to the fuss he made about the price of the sandwich and coffee. ‘As you know, on the night of the disturbance that DCI Briggs and I called in, we’d already seen this man in the café. He was giving the owner a bit of abuse. I do remember a slight smell of smoke coming from his clothes.’
Jacob leaned back in his chair and Briggs crept in and sat at the back of the room. Gina swallowed. There was a point at the café where she clearly remembered Briggs placing his hand over hers. She knew what was coming next.
‘We can see if the café has any interior CCTV. Maybe a screenshot of our victim could be circulated to the press. As you say, someone has to know him,’ Wyre said.
Gina nodded, her gaze shifting quickly from Briggs’s. ‘I’ll head over there next and see what they have. It won’t do any harm to talk to the owner, see if she remembers seeing him at any other time.’
‘Great.’ Jacob pulled his coat from the back of the chair, assuming she’d ask him to go.
It was a fair assumption. She’d tasked Wyre and O’Connor with door-to-door and undertaker research. Jacob was her usual right-hand detective. Briggs ran his thick fingers through his hair and straightened his tie before glancing at her again then quickly looking away. ‘Okay. Are we all clear about what we’re doing?’
A murmur of yesses filled the room and everyone turned to their notes and chatted about their plans. Gina watched as Briggs slinked off into the kitchen. She hurried out and closed the door, switching on the kettle and waiting until it began to boil. ‘We could be on those images.’ Gina bit her bottom lip and leaned over the worktop, allowing her tangled up hair to fall over her face.
‘I was thinking that too. We’ll just have to see what you come back with and hope we’re not on the footage.’ He paced towards the cupboard. ‘It wasn’t that bad, it was just a slight touch. It was nothing. I accidentally reached over to you out of concern when our victim came in and intimidated everyone in the café.’
‘You shouldn’t have.’
His shoulders slumped and he looked away.
Jacob burst through the door and the kettle clicked as steam bellowed from the spout. She forced a smile.
Jacob leaned over and threw a teabag into a travel mug. ‘One for the road. Am I missing something?’
‘No, we were just talking about the case. Nothing we haven’t covered.’ Briggs headed towards the door. ‘Come and see me later. We can continue our conversation then. In the meantime, I’ll prepare an update for the press. Reporters are all over the crime scene and now they’re beginning to camp on our car park. Anyway, with any luck, we’ll have a clear image that I can send to them when you get back. That should keep them off our backs for a short while and it might lead to our victim’s identity.’
Gina nodded. ‘Let’s hope something comes of it, then we can put a name to the face. I’m off to the café so see you later.’ Jacob filled his cup. ‘I’ll just grab my coat.’ As Jacob left, Gina exhaled and wiped the small droplets of sweat that had formed at her brow, knowing that this case could be the start of her undoing.
She hurried back to her office to get her coat and stopped as she caught sight of the letter again. Tearing it open, she began to read the words on the page. She leaned against her desk as the room began to swirl, her heart banging like she was about to have a heart attack. It was as if her breath had been sucked from her body.
Chapter Twelve
Gina pulled up in the church car park, unable to recall the journey there even though she’d driven all the way. The letter in her pocket felt as though it was trying to burn its way out.
Jacob unclipped his seat belt. ‘Are we heading over to the café, then coming back to speak to our vicar or is it the other way round?’
‘Café first.’
As they hurried over the mound of grass dividing the church and the bus stop, the rain began to fall a little harder. A rumble of thunder filled the skies followed by the tiniest of flashes. Gina felt the hairs on the back of her neck creeping around her nape. The thunder that crashed on the night she watched