Since they had left the Quick interview, Imogen had noticed a change in Adrian’s behaviour yet again. She was having trouble keeping up with his moods lately and it was doing her head in somewhat.
‘That was a waste of time,’ she said, slumping into her chair.
‘We are just clutching at straws now,’ Adrian said.
‘What’s left but clutching at straws? Angela Corrigan is too resigned to her fate to put up a fight. She absolutely won’t tell us anything. She put her life in danger by even mentioning Clive Osborne to us and we have found nothing.’
‘Self-preservation wins out in the end. She has no faith that we can deal with her husband and so she is making sure she is safe. If Corrigan did kill both Glover and Osborne for trying to get her away from him, then it’s hardly surprising that she doesn’t want to drag anyone else into it,’ Adrian said, thinking of the price he had paid for trying to help Angela.
‘She seems to be the catalyst for everything he does,’ Imogen said. ‘She’s the key to all of this. We either need to get her to talk, or we need to get her away from him. His fear of losing her seems to be the thing driving him to all these vile acts.’
‘Easier said than done,’ Adrian said.
He didn’t want to go anywhere near her house in case Corrigan was there. He had absolutely no idea what he would do if he was confronted with him. Would he fall apart, or would he try to kill him? In his mind, Adrian knew he wasn’t ready for that conversation just yet.
‘Let’s get right into her background, then. She can’t be completely without family. There is always someone, somewhere. I’ll ask Gary if he can find anything.’
‘What about Corrigan? Does he have any family anywhere?’ Adrian asked.
‘None that we have found. They both seem to exist in this little microcosm together and anyone who gets in the way ends up very badly hurt or worse.’
‘We need to give her something before we can get her to talk to us properly. So that she knows we are doing everything we can. Some kind of hope that this time will be different, that he won’t get away with it.’
‘Except we have nothing of the kind. Every path we have is a dead end. Is he going to be the one who gets away?’ Imogen said.
‘Not if I can help it,’ Adrian said.
She believed him.
Imogen’s phone rang. She picked it up and looked at the screen.
‘Detective Hasan,’ she said as she answered, ‘has there been a development?’
‘Yes, actually, the dogs have found something.’
‘A body?’
‘Maybe. We haven’t got to it yet. Mrs Parkins remembered that Corrigan’s greenhouse was also installed a few months before they moved in. She said they were able to use the five-year warranty to get some of the panes fixed when a branch broke through it in a storm. We think there might be something underneath it. The dogs seem to think so, too.’
‘How long until you know for sure?’
‘They are disassembling the greenhouse now. Once that is done, we can start to dig. If there’s a body, depending on how deep it is buried, it could be anywhere between one or four hours, I think, going by past incidents like this. It also depends on the condition of the body and whether or not it’s been preserved or wrapped in any way, which will make it much easier to move in one piece. I will get it straight to the pathologist for analysis.’
‘Thanks for keeping me updated. This could crack our case wide open,’ Imogen said.
‘Glad to help. I’ll call you as soon as we know something.’
She hung up and looked at Adrian, who was just staring at the report in front of him; although he didn’t seem to be reading it.
‘They think they found something up in the house in Oswestry.’
‘I thought that was a dead end?’
‘Well, it was in the garden. The wife remembered that the greenhouse was almost new when they moved in. He’s going to call back when they have something. You know what this means, though, don’t you?’
‘We need to verify and then get an ID on that body before we start counting our chickens.’
‘Let’s go and grab Jimmy Chilton,’ Imogen said. ‘He knows more than he is letting on. Walsh and I spoke to him before, and he told us he was going to tell us who was doing Corrigan’s dirty work for him.’
Imogen wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw the tiniest flash of something in Adrian’s eyes. Was she being paranoid now? Was she seeing things that weren’t there? She must have looked concerned, because Adrian offered her a weak smile.
‘He was probably just stalling for time,’ he said.
‘Maybe. Let’s find out.’