He shrugged. Sticking to his silence. ‘Can I go?’
‘If you leave, I’ll have no option but to place you under arrest. We’ll wait for your solicitor to arrive before continuing with questioning.’
All she had was circumstantial evidence. She couldn’t get this wrong. He would wait. She could see it in his demeanour. He wasn’t going anywhere.
Chapter Sixty-One
Cass hurried away as quickly as possible. She never wanted to go into a police station again. The two men that were being booked in for fighting had scared her a little but the officers who interviewed her were happy with her statement. Still, she had no news on Elvis. They wouldn’t tell her anything, only that he was safe and in their custody.
Her phone beeped and a rush of adrenaline dashed through her veins.
Cass, I really need a friend and I trust you. Can you come over? I need to talk to someone or I’ll go insane. You’re a true friend, I should have seen that all those years ago, I regret that now. My true, best friend. I’m not at home. I’ll message you the address in a moment. K.
At last, Kerry could see that they were meant to be the best of friends, just like they had been at junior school. Another message beeped through – the address. She smiled. She’d been to this house on many occasions. It was odd that Kerry wasn’t at home but maybe she’d had an argument with her new husband. None of that mattered to Cass, she was sure that Kerry would explain all once they got to speak in person. Last night, she’d felt hopeless, but now, she saw the start of a new future opening up.
She had time to freshen up. Elvis had been wrong about her make-up and her scarf. He’d been jealous that she was making new friends. He loved it when she was down and when she overate. She now knew that this made him secure in that she’d never find anyone else, that she’d always be at his beck and call. Not now. She had Kerry and with what he was putting her through, he’d soon be history.
Maybe she and Kerry would become newly single together. They could go on holidays, nights out, spa days, do all those things that really good friends do together, all those things that the trio of bitches had deprived her of. Holly and Fran were no more and Lilly, who’s Lilly? Kerry wasn’t asking Lilly to go over and be with her. She wanted her oldest, most trusted friend by her side. Besides, when Cass had watched Lilly, she could see that Lilly wouldn’t have time for Kerry any more. Not since she’d had her child. Friendships moved on, just like Lilly’s and Kerry’s had.
She hurried past the Co-op and along the back, straight to her flat. Glancing behind her, she could see that no one was following her, not like the other night. It had to have been a coincidence. That person who was outside Lilly’s house had just been going the same way.
Time for a quick freshen up then her new life would begin. Given all the bad things that had happened, Cass couldn’t help but beam a smile. She almost skipped up the stairs to her flat. Everything always works out for the best in the end.
Chapter Sixty-Two
Gina stuffed the last of the cheese sandwich into her mouth and pressed play on the CCTV footage again. No one as yet could verify that they’d seen Edward Powell at the park. Cars came and went. She slowed it down, searching every inch of the screen, frame by frame.
As the timeframe of the murder got nearer she watched as the family of four stepped out of the four-wheel drive before opening the boot for three bouncy terriers. Each child held a dog on a lead and the man held the third dog. They left. She scanned the side of the car for anything, a glimmer of something that may help – nothing stood out.
Screwing up the sandwich wrapper, she lined it up with the bin in the corner of her office and threw it. Straight in.
She moved onto the next frame. A woman got out of a small red car and bent down to tie her laces. Again, nothing out of the ordinary was happening.
Someone knocked on her door. ‘Come in.’
Jacob sat opposite her and went to speak.
‘Bear with me. Sorry,’ she said as she flicked back a frame. A glint had caught her eye. She played the frame again and slammed her fist on the table. ‘How on earth could we miss this?’ She knew she should have poured over the footage herself.
‘What is it?’
She turned the screen around on the desk and they both watched as she played the clip again.
‘Did I miss something there? A woman got out of a red car.’ He scratched his head.
She flicked to a screenshot of the frame she wanted him to properly look at and magnified it, as she did the image became more pixelated. ‘It’s not the clearest of photos but see in the rear-view mirror of the jogger’s car.’
‘Could be the tail of a Red Setter in the boot of a car?’
‘Yes, and in the reflection, we have a partial plate of a silver Volvo.’ She flicked to another screen and fast-forwarded. A surge of adrenaline passed through her body. ‘Here. Check out the road footage. There’s the whole plate of the same silver Volvo and in the back, what do you see.’
‘It’s a reddish-coloured spaniel.’
‘I think Edward Powell has got his dogs mixed up. We need to speak to the man with the red spaniel. Can you get onto it?’
‘That would confirm he was where he said he was. We may have just proven his innocence when it comes to Francesca Carter’s murder.’
Gina slumped back in her chair. ‘How could we have missed this?’
‘In all fairness, I don’t know how you spotted it, guv.’ He squinted as she flicked back to the previous screen. ‘And, let’s not forget, he did say he saw a Red Setter. That dog is clearly a spaniel.’
She shook her head. They were back to square one if the footage proved that Edward Powell was at the park. ‘Sorry, what did you need me for?’
‘Robin Dawkins. He’s ready to talk. He’s spoken to his solicitor and he’s waiting in interview room one. Before we speak to him, you need to see the CCTV footage that just came in from a pub in Redditch.’
She grabbed her jacket and stood. ‘I’ll be there in a few minutes. Will you join me in the interview?’ She made a note on a piece of paper and passed it across her desk. ‘In the meantime, pass that registration to O’Connor, tell him to speak to the owner of the Volvo then meet me in the interview room in ten minutes.’ That was just enough time to finish her drink before she got to the bottom of what Dawkins had to reveal. Jacob smiled and left.
She pursed her lips together, grabbed her phone and checked for messages. Still nothing from Hannah. She flicked over to Facebook. Hannah had posted a selfie an hour ago, one of her eating an ice cream. Her hand trembled with anger. With all that was going on, her own daughter couldn’t manage a quick message to tell her she was okay. It certainly was a day where the reflections in the pictures gave her the bigger story. In the window behind Hannah, she could see Samuel Avery laughing. Her daughter was out having a good time with a man who’d twice been accused of harassing one of their victim’s. She threw the phone on her desk, buttoned up her suit jacket and left.
Robin Dawkins had been in custody all night. One thing she knew for sure was that he had been nowhere near Lilly Hill’s house last night. He couldn’t be her attacker. They were about to lose Edward Powell and Robin Dawkins as suspects. If they were gone, who else could it have been? She was at a loss. One thing she was sure of, Robin Dawkins wasn’t an innocent man. With the drugs connection to Holly’s apartment, she wanted to know everything Robin had to say. It may not have been him but he could still be hiding something that might lead them to the killer and she wanted to know what.