Кара Хантер - All the Rage

When Mukerjee rings through Quinn puts her on speaker: we all want to hear this.

`˜So, do we have a match?'

The line is crackling a little, but her voice is clear. `˜Yes, we do.'

There's some air-punching, some muted cheers; Gallagher is smiling. Someone claps Quinn on the back as if he waded into the ditch and found that sodding handbag himself.

`˜That's the good news,' continues Mukerjee. `˜But I'm afraid it's not as straightforward as you were hoping.'

The room falls quiet.

Gallagher moves closer to the phone. `˜Nina `“ it's DI Gallagher. Could you explain what you mean?'

`˜I did find some fingerprints from Patsie Webb on the handbag. The trouble is, there was no blood anywhere near those prints. They could have been made at any time.'

And the girls were friends `“ Patsie could easily have handled that bag, even borrowed it. It's not enough. Nothing like enough.

`˜The prints with the traces of blood were only partials,' continues Mukerjee. `˜It won't be good enough to stand up in court.'

Gallagher moves a little closer. `˜But if they're partials for Patsie `“'

The line crackles again. `˜Sorry, I wasn't making myself clear. They are a partial match, just not for Patsie Webb.'

`˜So who `“ for Isabel?'

`˜No `“ we checked hers against ones on the bus ticket. It's not Isabel either.'

Gallagher frowns `“ this isn't making any sense. `˜Then who `“'

`˜Nadine,' says Mukerjee, her voice clearer now. `˜The prints are a partial match for Nadine Appleford.'

* * *

`˜You should be fucking ashamed of yourselves. And if you think you're getting away with this you've got another think coming.'

Denise Webb is so angry she can barely speak without spitting. Everett's had her fair share of self-righteous abuse over the years, but this is up there with the most unpleasant. Patsie is a few yards away, her head down, hair falling about her face. It's impossible to see her expression. She hasn't spoken since they left the interview room.

`˜Keeping us here for hours on end,' says Denise, `˜accusing a fifteen-year-old girl of something so `“ so `“ it's disgusting , that's what it is.'

The desk sergeant hands Everett the bail paperwork for Denise Webb to sign. It's clear from his face that he's keeping well out of it. Ev's on her own on this one.

`˜I'm taking my daughter home now, Constable, or whatever your damn title is. But this isn't the end of it. Not by a long way.'

No, thinks Everett, as she watches the woman put her arm round her daughter and guide her to the door. I think you're dead right about that.

* * *

Gallagher pushes open the incident-room door and sits down heavily on the nearest chair. She's just been briefing Harrison. I don't need to ask how it went: I've seen the look on her face too many times before `“ in my own mirror.

`˜Someone please explain to me how Nadine Appleford's prints got on that handbag,' she says wearily, `˜because I am all out of viable explanations.'

Gislingham shakes his head. `˜I don't care what forensics said, Nadine couldn't have killed Sasha `“ not on her own, anyway. She'd have struggled getting that body into the river on her own for a start, apart from anything else. Patsie could've, yes, but Nadine's a good three or four inches shorter.'

`˜Oh, I dunno,' says Quinn, `˜she may be small but she looks pretty sturdy to me `“ and what with the slope of the bank, I reckon she could have just rolled it down.'

`˜That it was a fifteen-year-old girl,' says Somer curtly.

`˜And Nadine is fifteen too,' replies Gislingham. `˜And why would she attack Sasha anyway? They didn't even know each other.'

Baxter looks up. `˜Actually, they might. I just checked. They were in the same year at Summertown High.'

Silence. More silence.

`˜Oh fuck,' says Gallagher.

`˜So that's it,' sighs Gislingham. `˜ That's what we missed.'

`˜Don't blame yourself,' says Gallagher quickly. `˜We all missed it. It's been right under our noses all this time. We just never thought to ask.'

`˜But even if they knew each other,' says Somer, `˜they weren't friends . They can't have been. I went through Sasha's room, remember. There were loads of pictures of her and her mates, but Nadine wasn't in any of them. Not a single one. Why would Nadine kill someone she barely even knew?'

Everett shrugs. `˜Perhaps that's the whole point. Sasha had everything Nadine doesn't `“ friends, looks `“'

`˜What `“ seriously ?' says Quinn.

Ev shakes her head. `˜You were clearly never a teenage girl.'

Baxter wasn't either, but he's starting to buy the theory. `˜I'm with Ev. And remember what Gow said `“ that it was almost certainly the same person who attacked both girls? We've got evidence linking Nadine to the assault on her sister, so doesn't she have to be the number-one suspect for Sasha too?'

`˜So she's a psychopath?' says Somer. `˜A serial predator who suddenly, out of the blue, for no apparent reason, brutalizes one girl and kills another, all in the space of a single week? Not to mention doing everything she possibly can to make those assaults look like the work of a sexual predator `“ I just don't think Nadine's that devious `“'

`˜But Patsie is,' I say quietly.

Gallagher holds up her hands. `˜Look, let's remember the prints were only partials. We might be barking up completely the wrong tree `“ it might have nothing to do with Nadine at all. I, for one, am clinging to that hope, however flimsy it feels right now.'

Asante turns to her. `˜So what do we do now?'

Gallagher gets slowly to her feet. `˜There's only one thing we can do. But we have a lot of work to do first.'

* * *

It's gone 10.00. Gallagher and I are the only ones left in the incident room. After the tasks for tomorrow were divvied up she sent the whole team home, and frankly, I'd have done exactly the same. Adrenaline is a strange thing `“ it can keep you going for as long as you have no choice, but the minute that burning need disappears you go over an abyss. We were all flat-lining this evening. No one was thinking straight.

Gallagher drains another cup of coffee. I keep reminding her about her kids, and she keeps reminding me about my wife, but somehow or other we're both still here.

* * *

The following morning is bright and clear, with a slicing wind and thin high cloud.

They'd arranged to meet on-site rather than at the station, and when Gislingham arrives Quinn is already waiting for him in the car park.

`˜They obviously got the message,' he says as Gis joins him. `˜The secretary has been out here already, telling me she will personally turn my car into a pumpkin if I even think about parking in the deputy head's space.'

But Gis is in no mood for Quinn's brand of humour. `˜Let's just get this over with,' he says.

* * *

I'm in reception when Nadine and her mother arrive, though neither acknowledges me. But it's quite possible they simply don't remember. Nadine is in jeans and a jumper, so her mother evidently doesn't expect her to be going anywhere near school today. She's pulling at the jumper, twisting the wool in her fingers and starting at every sudden sound, as if she hasn't slept in days. Whatever this girl did `“ or didn't `“ do, she's carrying something too heavy for her to bear.

Ten minutes later Bryan Gow joins the rest of us in the room next to Interview One. He looks as animated as I've ever seen him. He even has a tape recorder. Perhaps he feels a case study coming on.