The Big Man Upstairs by JD Kirk

Author:JD Kirk [Kirk, JD]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zertex Crime
Published: 2020-08-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

Sinead sat at her desk, Logan, Ben, and Tyler looming behind her as she hovered her mouse pointer over the play button on the video file.

“So, there were no CCTV cameras around the house, as we know,” she said. “But it was a wild night. Rain, high winds…”

“The usual, then,” Ben remarked.

“Aye, but worse. A neighbour’s car was parked at the entrance to the cul-de-sac. It’s got a dashcam fitted—one of those ones that activate if the car gets knocked or bumped. Or, in this case, walloped by a big gust of wind.”

Logan bent down to get a closer look at the screen. “It got something?”

“It did, sir,” Sinead confirmed. “The driver checked the footage after the door-to-door. The camera recorded over forty short clips over the course of Sunday evening. Including this.”

She clicked the play button. The view was from inside a car, through a windscreen marbled with rain. Daylight was clinging on by its fingernails, the thick layer of cloud blanketing the street in a murky grey gloom.

About thirty or forty yards away, where the street ended, stood the house where Lois and Ruby Mann had been murdered. The lights were on, but the curtains were open.

“Nothing’s happening,” Tyler pointed out.

“Hold on,” Sinead told him, then she pointed to the screen. “There.”

A man strode past the car from behind, walking away from the camera, his head down to shield himself from the rain. He turned back, just briefly, to check the coast was clear before stepping out onto the road, and they all caught a glimpse of the white collar around his neck.

“Is that Mann?” Ben asked. Logan confirmed it with a nod, his eyes laser-targeted on the man on the screen.

“What time was this?” he asked, not wanting to glance away even long enough to check the time stamp.

“Four thirty-seven,” Sinead said.

“Fits his story,” said Ben, joining Logan in leaning down to watch the footage more clearly.

Feeling left out, Tyler did the same, and both senior detectives turned briefly to look at him when his head appeared in the narrow gap between theirs.

“Alright?” Tyler asked, smiling a little uncomfortably. “This is a bit close, isn’t it?”

“Depends if you’re planning to make a move on either of us,” Ben said. At which point, Tyler straightened up again, and all eyes went back to the screen.

Reverend Mann was standing outside the garden gate, not yet making any move to go inside, despite the weather.

“What’s he up to?” Logan wondered.

“Can’t really see, sir,” Sinead told him. “On the phone, maybe? The rain makes it hard to tell, and then…” She pointed at the screen again just as the video cut out. “…camera goes off.”

“Bollocks,” Logan muttered.

“Don’t worry, there’s more,” Sinead said. She minimised the video window, then clicked over to a folder containing four other files.

Before she could click on any of them, the door to the Incident Room flew open, and DS Khaled came running in, slightly out of breath.

“You’re here. Good. Got a bit of a breakthrough,” he announced between huffs and puffs.

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