hair freshly washed, and a determined expression on her face.
‘Look, I’ve been thinking, really thinking, about Danny’s behaviour over the past few weeks,’ she began. ‘And I’ve been talking it over with my friend Eva too. Eva Hawton? She’s an investigative reporter on The Independent, and she’s really good at getting to the bottom of stuff like this. She’s been a big help.’
‘Has she indeed?’ said Helena. ‘So what does Miss Hawton make of all this then?’
She tried to keep the scepticism she was feeling out of her voice. Bloody reporters, she