Sheldon closed his eyes. He felt the tension build again.
‘So we need to find her,’ Sheldon said quietly.
‘We’re trying,’ Lowther said. ‘We could release her picture. She’ll be on the CCTV in the station.’
Sheldon thought about that, and then he shook his head. ‘Keep it internal for now. Don’t let the press know. It might be a misunderstanding. Get a picture from the cameras in here and circulate it across the county, see if any other cop knows her. If we get nothing, then we go to the press.’
When Lowther nodded, Sheldon said, ‘Do it now though, no delays,’ and then jumped out of his chair. He was too warm, needed some air. He went quickly towards the door.
He turned back to Lowther to see him exchange raised eyebrows with Tracey.
Sheldon banged through the door and made for the exit at the end of the corridor. When he got onto the street, he settled back against the wall and closed his eyes. He felt the morning breeze just cool the sweat on his brow and his shirt collar felt tight. He opened his eyes and looked down at his fingers. They were trembling.
Don’t let this one go wrong, he said to himself. Please, not this one.
Charlie tore off his clothes when he got into his apartment and put them in the washing machine – he bought washable suits because he had spilled beer down them too many times. The towel from the office went in too. He didn’t know where the blood had come from, but he didn’t want any trace of it left. The knife went in the dishwasher, and once that was turned on he relaxed slightly, although the uncertainty about what had happened made his stomach perform loops every time he tried to work it out.
He went for a shower, unsure of what other traces he might be carrying, and once he was under the hot water he examined his body for more injuries. There were none. No scratches or cuts or bruises, apart from the grazes along his hand and his cheek. His knuckles looked normal. If he had been in a fight, he’d come off best by a long way.
He put his hands against the cold tiles and let the shower pummel him for a while. He winced as the grazes got used to the water and tried to recall more of the night before, but he couldn’t. It would come back in flashes, he knew that, it was always the same after a late night, but he wanted the answer to the bloody knife sooner than that.
Then he thought of Julie and straightened up, his hands rubbing his face awake. Since she’d left, he had called her sometimes when he got drunk. Had he gone further this time, perhaps argued more violently if she had threatened to arrest him, like she had hinted at?
Charlie put his back against the tiles and slid slowly downwards, until he was sitting in the shower tray and his head was against the wall. That couldn’t be right. He wouldn’t hurt Julie, he knew that. It wasn’t in him to hurt anyone.
Or was it?
He knew he had to call her, to confront it, but it was a call he didn’t want to make, just in case his worst fears came true. The water drummed against his legs as he sat there, until the urge to call became too strong.
He dried himself quickly and threw on a dressing gown. He picked up his phone and paused with his finger over the keypad. Yes, it was a call he didn’t want to make, but he knew he was just stalling.
He dialled quickly and paced up and down, waiting for her to answer. Then he heard the click.
‘Hello?’ It was Julie’s voice, although her drawl told him that he had woken her up. Then he remembered that she had missed her rest day because of Billy Privett’s murder. She must have got it back. There was a man’s voice in the background.
‘Julie, it’s me,’ Charlie said.
‘Charlie? For Christ’s sake,’ she said, her annoyance snapping in.
‘No, I’m not ringing for that. I just wanted to know if you are okay.’
There was a pause, and then, ‘You’re not making any sense.’
He put the phone against his chest as he thought what he could say, and then, ‘I heard a police officer was hurt last night. I was worried it might have been you.’
‘I’m fine, and so is Andrew.’ Then her voice softened. ‘Thanks for the concern, Charlie. Now if you don’t mind, I want to get back to sleep.’
Charlie was relieved, although he heard the male voice whisper something and Julie giggled. He closed his eyes.
‘I’ll leave you to it,’ he said, and clicked off the phone.
So what now? He wasn’t hurt. Julie was fine. So how could he explain the knife, and how could he explain the blood?
Chapter Twenty-One
Sheldon drove quickly through the gates to Billy’s house, his wheels throwing up gravel against the gateposts and making Tracey grip the door handle.
He was first out of the car, running towards the front doors, Tracey following. They weren’t locked. He pushed at them and watched as the hallway came into view.
Billy’s house felt different straight away. Empty, quiet; cold even, despite the warmth outside. He shouted out Christina’s name. There was no response.
Sheldon ran for the stairs, ignoring Tracey’s footsteps behind him. He went straight to Christina’s room. He had been in there the day before. He had seen her clothes, her things. Photographs on the wall. Cosmetics on the dresser. Christina had lived there, he knew it.
As Sheldon flung open a wardrobe door, he saw it was empty, just the jangle of the coat hangers to greet him. He checked the drawers. There were no clothes or jewellery or personal things. It was the same in the bathroom. Lowther was right. She was gone.
Sheldon went from room to room, checking for Christina’s clothes, but there was no trace of her.
He walked slowly down the stairs and saw Tracey looking up at him, concerned. He slumped onto the bottom step. His hands hung from his knees and he stared at the floor. Why did it feel like he had lost control over whatever went on in this house?
‘Sir, are you all right?’
When Sheldon looked up, he took a deep breath and nodded assertively, but the clench to his jaw gave him away. ‘Yes, I’m fine. I just stayed up too late.’
Sheldon got to his feet and walked out of the front door, striding past his car and towards the gates at the front of the house, his ears filled with the sound of his footsteps on gravel. The house next door wasn’t too far away. He knew the road from his late night surveillance. Maybe they had seen Christina go, or knew more about her.
He went through the gate and along the fence at the front of the house, his feet swishing through the long grass. As he turned onto the driveway of the house next door, he saw the door begin to open. They had seen him.
‘Mrs Taylor,’ Sheldon shouted. He knew their names, of course. She had made the most complaints about Billy before Alice died, and had been the one who called in the complaint that led to Alice being found.
She looked nervous as the door opened fully, a woman in her sixties, with a pinafore dress and tight curls that had been dyed into a deep brown. Her husband was just behind her, in slippers but dressed smartly, a shirt and tie and pressed blue trousers.
‘We knew you’d come round eventually,’ Mrs Taylor said, as Sheldon got closer, her voice coming out with a tremble. ‘It was awful what happened to Mr Privett. We saw it on the news and, well, we just want you to know that although we didn’t get on with him, we would have no part in anything like that.’
Sheldon was confused. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Mr Privett’s murder. I know how you find out who had a grudge against the