Page 26 of Her Hidden Shadow

Lauren placed Fifi on the floor and the dog began crunching on a bowl of kibble. ‘Where did you go this morning?’

‘Nowhere.’

‘I heard your car pull away.’

‘Oh that. I drove to the bottom of the hills to take Fifi for a walk.’

Lauren furrowed her brows as she ate a spoonful of cereal. ‘You normally just go out your back gate.’

‘I used to but now she likes other places. She gets bored. We have to change it up a bit, don’t we, Fifi.’ She reached down and disturbed her eating dog.

‘Can we go and get a phone after breakfast?’

‘Of course, love. As soon as you’re dressed, we’ll head to Tesco.’

The house phone rang. Nancy hurried into the tiny lounge and snatched it off the cradle. ‘Hello.’ Leaning on the mantelpiece, she waited for the caller to speak. As soon as the conversation was over, she ran back into the kitchen. ‘We’re going to have to stay in. The police are coming over. They want to speak to you.’

‘What is it? Have they found him?’

‘They said they couldn’t say anything over the phone. They need to speak to you in person.’ Nancy’s mobile beeped. She read the message.

You filthy snake. I know what you did. Yes, I know! Watch your back, or better still don’t – haha. Maybe I’ll treat you like the snake that you are, catch you in a net and skin you while you scream.

Nancy deleted the message with shaky hands and placed the phone down.

‘You okay, Mum?’

She pasted a fake smile on her face. ‘Of course, love. Don’t you worry about me. All is good here.’ All was far from good but at least she was safe in her home. She glanced out the window at the hedges and rolling hills that stretched out forever. Was she safe? She stood up and locked the back door. ‘There’s been a lot of rural burglaries. If you let Fifi out, make sure you lock the door.’ Better to be safe than sorry.

Eighteen

Gina yawned as she and Wyre stepped out onto the road. She used her hands to shade her eyes from the sun while approaching the officer guarding the cordon. ‘Morning.’ She grabbed a forensics suit and began pulling it over her trousers and jumper while the PC filled the log out for her and Wyre.

‘The crime scene team has just arrived,’ the woman said as she adjusted her police hat. ‘The manager said to follow the plates.’

‘Thank you. Who found the victim?’

‘Two thirteen-year-old lads. The mother of one called in to say her son had found the body but we’re trying to locate the father of the other boy. They are heading to the station once he’s been located. He works as a driver so it might take a short while.’

Gina lifted the cordon up and let Wyre go through first. Their boots clopped on the metal plates until they reached a dense hedge. Wyre pushed through first and Gina followed.

‘Stay right there,’ Bernard said as he stood in the middle of a tiny clearing that was surrounded by wooden pallets. Gina stopped. Two crime scene officers were attending to the surroundings, taking photos and bagging evidence. ‘It’s a bit tight here so I’ll ask that you don’t wander. If you remain on that spot, we’re good. We haven’t been here long and there isn’t enough room to erect a tent. We know it’s only a matter of time before the public start to realise something’s going on, so I want the body dealt with swiftly.’

As Bernard muttered further instructions to his team, she noticed that Jennifer wasn’t with them. That’s when she knew that she’d been right. Jennifer and Jacob were having problems. Or maybe they’d both eaten the same thing. She shook those thoughts away. Whatever was wrong with her colleague was the least of her worries today when there was a body on the ground.

‘That’s blown our main theory out of the water.’ Wyre rubbed her gloved hands together.

She was right unless Robbie had died by suicide. Wrapping himself in a rug? No, that was impossible. ‘Do we know how he died?’ she asked, hoping Bernard could now spare her a few moments. The sooner she got what she needed from him, the sooner she could head to see Lauren Cross and break the news. She also wanted to be the one who spoke to Gerard Hale. He’d just bumped up to prime position on their suspect list. If he knew that Sienna had been seeing Robbie, that might have fuelled a murderous act of revenge. He had motive, that was for sure.

‘Again, he was injured. He wasn’t stabbed like the last victim, but he was struck over the head with something jagged. At the moment, I’d go with a rock. This didn’t kill him. He was strangled.’

‘Just like Sienna was.’ She glanced at the rope.

‘Yes, a rope this time.’

Gina’s chest began to flutter with nerves as she thought of what Tiffany Crawford had told her. She hoped the team had managed to pull up all the details of Tiffany’s attack in readiness for her return to the station. A sense of uneasiness squirmed in the pit of her stomach. Three strangulations, two with scarves. One dating back a few years. The most recent only days apart. ‘Do you have a rough time of death?’

‘We have some decomposition of the internal organs. The body has come out of rigor mortis. I’ll know more after the post-mortem, but I’d say he died a little after the last victim. I can’t be too precise, but I can give an approximation of between one and four yesterday morning.’

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