The woman sighed and started to cry. Her solicitor passed her some tissues and she took a drink of water. ‘It was Jordan’s idea,’ she said. ‘He’d seen the pictures on the news of this woman in the cloak and reckoned if we robbed some places it would get blamed on whoever that was. I’ve had the outfit for ages because of this fancy dress thing a few years back but not worn it.’

‘Didn’t it cross your mind that, if you got caught first, those more serious crimes would be blamed on you?’

The woman continued to dry her eyes and shook her head. ‘I didn’t think of it like that. The first one went so well we didn’t think we’d get caught. We thought it would be easy money.’

It was pretty much what Jessica suspected. ‘So, just to be clear, are you saying the reason you went in with a knife was because you wanted us to think you were the same person that has been leaving hands?’

‘Yes.’

‘And is that why Jordan did the initial scouting instead of committing the actual robberies?’

‘Yes.’

Erica’s story was actually remarkably similar to her boyfriend’s with the one key difference that she blamed him for planning the robberies, while he insisted it was her idea. Jessica didn’t believe either of them was involved in the main case she was working on but a warrant had been granted for a search team to raid their house. Erica said the cash left over from the first theft was in a box under their bed, which seemed to back up the point neither of them were the sharpest criminals going. The car they had used had also been impounded as evidence after being found around the corner from the second scene.

In terms of the robberies, Jessica had worked on enough cases to know things should be fairly straightforward. Jordan’s record would probably be enough to get him remanded, while Erica was likely to get the same treatment because she used a knife. The level of planning, albeit a little unscientific, would go against them too and Jessica thought the pair would spend the months leading up to their Crown Court date behind bars despite their confession.

Things would still need to be checked and compared to her main case. Their house and car were being searched while some officers had already begun to see if there was a link from either of them to the missing victims. None of the hands offered any forensic clues as to who left them, so the two suspects’ DNA wouldn’t be any use from that point of view – but they did at least now have time.

With a regular suspect, they would only have the usual period of questioning before they had to charge or release, which was the problem they had run into when January was in custody. Because the pair were likely to be remanded, if anything unexpected did turn up when they were trying to link them to the victims, they would at least know where the duo were.

Jessica charged Erica with robbery and the woman was led back to the cells. The two would be appearing in the magistrates’ court the following morning.

She went back through to the main area and found Dave and Izzy, who had been tasked with looking into the pair’s backgrounds. ‘Have you found anything to link them to the hands?’ Jessica asked after they found a quiet corner.

The two constables shook their heads almost in unison and it was Izzy who spoke. ‘Nope, neither of them are on our college-leavers’ list and they’re both too old anyway. Erica was brought up out of the area and seemingly only moved here a couple of years ago. Jordan comes from around here but we’ve not got anything that says he knows any of the victims let alone might have a grievance against them.’

Jessica nodded. ‘I thought we’d probably struggle. There’s no violence on either of their records and they don’t seem the type. To be honest, they’re too stupid.’ The two constables exchanged knowing smiles and Jessica continued. ‘You are going to have to keep working on this for a little while though. Check everything and let’s make it official. I don’t want us to miss something and end up looking like fools but I don’t want to waste days looking into something we know is a blind alley either.’

‘How are you anyway?’ Rowlands asked. ‘It’s been a mad few days.’

Jessica nodded. ‘You’re right about that and, because of you, I’ve got to spend tomorrow morning at a bloody primary school talking about careers. I thought it was older kids until I read the email properly.’

‘Can’t someone else go?’ Izzy asked.

‘Are you volunteering?’

‘No . . .’

‘Jack says it can’t be anyone working on the Christine Johnson case and he wants someone senior. He reckons the super wants it both ways. He doesn’t want any officers taken from the Johnson inquiry but wants us to keep up this community engagement thing. Did you see the coverage the fete got in the paper the other day? They gave that more space than when we were trying to get them interested in the severed hands.’

‘I didn’t see you in any of the pictures,’ Dave said.

‘Yeah, sod that. Because I wasn’t in uniform the photographer didn’t realise I was involved. I went and hid next to some of the parents as he snapped away.’

The two constables laughed in unison. ‘Do you have to give a speech tomorrow?’ Izzy asked.

Jessica realised she had no idea. ‘I bloody hope not.’

Their conversation was interrupted by a young out-of-breath constable in uniform arriving and tapping Jessica on the shoulder. ‘Are you all right?’ Jessica asked.

‘Yeah, they want you back. It’s something to do with the Erica Tomlinson woman.’

‘Where is she?’

‘One of the interview rooms. She’s been asking for you but we weren’t sure where you were.’

Jessica quickly retraced her steps and was surprised to see Cole sitting in the interview room as she entered. She looked quizzically at him but he simply nodded towards Erica, who was sitting next to her solicitor on the opposite side of the table.

‘I hear you’ve been asking for me?’ Jessica said.

‘Yeah, you were saying earlier about being able to stay out of prison for cooperating and that?’

Jessica pursed her lips. ‘Sort of, I said you might get a lesser sentence if you confessed and gave us the details. It wouldn’t be up to us – you still robbed two places carrying a knife and that means you should go to custody.’

‘What if I had information?’

‘It depends what it was about.’

The woman looked nervously to her solicitor then back at Jessica. ‘What if I told you who arranged for that politician’s missus to go missing?’

22

One of the first rules of interviewing suspects was to give nothing away but, if it had been a game of poker, Jessica knew full well the whole room would know she had a flush. She wheeled around to face Cole, who had barely suppressed his surprise either.

‘Sorry, can you repeat that?’ Jessica asked.

‘I know who sorted it for the politician’s wife to disappear. I dunno if she’s dead but I know who paid for it.’

‘How do you know this?’

‘I just know people. You hear them talking.’

Jessica was trying to stay calm. ‘Who did you hear talking?’

‘I’m not telling you that.’

‘Okay, so what do you know? Do you know where she is?’

Erica continued to stare at the table. ‘No, I don’t know any of that. I don’t know who took her either but I know who arranged it and why.’

‘Do you have evidence or is it just something you’ve heard?’

‘Something I heard – but the person won’t be wrong.’

Cole leant forward and looked at Erica’s solicitor. ‘We’re going to need a few minutes.’ The two officers left the room, shutting the heavy door behind them and crossing into a nearby room they used for witnesses. It was stifling as they walked across the threshold. The air-conditioning was still not working and, although fans were cooling the interview room, the room they had gone into had none of that.