Page 66 of Her Deadly Promise

The girl came back. ‘Follow me.’ As they headed past a busy gym, she knocked on the door marked ‘Manager’ and entered. ‘DI Harte and DS Driscoll here to see you.’ She smiled and left them with the stout man in grey trousers and a polo top with the leisure centre logo printed on the breast.

‘I’m Cole, the manager. Take a seat. I heard the news this morning, about Nadia going missing. I hope she turns up soon.’

‘We’ve found her. She’s getting treatment as we speak.’

‘Is she okay?’

Gina watched the man, analysing every muscle movement. He was the first outsider to the station to know that Nadia had been found and was still alive. Gina nodded, not wanting to give any more away.

‘Yesterday, she booked a court for one of her private sessions. She always seems pleasant and friendly. I’d hate for anything to be seriously wrong, but I did hear about the other woman, the one who was murdered. You can’t believe things like that go on around us. No one’s safe any more, I keep telling my wife that.’

‘Can you tell me more about her booking yesterday, or did you see her?’

He clicked on a couple of buttons. ‘It’s in the diary and I anticipated you’d ask so I pulled the CCTV which we do have on the court. As silly as it sounds, we get teenagers breaking in at night and they drink there. We like to monitor what’s going on.’ He scrunched up his wide nose as he concentrated on the screen. ‘I personally didn’t see her yesterday. I don’t have the name of the person she was with, but you can see from the image that it’s a young woman with light-coloured hair, maybe blonde.’ He turned the computer screen around.

Gina squinted a little at the poor-quality image. It was Serena. She looked a lot like Billie but was a little more voluptuous. ‘Can you press play?’

He nodded and pressed the button. She watched as Serena’s hands flew up in the air. The woman looked upset before running off and there were other people waiting. ‘Who are these people?’ She pointed.

‘Those two guys had the tennis courts booked after Nadia and the other chap works for us. He clears the place up ready for the next person.’

‘Does Nadia have a locker here?’

‘We have public lockers and staff lockers. Nadia only rents space from us so she’s not staff. If she used any locker, it would be a public one. Thankfully, we have CCTV on those too. It makes everyone feel safer knowing their belongings are being monitored.’ He clicked then began watching. ‘Ah, here.’ He pointed to the screen. ‘That’s Nadia using locker ten.’ He continued scrolling forward. ‘She goes back and grabs her bag after the session, but she doesn’t take everything. She locked it up and took the key with her.’

‘Did she come back?’

‘No. We keep digital records of who comes and goes and, in Nadia’s case, if they have a plus one with them. I guess the other woman’s name would be on the sign-in list and the information is uploaded there and then. I should have checked. It’s down to the fire regulations that we keep it. Hold on one moment.’ He switched screens and tapped again. ‘Serena, that’s the name the woman signed in with. No surname.’

Gina had already identified her, and she really wanted to move on. ‘Nadia’s things will still be in the locker, then?’

He nodded. ‘I guess so. People don’t usually use them overnight, but it looks like she did. She comes here a lot, so it does at least make sense.’

‘We need to take a look. Would that be okay?’

‘Of course. Follow me.’ He stood and led them out, past the swimming pool and along another corridor. The humidity hit Gina instantly, that and the smell of chlorine. ‘Here it is.’

‘How do we open it?’

‘I have a skeleton key. People are forever losing them and panicking.’ He turned the key in the lock.

Gina stepped forward and inhaled the smell of washing powder. She lifted the folded hoodie up and shifted the tennis shoes aside. Several energy bars and drinks littered the back of the locker and a few business cards lay scattered on the metal base. There appeared to be nothing personal. She pulled a shoe out and pressed her fingers into the end. Nothing. She did the same with the next one and her fingers gripped the cold stick that was tucked into the toe of the shoe. Pulling it out, she held it up and passed the memory stick to Jacob. ‘We need to get this back to the station.’ For some reason, Nadia had left the stick here and not left it at home. She was hiding it and Gina wanted to know why. Her phone rang. She left the manager and Jacob while she walked away to take the call. ‘Sir.’

Briggs cleared his throat before speaking. ‘Just to let you know, I’m up in fifteen minutes. I’ll be announcing that we have found Nadia Anderson and that she’s alive. PC Kapoor will remain outside the hospital room when she’s in recovery. Her situation is still bad. It’s touch and go at the moment. Nadia isn’t quite stable enough for the surgery, but it should go ahead. Also, her family have been informed and her mother is on her way over now.’

‘Sir.’

‘Yes.’

‘We’ve found a memory stick in Nadia’s locker at the leisure centre, but she isn’t here to give us permission to read it. Can you deal with that for us? We’re on our way back and we’ll pass it straight to digital forensics.’

‘Yes, I’ll sort it. There is something else. You need to hurry back.’

‘What is it?’

‘Serena Anderson is coming in around lunchtime but firstly, Edward Anderson has asked to talk to you, and he won’t talk to anyone else. We need you back here, now.’

FIFTY-TWO

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