‘Ma’am? Can I have a word?’ he asked.
Kate returned the lid to the pen and followed him down to the viewing suite, where he was inserting a DVD into the machine. Four security feeds appeared in each corner of the screen, showing different angles of the parcel delivery depot. ‘You found who left the heart?’ she said, the excitement rising in her voice.
‘Not exactly.’ He paused the playback, and offered her a sheet of paper. ‘This is a print out from their system showing the name and address details provided by the person who deposited the box, however, as you’ll see, he’s given what I can only presume are fake credentials.’
Kate read the page. ‘Joe Bloggs. Is this a joke?’
Freeborn shook his head. ‘Apparently, they don’t ask to see identification for deposits, only collections. I asked the guy on the counter if he remembered who left this particular box, but he said he sees hundreds of faces every day and hundreds of boxes so has no memory of who left it.’
‘And this address?’
‘Is just around the corner from the depot, so I decided to stop by there on my way back: it’s a library. Best guess is the killer walked past the library on his way into the depot and clocked the address. Their computer system searches for addresses from postcodes, and the customer is then asked to confirm which number. It wouldn’t be too difficult to find the library’s postcode online.’
‘Didn’t they question it when he gave them the library’s address?’
He shook his head. ‘The guy I spoke to said as long as the computer doesn’t flag the address as incorrect, they don’t ask any further questions.’
Kate’s frustration was growing. ‘They didn’t mind you taking their security footage with you?’
‘They ran me off a copy,’ he said, starting the player again. ‘Not that it’s going to be any use. Here we have the view of four of the firm’s cameras. They have twelve in total around the site, the majority of which are out the back watching their employees, rather than the desk. Apparently, they had a spate of thefts last year and so they set up the additional cameras to catch the employee responsible. They got him in the end, but the site manager is still paranoid about someone else repeating the offence. So, anyway, the twelve cameras go to one box in his office, but are on a loop.’ The four images on the screen changed to four new locations. ‘Each rotation lasts approximately thirty seconds, before switching.’ He paused the playback. ‘Note the timestamp in the bottom corner. According to the print out, our perpetrator deposited the parcel at 11:01 yesterday morning. The image in the top left corner is the main door to the collections office, and the one next to it is the counter.’
He started the playback, Kate’s eyes darting from the timestamp to the two images at the top of the screen. Just as the clock changed to 11:01, she saw the door to the room opening, but in that moment, four new images appeared on screen.
‘The rotation of camera views occurs at zero, thirty, and sixty seconds into the minute.’ He skipped the playback through the next rotation, slowing it as the clock turned to 11:02.
Kate stared at the two top images as they changed back to the front door and desk. ‘Wait, where is he? The room is empty.’
Freeborn pointed at the bottom left image. ‘You can just see the guy on the counter carrying the box out back. He’s gone.’
‘Gone where?’
Freeborn shrugged apologetically. ‘He had a sixty-second window to get in and out of the office before the camera returned to him.’
‘Sixty seconds isn’t long. How did he manage to give all his details in that time?’
‘He pre-booked it online. Then all he needed to do was go in, give his order number and leave the item.’
‘So, this footage is—’
‘Pretty useless, ma’am.’
Kate’s head dropped. ‘I don’t suppose they have a camera in their car park?’
‘They do, but it’s part of the same loop. In the thirty-second view of the car park leading up to his entrance, no new cars arrive, and none leave when the view returns. That’s why I think he arrived on foot. The Bitterne train station is only a five-minute walk away, and there are multiple bus routes passing the library too. I’ve already contacted the bus company and station to see what feeds they can give us. Waiting for a call back, but thought I should get this here for logging.’
‘So, somehow our suspect managed to avoid detection when depositing the box.’ Kate stood, keen to sustain his motivation despite the lack of usable footage. ‘Can you keep me posted about what the public transport people say?’
Ejecting the DVD and returning it to its case, Freeborn nodded.
22
Kate called Patel over as she returned to the incident room and took a seat. ‘Ben says we’re looking for a woman in her early to mid-twenties. And our tattoo artist tells us she had fair hair and possibly worked as a prostitute out of St Mary’s at one point or another. Why did he target her?’
‘Maybe he was one of her punters?’
‘Maybe. Did he target her because she was vulnerable or because she was a prostitute? Or did he happen to see her walking and pounced opportunistically?’
‘And what did he do with the rest of her body?’
Kate sighed, pulling out her phone as it beeped in her pocket. Opening the message, she quickly stood and moved away from Patel. She hurried to the safety of the bathroom, before daring to read the message. It was from Tara, thanking Kate for putting her up for the night, and advising that she was heading home to face the music. Kate was tempted to remind Tara not to mention her own involvement, but settled for a ‘Good luck’.
Kate’s mind was racing, as she retook the seat next to Patel.
‘I keep asking myself what would drive Daisy to run away, assuming that’s what happened. We’ve exhausted the possibility that she was unhappy with her life. Every friend and teacher we spoke to said she’s an intelligent and well-liked girl. Even her brother couldn’t give any insight into what would have made her want to run away.’
‘I’m the last person who can offer an insight into the mind of a teenage girl.’
Kate thought about the message she’d just received, and how terrified Tara had been last night. She’d said the words before she could stop herself. ‘What if Daisy was pregnant?’ she whispered to him.
He mouthed the word ‘pregnant’ back to check he hadn’t misheard, and she nodded quickly. ‘If she was too scared to tell her parents what had happened, or even her best friend, what does she do? Under pressure to pass her exams, but not wanting an abortion.’
Patel frowned. ‘I think you’re reaching, ma’am. We have Caplan on record saying he wasn’t sleeping with her, and none of her friends, teachers or family have even hinted at the possibility. I know you’re desperate to figure out where she’s gone, but I think that’s too big a leap, even for your instincts.’
She knew he was right, and had virtually dismissed the idea the moment she’d said it, but even so, it had triggered something in her mind. ‘Think about it: she’s fifteen, so if it was revealed that she was pregnant, her boyfriend Alfie would be in trouble with us, she’d be terrified of messing up her academic potential, and the possible shame it would bring on her family. I’m not saying Barry or Val wouldn’t have supported her, but at that age, you assume the worst, right? I don’t know, maybe I am just seeing links where there aren’t any.’
‘I suppose that could explain what the argument with Caplan was about earlier in the afternoon. And the reason why he didn’t want to tell us what they’d been arguing about.’
‘Of course. He’s eighteen, and she’s only fifteen, but he expects us to believe that they weren’t sleeping together.’
‘But something that big? You really think she wouldn’t have told anybody?’
Kate narrowed her eyes. ‘Georgie Barclay is her best friend; there’s no way she could have kept it a secret from her.’