The recorder rolled and Jacob was fiddling with his pen lid. Five minutes had passed and the woman remained silent. Gina rolled her stiff ankles and flexed her legs under the table. Climbing over the fence the other night had awoken muscles that hadn’t been used for a while and her ankle was now slightly puffy.

The young duty solicitor had a slight curl to the edges of his moustache. He fiddled with it as he waited with his client for the interview to begin.

‘Here’s what I have.’ Gina stared at the woman. Her long dyed brown hair with obvious grey roots fell just over her shoulders. The woman leaned forward and sighed. ‘We have matched one of your fingerprints to one found at a serious crime scene. Do you know an Erin Holden?’

The woman began staring at the wall, her gaze fixed on what Gina knew was a bit of chipped plaster.

‘On Saturday the fourteenth of July, a young girl was discovered escaping from a van in Cleevesford. You may have heard something on the news. Her name was Erin Holden. She was only sixteen years of age and had a beautiful red tone to her hair.’

She watched as the woman’s eyes began to water in the corner. Gina struggled to tell if the woman was making an emotional connection to what she was describing or the tearing was a result of the woman’s direct stare.

‘Why would an item that Erin was carrying have your fingerprints on it?’

The woman wiped her nose with her arm and stared into her lap.

‘Where do you know Erin from?’

The air went silent and the solicitor began to style the one end of his moustache. From what Smith had told her, the woman had refused to speak with him, even though he was there to represent her.

‘It’s going to be a long day. Do you want a drink?’

The woman shook her head.

‘We’re going to find out who you are eventually.’

The woman shrugged her shoulders. She then caught an expression that said it all. The woman had nothing left to lose. This was her last stand. Or was she protecting someone else, hiding something more? Maybe she was protecting Stan North. The woman hunched forward and continued looking into her lap. Gina stared at her hair. If her prints matched those that were found on Erin, her hair might match the hair that they also found. The DNA results would be back soon enough. What had this woman done to Erin Holden?

‘Tell us about Simone Duxford.’

Gina watched as sweat beads began to form on the woman’s forehead.

‘Simone Duxford, aged eighteen, found in a shallow grave in the woodland. Long gingery-red hair and carefully placed in the foetal position. The grave was a little bit small but we could see that some care had been taken in placing her. Dressed in a white nightdress, underwear. Someone had tried to preserve her dignity. Tell me about Simone.’

The woman began to hyperventilate.

‘Tell me about Simone!’ Gina pulled Simone’s photo from her notebook and slid it across the table.

As the chair slid from under the woman, she clutched her chest as she tried to stagger towards the door. Gasping for breath, the woman yelled and fell to her knees. ‘I need an ambulance.’ She began ripping her blouse buttons as she gasped for air.

‘Tell me about Simone!’ Gina yelled.

The woman writhed as she gasped for breath.

‘Guv.’ Jacob placed a hand on her shoulder. Sweat dripped from her brow onto the floor as her body shook. She was so close to getting the woman to speak.

‘Call an ambulance and get Smith here immediately,’ Gina said to Jacob, also knowing Smith was their best-trained first aider. There was no way she was getting the information she needed from a woman who looked like she was having a heart attack. The solicitor grabbed his pad and headed to the door, clearly worried about getting his pristine suit dirty as the suspect struggled for breath. Gina daren’t push for another question with him watching. She’d already come close to pushing her luck. She only hoped their suspect wouldn’t keel over and die. ‘Interview terminated at nine forty-five.’

---

‘We were so close.’ Gina slammed her hand on the wall as she seethed. ‘Give me something good. What did Stacey say?’ Gina asked as she left the medics to deal with their mystery woman. Wyre had just come from seeing the girl out.

‘She had nothing new to add. The only piece of information she had kept a secret was that she knew of Westley. She hasn’t been in contact with Christina Dawson since. What’s happening in there?’

‘I think our mystery woman is having a heart attack.’ They entered the incident room.

‘Did you get anything out of her?’

‘Not a jot. You should have seen her face when I mentioned Erin Holden and Simone Duxford. Simone’s photo sent her off the scale and left her struggling for breath. I think she had an anxiety attack but we have to be sure and get her checked out. They’re seeing to her now. I’m just hoping they don’t admit her to hospital but I suspect they may want to run an ECG. She looked rough.’

‘You think she knows Simone?’

‘I know it. I’m sure she knows all the girls. She’s the key to cracking this case. If she gets admitted, I want her watched like a hawk. She’s a suspect and I’m not giving her the chance to escape, especially as we still don’t know who she is.’

‘She’s stable but they’re taking her in,’ Jacob said as he ran into the room.

‘Great. I’ll head to the hospital. I want to speak to the girl, Elisa, about her run in with Stan North. We need him found. Wyre, ask Smith to provide someone who can follow the ambulance and guard mystery woman’s room while she’s there. I don’t want her giving us the slip.’

‘That’ll make his day,’ Wyre replied.

O’Connor walked in eating a biscuit, holding the packet in his other hand. ‘I just went to grab a snack. What happened?’

‘Wyre will fill you in?’ Gina grabbed one of his biscuits and her bag, before heading out to the car park. While fishing through the rubbish in her bag for her car keys, she watched as the paramedics wheeled their suspect into the ambulance. The woman wasn’t getting away from her that easily. She would wait as long as it took to get the answers she needed.

Gina checked her messages as she inhaled the summer air. Dandelion seeds gave the dried out townscape a surreal look. All the patches of grass had turned into a golden colour and leaves had begun to fall from the trees prematurely. It almost looked autumnal. The stifling weather was set to continue. Gina took a step back into the shade. A call was coming in from Wyre. ‘What have you got for me?’

‘It’s Mrs Dawson. As you know she’s been doing a bit of investigating herself and spoke to a homeless girl in Birmingham who recognised her daughter as being with a girl called Erin. She forgot to mention another detail, which is that when the girl saw the man return to Birmingham, with a woman, she said that the woman needed her roots doing. Not much to go on but I thought—’

‘Or it might be everything.’ She grinned as she thought about the mystery woman. Had she always left her roots a little too long before dying her hair or were her roots just shorter when she went with Stan North to Birmingham, possibly on the lookout for another girl. Had her hair grown a little more since? All evidence was pointing to Stan North. He was looking more suspicious by the minute. She needed to find out how he was connected to the mystery woman, the girls and the drugs.