‘What about Sam?’ Imogen asked.
‘Friday night regular. Under the covers stuff. Obviously they both know the camera’s there and so …’
‘So they’re in bed together?’
‘Yeah, a lot of whispering and stuff. I don’t know about anything else. Seemed kinda wrong to watch any of the sexy stuff. So I just forwarded through it, nothing of much interest there. I mean … well you know what I mean.’
‘Someone’s going to have to watch it.’ Imogen pulled a face.
‘I’ll watch it. I don’t know him so I can be more objective,’ Adrian offered.
‘So she doesn’t talk about any information she might have gained in these Friday night meetings?’
‘Nope, all her communications are via encrypted email, like seriously encrypted. She had some skills. I mean has,’ Tunney corrected himself as Adrian shot him a look.
‘Anything else on the drive we should know about? Footage of the murders’d be a hell of a bonus.’
‘Well, there is an anomaly in the metadata; I think there are some videos missing from the file.’
‘Can you find those videos?’
‘Short answer is yes.’
‘What’s the long answer?’
‘It’s going to take me some time. Like I said, she has skills.’
‘And it’s not possible these videos are just clips of her and Sam?’ Imogen asked, a slight grimace on her face.
‘Well, she left those in, so it seems unlikely it’s just that.’
‘But she’s the one who will have deleted the files?’
‘Yeah, but this isn’t as simple as just clicking delete, she’ll have had to work to get rid of that data. After a point the information gets sent to whichever tech is dealing with her stuff, my guess is she didn’t want them seeing it.’
‘You’d better find that data then.’
Adrian’s phone beeped and he looked at the message. Fraser.
‘Fraser has the CCTV from all the cameras at the riverbank, all the ones that are working at least. He says they’ve found something.’
Thanking Tunney, Imogen and Adrian set off back to Fraser’s office. On the way up, Imogen looked around the corridor to make sure they were alone. She put a hand on Adrian’s arm, clearly agitated.
‘I know what Sam’s been saying, Miley, but I don’t trust him. There are a lot of things he isn’t telling us. Believe me, he was my partner, I know. He isn’t – he isn’t a good person. He’s hiding things.’
‘Well, it’s a classified operation. There must be things he can’t tell us.’
‘I worked with him, Miley, and I know when he’s lying. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was him who deleted those files, whatever they are.’
‘Does he have those kinds of computer skills?’ Adrian asked her, surprised.
‘He could have had help.’
‘Well, Tunney is on the case.’
‘I’m just letting you know that you can’t believe a word that comes out of Sam’s mouth.’
‘Are you OK, Grey?’
‘Really?’ She looked as though he had just spat on her face.
‘I mean … you seem really upset. I don’t know this guy as well as you do, but look – he’s still working, he can’t be as bent as you’re thinking. Are you sure this isn’t paranoia getting the better of you?’
‘Fuck you!’ She pushed him hard and he slammed against the wall. It didn’t take a detective to realise she was upset.
Adrian knew that feeling and made a deal with himself not to be such a prick in the future. He remembered how people called him paranoid at times when he started spiralling out of control, and it did nothing but make him worse. He wouldn’t do that to Imogen. She had just got back to work; he should give her a break.
In Fraser’s office, the three of them gathered around the CCTV. They saw Bridget running terrified into the park and hiding inside a children’s adventure castle. They saw a man coming down to the river and looking for her, getting close and then going the wrong way.
‘Why doesn’t she go to one of the flats or something?’ Imogen asked, leaning in to look closer at the screen. Adrian had already tried that and it was no use, the faces were a blur. As they watched, a car pulled into the shot and the fuzzy figure of Bridget slipped into the water, clinging to the side of the river and moving along the bank.
‘She must be fucking freezing.’ Adrian felt cold just watching it.
‘Yeah but she’s alive, that’s something,’ Fraser offered.
‘What’s that?’ Imogen pointed to the screen.
‘What?’
‘Look, the boat, that one there, it’s moving.’
They watched as Bridget disappeared down the river, a few moments later the boat Imogen was pointing to started to follow her, moving in the same direction.
‘Can you read the name on that boat?’ Fraser asked hopefully. ‘It would be great if I can tell the press something.’
‘No, but it’s got those distinctive stripes on it. We’ll go down and have a look, see what’s what.’
‘What do you think they’re doing? Do you think this is an opportunistic attack?’
‘I don’t know, maybe it’s a coincidence that this boat is travelling in the same direction as she is.’
‘I don’t believe in coincidences,’ Adrian said, moving towards the door.
‘Well, whatever’s going on here, there’s a good chance the guy in the boat saw something.’
‘I know how much you like the water, Grey. Let’s go,’ Adrian said, trying to crack the frosty atmosphere. He knew Imogen didn’t have any sea legs.
‘I’ll get on to the company that handles the boats down there, see if I can get a list of the owners,’ Fraser said.
The boat was surprisingly easy to find. Glitterbug was a small blue ship with two stripes of different thicknesses; Imogen and Adrian found it moored near the spot where it had been in the video footage. Adrian watched as Imogen approached the boat first, peering inside.
‘I think there’s someone in there,’ she said finally. ‘I think I hear a radio or something.’
Adrian stepped aboard and offered his hand to Imogen. He banged on the cabin door and heard shuffling coming from inside. The door opened and a man peered out. Adrian held his badge up.
‘I’m DS Miles and this is my partner, DS Grey of the Exeter Police Force. We’re making inquiries about something that may have happened here on Friday night. CCTV in the area saw that you were on your boat. A police officer went missing.’
‘Oh, do you mean the girl in the water?’ The man stepped out on to the deck.
‘You saw her?’ Imogen asked.
‘Yeah, I did, I dunno what she was doing. I thought she was hammered. I was going to call someone but I didn’t want to get involved, you know?’
‘So what did you do?’
‘Well, I followed her a bit in the boat, but it got too dark