Bloody Valentine - James Patterson [22]
‘Good work, and you can call me Amy when we’re in senior officer-conference, Sergeant. I remember playing football with you and Dad when I was small.’
‘I never thought that one day you’d be my boss. The name’s David.’
‘I remember – David. First, let me thank you and your team for all the work you’ve done in such a short time.’ She opened a file. ‘Let’s start with the timeline. Ben, you’ve kept a record.’
Ben referred to his notebook. ‘Shadows moving in the corridors, picked up on CCTV between two fifteen and three oh-five a.m. First noticed on the studio floor.’
‘The only floor no one lives on,’ David Reece commented.
‘Then seen on the floor the chefs live on at two nineteen …’
‘Could have been the murderer picking up the knives?’ David interrupted.
‘We can’t be sure the knives found in the sink and the one that killed Bruno Gambrini belonged to the chefs.’
‘They match other knives in the apartment,’ David said.
‘I’d like to interview Adrian Wills and get the forensic results on the knives before coming to any conclusions.’
Ben continued. ‘A shadow appears at the basement garage door at two twenty-five a.m.’
‘Has the garage been searched?’ Amy asked.
‘Only around the vehicles.’
‘Organise a search of every vehicle, with the dogs if you can get them. Tell the officers to break into the vans if necessary.’
David reached for his mobile.
Ben resumed when David had given the order. ‘There was a twenty-minute lull before shadows were seen in the reverse order, ending on the studio floor at three oh-one. At eleven ten this morning, shadows appeared again on the studio floor.’
‘When Zee Barnes was entering the foyer,’ Amy commented.
‘There was another on the basement garage floor at eleven fifteen a.m.,’ Ben murmured.
‘Is there a camera logging the vans in and out?’ Amy asked.
‘Yes,’ David answered. ‘Attached to the barrier. It snaps number plates as the vehicles enter and exit.’
‘Something else that needs checking, David. Phone the order through.’
David did as Amy asked.
‘So we have a someone—’
Ben interrupted. ‘Could be more than one person.’
‘A person or people,’ Amy conceded, ‘creeping around Barnes Building in the early hours, and again the following morning. We have Zee Barnes exiting her apartment just after eleven. Leaving flowers and Valentine cards …’
‘For everyone in the building, including her sister-in-law who didn’t answer the door.’ Ben followed the timeline in his notes.
‘Zee Barnes spoke to Ted Levett for thirteen minutes, stepped outside the building just before eleven twenty-three, then turned right and vanished in daylight in front of a florist’s.’
‘If she entered a vehicle and was driven away, her body could be miles away,’ David declared.
‘I doubt it,’ Ben said. ‘It would take time to remove her heart. It was on the porter’s desk at twelve fifteen. I’d say our killer is a quick worker who has access to a local safe place.’
‘Not in Barnes Building – we’ve searched everywhere,’ David insisted.
‘Zee Barnes was kidnapped, murdered, had her heart removed and parcelled up in fifty-two minutes,’ Ben declared. ‘That suggests the killer or killers knew Zee, and also knew Barnes Building – and the residents’ movements.’
‘Ted saw the parcel at twelve fifteen but it could have been on the desk for longer. It was left on the one spot on the porter’s desk that is out of CCTV range,’ David observed.
‘The courier picked up the parcel at twelve twenty. Jack Barnes received it ten minutes later.’ Amy stared thoughtfully at the last stills of Zee that Liam had printed.
‘Whoever killed Zee Barnes had access to this building,’ David stated. ‘No stranger could have left the heart without alerting a porter. We’ve interviewed both. They insist no one called between Zee’s departure and the arrival of the courier Ted summoned.’
‘Let’s eliminate the residents