‘We’ll get reports on Melanie’s phone tomorrow,’ Juliet said. ‘Should be able to take a look at her purse as well.’
‘Good.’ I jumped up from my desk. Since the interview with Jordan, I’d been full of restless energy. We had another suspect but were no nearer to finding any answers. ‘Let’s talk through what we’ve got so far.’
The wall was decorated with more evidence. Pictures from the pathologist’s full post-mortem were tacked up, along with photos the forensic team had taken in the forest. Quotes from interviews, copied from my notebook, were scattered under suspects’ pictures.
Juliet spun her chair around and steepled her fingers under her chin. ‘I always love a run-through.’
‘Jordan has to be a suspect despite his tearful reaction, but I’m more concerned about someone else.’ I pointed at Leo’s picture. He was in school uniform, his hair gelled back from his face. It made his chunky glasses the most prominent feature. ‘I’d like to have another chat with Leo. There’s something he wasn’t telling us, and he’s clearly this My Lion Melanie was seeing.’
‘Clearly.’
I frowned at Juliet. ‘What am I missing?’
Juliet twisted in her chair and her fingers raced across her keyboard. ‘Leo is the most obvious candidate for My Lion, but we have to keep someone else in the frame.’
She turned her monitor to show me a picture of Karl. This one was more recent than the photo tacked to the wall. His hair tangled in a wild halo around his face.
‘Remind you of anything?’ Juliet asked.
I deflated. One thing I’d been reasonably certain of was the identity of Melanie’s secret admirer. ‘I thought you liked Karl?’
Juliet rolled her eyes and pushed her monitor back into place. ‘I didn’t say that. I said he seemed pleasant. And even if I did like him, I’d never let that stop me from pursuing every line of enquiry.’
That was what we had to do. Whether I was inclined to consider Karl a suspect or not, he had no alibi, a tragically violent past, and he could have been in contact with Melanie. I was suspicious of Leo, but the simplest explanation wasn’t always the right one.
I had a tendency towards trusting my gut. It didn’t cause me to do a bad job, but it affected my priorities when investigating a case. Juliet was much more clinical.
‘Right. Okay.’ I grabbed a pad of post-its from my desk. ‘We need to talk to Leo, and let’s add another chat with Karl into the mix. And there are some key questions we need to answer.’
I wrote them out on individual post-its and stuck them to the wall.
WHO IS MY LION?
WHO DID MELANIE HAVE SEX WITH?
WHERE IS THE DOG?
WHERE IS THE GUN?