Page 47 of Her Hidden Shadow

‘Did DS Driscoll ever mention the victim to you or how he’s been over the past few weeks? You worked closely with him. You must have sensed something. I mean, he was having a fling behind his partner’s back. If you knew him as well as you say you did, then you’d be a bad detective to not know.’

It was one hundred per cent obvious that Sullivan had set Collier against her, just like the good old days. She felt her heart begin to pound as she clenched her teeth. That’s why the super wanted to speak to him. He’d been tasked to push and push until she released a small nugget of information that could be used against Jacob. Superintendent Sullivan also wanted nothing more than to drive Gina off the case and she was using Collier to do that.

‘Jacob is the gentlest person ever. He would never hurt anyone. The quicker we can follow all these leads and find the real culprit, the better.’ Gina paused. ‘That wasn’t subtle at all – you, asking me about him. I know the real reason for the briefing was to gear you up to getting information out of me. There is nothing to tell. It wasn’t Jacob.’

Collier shrugged. ‘DCI Briggs was in the meeting too and we were discussing if you should even be on the case. You really should say if you know something and you’re holding back on us, but Sullivan said you weren’t a team player. You know that withholding information—’

‘Don’t patronise me, DI Collier. I know the consequences and that’s not what’s happening here. I don’t need your threats.’

‘Merely reminding you of the law.’ He smirked. ‘Just think hard, DI Harte. You don’t want your career to go down the pan, do you?’

She shuffled in her seat, feeling more uncomfortable by the second. ‘I will categorically say, Jacob is not the murderer and he’s not the strangler.’ She felt a line of sweat forming under her hairline. ‘And don’t think you can bully me like she did. I won’t take it so you can keep your threats and snidey comments to yourself.’

He glared at her for a few uncomfortable seconds. ‘You know, I believe that you believe he didn’t do it.’

She stared at the man, refusing to break eye contact. ‘Patronising me again, DI Collier? Report this back to Sullivan. I am going to prove that Jacob didn’t do it and I’m going to catch who did. I will do it if it kills me.’

‘You won’t because he did it. We all know he did.’

‘You know sod all.’ She stood, turned her back to him and stared out at the car park. Emotion was building up and her eyes began to water. Collier couldn’t see her cry. If he reported that back to Sullivan, the super would be laughing. She missed working with Jacob and right now, she couldn’t imagine spending the rest of her working life without him by her side. She’d worked in other police stations, but none were ever as special as Cleevesford. The people made it what it was, and things would never be the same again. All she could think was that he better not have killed those people. What if she was wrong? Sullivan and Collier would have a field day in bringing her down.

‘The Home Office pathologist is ready for you now.’ Gina wiped her eyes, turned around and acknowledged the receptionist. ‘Thank you.’ She would not let Collier see how upset she was just so that it could be used against her later.

Thirty-Five

Gina sat rigid on a tall stool behind the viewing screen with Collier to her left, still livid from their conversation in reception. His face mask disguised any expression that he had, and his eyes gave nothing away. He was clearly as bad as Sullivan and still today, she was training a pack of workplace bullies. She took a deep breath and tried to shift her focus onto the task in hand.

The post-mortem team were all in place. The script writer was ready. Another forensic-suited figure stood poised with a camera. Another camera was set up on a tripod which would film everything, and the same crime scene assistant was also ready to press go on that. A couple of others waited next to the pathologist – all togged up from head to toe.

Gina glanced at the young man lying on the large metal tray, all life drained from the bits of him she could see. The bag that had been placed over his head at the scene remained in place, as did the others covering his hands and feet. His clothes soiled from secretions that had escaped his body made Gina shudder. Death was ugly in all ways, yet it came to every single person.

She caught the smell, just slightly as one of the CSIs slammed a door and it made her baulk. It would coat her nostrils for the whole day at least, not a thought she relished. She glanced at DI Collier who stared at his feet. At least he was experiencing some discomfort after what he’d just put her through.

The victim had been described as a charmer and a lot of his neighbours had liked him. He was a father. Not that he wanted to be a father, but little Dora would now grow up without him or her mother. Gina thought of Lauren, an innocent person caught up in all this, and she hoped that Gerard Hale would flag up on their radar soon.

The pathologist continued by removing the bag from Robbie’s head. The victim’s dark wavy hair had stuck across his face. Then off came the hand and feet bags, each one carefully being entered into evidence. Then his T-shirt was cut and removed, followed by his jeans and his underpants. Each item was described for the recording. Gina read the text on his T-shirt which said, ‘Body of a God’ on the front of it. She pictured him wearing it as Sienna arrived to discuss their daughter. Sienna had arrived all dressed up as she’d been with Jacob earlier where they’d had sex. She tried to push Jacob out of her mind. In normal circumstances, she’d think it possible that Jacob followed her there and had a jealous fit, but it had to be Hale. Jacob did not have those tendencies. Or did he? Maybe she didn’t know him as well as she thought she did and Collier was right. Confusion whirred through her mind and all she wanted to do was shut herself in a soundproof room and scream until she passed out.

Blood had matted the victim’s hair and a brownish smear of it had stained his forehead. She pictured something solid coming down, the initial blow that rendered him unconscious or badly injured. That was before he’d been rolled up in his own rug and dumped in his own boot, while Sienna lay dead in his bed. It would take a strong person to do all that on their own. Had the killer seen them through a window, in the bedroom together just before the red mist of anger burst out?

The laceration mark was severe, caused by the coarse rope being pulled around his neck until he took his last breath. The killer deviated from using a scarf as the murder weapon, but the method remained the same.

‘As you can all see, there is bruising to his torso and his right bicep, and there is a cut to his ankle. The skin on his arms is covered in scrapes and what we can see is consistent with resistance wounds. He saw that rope coming and put his arms up to block it. There are tiny fragments of rope fibre caught in his skin. There is also evidence of petechial haemorrhage. You can see these red dots. Cause of death, strangulation.’

Gina now pictured Robbie defending himself as best he could. He saw the rope coming and he fought with all he had but his attacker had been stronger, and his head injury had rendered him much weaker. For just a second, she pictured Jacob coming at Robbie with the rope, and she shook that thought away.

‘You okay, DI Harte?’

‘Yes, are you?’ She gave DI Collier a look and she hoped that he couldn’t sense what she was thinking.

As one of the CSIs turned Robbie’s clothes inside out over a sheet of plastic, she brought something to the pathologist’s attention. With the woman’s back turned, Gina couldn’t see what she was pointing at. Something relevant must have got caught in Robbie’s jeans. She wondered if Robbie had known what his fate might entail and, in turn, he placed a clue there for them to find. Her heart rate began to hum as she waited patiently for the pathologist to continue speaking but he muffled some words that she failed to hear.

The pathologist popped the mystery item into a bag.

Time went slow as the team took hair and nail samples, various swabs, and noted every mole and marking down on the form. Only after all that did the pathologist begin with the Y-incision. Gina turned to look at DI Collier as the cut started behind the ear and drew all the way down to the pubis. ‘I need five.’ He swallowed.

Gina ignored him. As DI Collier left, she continued to watch as the bowels were removed. Then the other organs came out, ready for weighing and sample taking.

DI Collier returned just as the body was being sewn back up. ‘You okay?’ she snapped, still angry with him.

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