The Girls Next Door: A gripping and emotional crime drama by Mel Sherratt

Author:Mel Sherratt [Sherratt, Mel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blood Red Books
Published: 2023-12-03T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Eden arrived back at the station and swiped herself into the building. She threw her car keys on her desk, sat forward, and ran her hands through her hair while she waited for her nerves to settle. Sean’s car was in the car park, so she knew he’d be out to see her soon.

She logged back on to her computer and pulled up the information on the girls who’d been attacked last night, wondering again what the hell was going on. She knew Cayden Blackwell was lying about something, and she was determined to find out what.

‘Eden.’

She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Sean. Seeing someone she had known since she’d started the job brought tears to her eyes. She wiped one away as it fell and tried not to cry again as he gave her shoulder a squeeze.

She filled him in about Jess, and Cayden, just as Amy arrived back. Behind her was Jordan.

‘Look who I found on my travels, Sarge,’ Amy said.

‘You owe me one.’ Jordan pointed at Eden with a grin. ‘This one here just dragged me out of bed.’

‘Not literally.’ Amy swiped him as he went to sit at his desk. ‘I rang him, and he offered to help.’

Eden smiled her thanks, choked by their concern.

They made their way into the small meeting room along the corridor. There was only room for one table that seated six people, so it was mostly used for one-to-one supervisory meetings or staff appraisals.

‘What did you learn from the girls?’ Sean asked Amy once they were all sitting down. ‘Let’s see if it tallies with what we know now about the mobile phones.’

‘I spoke to both Stacey and her mum,’ Amy said. ‘Number twenty-nine Hardman Road. I got the clothes she was wearing. She said one of her attackers held her down on her knees so there could have been prints on the shoulders of her coat, if forensics were able to get them off at all. But when we questioned her further, she thinks they were wearing gloves because as soon as she mentioned both were wearing balaclavas, she remembered them.

‘Poor girl was traumatised as she thought she was going to be sexually assaulted. She was left a note that said keep your mouth shut.’ Amy pulled an evidence bag out of her pocket and put it on the table.

Eden took it and held it up. It was handwritten in capitals, black ink on lined paper. ‘Can she remember anything about what they looked like?’

Amy shook her head. ‘Only that she thought they were male. And they spoke with a local accent. I asked her if she thought it was anyone she knew. She shook her head pretty quickly.’

‘Too quickly?’ Sean asked, taking the bag from Eden, and peering at the note.

‘I think so,’ Amy said. ‘Then there was Ruby Peters, seventy-two Diamond Avenue. She wouldn’t take off her hat to show me what they’d done to her hair. Her mum is taking her to the hairdressers this afternoon.

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