When the laughter had died down, Bob Anderson asked, “Where does that leave us?”
“I’ve had his place searched.”
The door to the incident room opened and a couple of the local Bramfield PCs entered.
“Talk of the devil,” said Gardener.
One of them spoke directly with Cragg. “Telephone for you, sir. Female, said it was urgent.”
“Me?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What does she want?”
“Don’t know but she said she would only speak to you.”
Cragg shuffled off.
Gardener noticed one of the officers had a me
tal box under his arm.
“What’s in there?”
“Some stuff we picked up from Manny’s place. He’d definitely been in that house and on the night in question. We found a pair of Vans trainers.”
“There’s no way he can afford them,” said Reilly.
“We cross referenced them to a list that Robbie Carter gave us, sir. There were a number of other items on the list, CDs, DVDs, that sort of stuff.”
“You’d have thought he’d gotten rid of them by now,” said Rawson.
“He has,” replied the PC. “Most of them, anyway.”
“And the rest of the stuff is in the box?” Gardener asked.
“No.” He put the box on the table and opened it. “We had to pick the lock. This is full of cameras.”
“Cameras?” said Reilly, approaching the table. “What the hell does he want with cameras? And look at the state of them.”
Gardener poked one or two of them around with a pen. “How old are these?”
Benson came forward. “Older than me. My dad has a collection of old cameras, and they look like this lot.”
“Is there anything on them?” Gardener asked.
“We haven’t checked yet. Thought we’d come here first, they’re just so out of place.”
“To be honest,” replied Gardener, “they don’t really fit into place with anyone connected to this case, but let’s have them opened and any film inside developed. You just never know.”
The two constables nodded and retreated to the back of the room, taking a seat. Gardener added it to the whiteboard.
“Okay, gentlemen, I think that just about wraps our meeting up. You all have your actions so I’d like you all back in here tomorrow lunchtime: though some of us will probably be here all night.”
“If you are, we are,” said Rawson.
The team nodded in agreement, immediately reaching for their mobiles. It was a proud moment for Gardener.