tough guy, nonchalantly leaning his chair back on two legs, and blatantly ogling her breasts while ignoring every question.
Far from being impressed, his appearance made her think of a grinning ape, and she could feel her gorge rising as she struggled to breathe in the confined space of the interview room due to his nauseating aftershave, which didn't quite manage to disguise the whiff of body odour. She couldn't wait to end the interview, if only for the opportunity to breathe some fresh air.
Ian Hopkins emerged from the other interview room, and fell into step with her as they headed back to the CID room.
'Any luck with Hill?' he asked.
'To paraphrase, ”Better to keep quiet and have people think I'm a criminal low-life scum, than to open my mouth and confirm it” seems to be his chosen option. “No comment” being his mantra.' she added.
'Much the same story with Patterson. Anything he said on the video was to avoid being mutilated, he just told them what they wanted to hear, denies being in the flat that night, blah, blah, blah, “No comment” to any thing else. Their lawyers have them well coached.'
As they neared his desk, she asked,
'Anything helpful about the vigilantes?'
'Nothing of any use, a bunch of nutters targeting him because of gossip he reckons. Doesn't know where they took him, can't remember how he got home. Heap of bollocks!'
'Well, there's no point beating ourselves up about it, it's what we expected. At least the media will see that we're taking the video seriously, and we're not just ignoring this pair.'
'DI Morrison.'
She turned to see DC Catherine 'Kit' Kerr approach.
'Just had a call from Jackie Kingsley, Liz Kingsley's mother, apparently Liz received a threatening letter this morning, just pushed through the letterbox.'
'What did it say?'
'It was a drawing of someone getting their throat cut, and a warning to keep quiet written underneath it. She's really scared by the fact that someone was actually at the house to post it.'
Ann considered for a moment, then,
'Someone will need to go and collect the letter, see if we can learn anything from it. I'd like you to do that, Kit, and speak to the girl, she hasn't been very forthcoming about that night, probably due to the effects of GHB, the rape drug, which was in both her and Linda Hope's systems. Take Amrita with you, she knows them.'
'Okay boss.'
'Ian, you and I will review the interview recordings in case we missed anything, but I have a feeling we'll probably have to let them go for now. Have we discovered anything from the video that would tell us where it was filmed, since we can't depend on Mr Patterson's memory?'
'Nothing from the video, but there was an anonymous call received from a workman who turned up for work at a building site in Rose Street on Saturday morning. Apparently Patterson had been found in a nearly-finished block of flats. Brian is on his way there, to see if anything looks familiar.'
'Well, you never know, we might get lucky and find some forensics, or even a witness. The sooner we put a stop to this vigilante nonsense the better.'
PC Amrita Bachchan introduced DC Kerr to Jackie Kingsley, explaining that they would take the threatening letter away for forensic examination. Kit would also like to speak to Liz, if that was all right.
'I'm not sure if she's up to it, she's up in her room crying. She's really struggling to cope, I haven't been able to persuade her to go to school, she just mopes around the house all day.' It seemed to the officers as if Liz wasn't the only one struggling, Jackie looked drained, her face was drawn and her eyes were like black holes.
'Has Liz received any other threats?' asked Kit, 'Not necessarily a letter, but verbally or phone calls, or texts maybe?'
'She hasn't mentioned anything, but she has been really tense since this all happened.... oh god.... I'm sorry.'
The strain on Liz's mother became too much, and she broke down sobbing. Amrita put an arm round her to try and offer some comfort while Kit gave her a moment to recover.
'Look, maybe you and Amrita could make us all a cup of tea, and I'll go up and ask Liz if she would be willing to talk about it.'
Kit headed up the stair, noting the threadbare carpet. Amrita had told her that Arthur Kingsley had been in the habit of beating his wife when he had been drinking. When Liz had reached an age where she was aware of what was happening, Jackie finally managed to summon the strength to kick him out. She had told Amrita that she had no regrets but Kit suspected that she, like so many single parents, was struggling financially.
She tapped on the door,
'Can I come in?'
She waited for a moment, tapped the door again and then opened it just enough to get a look inside.
'Hi Liz, I'm Kit Kerr, I'm a policewoman. Do you mind if I have a word with you?'
Liz was lying curled up on the bed, facing the wall.
Kit stepped into the room, sat on the edge of the bed. She reached out and touched Liz on the shoulder,
'I'm here to try find out who these people are who threatened you, to make sure they can't ever do you any harm.'
Liz still hadn't acknowledged her presence.
'Have you been threatened in any other way, Liz? On your phone for instance?'
Kit could have sworn a small tremor went through Liz's body.
'Do you mind if I look at your phone,Liz?'
'No, you can't, it's private!' Liz mumbled.
'Liz, I know you probably have a lot of personal stuff in there, but this is really important, these people were responsible for Linda's death, surely you don't want to see them get away with that?'
Kit heard a low moan come from Liz.
'Liz, we all have things we wouldn't want anyone else to see. But there can't be anything more important than finding the people who did this to Linda. And to you.'
'The whole school would find out.'
'Find out what, Liz?'
No answer. Kit spoke as gently as she could,
'Look, Liz, my boss can demand you hand over your phone, and then every man and his dog could look at it and see what's there. Would you not rather it was just you and me, and I can just write down any details I think are relevant, ignore the rest?'
After a little more gentle negotiation, Liz finally agreed to let Kit examine her phone.
DC
