Gabrielle Grey stared out the window, looking down on the courtyard below. She had chosen this out-of-the-way hallway on the fourth floor because it had the best vantage point, giving unrestricted views of the prisoner transfer area without revealing the watcher. She had used this perch many times before and wasn’t going to pass up this opportunity.
Redmond cut a slight figure in the courtyard below, flanked by burly prison officers. When she’d brought him back up for questioning this morning, he’d refused to play ball. She’d confronted him with the new evidence, to be met first with dull, stony silence and then later with violent recriminations and threats. He had actually spat in her face – a small assault that she had taken great pleasure in adding to his charge sheet. It would never be acted upon of course, given the magnitude of the other charges, but Gabrielle was not the kind of person to let it go.
Redmond would now be taken to Cook County Jail, where he would exchange his tatty garments for an orange jumpsuit – the first stage in his transition from suspected killer to convicted felon. Sometimes Gabrielle felt sympathy for those she charged – many of them came from desperate, impoverished backgrounds – but not Redmond. His crimes were too brutal, too sadistic, to be excused. She would enjoy watching the cell door swing shut on him.
Redmond was by the van now, looking on grimly as the back doors swung open to receive him. Gabrielle settled in to enjoy the last few seconds of his discomfort, when she heard footsteps hastening down the hallway. Turning, she was surprised to see Detective Montgomery approaching.
‘Now, how would a new officer know about this hidey-hole?’ Gabrielle greeted her.
‘Detective Suarez,’ Montgomery replied blankly. ‘He says you’re often up here.’
‘Does he now?’ Gabrielle countered happily. ‘Come to enjoy the show?’
She gestured to the courtyard below.
‘Not really,’ Montgomery responded tightly.
Now Gabrielle paused. There was something in Montgomery’s tense expression that concerned her.
‘What is it, Detective? What’s on your mind?’
‘I need to talk to you.’
‘Shall we go to my office then?’
‘No, I think it’s best we do it here.’
Gabrielle’s anxiety rose another notch, though she couldn’t say why.
‘Go on.’
‘Well, the evidence that was found this morning,’ Montgomery said, keeping her voice low. ‘I’ve got some concerns about it.’
‘Meaning?’ Gabrielle replied, taken aback.
‘Well, the cufflinks are pretty distinctive. Gold-plated, engraved –’
‘And given to Jones by his fiancée. We know this –’
‘What I mean is …’ Montgomery continued, faltering slightly, ‘… they are quite recognizable. Which is why I realized that … that I’d seen them before.’
‘What do you mean?’ Gabrielle responded, alarm bells ringing now.
‘I spotted them at Jones’s house, when we were doing our initial search of the property on April eleventh. They weren’t of any interest, so I made a brief note of them and moved on. But I’m sure they were on Jones’s bedside table.’
Her words hung in the air for a moment, before Gabrielle responded:
‘It could have been another set of cufflinks. How can you be so sure?’
‘Because I remember seeing the engraving. It made me feel a little sad, given that the guy was dead.’
‘How certain are you?’
‘Well, I’ve got my original notes and here …’
Montgomery handed Gabrielle a see-through file.
‘Crime scene photos from Jones’s house,’ she continued, as Gabrielle opened the file. ‘We’ve only got a medium shot of the bed and bedside table, but look …’
Montgomery pointed at the photo, but Gabrielle had already observed what looked like a pair of gold cufflinks, almost hidden on the table, beside a dark-brown paperback.
‘You can’t see the engravings obviously, but I promise you, these are the exact cufflinks – or cufflink – that Bartlett found this morning.’
‘So, first thing we do is go back to the Jones house,’ Gabrielle said purposefully.
‘Already done it,’ Montgomery said, a little awkwardly.
‘And?’
‘They’re not there any more.’
Gabrielle felt her stomach lurch. She wasn’t convinced yet – she would need to see it with her own eyes first. But if Montgomery was right, if the evidence had been planted, then they had just made a terrible mistake – one which could have catastrophic consequences.