Page 67 of Her Last Breath

Chapter 43

Fire had not only swallowed up the van, but seemed to suck the motivation out of the team for the rest of the day. As evening approached, Jane decided it was time to do something to try and get them feeling engaged again. As she entered the incident room, with DS Johnson following in her wake, clutching a stack of pizzas she had paid for, she saw her team crowded round DC Chan’s desk. Curious, she headed over to join them.

Jane could smell the herbs, cheese and fatty goodness of the food DS Johnson hastily left at a nearby desk. Her stomach growled; she hadn’t taken anything except tea and Red Bull all day. No wonder she felt ravenous.

Ignoring her hunger, she focused on DC Chan’s monitor like the rest of the team.

‘There was only one CCTV camera in the vicinity of the Red Lion pub,’ DC Chan explained. ‘It’s at a twenty-four hour off-licence from down the road. I checked the dates Ian Matthews gave us, for his meetings with Kangna Kandasamy.’

DC Chan paused the image.

‘On the evening Burrows died, Nurse Kandasamy is parked up by the Red Lion pub. She waits there for a good thirty minutes before Matthews shows up. She gets out, I assume she’s gone to the pub with him. That would corroborate what the landlady told us. Half an hour later, she is back in her car. She then switches on her phone, heads to a patient two miles in the opposite direction to where Burrows was killed, then heads home.’

Mark Burrows’ was the narrowest window they had for time of death, mainly because his body was found soonest. For both Bill Hargreaves and Alice Rogers, they only had estimates. Given the timing of his death, and the timeline DC Chan had now pieced together, there was no way Kangna could have met Matthews, killed Mark and gone about her caring duties.

Jane stared at the screen, crushed, imagining the triumphant look on Kangna’s face when she realised she was off the hook. There was silence all around her. She exchanged a sobering look with DS Johnson, who nodded his support for her, trying to bolster her in the wake of this latest setback.

‘I know how this must feel,’ Jane said, trying to project a confidence she didn’t feel. ‘It’s a blow for the investigation. But it’s just a bump in the road. OK, so it looks as though she has an alibi, but let’s double- and triple-check it. And let’s keep our lines of inquiry open – there has to be a link between our victims. We need to find out what that is. Pawel Kowalcyzk and his team are combing that van for remnants of DNA. Dr Lydia is checking through our recent suicides, so there may be more victims to come. Let’s not give up on any of them.’

Jane watched her team as they returned to their work, despite the late hour. DS Johnson handed out pizza slices to them, helped by DC Berry; she took a pepperoni slice for herself. At her desk, she took a couple of bites, but immediately the greasy dough stuck in her throat, and she had to force it down.

Remembering her conversation with DC Berry earlier, she went to her office to call Sameer.

‘There’s something I need you to do, please. DC Berry seems to be a bit under it at the moment. I’m going to talk to HR about getting him and DC Chan some training, improve their prospects, maybe even push for a bit of a raise.’

‘Are they worth it?’

‘That’s a bit blunt.’

‘I mean, I’ve never really seen what they do.’

‘Let me guess, your DIs have been taking all the credit. I’m not built that way.’

‘Don’t I know it! Sure, you have my support.’

‘They’ve done good work on this case. I think they just needed someone to give them the chance to show off what they could do. Especially DC Chan.’

Ringing off, Jane looked out from her office window at the weary faces of her team, fuelled by coffee and ready to pull an all-nighter if she asked. That would mean they were knackered in the morning and she needed them alert. Unable to face them herself, she called DS Johnson into her office.

‘Let’s call it a night,’ she said reluctantly.

‘You’ve got them all fired up on pizza and caffeine. Not to mention the speech. They’re ready to see this one out, ma’am.’

‘I appreciate their commitment, DS Johnson. And yours too. But it’s late, there’s nothing to be done tonight.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes. Send everyone home, we’ll start again tomorrow, hope for better luck.’

‘What about you, ma’am? I think you should take your own advice.’

Touched by the concern, Jane smiled thinly at him.

Jane was the last to leave, turning to face the whiteboards before she did so. Three victims stared back at her. Alice’s face was the most haunting, She always thinking of her children and what lay in front of them. Jane knew they all needed justice and she was determined that that was exactly what she would get for them.

Chapter 44

The shadows pooled and licked around the sliver of light escaping from under the front room door as Jane tiptoed softly past it, clutching a bag of clothes. Despite her better judgement, a lack of clean clothes had forced her to come home. Her initial plan had been to buy what she needed from Primark after work, but her day had been blitzed. Carrying her holdall, a fresh blazer in her hand, she crept towards the front door, but stopped in her tracks when her mother called out to her.