Page 20 of Dying Breath
The woman lifted her hand and slapped Lewis hard across his cheek. Browning stole a glance at Lucy, who let out a small whoop. ‘Motive – he’s pissed off at her for hitting him and showing him up in the club?’
Mattie nodded in agreement. They watched as Lewis shoved her, then stopped and was escorted out by two bouncers. The woman turned, bumping into someone else just out of sight of the camera. Her clutch bag fell to the floor, spilling its entire contents everywhere. They watched as she bent down to pick up her things. Someone was helping her, but they were off camera. Then she disappeared from the screen.
‘Where’s she gone?’
‘Toilets.’
The footage paused as it switched to another camera showing their victim going into the ladies’ toilets alone and coming back out on her own. This time she went across to the bar, the camera picking her up again there. Another woman handed her a shot glass and she downed it.
‘This is awful. She’s there having a good time until her argument with Lewis, but it doesn’t seem to put her off. I love that we have such good CCTV evidence; I just hate watching it knowing how it’s all going to end.’
Mattie nodded. ‘It makes me feel queasy.’
Browning looked away from the screen at Lucy. ‘She stays in the club for a couple more hours – she spends most of that on the dance floor and at the bar. She leaves at 1.50a.m. on her own. The doorman has to ask her to leave because she’s a bit worse for wear. You can see her wandering down the street from the club until she’s out of sight of the camera.’
‘So she’s heading for her flat, not knowing that her killer is lying in wait for her. Good work, Browning. This is brilliant evidence – we can use it in the interview. What about Lewis? Do you know what time he left the club?’
Browning pulled another disc out of his pocket. ‘This one shows a man who I believe is the same guy she’s arguing with. He’s escorted out of the club after their little spat. He walks off in the opposite direction from where she heads later, though.’
‘That doesn’t matter; he might have taken the long way round. There are a couple of hours between their argument and her leaving.’
Mattie nodded. ‘He’s looking good for this.’
Lucy agreed, but she wasn’t getting her hopes up because there was still the issue of the missing shoes and she didn’t want to put all her eggs into one basket. There was a lot of circumstantial evidence to suggest that Lewis Waite was responsible, but what they really needed was some solid forensic evidence linking him to the body. He’d already trampled the crime scene – would he have done this if he knew that Stacey Green was lying dead where he’d left her? Lucy had a feeling that maybe he would. She tried to ignore the gnawing sensation in the pit of her stomach. Even if Lewis wasn’t the killer, he was a key witness. They needed to trace and interview the friends that Stacey was with last night in the club, as well as the bar staff, doormen and bouncers. Lucy dialled Ellie’s number, wondering how she’d take the news that she had to work late. Ellie didn’t answer so she left her a voicemail.
‘Sweetheart, I’m so sorry, there’s been a bad case come in. I can’t finish in time to pick you up. I’ll make it up to you tomorrow. Love you.’ The custody clock was ticking – they needed to get cracking.
Chapter Eighteen
He drove towards the M6, having arranged to meet a guy at the service station before the M61 turn-off. That family was perfect. It didn’t matter to him what age, race or colour they were. He needed a family of three for the next part of his plan and they fitted the criteria. He’d done his homework well; he had struggled to find a contact for a gun until he’d met seventeen-year-old JD, who was a respected member of one of the local gangs. He’d helped him out of a tight spot and the kid had told him that if he needed anything, he was his man. Of course, JD had been a little shocked when he’d told him he needed a handgun.
‘Man, you don’t need no gun – what you gonna do with it?’
He’d shrugged. ‘Best I don’t tell you.’
JD had looked him up and down. ‘Shit, you serious? You’re not having me on?’
He nodded.
‘Right, well leave it with me. Give me your number and I’ll hook you up with a guy I know from Liverpool.’
He’d passed him a scrap of paper with the number of the pay-as-you-go mobile that he’d bought from Tesco a couple of months ago written on it. The boy had taken it from him, pushing it deep into his pocket.
‘This is between you and me, right? I’d lose my job if they found out I had a handgun. I need your word.’
JD nodded. ‘Too right this is between us – you don’t need to worry about a thing. I owe you, man.’
Pretty soon he’d meet whoever it was that was selling it to him in a corner of the motorway café car park. It was cash on delivery. He’d hired this car for the day so if they took his number plate it wouldn’t lead them back to his address. It also covered him for the ANPR cameras. He knew that there were lots of them dotted along the motorways and the various main roads in and around the county. JD had offered to come with him, but he’d declined. The fewer people knew about his actions, the better. The kid might have hooked him up, but he had no idea what he wanted the gun for.
He parked in the quietest corner of the car park, as far away from the busy service station as he could be. He didn’t intend to go inside, even though he would kill for a coffee and something to eat. There would be too many cameras in the building that would capture his image; if the CCTV footage got passed to the police it wouldn’t be that hard to trace him. He picked up the newspaper from the passenger seat and began to read the latest stories.
He didn’t get to the end of the front page before a black Audi parked next to him. Its almost black, tinted rear windows made it impossible to see who was sitting in the back seat. The driver, who was a good ten years older than JD, nodded at him, and he nodded back. He pushed the button and waited for his window to go down; the driver of the Audi did the same.
‘You the guy JD told me about?’
He nodded. ‘That’s right, I’m the man.’
‘What is it you want?’
