Crawford is a New Zealander.’
Detective Sylvie Catt said, ‘Aha.’
Ella handed her the passports. Catt opened Connor’s. ‘I’ll get onto the Kiwis straightaway and we’ll find out about this guy once and for all.’
‘Results of the PM,’ Ella said. ‘Suzanne died from blood loss from the stab wounds, which were caused by the knife found in the hedge by the house. Any news on prints?’
‘No match to anything in the system,’ Detective Peter Hepburn said. ‘They’re doingcomparisons to what was found in the house.’
Detectives wrote quickly.
‘In one of the wounds the doc found a tiny bit of what looks like grey duct tape,’ Ella went on. ‘There’s no sign that she was bound prior to being stabbed, and no such tape has been found on the scene either.’
Dennis said to Hepburn, ‘What’s the response to the published photos of Connor and the CCTV guy?’
‘Nothing decenton the CCTV image. People telling us what we already know about the Crawfords – they run a nursery and so on – and a couple of others: Suzanne apparently used a web cafe in the city according to a young female caller who then hung up; and Connor played a bit of lunchtime soccer in the Domain with a pal of his who did leave his details. Nobody’s called in to say they’ve seen him today though.’
Ella scribbled in her notebook. Her eyes hurt and her back ached, and concern for her dad was a weight in the back of her head, but she was far from stopping. They’d been on the case for only twelve hours. The first twenty-four to forty-eight were the most important – people out there were straightening their stories, burning or hiding evidence, getting further away. Detectives just upped the caffeineintake and scoffed junk food for the carb rush and kept going. She blinked hard and pressed more firmly on the page.
‘Computer tech report came in too,’ Peter Hepburn went on. ‘They both had email accounts, which they accessed through the home and work computers, but there was nothing dodgy on either. Somebody was looking at porn on the work system, just generic straight stuff, and we have timesand dates if we need to correlate. They did a lot of browsing on the home system – news, celebrities, banking. Nothing weird, even in the deleted caches.’
‘Wonder if Suzanne was up to something in the internet cafe,’ Sylvie Catt said. ‘Something she didn’t want Connor or her employees to know about.’
‘If the caller was telling the truth,’ Hepburn said. ‘Problem is there are so many possiblelocations. We can start to canvass but it’ll be like the proverbial needle. With any luck she’ll ring in again and give us a better description than “the city”.’
Ella said, ‘From what we’ve learned, Suzanne had a number of male friends and sometimes she didn’t seem to care that Connor or others could see what was going on.’ She ran through the information they’d got from Angie Crane at Streetlightsand the hospital lead Tanya Pigeon had given them. ‘So we need to look into those people deeper too. We also have somebody named Robert possibly in the mix.’ She told them what Aidan had said. ‘And Stewart Bridges was seen driving past the Crawfords’ house again this morning, and has apparently been a frequent visitor in the past – more frequent than he’d led us to believe.’
Detectives flippedpages and kept writing, then took turns to give their updates: no trace on the car; no further results from the canvassing; no new images found of the man who walked away from the scene after allegedly arguing with Bridges.
Lola Murphy’s mobile buzzed. She answered, and a moment later scribbled a word in her notebook and held it up. RTA.
The detectives went quiet.
‘Oh, that’s great,’ Lola said.‘Can you email that through right now? Yes, the address I gave you before. Yes, thanks. And you’ll keep checking the other cameras? Particularly the ones between there and the airport. Thanks
Detective Sylvie Catt said, ‘Aha.’
Ella handed her the passports. Catt opened Connor’s. ‘I’ll get onto the Kiwis straightaway and we’ll find out about this guy once and for all.’
‘Results of the PM,’ Ella said. ‘Suzanne died from blood loss from the stab wounds, which were caused by the knife found in the hedge by the house. Any news on prints?’
‘No match to anything in the system,’ Detective Peter Hepburn said. ‘They’re doingcomparisons to what was found in the house.’
Detectives wrote quickly.
‘In one of the wounds the doc found a tiny bit of what looks like grey duct tape,’ Ella went on. ‘There’s no sign that she was bound prior to being stabbed, and no such tape has been found on the scene either.’
Dennis said to Hepburn, ‘What’s the response to the published photos of Connor and the CCTV guy?’
‘Nothing decenton the CCTV image. People telling us what we already know about the Crawfords – they run a nursery and so on – and a couple of others: Suzanne apparently used a web cafe in the city according to a young female caller who then hung up; and Connor played a bit of lunchtime soccer in the Domain with a pal of his who did leave his details. Nobody’s called in to say they’ve seen him today though.’
Ella scribbled in her notebook. Her eyes hurt and her back ached, and concern for her dad was a weight in the back of her head, but she was far from stopping. They’d been on the case for only twelve hours. The first twenty-four to forty-eight were the most important – people out there were straightening their stories, burning or hiding evidence, getting further away. Detectives just upped the caffeineintake and scoffed junk food for the carb rush and kept going. She blinked hard and pressed more firmly on the page.
‘Computer tech report came in too,’ Peter Hepburn went on. ‘They both had email accounts, which they accessed through the home and work computers, but there was nothing dodgy on either. Somebody was looking at porn on the work system, just generic straight stuff, and we have timesand dates if we need to correlate. They did a lot of browsing on the home system – news, celebrities, banking. Nothing weird, even in the deleted caches.’
‘Wonder if Suzanne was up to something in the internet cafe,’ Sylvie Catt said. ‘Something she didn’t want Connor or her employees to know about.’
‘If the caller was telling the truth,’ Hepburn said. ‘Problem is there are so many possiblelocations. We can start to canvass but it’ll be like the proverbial needle. With any luck she’ll ring in again and give us a better description than “the city”.’
Ella said, ‘From what we’ve learned, Suzanne had a number of male friends and sometimes she didn’t seem to care that Connor or others could see what was going on.’ She ran through the information they’d got from Angie Crane at Streetlightsand the hospital lead Tanya Pigeon had given them. ‘So we need to look into those people deeper too. We also have somebody named Robert possibly in the mix.’ She told them what Aidan had said. ‘And Stewart Bridges was seen driving past the Crawfords’ house again this morning, and has apparently been a frequent visitor in the past – more frequent than he’d led us to believe.’
Detectives flippedpages and kept writing, then took turns to give their updates: no trace on the car; no further results from the canvassing; no new images found of the man who walked away from the scene after allegedly arguing with Bridges.
Lola Murphy’s mobile buzzed. She answered, and a moment later scribbled a word in her notebook and held it up. RTA.
The detectives went quiet.
‘Oh, that’s great,’ Lola said.‘Can you email that through right now? Yes, the address I gave you before. Yes, thanks. And you’ll keep checking the other cameras? Particularly the ones between there and the airport. Thanks
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