Hawkes raises his eyebrows at me when Mac and I enter the layout room together. I shrug my shoulders and shake my head in mock despair.
"What've we got?" Mac asks.
"Not much so far," Lindsay begins.
"More precisely, nothing at all," Danny interrupts. "No prints on the cup that weren't yours, Mac. Same for your desk, door, everything. Nothing that can't be accounted for."
"We get anywhere with the actual drug?" I ask.
"Again, nope. Nothing unusual in the composition, not other foreign substances accompanying it. Temazepam's only available legally by prescription, but it's the most common benzodiazepine prescribed, and also's freely available illegally. So at the moment, it's a dead end."
"Maybe you'd better talk us through the file," suggests Hawkes.
"I thought Lindsay did that?" Mac asks.
"She didn't know all the details," Danny points out. "If you start from the beginning, we'll be able to hear all of it, and find which bits she got wrong."
Lindsay sighs audibly. Hawkes clears his throat. Mac coughs and covers his mouth for a second.
"Right," he says. "It was an open and shut case. Jack Berrow stopped at an ATM on his way home and withdrew $500. Our perp, Samuel West, watched him, followed him round the corner, and stabbed him from behind. Then he grabbed the money and took off."
"Definitely him?" I query.
"Yes, there were two witnesses who were looking out of a ground floor window. They called it in and identified West as the attacker from a line-up. Apart from that we had his prints on Berrow's jacket in his blood when he turned him over to get the money. We ran them through AFIS and West popped straight out with priors for drug possession and robbery. Flack picked him up, and the bloody clothes and knife were in plain sight in his apartment."
"So… what's the problem with him as the attacker?"
"That's precisely the point. There isn't one. He did it. Soon as Flack brought him to the precinct he confessed, said he wanted the money to buy drugs. Most of the money was in his pocket, Berrow's blood on it, and fingerprints from both him and Berrow, along with a packet of cocaine, some of which was already in his system."
"Where is he now?"
"In police custody, awaiting trial. No bail set."
"That's it?"
"That's it. Open and shut."
"This West guy," Danny says. "He live with anyone? Family? Girlfriend?"
"No, Flack said he lived alone. He was asked for next-of-kin, but said he didn't have anyone."
A silence spreads through the room, and is interrupted by Mac's cell phone ringing. He glances down at the display, then steps outside to take the call.
Hawkes turns to me. "I thought I said he wasn't to come in today?"
"Hey. You tell him that."
"I did."
"Well, tell him again. He's still not going to listen. Are we really at that much of a dead end?"
"Afraid so. We've been going over all the evidence from the case this morning. Like Mac said, it's wrapped up. All we actually lost were the forms, all of which can be refilled in. This isn't going to affect the outcome of the trial at all."
Mac walks back in. "DB in the park. Danny, you're with me on this one."
I meet Hawkes's pointed look. "Mac, I need Danny here, we still have some things to go over from our last case."
"Fine, Lindsay then."
"Lindsay knows the Berrow case details. She can fill me in on the specifics."
He sighs. "Do I have a choice?"
"Yes, you can stay in the lab. Or you can take Hawkes with you."
"Hawkes, get your coat." He walks out again and Hawkes follows with a wave and a shrug.
Danny laughs. "Well done with the 'don't let him come into work' there, Stell."
"Watch it," I say.
Lindsay has been sitting with her elbows resting on the layout table. Now she looks up. "Why would you steal a case file?" she asks.
I think about it. "Well… I might think that if the case file was gone the prosecution could fall through."
"So to take it for that reason, you'd probably be someone quite close to the killer."
"Yes, I mean, it's a big risk to take. But then you say West didn't have anyone close to him."
"No one that we know of," Danny points out. "He could have not wanted us to find out who was close to him."
"No," Lindsay says. "I processed his apartment. It's the kind of place where the rent's probably lower than a pizza take-out. Almost no personal effects, definitely no sign of a girlfriend. No mail anywhere, including in the trash. This guy was just a junkie on the way down."
"Phone records?" I ask.
"Only a handful of numbers, three of which are different take-out places near his apartment. He didn't seem to have many friends. One of the remaining numbers is flagged in the system as a known drug dealer who's being tracked to find his suppliers, so he's hands-off, not that he'd probably be able to give us anything we don't know. Final number is his landlord. I spoke to him earlier and he says West is always overdue with his rent, and answers his cell more often than his door. That's consistent with the records, as there's only incoming calls from his number, clustered every few weeks, lasting under two minutes each time."
"And according to Montana here, this complete lack of any leads is only 'not much so far'," says Danny, earning himself a glare from Lindsay.
She continues, undaunted. "Why else would you take a case file?"
"Hang on, there's a catch here, isn't there?" She grins at me. "You're asking me why I'd take a case file, rather than that case file?"
"Well, I was thinking that. I mean, there seems to be absolutely no reason why that file would be stolen by anyone, much less why someone would go to those lengths to get it. So what if it wasn't about that particular file?"
"Hold up here," Danny protests. "Someone decides that what they want is a random case file? And then it's not enough to grab one from someone's desk during the middle of the day when loads of people are walking about, but they have to go in late at night and drug the highest-ranking person in the building to take one?" He spreads his hands in front of him. "I don't buy it, Montana."
She shrugs. "I know. But I can't think of anything else."
Continued thanks to those lovely people who've been reviewing! Blue x