‘You’ve been busy.’ I placed a sweating takeaway container on Juliet’s desk.
She’d gotten out the twine. The wall of evidence had been populated with pictures and articles while I was at the Chinese restaurant down the road. Lime green strands connected each of the suspects to Melanie.
Juliet grabbed the container and came to stand beside me. She shovelled a forkful of noodles into her mouth. There were purplish bags under her eyes, which would only grow as this case wore on. I’d tried to express concern for her before. That had resulted in two weeks of curt replies and coldness. The most I could do was ensure she went home at a reasonable time each night and feed her at regular intervals.
‘I’ve been working on our main suspects,’ Juliet said between mouthfuls. ‘There’s not much to follow up on, but I’ve been digging into their pasts.’
‘Anything interesting?’ I picked up a spring roll and bit off one end.
‘Dunlow is squeaky clean. A few bad reviews on blog sites, but nothing more than you’d expect from a man who’s helping big companies squash smaller ones. He’s a member of the local shooting range, like Karl said. No previous convictions, not even a speeding ticket.
‘Leo goes to an all-boys private school. I’ve emailed to find out more about him but there’s nothing on him in the system. No idea how either of them would be connected to the victim.’
She chewed on her noodles. ‘I’ve put Terence on the board too. I’ve emailed to check his alibi, but we can discount him for now.’
‘What about Karl?’ I nodded towards a picture of the groundskeeper that must have been taken a while ago. His hair was squashed under a graduation cap. The photo was surrounded by notes and articles.
‘There’s a lot he didn’t tell us.’ Juliet stabbed her fork at him. ‘He’s not from around here, has moved from job to job despite a first-class history degree. He’s been working for Dunlow for just over a year, the longest he’s stayed anywhere. He grew up in Yorkshire, was left without family when his father killed his mother with a golf club. Beat Karl half to death too.’
‘Sad story.’ I bent down to read the article. Karl’s father scowled from a black-and-white mugshot. He didn’t look anything like his son; his face twisted and hair shaved close to his scalp. This explained Karl’s wary reticence. He wouldn’t want us rummaging around in his past.
‘A history of violence in the family,’ Juliet corrected. ‘He’s emailed over the list of people with keys to the estate, but we need to speak to him again.’
I moved away from the wall of evidence and picked up another spring roll as I sat down at my desk. ‘I don’t see him as a killer, no matter what his father did. Why would he have called in the body if he’d killed Melanie? He knows those woods better than anyone, could have hidden her if he’d wanted to.’
Juliet chucked her empty container into the bin and sat down, her chair angled towards the wall of evidence. ‘Maybe he was lying about that too. Maybe the others go into the forest more than he said, and he knew he couldn’t hide the body forever.’
‘I thought you liked him?’ I used my grease-free hand to wiggle my mouse, bringing my computer to life. ‘What motive would he have had to kill Melanie?’
‘What reason did any of them have to murder her?’ Juliet asked, ignoring my first comment. ‘And why was Melanie even on the estate?’
‘Leo knows something.’ I looked over at his photo on the wall.
‘Definitely.’
‘The pathologist might be able to give us something to go on,’ I said, reading an email. ‘They can see us tomorrow afternoon. And maybe Ida will be able to help us form a connection between Melanie and one of these men. If not, we’ll have to talk to them again and hope one of them slips up.’
Juliet nodded, her lips pushed to one side as she stared at her computer screen. I glanced at the wall, my eyes drifting to Karl’s picture. He and I both knew what it was like for a life to be marred by horrific violence. And what it was like to be judged because of it.