Deadly Secrets (Detective Erika Foster #6)(85)

Erika then went back to the CCTV footage taken from the school opposite Marissa Lewis’s house on the night she was killed. She watched as Taro Williams arrived at the house ahead of Marissa. The figure dressed in black, wearing a gas mask, walked into shot by the gate, moving carefully and purposefully along in the snow, almost staggering against the slippery surface. He reached the front gate and looked through into the front garden, and up at the house. Then he moved into the alleyway beside the house, to wait in the shadows.

She glanced down at the attached notes with the time stamp, and she ran the footage forward. Marissa appeared at the gate. She was such a beautiful girl, thought Erika, as she watched her move gracefully in her long coat, with her vanity case hooked over her arm. Marissa opened the gate and went through, vanishing in the shadows of the front garden. Ten seconds later, the figure in black, wearing the gas mask, moved out of the shadows in the alleyway and approached the gate, carrying a long knife.

‘There you are, Taro,’ murmured Erika. On the screen, he moved through the front gate and was swallowed up by the darkness.

Erika peered at the footage and felt panic rise in her chest. She ran it back to when the figure in the gas mask reached the gate post, and played it again, and then again. With shaking hands she went back to the footage from the third custody interview with Taro Williams, when Peterson led him into the interview room. She paused it, and compared it with the figure standing by the gate post. She picked up her phone and called Melanie.

‘You need to get up here, now,’ she said.





Sixty-Six





‘How tall is Taro Williams?’ asked Erika. Melanie was sitting beside her, as she played back the CCTV footage from outside Marissa’s house on Christmas Eve.

‘I don’t know. He’s tall …’ Melanie started.

‘He’s six foot four, or 193 cm,’ said Erika, holding up the report from the custody suite when Taro had been arrested and brought to the station. ‘Look at the footage again.’ She dragged the time stamp underneath the video window to just before Marissa Lewis appeared in shot, arriving back at her house. Erika paused the video as she reached the gate post. ‘Marissa Lewis was five foot two, that’s about 157 cm. You can see she is only a little taller than the gate post.’

‘Okay,’ said Melanie, sounding uneasy at where this was going. Erika took a small sticker and where the video was paused, she placed the sticker so it touched the top of Marissa’s head. ‘OK, moving the CCTV footage on,’ said Erika. ‘Bearing in mind the marker on the screen…’ The figure in the gas mask came moving through the snow with difficulty, head bent down. Erika paused the video when he reached gate post. ‘You can see here that the person in the gas mask…’

‘Taro Williams,’ insisted Melanie.

‘The person in the gas mask is only fractionally taller than Marissa.’ She placed another sticker on the screen, which was only slightly higher than the first. ‘Taro Williams is thirty-five centimetres taller than Marissa Lewis. That person in the gas mask is not Taro Williams. Unless he’s the incredible shrinking man.’ Melanie leaned in and ran the footage back and then forward, her face clouding over. ‘We have two people here to compare against one fixed object, the gate post,’ said Erika.

‘Shit.’

‘And this would be leapt on by the defence team. I’ve seen cases where it’s come down to a height difference on CCTV of a few centimetres. They would ask for the footage to be examined, and they would apply more rigorous tests than a couple of stickers on the screen.’

‘Fuck!’ said Melanie, slamming her hand down on the desk. ‘Our case is screwed. We have no case.’

‘Yes, we do have a case!’ said Erika. ‘Taro Williams assaulted five people, and we can link him with DNA, but I’m more concerned as to who the hell killed Marissa wearing the gas mask. It’s not Taro Williams.’





Sixty-Seven





Early next morning, Erika pulled up outside Moss’s house in Ladywell. She was going to get out, but Moss appeared at the gate and got in the car.

‘Morning. It’s good to see you’re in one piece,’ she said, giving Moss an unexpected hug.

‘Oh, you know me. I don’t fall down, I bounce,’ Moss said, her cheeks flushing red. Erika started the engine, and they rode in silence for a minute. She gave Moss a sideways glance. Her silence was unusual. She was always upbeat and chatty.

‘Are you crying?’ asked Erika.

‘No,’ said Moss, wiping tears away angrily.

‘It’s too early for allergies.’

‘I missed the height thing on the CCTV. It’s such a rookie mistake. I’m fucking embarrassed…’

‘Whose fault is it?’

‘Mine.’

Erika nodded.

‘You win brownie points for taking responsibility.

I’d be annoyed if you tried to blame someone else.’

‘Not my style, Boss.’

‘I know.’

‘When we caught Taro Williams we went into evidence gathering mode. Most of the team was re-assigned so I lost manpower. Again, that’s not an excuse. I’m not cut out to be SIO. I’ve realised I prefer playing second fiddle.’