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Jennie nods, trying to hold back the emotion threatening to burst out. She’s trying to stay professional, appear fit to work the case, but it’s a struggle. Her own DS, a man she’s worked with day in, day out for months, is her stalker. He tried to kill her.
‘I know we haven’t always seen eye-to-eye,’ says the DCI, solemnly. ‘But if I’d realised what Martin was doing, what he was thinking, I would’ve taken immediate action. We can’t have someone like that here. We can’t have people doing what he did. You’re a valued member of my team and I’m sorry this happened, I really am.’
Jennie meets his gaze. Given the fights they’ve had over Hannah’s case, she’s still wary. But he looks genuine, the concern and empathy clear in his expression. ‘Thanks, sir.’
He frowns as if sensing her reticence. ‘You’re a good detective, Jennie, and your instincts are spot on.’
Jennie exhales, suddenly exhausted. She thinks of Zuri. ‘I wish all the team agreed.’
‘Well, you certainly have the respect of DS Otueome,’ says the DCI. ‘She overheard DS Wright ranting about the injustice of his suspension as he was being escorted from the office and came to speak with me. It appears not only had Wright sexually harassed several female colleagues, including her, he was also the instigator of a WhatsApp group in which several male officers share compromising images and disgusting views on women. It appears DC Williams had been added to the group without his permission, but had left it immediately. He told DS Otueome he’d been disturbed by what he’d seen.’
Why didn’t Zuri and Steve tell me?
‘Why didn’t they report it at the time?’ asks Jennie.
‘It seems they felt they’d become targets if they did. I believe several of the men in the WhatsApp group are higher-ranking officers. It’s all in the hands of HR now though. There’s no place for people, and views, like that here.’
‘I’m so sorry they had to go through that,’ Jennie says, sadly. She feels battle-weary and as if she’s let her team down. ‘I wish I could have done something to help them.’
‘DS Otueome spoke very highly of you,’ says the DCI.
Zuri had my back. A good colleague. A proper friend.
As the realisation hits home, Jennie fights the urge to cry. ‘She’s an impressive detective. She’ll have your job one day.’
The DCI smiles. ‘I don’t doubt that, but not just yet.’
Chapter 40
Once he’s off the phone with Professional Standards, the DCI calls Jennie and Zuri into the incident room. As they follow him inside, Jennie senses that something important is afoot. She’s relieved she was able to persuade him to let her stay at work rather than go off on sick leave, even if it’s not good HR procedure. A few painkillers have sorted her headache, and the nausea seems to have abated. It’s the road-rash on her face and lacerations to her arm that are the most distracting.
They gather around the whiteboard. Jennie stares at the pictures of Hannah, Paul Jennings, Duncan Edwards, and the rest of the darkroom crew staring down at them.
‘I’m not going to sugar coat this,’ says the DCI. ‘I’m being put under a hell of a lot of pressure to get this case closed. The media frenzy shows no signs of stopping, I’m being bombarded with endless press questions and the community is becoming more angry every day that goes by without an arrest.’
‘But it’s only been five days,’ says Zuri. ‘Surely the brass can give us longer?’
Campbell blows out hard. ‘They can, but they’d prefer not to. We already had accusations of institutional misogyny being bandied about after the mishandled abduction case, but with what’s come to light today – the attack on Jennie, the suspension of DS Wright and the prolonged campaign of misogyny and deeply disturbing misconduct by him and several others within our ranks – we’re going to see some really ugly press headlines once the media catch wind of it. I know you all want to do right by the victim and so do I. And we sure as hell need a win for the community and a good news story for us. So, what do you think, do we have our killer?’
Jennie grimaces. Hannah deserves better than a bodged job of a misper investigation and a murder case cut short. ‘We have several possible suspects, but we’re not done yet.’
‘Several? Who’s top of your list?’ asks the DCI.
Jennie looks at Zuri. The frustrated expression on her DS’s face mirrors how Jennie feels. Still, she nods. ‘Okay. We narrowed our suspects down to Hannah’s father, the teacher Duncan Edwards, and Hannah’s four childhood friends, including the boyfriend.’ Moving closer to the board, Jennie taps her finger on Edwards’ picture. ‘The teacher was our top suspect, but we’ve been unable to break his alibi. Edwards and his ex-fiancée alibied each other. Naomi and Steven have spoken to a few of their ex-colleagues and neighbours, but so far their story holds up. The ex-fiancée had motive too; I think they could have colluded to murder Hannah together, but we’re still looking for evidence to prove it. We had a good look at Hannah’s father, but although he was violent towards her and was a shitty dad, we don’t think he’s in the frame for her death.’
‘So Rob Marwood is our prime suspect,’ says Zuri, gesturing to Rob’s image on the board. ‘He and Hannah had a history of doing drugs together and experimentation in oxygen deprivation, and we know he lied about his alibi – he wasn’t watching the film he claimed at the cinema the night Hannah died, because the projector was broken and the cinema couldn’t open. We can’t ask him why he lied, but it’s a reasonable supposition that Hannah’s body being found and years of crippling guilt about her death, combined with the stress of the medical malpractice case against him, is what pushed him to take his own life. As I’ve said before, I believe the note he wrote was his confession to killing his friend.’
The DCI nods thoughtfully.
‘Rob supplied Hannah with drugs regularly,’ says Jennie, continuing from where Zuri left off. ‘And he’d taken her to A&E a month before her death when she accidentally overdosed. They found marks on her neck which we’ve determined were consistent with erotic asphyxiation. One hypothesis is that Hannah’s death was an experiment into “higher consciousness” that went wrong.’
‘The tox report on Robert Marwood shows he had high levels of fentanyl and alcohol in his system at the time he died,’ says Zuri. ‘Further digging into his financials has turned up payments to two exclusive and highly confidential rehab clinics in the past year and a number of other occasions dating back twenty years, but it seems the rehab never stuck. He was clearly deeply troubled by something that happened in his past.’
‘I’m inclined to agree,’ says Campbell. He gestures to the remaining three members of the darkroom crew. ‘What about the other friends and the boyfriend?’
‘Nothing concrete,’ says Zuri.
‘But we do have some suspicions,’ Jennie adds. ‘If we can have a few more days to—’
