I opted to take the stairs up to our floor rather than ride in the lift with Juliet. Karl was being processed. Before we questioned him, I needed to work off the adrenaline that had flooded my system in the forest.
Our office was empty when I arrived. I scribbled on a post-it note and stuck it above the tangled jumble of evidence on the wall.
Who is the mystery man?
Juliet clocked it as she walked in, a coffee in each hand. ‘You believe there is one?’
I thumped heavily in my chair and shoved my fingers into my hat-flattened hair. ‘You don’t think there is?’
Juliet sat opposite, wiggling her mouse to awaken her computer. ‘We’ve faced one liar after another with this case. Until I see evidence to back up what Karl’s said, I’m taking it all with a ladleful of salt.’
Her voice was the same as always, her movements sure as she jabbed at her keyboard. That didn’t mean what happened this morning hadn’t affected her.
‘Are you alright?’ I asked.
Juliet frowned at her screen. ‘I’m fine.’
Apparently, being held at gun point hadn’t cracked her implacable calm.
‘I’m frustrated,’ I said. ‘We might have brought Karl in, but without more evidence or a full confession, we’re going to find it hard to charge him with Melanie’s murder.’
‘Maybe this will help?’ Maddy hovered in the doorway, her arms laden with evidence bags. ‘David called me down once they’d gone through the car,’ she explained, walking over and dumping the contents of her arms over our desks. ‘He’s taken all he needs from this lot. He thought you would want to take a look as well.’
Juliet turned in her chair. ‘That man is being strangely helpful.’
‘Don’t question it,’ Maddy warned, backing towards the door. ‘Who knows how long it will last? Capitalise on it while you can.’
‘Wise woman.’ I smiled tightly at Maddy before she disappeared, then grabbed a pair of plastic gloves from my bottom drawer.
Sifting through Karl’s possessions gave me something to do while we waited to interview him. Tugging clothes out of evidence bags made my arm ache, but useless energy coursed through me. There had been far too many moments when it seemed this case was about to make sense. Everything aligned, but then the light changed and all the pieces were revealed to be in complete disarray.
Our office filled with the stench of stale smoke as we tugged various items of clothing out of bags. Karl must have been on the estate during the fire. Had he started it?
Despite knowing the forensic team would have gone over them, we checked pockets and looked for distinctive stains. I finished with the clothes that had slid over to my side of the desk and started on a pile of papers retrieved from the four-by-four’s glove box. They were as boring as the stack of MOT reports and service information stashed in mine.
Juliet piled the plastic-covered clothes beside our door. The only thing left on her desk was an evidence bag containing Karl’s wallet. The outside was duct taped together.
‘Shit,’ Juliet swore, as coins bounced across her desk. She tipped the wallet to the side, releasing more pennies. ‘Zip’s broken.’
Happy to pause my perusal of the car’s last oil change, I set the papers down and helped Juliet gather the coins. My eyes caught on something blue as she swept them towards her.
Juliet flinched when I grabbed her wrist.
‘Stop.’
‘What?’ she asked, loosening her arm from my grip.
I poked the top coins out of the pile, my heart hammering a punishing rhythm. Under green tinged pennies and shiny five pence pieces, was an oval of blue plastic.
Juliet squinted. ‘What’s that?’
I stared at it, then rushed over to the evidence wall. With clumsy hands, I moved Melanie’s selfie and transcripts from her phone out of the way. I’d purposely pinned things to cover photos of her mauled body, but that was exactly what I needed.
It was a miracle I extracted the post-mortem pictures from the wall without dislodging anything else. Frantically, I flicked through.
I placed the bottom photo on top of the pile. ‘Here.’
It was a shot of Melanie’s arm. Bruising discoloured her skin from her shoulder to her elbow. What interested me was lower than that, almost out of shot.
Juliet whipped the photo out of my hand and laid it beside the shard of plastic on her desk.
It was a perfect match for the fake nails on four of Melanie’s fingers. The one from her middle finger was missing.
Juliet’s face transformed with triumph. ‘This is it.’
Why would Karl have kept her false nail unless he’d killed Melanie?
I nodded but couldn’t revel in catching our killer. I’d led us here, but the route was winding. If I’d listened to my gut, the man hoarding a trophy from Melanie’s body would have gotten away with killing her.
A sharp tap at the door made us both flinch.
‘What?’ Juliet snapped.
David scowled from the doorway. ‘Sorry to interrupt.’ He sauntered in, two evidence bags tucked behind his folded arms. ‘I thought you’d want me to come straight away if we found important evidence.’
‘You missed some.’ Juliet pointed at the broken off nail in its nest of coins.
The sneer on David’s face faded. ‘Where did you find that?’
‘It was in the wallet,’ I cut in before Juliet could say something overly scathing and make David revert to being an unhelpful arse.
He tutted. ‘I didn’t check that, but I’ll get on to whoever did.’ He held out his evidence bags. ‘We found these stashed under the spare wheel.’
The nearest bag contained a set of car keys. The BMW insignia was clear through the crumpled plastic.
Juliet beamed at the bag David held closest to her. ‘We’ve fucking well got him.’
The torn fabric was frayed and stained with mud, but grey birds flew across a navy background.