‘I had to release him for now. We need to talk to Inge Redfern,’ said Natalie. She faced her team. ‘She can confirm his whereabouts.’

‘Why couldn’t he have come clean before?’ asked Lucy.

Natalie lifted her hands up. ‘He claims Inge’s scared witless we’ll think she’s to blame for the attack on Charlotte and claim she carelessly left the door open that night, thus giving the person or persons responsible entry to the house. He says he was only protecting her. And she’s terrified of her parents finding out about their affair. He was trying to prevent that from happening.’

‘You’re kidding.’ Murray shook his head in disbelief.

‘That’s what he said. He decided to keep quiet about his relationship with her because he didn’t think it was relevant to our enquiries.’

‘Bloody idiot,’ Murray snarled.

‘I agree. The way I see it, it’s not merely a question of us blaming Inge for leaving the front door open. We can’t rule out the possibility she’s actually responsible for Charlotte’s death. She was the last person to see Charlotte and she was having an affair with her husband. For all we know, she could have deliberately left the door open for somebody to get in and attack Charlotte on her behalf.’ Natalie rested her hands behind her head. Tension was rising in her neck.

‘Did Adam recognise the men running away in the photograph?’ asked Murray.

‘He said it looked like half of the kids that use the club, and some others that live on the estate near it, and that it wasn’t clear enough for him to identify either suspect,’ said Natalie.

Ian added his thoughts. ‘He could be lying given he’s lied about so much already. You’d think he’d want to know who killed his wife and help us hunt them down, but all he’s done is cover his own back and protect his girlfriend, which goes against what he said from the off. At first he was all for tracking down the attacker and sorting them out. I can’t figure him out. What the fuck’s wrong with him? If anyone harmed my girlfriend, I’d be desperate to get justice. Wouldn’t you, Murray?’

‘Yeah. Guy’s a total wanker,’ Murray said in an unusual display of solidarity.

Lucy joined in. ‘Lee Webster couldn’t identify that pair from the CCTV pictures, but I don’t trust him either. He’s sticking to his new story that Adam met him outside the White Horse at just before eleven p.m. and went home with him for a drink.’

‘Any way he can prove that?’ Murray asked.

‘I didn’t find anything on the cameras to support that,’ said Ian.

‘Ask the tech team if they can enhance that photo of the two suspects and we’ll show it to them both again. Keep checking the camera footage too. Margaret Callaghan, the neighbour, saw Adam’s car pull up on his drive. Before that, she saw the two youths running down the road, and we know that would have been at eleven twenty, so the difference in time from them leaving and Adam arriving was however long it took her to drink a mug of warm milk and read an article in a magazine,’ said Natalie.

Ian offered his opinion. ‘If Adam left Lee’s at eleven forty as Lee says he did, then that would be about right. It would only take about five minutes from Lee’s flat to the Brannons’ house at that time of night. It depends on whether Lee is telling the truth this time.’

Natalie spoke once more. ‘His lawyer insisted he be released, so at the moment we have no suspects and are now searching for the identities of two individuals, one of whom we can barely make out and the other we can’t see at all from the picture we have.’

She drew a breath. ‘We have to keep working. Grab half an hour for some food and take a few minutes out. Let our minds clear a little. After that, Murray, talk to Lee’s neighbours and the residents near the street where he lives. See if anyone spotted a Bentley Bentayga parked there Friday night between eleven and eleven forty p.m. It’s a noticeable car. Someone might have seen it. Lucy, you up for interviewing Inge with me?’

‘Count me in.’

‘Ian, I’ll leave you to deal with that picture. If we can’t get any names from Adam or Lee, we might have to go public on this and release the photograph to the media.’

Natalie headed off to the vending machine downstairs. As she waited for a packet of crisps to be grabbed and dropped and a black coffee to be discharged, her phoned buzzed. It was David. She sighed.

‘Hi.’

‘Don’t bother going to my dad’s. We got a taxi home.’

‘I’d have come and got you.’

‘No need now, is there?’ His voice was slightly slurred. ‘So now you can stay at the station as long as you like.’

‘David, it’s not about me wanting to stay here. It’s a murder investigation. You’re being completely unreasonable. You’ve had too much to drink and I don’t want to discuss this now. I’m really busy and I can’t waste time having a pointless argument with you. We’ll talk later.’

‘Whatever.’ He ended the call. Natalie groaned. The bloody alcohol had made him insufferable. It was only a fucking meal with his father. She walked over to the full frontage glass windows, rested her forehead against the cool glass and shut her eyes momentarily. The dying sunrays in the low sky bounced off the buildings opposite and strobed in front of her eyelids. The day was stretching into evening and she was no closer to finding the person responsible for murdering Charlotte. She reopened her eyes and watched as lines of dark vehicles crawled past the headquarters, their occupants heading back to warm homes and television programmes and video games. She thought of Mike driving his daughter Thea back to his ex-wife’s house and hoped he’d enjoyed his day off.

She lifted the plastic cup, drank the tepid liquid and braced herself for a long night.

---

Lucy drove the short distance to Brompton. Natalie was thoughtful as they overtook cars with bikes attached to their rears and camping cars now returning from the ever-popular Peak District, back to towns and estates where they’d be parked up for another week until the weekend trippers would go travelling again.

‘You believe him?’ Natalie said out loud. ‘You think he was telling the truth about Adam being with him from eleven until eleven forty?’

‘Lee? I think he’d say anything to muddy the waters. His type like making it difficult for the police. He’s one of those sorts with a perpetual chip on his shoulder. He did wrong and got banged up for it, but thinks he was the one ill done by. He hates his life and his job and he blames society rather than himself. At least, that’s my take on it.’

‘He’s sticking up for Adam, isn’t he?’

‘Honour among thieves or whatever the expression is. He seems to be standing by him. Told me Adam was good to him in jail. Kept an eye out for him.’

Natalie made a non-committal noise. ‘That’s what I figured. If Adam was with Inge from ten until almost eleven, there’s still a chance he returned home, killed Charlotte and then went out for a while to clean himself up. Or Inge and Adam were in it together.’

‘You think that’s likely?’

Natalie opened her eyes. ‘Honestly, I can’t call it. If we could locate a witness and ensure his alibi was airtight, it would really help us. In my opinion, Lee isn’t reliable enough. If we knew for certain, we could turn our attention to those two individuals running off down the street. At present, we can’t do anything other than follow every lead and chase after shadows. It’s so frustrating.’

They turned down a lane and past some animal sheds. Large-faced cows, chewing at hay-covered byres, watched them speed by. A sign mounted on a wooden post surrounded by yellow daffodils, announced they’d arrived at Brompton. They drew up outside the house in Pebble Avenue and rapped the door knocker. Inge opened the door.

‘Inge, we’d like to talk to you again. It’s concerning Adam and Friday evening.’

Her mother, Sabine called out, ‘Who is it, Inge?’

Inge opened the door wide and stood to one side to let Natalie and Lucy come in. ‘Police, Mum.’

‘Police?’ Sabine appeared, concern etched on her face.

‘Hello, Mrs Redfern. I apologise for the visit on a Sunday evening, but we’d like to talk to your daughter regarding Adam Brannon.’

‘Inge?’

Inge’s face was a mask. ‘It’s okay, Mum. I can handle this.’

‘You can’t question my daughter without me present. She’s only seventeen.’ She directed her words at Natalie.

Inge put a hand on her mother’s arm. ‘Mum, I don’t need you.’

Sabine cocked her head. ‘What’s going on, Inge?’

‘Nothing. I want to talk to them without you there.’

‘We’d rather you were present, Mrs Redfern. As a seventeen-year-old, she has the right to have an independent adult present during questioning,’ said Natalie.

‘Mum, I can do this alone.’

‘That isn’t going to happen. Okay, ask away. I want to know what this is about.’

‘I’m sorry, Mrs Redfern, we need to verify Adam Brannon’s whereabouts on Friday evening. Inge?’

Inge’s shoulders dropped and she faced her mother. ‘It wasn’t planned, Mum.’

‘What wasn’t planned?’

‘Me and Adam.’

Sabine raised her hand to her mouth. ‘No! You and Adam? You were sleeping with him! How could you? You were looking after their baby. And you’re only seventeen! Oh my God! Inge, what have you done?’

‘We must talk to Inge, Mrs Redfern. Can I ask you to hold back with your own questions until we’ve spoken to her, please?’

Sabine took a step backwards, eyes narrowed. ‘Inge, how could you?’

‘It just happened. I didn’t mean for it to.’

Natalie steered the conversation back to the night in question. ‘What happened after Adam brought you home on Friday night? Did he drop you off as you told us?’

She shook her head. ‘No. We came inside for a while. He wanted me to… you know?’

‘Have sex with him?’

‘Yes,’ she whispered, her face flushing crimson.

Sabine put her face in her hands. Inge’s eyes remained downcast following the revelation. ‘I’m sorry, Mum.’

‘How long have you been involved with Adam?’

‘Two months. His club’s not far from my college. I used to hang around the place in between lectures and at lunchtime and so on. I was seeing a guy called Finn, who wants to be a professional boxer. Adam was training him personally. I got to know Adam through him. It was obvious straight away Adam liked me. While Finn was doing weights or whatever, he’d let me wait in his office and do some studying or coursework. Sometimes, he’d come and talk to me, or we’d joke about and such like. Nothing serious. Then one night he saw me walking home from college and stopped to give me a lift. He asked if I fancied a drink, and Mum wasn’t home, so I said yes. We went to a really nice pub the other side of Samford and we had such a laugh. We went back to his office afterwards. He told me I was beautiful – really beautiful – and he couldn’t keep his hands off me. We kissed. That’s all. He was a proper grown-up and treated me nicely. Gave me compliments and stuff. I was getting bored with Finn by then and dumped him. After that, Adam and I started seeing each other whenever I had any free time. It got serious. He even got a separate phone so we could stay in touch without Charlotte or anyone finding out.’ She paused and looked at Natalie with huge eyes.

‘You were having sex with him before you became their babysitter?’

Inge nodded miserably. ‘Mum told me she’d arranged with Charlotte for me to babysit Alfie. I didn’t know what to do. I texted Adam and he said it was a great opportunity for us to see even more of each other.’

‘And on Friday, what time did Adam leave your house?’

‘Mum was due back at eleven so he left about ten minutes before that.’

‘He’s not texted you since then, has he?’

Tears sprang to her eyes. She looked at her mother, whose face was ashen. ‘No. The last time I saw him was that night. I can’t get what happened to Charlotte out of my head. If he hadn’t been with me, she might still be alive. And I don’t know how anyone could have got into the house. I shut the front door. I’m certain I did. Adam didn’t murder her. I know he didn’t. Charlotte was bossy at times and Adam complained she was a handful, but he didn’t hate her. He’d have left her but he wouldn’t have killed her.’

‘Did you and Adam discuss him leaving her?’

She nodded. ‘We talked and talked about it. He told me only a week ago he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. I said we should wait until I turned eighteen and finished college and he agreed with me. Reckoned if I finished college and still wanted to be a midwife, it would make it easier for my parents to accept our relationship. He loves me, you know? And I love him.’

Sabine released a low moan like a wounded animal and spoke quietly. ‘He wouldn’t have left Charlotte, Inge. He was stringing you along.’

Inge shook her head vehemently. ‘You’re wrong. I knew you wouldn’t understand. He loves me. He was going to leave Charlotte.’

Natalie only had Inge’s word that this conversation had taken place. It might have been more one-sided than she claimed, and Adam might have told her he would never leave Charlotte. Was Inge putting up a convincing performance and had, in reality, arranged for somebody to kill Charlotte? At the moment, they had no evidence to support that theory. All they had was an alibi for Adam’s whereabouts, unless Inge was lying about that, and she and Adam had plotted to kill Charlotte together. The only problem with that assumption was Inge had only given Adam half an alibi. Lee had provided the other half, and the trembling girl in front of her didn’t seem capable of being an accomplice to a murder. However, Natalie wasn’t going to work on supposition. For the present, she’d follow procedure and see if the investigation threw up anything that would make them further suspect Inge’s involvement. ‘I’d like you to make a full statement at the station, confirming what you’ve told me. It might be used as evidence in court.’

Inge chewed her bottom lip, looked across at her mother again and nodded. Natalie’s phone rang. It was Ian. She excused herself and went outside to take the call. It was fresh outside now, the cool air catching her unawares and making her draw a quick breath. Light had faded and darkness had crept in. A car was approaching and pulled into the driveway. A gentleman with greying sideburns, a balding head and a weary expression got out of it and walked towards the door. Natalie heard sobbing as Inge threw herself into her father’s arms. The sounds faded into the background as she concentrated on Ian’s voice.

‘Found a bloke who didn’t see a Bentley Bentayga parked on the street on Friday night but did see Lee Webster climb into a white van at about ten thirty. He’s positive it was him. He got into the driver’s seat.’

Natalie groaned. ‘Lee stated he was at the pub at that time. The sodding barman vouched for him.’

‘The man’s adamant it was Lee, which puts him in that van not at the pub.’

‘I’ll get Lucy and we’ll head back to the station.’

She ended the call and grimaced. Lies and deceit were interfering with her investigation, and the trio of Adam, Lee and Vitor had given her the runaround. She stomped back towards the house to collect Lucy. Nothing annoyed her more than being lied to, even though she came against a lot of it in her profession. People would say anything to save face or their necks. The next interview with these men would produce the truth. There was no way she was letting them off lightly.