Dan rubbed his eyes as he waited for the prosecutor to answer her phone.
He used to like early mornings. Any plans defence lawyers have for the day are always ruined by the chaotic lives their clients lead, getting arrested at inconvenient times, or by court hearings dragging on much later than expected. The time before nine o’clock was preciously quiet, with no interruptions, just the office in silence, allowing him to catch up on all the various bits of paperwork that make up the less glamorous side of criminal law.
He’d been in his office since seven o’clock, but he was tired, not energised. Nick Connor’s case had kept him awake, a nagging feeling that he wasn’t seeing the whole picture. It had snapped him alert at six o’clock, and any thoughts of a restful start to the day disappeared.
He’d left Jayne asleep in his spare room. There wasn’t much she could do this early, and he guessed she wanted the sleep. They’d sunk two bottles of wine and reminisced. She’d reminded him that he didn’t laugh enough, as they caught up on their lives since they’d last seen each other.
But it was morning now and back to business. Another read of the file might reveal something for her to investigate, so he’d read the file again, until it felt like he knew it almost verbatim. The day had got brighter outside, the low sun reflecting back from the shop windows on the other side of the street, starting to get back its normal rhythms, with the rumble of stop‑start traffic and the clip-clop of heels.
He’d recalled something Barbara had said, and that had driven him into work so early. Since then, he’d been checking his watch and the time was crawling forward. It was time now, he was sure of it.
He had the prosecutor’s direct dial.
It rang out a few times, and he wondered whether he’d called too early, but then it was answered with a breathless, ‘Hello, Zoe Slater.’
‘It’s Dan Grant, calling about the Nick Connor case.’
‘You’re bright and early.’
‘And I was up late, too. Can you talk?’
‘Yeah, sure. I was about to make a drink, but it’s too busy in the kitchen anyway. Sometimes it feels like people don’t have breakfast at home. They bring it into work.’
‘The joys of flexitime. Why dine in your own time when you can do it in someone else’s?’
‘What about Nick Connor? Make me start my day with a smile by telling me he’s pleading guilty.’
‘That’s not going to happen, but I want to know about the place Mark Roberts was renting. Some small holiday rental. Have I got that right?’
‘He was staying at a small cottage on the edge of town. Why?’
‘I want to know about the search.’
‘I thought Connor’s defence was that he was just a curious passer-by, nothing more. Why does a search of the victim’s holiday rental become relevant?’
‘If Nick Connor is telling the truth, someone else did it, and there might be a good reason.’
‘Isn’t this all a bit last minute? The trial’s next week.’
‘It’s just a quick question. What’s on his laptop?’
‘Laptop?’
‘Mark Roberts was a writer researching a book. He’ll have had a laptop, and there might be something on it.’
‘What like?’
‘A lead, a clue.’
‘And you think the police ignored it? A team of detectives trying to track his murderer, and they didn’t bother following an obvious lead?’
‘Come on, Zoe, you know how it works. Once they had Nick, they stopped looking.’
‘You’re fishing, Dan.’
‘And won’t the jury love it when I ask DCI Hogg what leads they pursued from it?’
Dan listened as she drummed her fingernails on the desktop before responding, ‘Give me a few minutes.’
‘And if the police seized it, we’ll want to examine it.’
‘I’m sure you will. Keep clawing in desperation.’ She hung up.
Dan went to the kitchen to make a drink, the office still quiet. As he returned to his office, his mug in his hand, his phone rang. It was Zoe.
‘That was quick,’ he said.
‘It was easy, because there was no laptop seized. They didn’t find one.’
‘Interesting. A journalist is in the north, pursuing a story, and you don’t find a laptop. Doesn’t that strike you as odd?’
‘His stuff was taken. His wallet. His phone. Maybe a laptop too.’
‘You think he’d have loitered in the park with his laptop? Have you ever been there? It’s not on the way to anywhere. He was waiting for someone.’
‘People do strange things. Sorry, Dan, but you’ve hit a dead end.’
As she put the phone down, Dan wondered for a moment whether Zoe was right. His job was to create doubt, to show that the clear story set out by the prosecution was a little murkier than it seemed. If he could find something to send the jurors on a guessing game, he was on his way to freeing Nick.
As he put aside the thought of whether that was the right thing to do, he was disturbed by the sound of someone shouting his name from outside. When he looked out of the window, it was Jayne.
When he went downstairs to let her in, she said, ‘I forgot you like an early start,’ and went upstairs to his office. She threw her jacket onto the sofa in the corner of Dan’s room, kept there for the occasional sleep when he was doing a police station all-nighter and he needed to catch up between interviews. She picked up Dan’s mug, it was still warm, and took a drink. ‘I needed that. I’d been expecting breakfast together, but when I got up, you’d gone.’
‘I was thinking about Nick’s case. I’ve just called the prosecutor and she said no laptop was recovered from where he was staying.’
‘Unusual, for a journalist.’
‘That’s what I thought. But if it seems unusual to us, why didn’t the police think that too?’
‘But if it’s a mugging gone wrong, wouldn’t Nick take that as well?’
‘That’s what the prosecutor said. We need to speak to Nick, try to get him to open up more. I’ll sort out a legal visit for today.’
‘Anything else, boss?’
‘Get hold of the owner of the cottage. See what he has to say.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘And cut out the boss bit.’
Before Jayne could reply, there was some banging on the front door. ‘Have you got an early appointment?’
Dan went to the window and looked down. ‘It’s Barbara. Whatever happened last night, she wants to carry on the fight.’
Dan went downstairs, Jayne behind.
Barbara was all smiles when he opened the door. ‘Good morning, Mr Grant. I know it’s early, but there was something I had to say.’ She moved past him before he had chance to object, noticing Jayne, who was standing in the doorway at the bottom of the stairs. ‘And that I was sorry.’
‘Sorry?’
‘Yes, to your assistant.’
‘Investigator?’
‘What?’
‘She’s not my assistant. Jayne is an investigator, her own boss.’
Her smile became more forced as she looked around Dan to speak directly to Jayne. ‘I questioned your ability. I’m sorry. You’ve got to understand how this is for me. You were following me and it made me angry, because it made it seem as if I was the person who’d done something wrong.’ She turned back to Dan. ‘I know you’d sent her to watch me, and I understand why. I turned up and started interfering. You’re bound to be suspicious. I took it out on her last night.’
‘She’s called Jayne.’
‘Of course, yes, I’m sorry.’ She looked back to Jayne. ‘I’m sorry, Jayne, I really am.’
Jayne shrugged. ‘That was last night. This is today. Apology accepted.’
‘Oh good. That means we can carry on working together. And I thought this might interest you.’ She handed Dan a piece of paper with a telephone number on it.
‘What is it?’
‘I found it when clearing Mark’s London flat, pinned to a corkboard, so I thought it must be something important.’
‘It might just be an ex-girlfriend or a taxi firm or something.’
‘Mr Grant, do you really think I didn’t call it? It was someone called Andrew Porter. A retired police officer in Brampton. I told you Mark had spent a couple of weeks there not long before he came to Highford.’
‘What did Mr Porter say?’
‘Not much. Didn’t want to talk to me, but I know Mark had spoken to him, because as soon as I mentioned his name, he hung up.’
‘How do you know it’s got anything to do with his investigation though?’
‘What else can it be? Why would Mark go to some small Yorkshire seaside town and then come here? And I found this as well.’ She handed over a receipt. ‘It’s for a hotel on the harbour. Waves. Yes, very original, but they might remember him. It has to be connected, just has to be.’
Dan couldn’t help but agree. ‘Can I take them?’
‘I brought them for you.’
She headed for the door but turned to Jayne before she went. ‘Don’t think badly of me. Losing Mark was a shock. It makes me determined to make sure his killer pays. I’m on your side. I want Nick Connor out of prison.’
‘Thank you,’ Jayne said, but stayed in the doorway as Barbara left.
Once they were alone again, Dan said, ‘Let me speak to the ex-cop. You never know, you might end up with a trip to the seaside.’