Free DS Jessica Daniel series: Locked In/Vigilante/The Woman in Black - Books 1-3 by Kerry Wilkinson

been able to verify, there aren’t
any gaps long enough for him to have come up here and been able to return again.’
    Jessica looked at Cole and raised her eyebrows. He took the hint and picked up the story. ‘James does at least have a set of keys which he showed to our colleagues down south but he
insists they are kept with his other keys and are always on his person or somewhere nearby. Eric Christensen, on the other hand, says he gave his set back to his wife when he moved out. We
don’t know if this is true but his alibis for the past few days certainly do check out.’
    He looked back to Jessica, who turned again to face the floor and spoke. ‘Essentially, with the lab teams not coming up with anything and the only family members we know of unlikely to be
involved, we don’t have an awful lot to go on. We’re not even sure how the killer got in and out, let alone who it was. We’ve examined all the usual things and know there is no
basement, while the attic is full of junk. There was certainly no one hiding up there waiting for us to clear out.’
    ‘Can you cross over from the attached property?’ someone asked from the floor.
    ‘No, good thinking though. It is semi-detached but the brickwork goes all the way up to the top. It was one of the last things we checked.’
    Jessica asked the assembled officers if anyone had any suggestions for how someone could have managed it. One constable got a laugh by putting forward the name of a popular TV magician, with a
sensible suggestion to look at the previous owners. It had already been established the Christensens had lived in the place for just over five years but theoretically the previous owners might have
kept a key. It seemed unlikely but it was something that should be formally ruled out.
    ‘Did the door-to-door inquiries come up with anything?’ one of the constables asked.
    Jessica and Cole snorted at the same time. ‘Nope,’ Jessica said while Cole expanded. ‘The best we got was one neighbour at the other end of the street who thinks they saw the
same person walk past their house three or four times in a short period. She was a little elderly and it could be the postman for all we know. Her description was fairly bland and didn’t
really give us too much but they are going to work with the profilers today to get something onto the evening news. It does seem a long shot though.’
    Someone made a crack that any picture without a gormless grin being on the front of tomorrow’s papers would be an improvement. Jessica made a mental note so she could give the joker
something tedious to do when the jobs were given out. She had read the witness’s description and doubted there was anything in it but thought it perfectly summed up Cole himself, given the
normality of it.
    Cole continued. ‘We’ve set up a phone line for people to call in with information but we haven’t had anything yet, despite the media coverage.’
    Neither the inspector nor Jessica had anything further to add, so Aylesbury told everyone there was going to be a press conference in the station at three in the afternoon and pressed the point
they should all look busy. He sent them on their way with a slightly cheesy attempt at inspiring them into action. It was probably better than what Jessica could have managed, so she was grateful
for it.
    As the floor thinned out with various people being given their jobs for the week, Jessica waved Rowlands over and told him he was coming with her to the locksmith.
    The two of them walked out to the car park at the back of the station. The morning had taken a lot longer than Jessica thought it would but at least things now seemed to be moving. She wished
she had thought to bring a jacket to work, her trouser suit offering little resistance to the chilly spring breeze as they walked towards the car pool. Saturday’s warm weather seemed long
gone and Rowlands must have taken one look at the morning’s grey skies and thought ahead