Tom could see now that he'd been caught in a lie and resigned himself to the truth. "The laptop has all the emails I sent to Danny on it."
Pond took out a folder filled with papers. They were printed copies of Tom's messages to Danny. "These were stored on your server. We'd never seen these emails before because they were under a different email address than the one Danny used on his home computer."
"He sent those through his phone." Tom explained.
"Yes and you're the only person he contacted through that email." Pond flipped through some more papers. "Sorry, you and one other person." Pond scanned their reactions, Tom seemed surprised. It was safe to assume he didn't know about the second contact. "Now, if you could explain, Tom. In some of these emails, Danny sounds a bit upset and tells you to stay away from him. He says he doesn't want to see you again and that you're no longer friends. Why would he say that?"
Tom's face turned red. "Danny said he'd found a new friend." His voice cracked a little. "Someone who understood him better than me."
"Well, you were very angry to hear that, weren't you, Tom." Pond flipped to some highlighted papers. "Says here you wrote, 'I wish you were dead. I could kill you if I wanted to' "
"For God's sake!" Joe cut in. "You don't honestly think...? They're just two kids fighting online."
"Did you have anything at all to do with Danny's death, Tom?" Pond asked softly.
"Oh, come on!" Joe cut in again.
"I'm talking to your son, not you." Pond shot him a look.
"No, I really don't know anything about what happened." Tom replied.
"There are serious consequences for people who lie to me." Pond looked up at Joe.
"That's enough." Joe took his son's hand. "If you're going to talk to my son like that, we need to speak with a solicitor."
Pond nodded for them to leave. "One more thing." She added while they were half way out the door. "I'll need both your shoe sizes."
"Five." Tom replied.
"Ten." Joe scoffed and walked out with his son.
Pond wanted to run to Clara and hold her, to tell her everything would be ok. She had enough evidence but she wanted to soften the blow somehow for Clara. Pond sat and waited for the other shoe to drop. It fell the next day when Clara came running into Pond's office.
"Danny's mobile phone! It's on!" Clara said. "We're tracing the call."
"I'll take care of that." Pond quickly stood up. "Nigel Carter is still on the suspect list, keep your eye on him and see if he's acting suspicious. Whoever is calling is probably the killer or someone trying to distract us." With a heavy heart, Pond stood from her desk and walked past Clara. Slowly she turned around before she walked out the door. "Um.. Oswald... You've done very good work on this case. Well done." Pond quickly walked out after her compliment and left Clara with a bewildered expression in her office.
She wanted to be the one to catch the killer. If Pond believed she'd gone good work on the case, why did it feel like she was pushing her aside to do the busy work? Clara didn't believe Nigel really had anything to do with the case and she was being sent on a wild goose chase. Even so, she did as Pond said and sat outside the Carter house in her police vehicle.
Pond followed the coordinates of the phone that was attempting to call Danny's phone. She walked out into the middle of the field between the church and the Latimer house. Down the road was the Oswald house, standing right where the dot on Pond's GPS was. She walked to the Oswald house and turned the knob on the front door. The door was opened and she walked right into the living room. Tom was sitting watching TV. "Um.. Hello" He said, confused to see Pond.
Pond simply nodded and continued to follow her tracking device. She walked out into the Oswald's backyard and into the shed by the garden. Joe stood staring at the ground with the mobile in his hand. "I'm tired of hiding." He whispered.
Joe was brought back to the station and questioned while Clara Oswald was away. "What was the exact nature of your relationship with Danny Latimer?" Pond interrogated her best friend's husband.
"I was in love with him." Joe replied.
Amelia Pond was trying to hide her disgust. Not that she hadn't worked such cases in the past, but to imagine Clara and the heartbreaking news she would soon be forced to give her. "When did this relationship with Danny start?"
"It lasted 9 months." Joe was holding back tears. "Mark had gotten angry with Danny and gave him a split lip. He ran to our house to see Tom. I patched him up and we started talking. After that he came around a lot to play with Tom but he'd always come around to find me to talk later. He said he could never talk to his dad the way he talked to me. After that, we started to meet just the two of us without Tom. He needed me."
"Where did Clara think you were on those nights?" A burning rage grew behind Pond's eyes. She was trying so hard to maintain her composure. To think Joe hurt his friend in such a way, it made her want to pounce.
"The pub, jogging, cycling.. Whatever lie worked." Joe shrugged.
"Did you touch him." Pond glared.
"No. no.." Joe started to cry. "All I ever did was hold him. He sat on my lap and we hugged each other."
"How long did the hugs last?" Pond asked.
"Why does it matter?" Joe could hardly speak through the tears.
"Every detail matters. I need to understand." Pond raised her voice.
Joe raised his voice to match hers. He yelled, "If I can't even understand it then why should you!?"