Free Never Forget by Lisa Cutts Page B

Wells, I think. I’ve got his number in my phone, or just ring the council and ask for him. He’ll tell you,’ said Savage, red in the face. He appeared satisfied with his answer. We were not.
    ‘How did you cut your hand, Gary?’ asked Pierre.
    ‘I caught it on a nail at the top of the stairs,’ answered Gary without a second’s hesitation. He nodded along as he spoke. ‘See here?’ he said, holding out his left hand towards Pierre. ‘There’s a bit of a scar here. You can still see it. I showed it already to that nurse in the cells. She marked it on a piece of paper.’
    I thought Gary was going to laugh, he looked so relieved. It made no difference that when he’d been booked into custody the nurse on duty had marked his injuries on a body map diagram. He still had to explain his hair on a dead body, not his blood dripped on to the floor.
    Wingsy leaned closer to me and said in my ear, ‘Do you think Pierre’s got much more to go before he challenges him on his hair and the knife?’
    I was just about to answer when Pierre explained that the DVD recording the interview was about to run out and it would be a good time for a break.
    ‘We can ask him in a minute,’ I said to Wingsy. ‘If he doesn’t come up here, we’ll go and see him in the cells. See if he needs us to do anything.’
    As soon as all parties had left the interview room, Pierre called my mobile to find out where I was. By the time Nottingham gathered up his notes to leave, Pierre was making his way into the room to see us. He shut the door and sat down in the chair recently occupied by the DCI. Wingsyand I had been busy leafing through the information we had gathered on Savage, his wife, his home and his two vehicles. It hadn’t taken long. We had three documents. The first was his Police National Computer printout showing that he had been arrested once for criminal damage, which was how we had his DNA on file and had been able to match him to the hair found on Holland’s body. Secondly, there was ‘stop check’ information which showed that Savage had been stopped twice late at night in his van, returning from work around the Gatwick area. The checks carried out by patrols had shown that all was in order and he had been allowed to continue on his way home. The final piece of paperwork was a crime report of a burglary reported by his wife four weeks earlier. Some minor personal items including cash had been stolen while the Savages were having dinner at Mrs Savage’s mother’s house.
    ‘At the moment, we have a hair on a dead body. The hair is Savage’s. The body was in a room which Savage said he went into. The hair may have got there innocently.’ Pierre looked from Wingsy to me and back again. As he continued to speak, his eyes rested on the crime report. I’d highlighted the missing property. One of the items was a hairbrush.
    He sighed, avoided eye contact and said, ‘The thing is that the knife you found was covered in blood. Even if the van doors had been locked, it might not be Holland’s blood. Was there anything else that stood out to you about the van or car?’
    ‘Not a thing, Pierre, not a thing,’ I said, shaking my head. ‘Is it looking like we’re gonna have to bail this bloke?’
    ‘It’s not too good at the moment. We’re waiting on Jo Styles’ update but there’s nothing else right now. She’s gonna let us know if the knife was or could have been the murder weapon for Bell or Holland. She was meeting with the pathologist when she left Savage’s.’
    He stood up to go. Wingsy and I did the same. We walked to the Incident Room. The smell of paint was barely detectable.

Chapter 19
    ‘Y ou two,’ said Kim Cotton to Wingsy and me. ‘Need you to go and see someone. It’s Holland’s ex-wife.’ She handed me a sheet of paper with scant details on, turned and stomped off across the Incident Room in search of someone else to patronise.
    ‘I’m warming to her,’ I said to Wingsy.
    ‘Know what you