Page 23 of Drift

The door came open, but it stayed safely latched on the chain, and a man in factory coveralls looking as though he’d worked overtime on his ten-till-six-in-the-morning night shift peered at him through the gap. This was who Gray had heard pull up an hour ago.

“Su’mae.” Gray offered over his ID. “Are you able to answer a few questions, Mr Bishop?” He kept to North Wales dialectthroughout, and after a moment, a narrow of eye and check at his ID, the door came open and he was waved in. A hot cup of tea sat on the coffee table as he was led into a spacious living room, and Bishop glanced over his shoulder.

“Get you one? It’s too cold to be standing out there this morning, right?”

It surprised Gray to hear North Welsh come back at him, but that would only help. There’d be no North and South Wales divide. No doubt a call had long since gone back to whichever policeman had left his calling card for Bishop to use if he spotted anything… unusual outside the Tucker’s, which Gray’s unmarked car would have been. But now he seemed more relaxed since opening his door and taking North Wales talk into his own property. “Hm. A coffee, please.”

Bishop picked up his mug and thumbed behind him to the open plan kitchen, and Gray followed him through. “Where in North Wales do you come from?” asked Bishop. “I’m Trearddur Bay area.” He winced. “The really cold part.”

Gray smiled. “Betws-y-Coed.” He lied, but then this was personal talk. “The even colder part.” That wasn’t a lie.

“Ouch.” Bishop winced as he put the kettle on to boil. “And I thought I was the only farm boy in the city.” He made Gray a coffee and handed it over as a frown crept in. “Still can’t believe what happened between Jase and Amanda.” His look went upstairs. It was the look of a father and lover, where worry went their way first, his last. “I’m glad the kids were at a party with the wife.”

Gray rested against the unit and pulled out his phone. “You handed over the CCTV to my colleagues? Will you go through it with me? Tell me if you spot anything out of place?”

“Oh, of course.” Bishop came in next to him, almost “one farm boy to another” close as Gray pressed play.

“Thursday…. I’d been called in early for a twelve-hour stint at the factory, so six til six.” Bishop frowned at the phone as the footage started playing. “Damn hot that day. Jason was in the garden, Amanda the conservatory, I think. Sounded happy enough.”

Gray gave him a look. “Was that normal for them?”

Bishop took a sip of tea. “Being in the garden, yes. Or more Amanda trying to get Jase out of it. They argued like most of us, but they argued like an old couple who’d spent a lifetime together, where they knew neither would walk away because tensions were relieved, lived, then forgotten as soon as the argument was done.” He offered a soft smile. “Nothing like the Rhodes four doors down. But, well… young and in their twenties, they are.”

Gray offered a smile, took a sip of coffee. “Did you ever catch a scent of weed? Any other drug drifting over the fence?” Chemicals in the shed were mostly those used to mix pesticides, but addicts got creatively destructive at the best of times.

“Erm.” Bishop frowned. “Go back a few years, yeah. Not lately, though. More so with the weed than anything.”

Gray nodded. “Good to know. But here, with the feed, the police only received a seventy-hour period.”

“That was all that was requested from my security provider.” He tugged out his phone. “Do you want the name of the app I use and my details to access it? It should give you coverage for as long as I’ve had it installed, roughly two years. Usually activity triggers push notifications, recording, and microphones, but it was all normal that day.”

“Yes, thank you.” He offered a smile. “That would be helpful.”

Bishop wrote it down on a slip of paper and handed it over.

Gray slipped it in his wallet and set the footage on fast play.

“Here.” Bishop pointed at the timer. “Amanda came home around four like most days. I’d just seen the kids off.”

Gray shifted the feed through to four o’clock. Amanda’s Nissan pulled in, and a woman got out a moment later, only to go to the boot and pull out an armful of books. No one was with her, but that didn’t discount the mark being inside. Forensics had found no trace of fingerprints. In fact the lack of DNA in the property despite bone marrow obviously being taken said the mark could have been there for a long time before it was too late to notice.

That was damn good skill, leaving no DNA.

“Jase gets back usually around five. But I wasn’t quite sure that day because I was answering the call to go in to work.”

Gray shifted the feed. A BMW pulled up next to Amanda’s, and Jase got out. He was a big man, easily ready to give Raif a run for his money, and the contrast between him and Monique was startling. A smile went the Nissan’s way, then the front door came open and Amanda went over to him. Something was said, a rest of hand off Amanda to Jason’s abs, a dip down to pick up a book, forcing Amanda’s bag to slip off her shoulder and drop in the car before they both headed in. Normal actions. Loving. Any close couple greeting each other from a day’s work.

“The last the CCTV saw anyone was about 5.30.”

True to form, Jason made his way to his car. Bishop had a good memory, but Gray knew details would be relived for a long while yet.

On the feed, Jason did a quick 360, and Gray missed it the first time but caught the second streak across his path of something that missed Jason by mere inches. He froze the footage, then zoomed in.

A stone?

A pebble. The angle was wrong to look like it had fallen from Bishop’s or Jason’s roof, maybe the house next to Bishop. This looked like it had been thrown. Hard.

Stone throwers. Gray cocked a brow and stored that away for a moment, then pressed play again.

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