Matilda remained quiet as she chewed her nails. ‘Until her father turns up, there’s not a damn thing we can do. It’s her word against mine.’
Chapter 60
Three people were dead, murdered, Matilda assumed, by Jodie Armitage, and the only thing she could charge her with was the stabbing of DS Sian Mills. She kicked open the door to the HMET suite in frustration and charged to her office. Her face was red with anger. The Mercer case in November could collapse and the killer get away with four deaths. She was not going to allow someone else to get away with murder. There had to be some evidence of Jodie committing her crimes.
Matilda looked out of her window at the uninspiring view of Sheffield’s grey and unimaginative buildings.
‘Penny for your thoughts?’ Christian asked from the doorway.
‘I don’t think they’re worth that much,’ she said without turning around. She could see Christian’s reflection through the window.
‘Jodie’s certainly given this a great deal of thought, hasn’t she?’ he said, sitting down.
‘She’s a liar, a manipulator, a murderer, and a psychopath, and she’s playing the part brilliantly.’
‘She’ll have made a mistake. They always do.’
‘Only in crime dramas when the writer’s looking for an easy way out. I doubt Jodie’s made a single error. Craig, on the other hand, he may have done.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Craig has managed to convince his daughter that they’re in love,’ Matilda said, going over to her desk and sitting down. ‘He’s been able to keep that going for many years. Now, when you’re in love with someone, and it’s an intense and passionate affair, what do you do?’
‘Please don’t tell me you’re asking for positions.’
‘No. But, to keep her quiet, Craig will have bought Jodie treats. The neighbours have said that they’ve seen Jodie in designer coats despite them having to raise money for Riley’s care. He’ll have been buying her silence with presents.’
‘But even if we find jewellery and designer gear in her bedroom, she could say they were Christmas and birthday presents. It’s not evidence.’
‘No, but love letters are. Don’t forget, they’ll have had to keep what they’re doing a secret from everyone. They won’t always have been able to have private time alone, so what better than sending each other illicit texts or emails.’ She was clutching at straws, she knew that, but there was nothing else to go on.
‘We’ve been through every device in the house: phones, tablets, laptops. We’d have found them.’
‘Every device that we know about. Like I said, she’s a manipulator, a liar, a psychopath; she’s not going to leave a mobile with sexual messages from her father on her bedside table, is she? She’ll have hidden it.’
‘Where?’
‘I don’t know. But I want that house torn apart. I want the floorboards lifted. I want false walls taken down. I want the garden dug up if necessary.’
‘We can’t do that without a warrant.’
‘We’re searching for Craig who we suspect of murder. We need to find him. We have every right to be in that house. I know it’s Sunday, but I don’t give a toss about overtime. Get Scott, Rory, and Finn and pull that fucking house down if you have to.’ Matilda’s voice grew louder with every word as anger and frustration took over her.
***
A fleet of police cars, marked and unmarked, drove at speed into Acorn Drive. They pulled up outside the Armitage house, and, led by DI Christian Brady, they went inside to begin dismantling it from the floorboards upwards.
The search of the house began in Jodie’s bedroom. As a great manipulator, she wouldn’t have kept anything incriminating so close, but if she believed she was in love with her father, surely she would have wanted something personal to hand, to hold, feel, smell, in bed at night. That was the assumption Christian was working on, which was why he sent the team upstairs.
Wearing full scene-of-crime suits, Rory and Finn led the team by searching through the chest of drawers, taking them all out of the pine unit, before removing the chest itself to look behind it. They did the same with the wardrobe and the desk. They emptied the drawers in the single divan bed and searched through every pocket in every item of clothing, all to no avail.
‘There’s nothing here,’ Rory said, slightly out of breath.
‘Take everything out of the room and pull the carpet up,’ Christian said.
‘Really?’ Rory frowned.
‘Really.’
‘But say if she has hidden something under the carpet beneath the wardrobe, how is she going to have been able to get access to it with something so heavy on top?’
‘It might not be under the wardrobe. And if it is, maybe there’s a tunnel she’s able to put her arm through to get to it. We’re dealing with a complete psychopath here, Rory. Everything out, carpet up, floorboards up. Do it,’ he said firmly and stood back as Rory and Finn took the strain of the wardrobe.
Christian stepped out onto the landing to give them room. He looked across the hallway and saw Scott in Keeley’s room. He was tentatively looking in drawers and cupboards.
‘Scott, I need you to be more thorough than that,’ the DI said. ‘You need to pull this place apart, piece by piece.’
Scott looked up. His eyes were red. ‘It’s the first time I’ve been in this room. Have you seen some of her things? She was just a child, nine years old. She watched Frozen and drew pictures. Why did he have to …?’ he trailed off.
‘I’ve no idea, Scott. Some people are pure evil. Look, I’ve been going through Ellen Devonport’s daily reports that she emailed to Matilda. She mentioned she saw Craig in the living room repairing the floorboards the morning after Keeley went missing. It could be innocent, but maybe he wasn’t repairing them. Maybe he was hiding something. Pop down and have a look.’
Scott smiled. He knew DI Brady was allowing him an easier task than rooting through a dead child’s belongings. ‘Thanks, boss,’ he said. He couldn’t leave the room fast enough.
***
Downstairs in the living room, Scott dragged the coffee table to one side, kicked up the rug and bent down to try to raise the carpet from in front of the window. A quick jimmy with a Stanley knife and the carpet came away with ease. Putting on a pair of blue latex gloves, he pressed on the boards to see if any were loose.
‘Sir?’ he called out over his shoulder.
DI Brady appeared in the doorway. ‘Found something?’
‘I’m not sure. I thought you might want to be here when I lift these up, just in case. The three boards in front of the window aren’t secured.’
‘Go on.’
Scott lifted the boards and looked down into the dark and grime beneath the house. He turned on a pen torch he took from his pocket and pointed the light into the hole. He dug around aimlessly until his hand caught on something. He turned to Christian and smiled.
‘What have you got?’
Scott pulled out a plastic zip-lock bag, inside of which were three iPhone 4s.
‘Bingo,’ Christian said with a grin.