Page 10 of Her Hidden Shadow

Gina waited for Jhanvi to make a note about the taxi driver on the board before continuing.

‘One of the neighbours said that she saw Lauren arguing with a man on the previous Thursday or Friday at the end of the street. When we asked Lauren about this she claimed that a drunken man walked into her and she pushed him off.’

Briggs interjected. ‘Any confirmation on the time of death?’

‘As usual, it’s approximate. Between seven p.m. and one a.m. Lauren didn’t leave the bungalow until nine which means that she too had opportunity. We can’t rule her out. As a theory, maybe she suspected that Sienna was having an affair with Robbie. Maybe she called that taxi herself for nine and told Robbie that she was originally going out at seven. I’m just theorising, but if Lauren had suspected that Sienna was sleeping with her fiancé, maybe she set up some scenario where Robbie thought she was going out earlier and Sienna turned up. Maybe after watching her fiancé having sex with her friend, she plunged the nail file into her friend’s upper arm? Maybe Sienna fought her, so Lauren grabbed a scarf, managed to wrestle it around her neck and kill her. I can’t think of the logistics in full, like where was Robbie when this was happening, but we can’t completely rule Lauren out as the opportunity is there. The friends are key in getting to the bottom of this one. When did the two women arrive at the bungalow, and could Lauren have been present when Sienna was murdered? We need her friends’ details from her phone.’

Briggs thanked her for updating them. ‘Right, I agree that we need Robbie Shields found. I’m going to issue a press release this morning making an appeal for him. Someone must have seen him.’

‘He left his car behind, sir, and Lauren did say that he never walked anywhere. We need to find out if Sienna had a car. Maybe he took her car and absconded after killing Sienna. There’s a couple of initial theories to consider for now, but as always, we follow the evidence as it comes in.’ Gina sat and took a cup of coffee from the centre of the table.

‘Have we contacted Sienna Moorcroft’s next of kin?’ Briggs looked around the room.

DC O’Connor scratched his head. ‘We have her address, but no one has been to visit as yet. Her parents live in Sheffield.’

‘Right, Gina, you’re senior investigating officer. I’m going to head to my office to prepare a statement as the press are already gathering.’

She stood and nodded. ‘We need to contact Sheffield police and ask someone to break the bad news. Jacob and I will head to Sienna Moorcroft’s address, see if anyone else lives there with her. O’Connor, would you contact Sheffield police? It’s not going to take long for this news to break so her parents need to know first.’

‘I’m on it.’ He left the table.

‘Jhanvi, will you work closely with O’Connor for now? He’ll help you record everything for your portfolio.’

‘I’d love to.’ Jhanvi passed the pen to DC Wyre and headed out of the room with O’Connor.

Gina glanced at the board. ‘We need to add Lauren Cross’s two friends to the board. All I have so far are the names Dee and Maxine. Who here has been liaising with Garth in tech?’

Wyre transferred her weight from one foot to the other. ‘O’Connor and I have been.’

‘Can we start with Lauren’s phone. What did you find?’

‘She communicates mostly through Instagram and WhatsApp. She has a popular TikTok account where she does make-up tutorials. She does have contacts named Dee and Max in her phone and we have their numbers. There was a flurry of messages in a WhatsApp group in the run up to their night out. Nothing stands out in the content, but there is another person in the group, a woman called Tiffany who was also invited out last night but said she couldn’t go. We can see that Tiffany made a phone call to Lauren at eight forty-five last night. It lasted about three minutes.’

Gina pointed to the board and scrunched her brow. ‘Okay, so we have another in this equation. Tiffany was meant to go but didn’t. She’s definitely someone we need to check out too.’

Wyre replied, ‘Oh, the WhatsApp group is called Hooper Girls.’

Gina nodded. ‘Colleagues. They must all work at Hoopers. All three need to be interviewed. I want to know if Maxine or Dee saw Robbie when they turned up at the bungalow and how everything seemed. We also need to know why Tiffany didn’t go and where she was last night.’

‘Lauren made one more phone call, guv. She called a taxi firm at seven.’ Wyre made a note on the board.

Gina paused to digest that statement. ‘Hm. I’ll take the details of the firm. If you could email them to me, that would be great.’ She shook her head. ‘Why did Lauren tell us that Robbie booked the taxi when the call was made from her phone?’ She really needed to speak to the friends. ‘Wyre, can you and PC Ahmed go through the phone in more depth with tech and also find Lauren’s mother’s number? Let her know that her daughter is in hospital. Can we move on to Sienna’s phone?’

‘Yes, guv.’ Wyre grabbed a pile of printouts from the main table. ‘She has a Facebook, Instagram, email and WhatsApp accounts but she doesn’t post much on social media. She has a collection of really explicit messages on her phone. It looks like she’s been sexting someone since Christmas, but when we delve into who it could be the phone isn’t registered and it doesn’t appear to be in use now. Her texts and call register only go back to Christmas. She either wiped her phone back to factory settings or got a new phone.’

‘Were there any messages that relate to what she had planned for yesterday?’

Wyre nodded. ‘There is one message from the unregistered phone, and it says, “I can’t wait to see you again.” That was at five in the afternoon. She replies with an emoji of an aubergine and a peach before saying that she couldn’t wait to see him again. That was at eight.’

‘So, she was alive at eight unless the killer sent that reply.’ Gina knew that was a possibility. ‘Were there any messages between Sienna and Lauren?’

Wyre nodded. ‘They were meant to be going out today and they had planned to meet at Cleevesford Manor for a spa day. Sienna mentions that she was going to drive, and that she would pick Lauren up at ten in the morning.’

‘So, Sienna does drive. Jacob?’ He flinched as he dragged his gaze from the table to her. ‘We’re heading to Sienna’s.’

O’Connor walked back in with Jhanvi. ‘An officer is on their way to break the news to Sienna’s parents. I told them it was urgent, and they said the address was almost on their doorstep.’

Gina exhaled as she thought of the poor parents who were about to receive the news of their daughter’s murder. ‘Thank you.’ She buttoned up her coat. ‘Wyre, will you please call Maxine, Dee and Tiffany? We need their full details and tell them that one of us will be visiting them sometime today. O’Connor and Jhanvi, can you get everything loaded onto the system and orchestrate the door-to-doors on Bell Road. I know officers have started speaking to Lauren’s neighbours, but we need all that information collated. See if anyone has CCTV too. Oh, we need the registration of Sienna’s car, then we can flag that up.’ O’Connor nodded and Gina smiled at Jacob. ‘We best head straight to Sienna’s. If she lives with someone, maybe they can shed some light on who she was texting and seeing. The most logical explanation right now is that it was Robbie, but we need that confirmed. In the meantime, if Robbie turns up, call me straight away.’

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