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I couldn’t return it. I was past smiling now. Until I had Daniel back in my arms, I would never smile again. Mason’s call from Kings View started to come through before anyone could say anything. We were greeted by Mason and Brandon sitting in their meeting room. As usual, it was Mason that started the meeting.
“Morning everyone, and thanks, Callum, for coming along to the meeting. As you all know, Richard’s partner, Daniel, has been arrested for the murder of his wife, Katherine, along with causing the accident that Kevin Wright was involved in on Friday afternoon. So, today’s meeting is going to be discussing our plan of action. I invited Callum along to tell us all he could about the current situation. Kye may join us via video link in a little while.”
I looked around the team. Every single member was looking at me and not Mason. Were they waiting for me to say something? Or were they waiting for me to break down? I wasn’t going to do either. I was too numb to feel anything now. I had shed all my tears alone on Saturday afternoon and early evening. Only Tyler had seen the mess I was in when he arrived, and that was how I wanted to keep it. I wondered who was going to break the silence, and I didn’t have to wait long to find out.
It was Jayden who spoke directly to me. “How are you doing, Richard?”
A stupid question, if ever I’d heard one. How did he think I was doing? He knew how I was feeling. Every member of the team knew how I felt; they had all been there. So, why did he feel the need to ask me?
I looked up at him and saw the shock in his eyes. I was close to blowing. The adrenaline was coursing around my body as the anger in me built up. I couldn’t lose it, though. I knew I had to keep my temper down. I took a couple of deep breaths just to calm myself before I spoke.
“I don’t think you need to ask that question, Jayden. I will be fine if everyone lets me get on with my job, and that is to prove Daniel is innocent. I know he is, and I’m going to prove it.”
I watched as Jayden lowered his head, unable to look at me, knowing what he had said. He was just about to speak again when we heard another caller come through to the meeting and we were greeted by Kye.
“Sorry I’m late. I’ve just gotten off the phone with my contact.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps now we could get this meeting over with and I could continue going through the surveillance footage.
Mason had obviously decided it was best to get the meeting started, as it was him who spoke next.
“Right let’s not waste any more time. Do you want to start off, Kye, just in case you need to head off?”
“If you don’t mind, Mason. My contact has tracked the guy we think is involved to Manchester. The guy in question headed up there yesterday morning, from what we have established. I’m not going to give you much more information than that at present with Callum sitting there. But I will say that I will be heading up there later today after I have seen Abigail and the twins. My contact is on his way to Manchester now and has already spoken to the guy. We are hoping to meet him either tomorrow or Wednesday.”
I wouldn’t be able to thank Kye enough for this. He had been willing to go back to his underground contacts to help me and Daniel, despite what he had been through. I managed to give him a slight smile as he looked at me with a worried expression.
“Thanks, Kye. Please be careful, though. I would never forgive myself if anything happened—”
Kye immediately cut me off. “I will be fine, Richard. This isn’t my first rodeo, you know. You just hang in there. I promise, one way or another, we will get Daniel back to you. Now I need to head off and spend some time with my family before I head up to Manchester. I expect you all to look after Richard. And, Callum, hopefully I will be in touch soon.”
He didn’t give any of us a chance to say goodbye, including Callum, before he ended the call and disappeared from the screen. We sat there a moment in silence, slightly in shock at the abruptness of Kye’s departure, along with comprehending what he had said. I saw Mason shake his head with a grin on his face before he continued the meeting.
“Right. After that…do you want to go next, Callum? I know you have other places you need to be.”
Callum gave Mason a quick nod before he started to speak. “Before I tell you what I can, I just wanted to let you know, Richard, that Daniel is doing okay. They transferred him to HMP Pentonville, and I have spoken to the governor and he is going to be placed in segregation due to the crime he has been accused of. Plus, I wanted to make sure he was safe.”
He paused for a moment, I guessed waiting to see my reaction. What could I say except thank you? I gave him a sad smile, although my voice was barely a whisper now at the reminder Daniel was now sitting in not a police cell, but a prison cell.
“Thank you.”
Callum gave me a quick nod in acknowledgment and continued. “As you know, we now have the additional charge due to the car accident that Kevin Wright was involved in and says that Daniel caused. It’s alleged that Daniel followed Kevin along the A308 and drove him off the road in Putney Vale at around four o’clock in the afternoon. There were witnesses to the accident, but no one got a look at the driver, unfortunately. The thing that is strange, though, is that everyone we spoke to said the number plate was missing from the back of the car. However, when we looked at the footage from the local surveillance cameras, you can clearly see Daniel’s number plate.”
This was starting to sound more and more like the footage from Daniel’s house. Someone was definitely manipulating it to make it look as though Daniel was guilty.
“I have our tech guys working on it now, but you know how long it takes us to investigate things. I was hoping that with this information, you may be able to do some investigation work yourselves. I said it before, I know Daniel didn’t commit either of these crimes, but without the evidence to prove his innocence, I’m afraid he is going to go down for a long time. I’m sorry to say that, Richard, but even James Forsythe won’t be able to argue against the evidence we have.”
I knew that Callum was right, it didn’t make it any easier to hear or help the situation.
“Anyway, that’s everything I can tell you for now. If anything new comes up, I will let Mason or Jayden know. Don’t give up hope, Richard, I know this team will prove Daniel’s innocence.” He got up and placed his hand over mine. “Now, I’m sorry that I must get off back to my day job. Keep me informed of anything you find as well.”
Mason thanked Callum, and he walked out of the meeting room. There was a short moment of silence while we took in everything that Callum had said.
Jayden was the first to break the silence. “So, what is our plan of action, then?”
I hadn’t thought past last night. My only plan was to keep studying the video footage to see what we could find. I sat there as everyone looked at me, waiting for me to reply. Luckily, Tyler came to my rescue.
“Well, Richard and I have been looking at the surveillance footage at Daniel's house all night. We have managed to find archived footage hidden away on the server and are trying to see if it is the same as the police have or if there is a difference. I have already started a trace on the money transfer, but as you know, that can either lead to a dead end or take time. I guess the only thing we haven’t looked at is the surveillance of the car accident, but now that we have the details of that from Callum, we can start looking into that.”
