Rain drummed on the window, but our office and the floor outside were quiet. Juliet sat across from me at her desk, her face turned colourless by the white glow of her computer screen.
‘I can’t stay for much longer.’ I glanced at my phone. ‘I’ve got a date.’
‘Very nice,’ Juliet said absently. ‘Are you going to insist I leave with you?’
I threw details of my personal life at Juliet occasionally in the hope she’d bite and we could form a more conventional friendship. No luck today. I’d have to tell Maddy about Ollie.
‘If you’ll let me.’
Juliet didn’t look up. ‘Fine. Give me a minute.’
I shut down my computer and swivelled from side to side while Juliet continued to type. My eyes drifted over to the wall of evidence. It was almost completely full. It had been this cluttered during cases before, but not without a more concrete picture forming.
Melanie was in the middle. The selfie I’d taken from her bedroom overlapped with pictures from the forest and pathologist. Lines of messages between her and the two boys ran down to the floor. Leo was pinned on her right, Jordan on her left. So different but essentially the same. Two enamoured young men, but did either of them kill Melanie?
Karl was pinned next to Leo, the article about his family the only thing standing against him now we knew he definitely wasn’t My Lion. He could be hiding nothing more than a sad past, or there might be something sinister lurking behind his locked cottage door that we’d miss if we didn’t delve deeper.
The older son, Terence, was relegated to a corner of the board. His alibi was awaiting corroboration, but enough people had told us he was away when Melanie died for us to be reasonably sure he wasn’t involved. Seeing no more of him wouldn’t be a problem. I didn’t enjoy spending time with his type; rich, confident men who expected women to laugh at their jokes and admire their easy beauty.
I preferred someone real, with enough scars of their own that they could begin to understand mine. Tattoos might have to make do. I hadn’t known Ollie for long, but I suspected he didn’t have anything deep and dark hiding in his past. There was no caginess to him, nothing he’d struggled to hide in the few conversations we’d had. But he seemed kind, like he would hold damaged things carefully. Maybe being with someone whole would be better than trying to merge my cracked edges with someone else’s.
Juliet coughed, jolting my thoughts away from Ollie. I must like him more than the other people I’d slept with since moving here, for him to intrude while I was at work. I should have clocked that already. There weren’t many people I met for a second time.
Dunlow was pinned beside Jordan. I mimicked the expression on his sour face. He should have been above the others, like he was in life. A horrific crime had been committed on his land but he remained untouched, floating over it all.
I pressed my fingers into my bottom lip. I didn’t like Dunlow, but that didn’t make him any more of a suspect. And just because I didn’t think Leo or Jordan could have murdered Melanie, it didn’t mean they hadn’t. We had to work with the evidence. Intuition could only take us so far.
‘Done.’ Juliet swung her chair around. ‘I’ve emailed forensics. Our case is being slowed down by the other one, but they know who their killers are. I don’t understand the delay.’
She never would. A whole fleet of Krystals could be killed and Juliet would retain her tunnel vision. Still, I understood her frustration. In a case with far too many suspects and no easy answers, conclusive DNA evidence would be a massive boon.
The murder of a young, pretty child gained far too much publicity to be anything other than a priority. The forensics team would be going over the mountain of evidence gathered with their usual attention to detail, making certain nothing would undermine Paul’s case against the parents. With the press prowling, everything had to be perfect and swift.
We needed those results though, and if anyone could write a demanding email, it was Juliet. Until we knew who Melanie had sex with and until we got evidence from the dog and gun casings, we couldn’t build a case against any of our suspects. Leo, Jordan, Karl, Dunlow – they could all keep lying to us and we’d have no idea who was telling the truth.
I flicked off the lights as we walked out of our office, plunging the faces on the wall into darkness.