I walked into our office, two coffees balanced around the fingers of one hand and an evidence bag clutched in the other. Juliet jumped up and grabbed one of the mugs. Today, she’d paired grey trousers with a cream blouse. Her nails were painted a smooth navy.
‘I went to see Maddy first thing. She had this waiting.’
There was no need to explain why it was so important I sought out our assistant this morning. I’d known Maddy would need convincing I wasn’t going to shun her because of Alice’s tactless pursuit of the truth.
‘She’s a doll.’ Juliet plonked her coffee on her desk. Brown droplets dribbled down the side while she rummaged in one of her drawers. She emerged with a pair of plastic gloves that she threw across our desks. ‘I’ll let you play with that. The report on Melanie’s phone has come in as well.’
Before I sat down, I stuck a silver star where the dog had been found on the aerial map of the Dunlow Estate. Not too far from where Melanie died, and in the direction the forensics team had already established the killer walked after shooting. Seemingly towards nothing. There was only a Bronze Age burial ground across the road.
Despite answering one of my pressing questions, finding the dog’s body hadn’t confirmed or denied anything.
I pulled the post-it off the wall, then dumped my bag, coat and coffee on my desk and chair. Always scruffy next to Juliet, I tugged at my jumper sleeves and ran a hand through my wind-tousled hair. Slipping on the gloves, I pulled Melanie’s purse out of the evidence bag. No marks on the purple fabric, even though its owner had sustained such damage. I flipped open the popper and eased the sections apart.
‘The passcode worked,’ Juliet said, tapping at her keyboard.
‘Good.’ Internally, I air punched. Without access to Melanie’s phone, this case would be even harder.
I extracted an array of loyalty cards from the purse: Boots, Waterstones, Superdrug, The Body Shop. Melanie’s library card was battered, but her debit card untouched. I unzipped the change compartment and let coins fall into my palm. Among the dented pounds was a button.
I turned it between my finger and thumb. ‘Think this is important?’
It was large and green, probably from a coat. I looked over at a picture of Melanie taken in the forest. Her thick coat was pink, fastened with a zip.
‘Could be something.’ Juliet’s eyes didn’t leave her computer screen. ‘Or could be a nice button she found.’
Maybe one of our suspects had a coat that was missing a button. I put it down beside the coins and made a note. A tiny thing to build a case on, but we’d gotten nowhere so far. I’d take any speck of evidence I could get.
Turning the purse on its side, I checked the long slot for notes and receipts. My fingertips caught on a slip of paper. I laid it flat on my desk.
‘I’ve got a bus ticket.’ I squinted at the faded blue writing. ‘Melanie got on a bus near her home at about half seven, which means she was probably on the estate from about eight p.m.’
‘That works perfectly with a timeline I’m establishing here.’ Juliet beckoned me over to her desk. ‘Take a look at these messages from My Lion.’