CHAPTER TWO

Emma let Sutton into the Rybak house. "How did you go?"

"With what?"Sutton wondered.

"Mum called me about your visit."

Sutton sighed. "Of course she did. Let's just say I'm finding it easier to talk to Dan's dad than I am him at the moment."

Emma nodded. "Well, the rest of us are just through here."

Mads, Char, Justin, Laurel, Jordan and Ethan were waiting in what was becoming their regular conference room. "We were just talking about what's going on with the case,"Laurel explained.

"Did I tell you about Graham getting Thayer a lawyer?"Mads asked.

Sutton nodded. "Does he think it'll make a difference?"

"Guess he wouldn't be doing it otherwise."

"They'll need evidence though,"Ethan pointed out. "To prove that Thayer's not guilty."

"That's not the way it works,"Jordan reminded him.

"The burden of proof is with the prosecution,"Sutton confirmed.

"So what would that mean actually?"Char asked. "I mean, he was caught standing over the body."

Mads hesitated slightly. "I guess what they'd really need to do would be prove that he's the only one that could have been there when Mum was killed."

"Did they take the country club's CCTV?"Justin asked.

"Yeah,"Jordan confirmed. "Thayer was the only one to come in through the main entrance but we don't have every way into the place covered."

"Do you think maybe, just this once, we can leave it up to the police?"Emma wondered.

"We could if the police were talking to us,"Sutton replied. "But Dan's not talking to me at the moment and I'm not sure he's thinking clearly."

"I'll talk to him,"Ethan decided.

"Are you sure?"Emma asked.

"I'm not exactly a Thayer fan. I'm probably the only person he'd listen to."

"Get her into the interview room,"Dan was saying as Ethan arrived at the police station. "We need to get this on record as soon as possible."

"What's going on?"Ethan asked.

Dan grinned broadly. "We've got a witness. Did you know there was a hot dog stand just outside the country club that day?"

Ethan thought for a moment. "I know there's been one there some days, I don't remember that day specifically."

Dan nodded. "The owner's just got back to town and heard what happened. The one exit that's not covered by CCTV, at the side? She was in full view of it the whole time. This could be enough to place Thayer at the scene."

It was a few minutes later that Dan was in the interview room with their witness. "Mrs Davidson, yes? You say you can help us establish Thayer Rybak was the only one to enter the country club at that time?"

The witness, Mrs Davidson, looked confused. "I didn't say that."

It was Dan's turn to look confused. "Then what exactly did you come here to tell us?"

"I saw someone going into the country club by the back door. I didn't get a good look at her but I thought maybe she was robbing the place. I didn't imagine it would be anything like this."

"She?"Dan repeated. "Are you sure of that?"

"I didn't get a good look but I'm pretty sure it was a woman. I even took a photo." Mrs Davidson took out her phone and showed him the image. It showed a woman from behind, with none of her face visible, going through the aforementioned door. "You can see from the time stamp that it was about forty minutes before they found Mrs Caldron's body."

Dan felt as if the bottom had just fallen out of his world.

End of Episode Six