‘You don’t think he can take care of himself?’ Adrian said.

‘I don’t know what he is up against. Doesn’t sound like you do either,’ Abbey said.

She was right about that.

Chapter Forty-Three

Adrian and Imogen were the last ones to the team briefing. Adrian was still stuffing the last of a Belgian bun into his mouth when he walked into the room; Kapoor looked at him disapprovingly and continued talking.

‘We have three hours until we have to release Finn Blackwell. Please tell me you have something we can keep him here on.’

‘We have looked through a lot of the data on the professors’ computers, but there is still loads to go through. So far, he hasn’t told us anything that we didn’t know already. As confused as he is, he has managed to avoid implicating himself,’ Imogen said.

‘We found a few more images of Russ Beacham on social media. We are trying to identify the locations in the photos, because maybe that’s where he will be. People generally tend to hide out in places they already know,’ Adrian said.

‘Do they?’ DCI Kapoor said sarcastically before rolling her eyes.

They had been going through emails and photos all day, trying to tie anything to Finn Blackwell, because all they had at the moment was that he knew Russ and Caitlin. That wasn’t nearly enough to keep him in custody. They had no evidence that he was anything to do with the game, apart from the fact that he had been caught drink-driving and done for a minor drunk and disorderly in the city centre.

‘We’ll keep checking,’ Imogen said.

‘What about the car?’ DCI Kapoor asked.

‘I got in touch with transport,’ Gary began. ‘There was a ticket issued for the Beachams’ car for illegally parking near the Watts’ house on the morning of her death. Making the probability of it being a murder even more likely.’

‘So, he is still in the city most likely,’ Adrian added.

‘Maybe he’s sticking around to take care of Finn Blackwell. Finn seemed genuinely scared of him,’ Imogen said.

‘Did forensics place anyone else at the scene?’ DCI Kapoor asked.

‘Only the grandfather, who contaminated it massively by trying to get her out of the bath and slipping over in there. They processed his clothes and the scene, but there was nothing to indicate anyone else had been there. Water in crime scenes is always a nightmare, as you know. A lot of evidence was destroyed. Nothing we can do about that now though,’ Adrian said.

DI Walsh spoke next. ‘Russ Beacham also has some sealed psychological evaluations from the last twelve months.’

‘His mother never mentioned those,’ Adrian said.

‘I spoke to a teacher at his sixth-form college and she said he was quite isolated during his A levels. Worked hard but didn’t really have any friends. Not particularly outspoken or even that noticeable in any way. He was never really late and always turned up, just wanted to get into uni. She said he was smart but really struggled in exams. He didn’t get the grades he would have got had they been based on his overall performance and not just on the day of exam results,’ DI Walsh said.