she hadn’t gone to bed, instead choosing to sit in the lounge for most of the early hours mulling over the case. Eventually, she’d fallen asleep sitting in front of her laptop, while her cat, Ebony, snuggled against her arm, waking a couple of hours later with the twinge in her neck that still persisted now. Her phone rang. It was Wyre. ‘Are we all ready?’
‘We’re all gathering in the incident room, guv.’
She left the letter on her desk and hurried out, allowing the door to slam behind her.
‘Morning, guv.’ Jacob yawned. With his laptop bag in one hand and a notebook in the other, he nudged the main door to the incident room with his bottom, releasing the chatter that came from the room. She was going to tell him that his shirt flap was out at the back but she kept her mouth shut.
DC O’Connor passed around a box of croissants filled with butter and jam. ‘Mrs O thought we might need these. Help yourselves.’ Harry O’Connor, always a smile regardless of how gruesome or disturbing the case was.
Mrs O was right. Gina grabbed one and headed straight to the head of the room. ‘I’m glad to see we have some photos on the board.’ The email from Bernard had arrived in the night and she’d forwarded it to PC Smith so that he could print the photos up, ready for the briefing. She took a bite of the buttery pastry, almost salivating as her taste buds exploded. She wiped a streak of jam from her bottom lip as she took in their victim’s features. Blond male, described in Bernard’s email as being six feet tall. She scrunched her eyes a little. He’d had a piercing in his eyebrow at some point but it looked as though it had almost healed over. His grey, ashen skin had a bluish tinge in places. A flashback to the night she and Briggs were at Lucy’s Café filled her mind. He’d been lurking around after and what had the staring been about? He’d watched her from afar. She shuddered as an uneasy feeling flushed through her. If only she’d chased him instead of their Justin Bieber lookalike. Hindsight was a wonderful thing. She had no idea he would turn up in a coffin – dead.
‘We’ll start with the door-to-doors from the estate at the back of the woods.’ She pointed to the area on the wall map. ‘Any updates?’
PC Smith wheeled his office chair closer to the main table, nudging Wyre and O’Connor to create a gap. He placed his hat on the table and ruffled his flat hair. ‘Nothing of any help. We have several CCTV recordings that some of the residents have given us and we’ve been through most of them. Nothing so far. I spent the night watching most of them myself.’ He rubbed his eyes and took a swig from his travel mug. ‘There were only reports of trick or treaters playing up. Reports of eggs being thrown, kids knocking doors and running away, things like that. Someone’s car had been covered in pink custard. All manner of pranks were played and there are a lot of kids hanging around the streets in these recordings, as you will see if you watch them.’ He licked the crack in his thin lips.
‘I don’t think this murder is the work of kids but we should keep an open mind at the moment. How about the town? The woods lead to the edge of Cleevesford Town and onto the high street, in fact the church backs onto them, or should I say the graveyard does.’
O’Connor leaned in. ‘PC Kapoor orchestrated the door-to-doors after bringing the two girls in and she left me with her findings when she clocked out in the early hours. We knocked at the vicarage and the vicar was more than willing to hand their CCTV over. I’ve watched it over and over again and all I saw was a few kids dressed as ghosts playing what looked like hide and seek amongst the graves. It would be good to speak with some of them to see if they saw anyone out of the CCTV range. As for identifying any of them, let’s just say their costumes were good. Most were wearing thick make-up or masks and as soon as it started to pour down, they cleared off.’
Gina glanced back at the board and focused on the map. A pin marked the murder spot. ‘I wouldn’t mind