Chapter 81

Stacey pressed the refresh button on her email for the tenth time.

The train station had one camera on the front of the building, and Stacey was sure there'd be something of interest. If only they'd send the footage along, she seethed silently.

After giving them a fifteen-minute time slot to search and an explanation of the urgency, she'd expected to receive the footage in a couple of minutes.

It had been almost ten minutes, and she was considering a second call.

‘Nothing at the house,' Penn said, ending the call he was on. ‘An officer is going to wait there. Any ideas on locations?' he asked her.

‘If the killer hasn't taken Leona home, it has to mean they know we're onto them. Somehow, somewhere this week, we've got close. So this one has to make a statement. It has to say something,' Stacey offered.

‘It is absolutely no surprise that your best friend is a profiler,' Penn observed, tapping his keyboard.

‘Yes,' she said in triumph as the footage landed in her inbox.

She clicked on the file which opened onto the road that passed the station. A car pulled up, and Stacey could tell it was a Nissan Juke. She had a great view of the passenger side of the car and the roof. Not a thing of the driver's side.

Before going further, she clicked back to the beginning. Damn, the pull-in angle didn't show any part of the registration number. She continued watching until Leona stepped out onto the pavement. Her head turned to the right as though looking for the taxi she'd booked. Stacey watched as Leona jumped slightly. From the similar reaction of a man walking past, Stacey guessed that the driver of the car had peeped their horn.

Leona's attention was attracted to the car. She leaned down to look through the passenger-side window, obscuring Stacey's view. There was around five seconds of interaction before Leona straightened. The window went up, the boot popped open and Leona lifted her case into the back of the car before coming back around.

There was no doubt in Stacey's mind that the expression on her face was delight.

Leona got into the car, and Stacey's last hope was for a glimpse of the number plate as it pulled away.

‘Aaargh,' she growled as the car moved slowly out of shot but gave no view of the registration.

Although she'd been watching the back of the car, a movement up front caught her eye.

She played it back. Her eyes widened as she saw Leona's head smash against the window.