On Thursday they had a catch up first thing in
the squad room “Well it’s been confirmed that the handbag is definitely Erin’s,
as are the contents, but she claims she has never seen the letter before”
The DI announced
“And forensics say there are no prints on the
outside of the bag”
“None?” DC Grant asked in amazement
“Indeed, and only, Erin’s were on the contents”
“Including the letter?” Steph asked
“Yes, but Dominic’s prints are not, which is
curious as he’s supposed to have written the note, also forensics’ believe the
prints were on the paper before it was written on”
“So, whoever wrote the note used paper that they
knew Erin had handled” one of the team pointed out
“Were there any other prints at all?” Steph asked
“Yes, but smudges mainly from when it was folded,
there were only two clear prints, a thumb and forefinger, either side of the
top right-hand corner” The DI said and demonstrated by holding up a sheet of
paper, “But there are no matches on record”
“What about DNA?” Greg Owens called from the back
“The hairs are a match to Erin but apart from the
hairs on the pillow there are absolutely no other traces of her in the room and
again there is nothing on the outside of the bag”
Said DI Cutler
“We also have the results of the PM, and the
pathologist puts time of death between 4am and 8am so Kitty’s statement that
Dominic was still alive at 11 o’clock is incorrect”
“And cause of death?” Steph asked
“His throat was cut while he was sleeping” he
replied
“So to recap we can discount Erin Hope and
Addison Smillie from our enquiries so we now need to find out who was trying to
set Erin up” he said and then briefed the room about the conversation he had
with Sarah Cooper about the parked cars and tasked one of the junior officers, Krisztina Verebes, with trying to search for the vehicles.
Detective Constable Krisztina Verebes was one of
the latest recruits to the squad and in DI Cutler’s, opinion had quickly made
herself one of the most valuable. At twenty-eight years old she had only been
on the team six months and had already broken every heart, male and female, in
the building.
She was a stunningly attractive slim brunette,
and it amazed almost everyone how she was still single, but she was a single
woman, which everyone put down to her ambition to succeed when in fact she was
just fussy.
She had never disclosed it to anyone, because she
jealously guarded her private life, but had decided at an early age what she
was looking for in a partner, but she was yet to find them, the result to the
onlooker was to give her an air of the mysterious.
Her role in Steve Cutler’s squad was as the
squad’s computer expert even though she couldn’t have looked less like a
computer nerd if she tried.
“I know it’s a tall order, but see what you can
do” he said and then moved onto DC Ross Grant and tasked him with securing and
searching the CCTV at the Velveteen Vixen to try and spot the handbag thief
“It’s a strong line of enquiry so take your time
and be thorough”
“Yes Sir”
“In addition, the letter has now gone to a
handwriting expert to confirm if Dominic did or didn’t write the note and his
mobile has gone to the techs to analyse calls and texts, DC Owens can you
follow up on the phone data?”
“Yes guv”
“So, thank you everyone, off you go and we’ll
have another briefing tomorrow,”
“Right Steph let’s get back over to Oakvale and
meet up with the SOCO’s”
“I thought they were done” she said
“I’ve asked them to take a look at where Sara
Cooper says she saw the parked cars” he replied
“But we don’t know exactly where they were” the
DC replied
“Which is why I’ve asked her to meet us in the
lane to show us” he said
“Interesting” Steph said knowingly
“You can stop that” he said
