evidence at the country park. There is some and it does have night vision software but unfortunately it only covers the Lakeside Café, reception area and storeroom, which is all of the main building, and is a good hundred metres from the jetty where the body was thrown from. Having said that there is some coverage to the outside of the building for security and so anyone passing close by would be picked up by the system. They do store discs for a month before they are re-used so we have got our civilian investigators currently going through days and weeks of footage. If whoever killed this girl carried the body past the main building before dumping it off the jetty they will have been picked up by the cameras.” Mark paused again and stroked a comb of fingers through his thick fair hair, resting his hand at the back of his neck. “It’s a long shot but fingers crossed.”
The briefing broke up again with the DI handing out fresh enquiries for the day. Grace scanned her eyes over the half-dozen sheets generated by the HOLMES team. She had been given the task of tracing and interview the Countryside Rangers employed at the park. She handed them over to Mike Sampson and Tony Bullars to complete; she still had to put the finishing touches to the Coroners Inquest file.
As her two colleagues wandered out of the office, chatting about last night’s televised football game, Grace picked up the folder from the top of her tray and dropped it onto her blotter. Then she slipped off her jacket, cloaked it around the back of her seat and pulled the chair away from the desk. At the last moment before settling down she checked herself. She spun round and strode towards the office kettle, she needed a coffee; an extra caffeine hit before she started her laborious chore.
* * * * *
Hunter drove the hour and a half back from Scarborough District Hospital only making small talk. His head was thumping. His father beside him had been virtually silent and only Beth and his mum had struck up any long drawn-out conversation, and that had been idle chit-chat lifted from their soap magazines.
It had been a very strained journey and one he was glad was over as he pulled up outside his parent’s home. He followed his dad in through the front door carrying in their overnight bag and set it down in the hallway. He checked that Beth was helping his mum and strode after his father who had made for the kitchen. His dad had filled the electric kettle and was settling it into its base to switch it on. “Tea son?” he asked rhetorically, flicking down the switch. He reached up into a wall cupboard for cups.
Hunter saw him grimace, setting his teeth against one another and biting down, doing his best to disguise the pain. He edged forward. “Let me do that dad.”
“Nae I’m fine son, it’s only a twinge.” He took out four cups, set them down and spooned in sugar for himself and Hunter.
“Look dad I don’t want us to fall out over this,” Hunter said quietly. He could hear Beth fussing over his mother through in the next room.
“And neither do I son.”
“I know something’s not right, maybe it’s the policeman in me, I don’t know. I know you haven’t wanted to talk about it, but just think about what happened up on those moors. If I hadn’t been following you could have been there for hours. You and mum could have been killed. I don’t know what you’re covering up but it seems to me to be too dangerous not to share it.”
Hunter’s father turned and touched his arm, looked him square on. A film of tears washed over his dad’s bright and intense blue eyes; eyes that he had inherited. “Give me some space son. I won’t promise you anything but I need some time to think it through.”
* * * * *
Grace ducked beneath the police crime scene tape and stepped towards the edge of the lake. She rested near to the jetty and fixed her eyes on the spot, where six days earlier, she had watched on as the Underwater
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