59
‘You know, you might be right, Hank.’ She stared at him, her eyes wide with hope. ‘For days something’s been niggling away in the back of my brain. I couldn’t quite nail it. Judy hasn’t phoned Reid since the night of the fire or left any further messages, right? Why hasn’t she?’
‘Well, he didn’t return her calls, did he? Maybe she’s lost interest, hooked up with someone new.’
‘No.’ Daniels shook her head. ‘The tone of her call didn’t suggest that to me. I think she knows he’s dead and therefore knows there’s no point calling him again. The questions we have to ask ourselves are these: did she phone him to give herself an alibi initially and isn’t bright enough to have kept up the pretence? Or did she really not know he was dead until she read it in the press? You just said it yourself: she thought he was at home with Jamie. If she’s the one who set the fire, the target being Maggie, she may not have realized her fatal mistake until afterwards. I want you to be more proactive. Get out there and concentrate on her. Talk to Reid’s mates again, his neighbours. Someone must know who the hell she is.’
‘What you going to do?’
It was a good question, one she didn’t answer straight away. Her head was spinning with countless jobs, a long list of actions for her team. She needed to call Matt West for a start, see how the Forensic Science Lab were getting on, find out how close they were to a result on the cigarette butt. Then she planned to ask Carmichael to exert pressure on the Technical Support Unit for those video enhancements in both murder cases. And set aside some time to analyse the report on the high-viz jackets she’d asked the accident investigators to supply. And re-interview PC Dixon and a whole lot more besides.
Her work mobile rang: a number she didn’t recognize. ‘DCI Daniels.’
‘Is it convenient to talk to you, ma’am?’
Daniels sat up straight. Gormley gave her an odd look across the table. She mimed a puzzled look in return. It was Sergeant McCabe, the officer whose daughter’s funeral they had come from. There was background noise on the line. The crackle of a police-issue radio and the familiar voice of a custody sergeant she knew. It was less than two hours since McCabe had buried Bridget and he was already back at work? Surely not.
‘Yes, of course, Mick. Sounds like you’re at the nick?’
‘Custody suite, Market Street.’ He paused a beat, then explained that Bridget’s twin and his other daughter were with their grandparents, on the way south for a bit of a break.
‘So soon? You sure that’s a good idea?’
‘For them or me?’
‘Make your way to the MIR on the second floor. I’ll meet you there in five.’
Daniels ditched her whisky and left the pub immediately. Four minutes later, she found McCabe at the top of the stairwell, pale and drawn, slightly the worse for wear, still dressed in his funeral suit and black tie. She led him along the corridor to the major incident suite and towards her office, stopping on the way to tell Carmichael she wanted some quiet time and wasn’t to be disturbed.
McCabe was more than a little unsteady on his feet. She sat him down, offered him coffee.
He declined. ‘I don’t want to take up your valuable time, ma’am.’ He gestured through her office door to the MIR beyond. ‘Looks like you’ve got a lot on. It’s just . . . well, I’ve lost something of Bridget’s and wondered if you could help me find it. Me and my girls have looked everywhere. The only possible explanation is that she was wearing it when . . .’ He stumbled over his words. ‘It definitely wasn’t returned with her possessions by hospital staff, I checked.’
Daniels’ ears pricked up. ‘Go on.’
‘My father bought each of the girls a seal ring. I know it sounds stupid, but we have this family crest. He thought it would be nice if they each had one. Bridget didn’t often wear hers because it was a bit loose for her little finger and too small for her ring finger. She was terrified of losing it. Thing is, it isn’t in the house. I wondered if you noticed it on the night, y’know, when you were with Bridget.’
Ivy’s missing lottery ticket leapt into Daniels’ mind. She tried not to look alarmed or let her growing anger show. The idea that anyone might steal from – or, in Ivy’s case, kill – a person at their most vulnerable appalled her. She knew from talking to Bridget that someone had attended her immediately following the crash, before she had come along. The burning question was, who? Emergency services personnel? A member of the public?
Shit! A cop?
McCabe filled the silence. ‘I shouldn’t have bothered you with this.’ He stood up. ‘I’m sorry, I’m dog tired and not thinking straight.’
‘No. Please sit down. I want to help.’
‘It’s fine, I’ll check with Traffic.’
Daniels could almost feel Bridget’s hand in hers. Cold. Wet. Trembling. She could smell the girl’s fear. Taste it even. Images flashed through her mind. Slim fingers on young hands. Painted nails: two of which had been torn off in the collision. A ring. She was wearing a ring, but not the one McCabe just described, she told him . . .
‘It was a simple gold band, worn on the middle finger of her left hand—’
‘Her mother’s wedding ring.’ McCabe was losing it, the harsh reality of the day hitting him hard. He cleared his throat before continuing, swallowing down his heartache. ‘That one was returned. Becci now has it.’
His words hung in the air.
Daniels could see he was a broken man. She leaned across her desk and handed him a tissue, her thoughts very firmly on the missing ring. There was no evidence that a theft had actually occurred, but if the seal ring had been stolen then why not the wedding band too? Or did it? ‘This is going to sound like an odd question,’ she said after a while, ‘but was the wedding ring a tight fit?’
‘Yes, why?’
‘Then you could be right . . .’ Daniels hated keeping her suspicions from him. ‘The seal ring most probably came off during the crash. Why don’t you let me look into it for you? I’ll have Bridget’s car searched. It’ll still be at the recovery garage, it shouldn’t take long. I’ll get someone on to it right away and get back to you.’
‘Thanks, ma’am.’
‘It’s no problem,’ Daniels said. Even as she said it, she knew that wasn’t the truth.
Far from it.