It was going to be emotional.
THURSDAY – DAY 3
The morning team briefing at eight thirty found over twenty people in a conference room that comfortably fitted only twelve. Grace had been lucky to bag a seat. Perry was standing behind her; Sam and Alex sat across from them; Nick was at the head of the table next to DCI Jenny Brindley. The rest were uniformed officers who had been drafted in to help.
‘Welcome to Operation Wedgwood.’ Jenny glanced around the room, waiting for someone to catch her eye. ‘The Parker case. What’s come in so far?’
Grace cleared her throat before speaking. ‘There are lots of house-to-house calls to continue with today and Sam has been actioning anything against the ones yesterday. We still have a list of people to get through, those who were at the gym between six and ten p.m. when it closed. And after the appeal for people to come forward went out during the press release, we have a lot more to interview this morning.’
‘What about his family? Friends? Acquaintances?’ Nick glanced around the room. ‘I know he must have a list a mile long of people that he knew, but are we making headway at all?’
‘We ran through about fifty per cent of them yesterday,’ Grace said. ‘And we’re planning on getting to the rest today. I’m sending my team across to the gym. We obviously can’t use the car park yet, but they’ve been arranging to interview people at the same time to save them all coming here.’ She pointed across the room to where a young man was sitting. ‘PC Mick Higgins has been drafted in to help us for a few hours too.’
‘At your service,’ Mick beamed.
Grace tried not to laugh. His eyes were as wide as his smile, reminding her of how much she’d resembled an eager puppy when she had first started as a beat bobby. He was mid-twenties at a push, his auburn hair cut short, his baby face sprouting the makings of a beard – all the fashion at the moment, but not an accessory she was enamoured with. She couldn’t understand the craze – give her a clean-shaven man any day.
Jenny nodded. ‘Anything else?’
‘We know Parker was on his own when he left the building,’ Grace continued. ‘You can clearly see him on the security camera coming outside.’
‘So he was at his car before anything happened. But no sign of anyone else?’
‘No, Ma’am.’
‘There are fields at the back of the gym.’ Mick chewed his bottom lip. ‘Do we think our suspect could have escaped that way?’
‘It’s possible,’ Grace acknowledged. ‘I don’t know the area as well as you guys, but I can see the canal towpath is a few minutes away on foot. It could take our suspect to any number of places where they could come out unnoticed.’
‘Or there could have been a car parked nearby,’ Perry suggested.
Nick nodded and turned to Alex. ‘Can you get Grace familiar with George Steele’s murder? Let’s see if there are any similarities.’
‘Will do.’ Alex nodded.
Grace cleared her throat to speak out in protest, but Nick chose not to look at her and continued with the briefing. Once he’d brought everyone up to speed, he stood up to signal the meeting was drawing to an end.
‘Preliminary PM results might be back for team briefing this evening.’ He gave out a few more orders before clapping his hands. ‘Right, people, you have your tasks. Go and do what you do best.’
When Grace returned to her desk, there was a jiffy bag in her in-tray, her name and the address of the station typed on a large white label. She leaned across and picked it up, wondering what it could be. Turning it over, she pulled on the red cotton that would open the seal. Seeing something wrapped in pink tissue paper, she popped her hand inside and drew out its contents. Unwrapping it revealed a Barbie doll: Moonlight Rose.
Grace frowned. She’d had the exact same doll when she was a girl. It had been a present from her father. She could specifically remember him saying that it was a rose for his rose. She shuddered at the thought. Who on earth would send her this?
Sam looked over Grace’s shoulder as she walked past. ‘A Barbie doll! Where’s that come from?’
‘I don’t know. There’s no note with it and the label isn’t handwritten so I can’t even hazard a guess.’ Grace held on to the toy. ‘I think it’s someone’s idea of a joke.’
‘I loved my Barbie. Did you have one when you were young?’
‘Yes. It was my favourite doll.’
‘I got one for my fifth birthday. I think I took it to bed with me on that first night.’ Sam giggled. ‘Come to think of it, I think I took it to bed with me until I was about twelve.’
‘Did you only have the one?’ Grace asked.
‘Yes. I didn’t want any more. I remember my friend having several and I thought at the time it was greedy. How can you give attention to more than one thing at a time? They’re collectors’ items now, you know.’ She clicked on to Google. ‘That one has a sixty-quid price tag.’
‘Maybe Ken will be delivered tomorrow,’ Alex smirked, butting into the conversation.
‘I’m surprised you know she had a beau!’ Grace laughed.
‘I have two older sisters. They used to nick my Action Man and hide him all the time.’
‘You wuss! You let them girls walk all over you,’ Sam teased.
As everyone took a few moments out to join in with the toy-related banter, Grace ran a hand around the inside of the envelope again, but there was nothing else inside it.
‘Do you think it’s anyone from your Manchester crew, winding you up?’ Perry asked.
‘I bet it is,’ Grace said, but she felt strangely unnerved.
Would it be someone she knew? She wouldn’t put it past any jokers at the station where she used to work, although they would probably have done something like this during her first week here. But how would they know about this doll? Could it be a coincidence?
She opened a desk drawer, placed the doll back into the envelope and popped it out of sight for now. When she looked up, Nick was beckoning her into his office.
‘Can you go and see Kathleen Steele?’ he asked as she got to him.
‘Yes, sir. I’ll take Perry with me,’ Grace said.
‘No, go alone – try and get her at home. Pry gently, if you know what I mean.’
Grace knew exactly what he meant. Go against their DCI’s instructions. ‘I don’t think—’ she started.
Nick put up his hand. ‘It’ll be fine. I’ll square it if necessary.’
Then
She woke to the sound of screams and sat up quickly in bed.
‘Mummy?’ Pulling the covers back, she tiptoed across the carpet. When she reached the door, she hesitated. What if Daddy was so cross that he hit her again?
‘Leave me alone!’
A bang. She jumped and almost ran back to hide under the covers, but there was another scream. She couldn’t leave her mummy in the hands of a monster.
She opened the door. Another bang and the sound of breaking glass. She