Cross and Burn by Val McDermid

Author:Val McDermid
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Psychological Thriller, Fiction
ISBN: 9781443431286
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Published: 2013-10-22T04:00:00+00:00

34

By the time their forensics team arrived with the uniformed officers who would see to it no unauthorised feet trampled the car park, Paula was chilled and bad-tempered. There was nothing useful for her to do at the crime scene, but she and Fielding had to stay put to make sure there were no gaps in the preservation of the scene that a defence counsel could later exploit. Fielding had retreated to the car and her mobile, but Paula had chosen to remain with the body. She knew it was pointless, but she felt the need for some sort of gesture. Keeping vigil was the least she could do.

The first of the support vehicles had no sooner appeared in the distance than her phone rang. ‘DS McIntyre.’

‘Hello, Sarge. It’s PC Okeke here.’

‘Hi, John. What can I do for you?’

‘Well, I know the misper’s turned into a murder investigation and your team will be handling things from now on. Just a couple of things. The dad is definitely with his unit in Afghanistan. And after our talk yesterday evening, I got the bus company to release their CCTV footage. I hadn’t finished going through it when I spoke to DCI Fielding this morning, so I thought I might as well complete the job.’

‘Good thinking. That’s one less action for our squad. Appreciate it. Any joy?’

‘A little bit. I ran it through a few times, to make sure I wasn’t imagining what I wanted to see, you know what I mean?’

‘I know exactly what you mean.’ She didn’t want to hurry him but she wished he’d get to the point. ‘So what did you see?’

‘I think Ms McAndrew must have parked a row over from the outside of the car park. It looks to me like her car is just out of shot. As the bus drives by, I saw her walking up the space between the rows of cars, then she moves off to the side and out of shot. I’d say she’s walking quite fast. She’s got her head down because it’s raining. Next thing is, a few seconds later, another figure comes up the same way. I’d guess it’s a man, but it’s hard to be sure. He’s wearing a waterproof jacket with the hood up. You can’t see his face at all, except a bit of light glinting off glasses. He was carrying a case. Looked like it was made of aluminium, like photographers have. About the size of a pilot’s case. And he carried it like it was quite heavy. Anyway, he goes the same way as Ms McAndrew, only he speeds up as he gets closer. Almost running. You’d have to say he was following her. And then he disappears out of shot, right where she did. It’s not a lot of video. Only about fifteen seconds.’

‘You did well to get that, John. Now, how would you describe this figure? Was he tall, short? Build?’

‘Not tall. Medium height, I’d say. Not more than five feet ten. He was slim to medium build.

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