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Back The Lucky Eight Save as PDF
Chapters (64)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Prologue
  4. Five Years Later
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-one
  26. Twenty-two
  27. Twenty-three
  28. Twenty-four
  29. Twenty-five
  30. Twenty-six
  31. Twenty-seven
  32. Twenty-eight
  33. Twenty-nine
  34. Thirty
  35. Thirty-one
  36. Thirty-two
  37. Thirty-three
  38. Thirty-four
  39. Thirty-five
  40. Thirty-six
  41. Thirty-seven
  42. Thirty-eight
  43. Thirty-nine
  44. Forty
  45. Forty-one
  46. Forty-two
  47. Forty-three
  48. Forty-four
  49. Forty-five
  50. Forty-six
  51. Forty-seven
  52. Forty-eight
  53. Forty-nine
  54. Fifty
  55. Fifty-one
  56. Fifty-two
  57. Fifty-three
  58. Fifty-four
  59. Fifty-five
  60. Epilogue
  61. Acknowledgements
  62. Canelo Crime
  63. About the Author
  64. Also by Sheila Bugler

She’d sent a message out yesterday afternoon, telling everyone working on the investigation to be ready with their updates for the morning briefing. At eight o’clock, she was standing at the front of the Major Incident Room, facing everyone who’d been brought in to assist with the case. This included a number of detectives, the uniformed officers responsible for different parts of the investigation – house to house (H2H), exhibits, family liaison, disclosure, interviews, HOLMES, and the Intelligence Development Officer (IDO), a selection of uniformed officers and PCSOs.

Rachel started the meeting by giving a summary of where they’d got to so far on the joint murder investigations.

‘For now, London is still leading on Tara Coleman’s murder. We’re working on the assumption there’s a link between the two murders. But until we know this for certain, we need to consider all other possibilities as well.’

She didn’t mention her frustration at having to liaise with another force. As far as she was concerned, the two murders were clearly connected and it made sense for them to be part of a single investigation, led by East Sussex. Unfortunately, her attempts to take control had got her nowhere so far. Her only hope was that Sharon might pull some strings to make it happen. But if her meeting with Sharon later this morning didn’t go well, there was every chance Rachel would be taken off the investigation entirely.

She pointed at the timeline on the interactive board.

‘Which is why, for now, I’m including key elements of Tara’s murder here. Ade is liaising closely with our colleagues in London, and we’ve agreed to share as much information as we can with each other. Unfortunately for us, Tara had a party at her apartment two weeks ago. Most of the people who were at the villa were also at that party. That means their DNA will have already been in the apartment, which buggers up the investigation into Tara’s killing. However, there is something we can work with. Most of you will remember a few strands of hair were found on Nick Gilbert’s jacket. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get any DNA from these. However, several strands of hair were also found on Tara’s body. One of these has the root attached, so it’s suitable for nuclear DNA testing. The hair is long, so it probably belongs to a woman. And we know the woman isn’t Tara, because the hair is too long to be hers. Of course, we won’t know until it’s been tested.’

A hand shot up from the back of the room. Sam Latimer.

‘Sam?’

‘If the hair isn’t Tara’s, does this mean our killer’s a woman?’