‘And it wasn’t in her jacket, as she hung that up as soon as she got in the house. Did she have a handbag with her?’
‘No, but she did have a laptop bag. We tested it in case the gun had been inside it.’
‘Can you bring that up on your tablet, Tilly?’ Poe asked.
Bradshaw did.
It was black and thin with a faux-leather handle. It had zipped pockets and a neoprene shockproof interior.
‘Let’s see what she had in it,’ Poe said.
The photograph had been taken on a white forensic table. The contents were unremarkable. A bunch of keys, memory sticks, charging cable, the bag’s unused shoulder strap. A small makeup bag. The laptop itself; a rose-coloured MacBook Air.
‘OK,’ Poe said. ‘She would have used that big pocket for the stuff she didn’t need access to all the time, like the cables and the shoulder strap, and the smaller one for her phone, her keys, probably the makeup bag.’
‘So she reached into herbagfor her phone, not her back pocket,’ Lee said.
Poe nodded.
‘Let’s do this again,’ he said. ‘But this time we’ll give you something to carry. You got anything we can use, Tilly?’
‘I have a laptop case, Poe. It’s not exactly the same size, but it’s a similar design.’
‘Excellent. And we need to fill the phone pocket with the same things she had in hers.’
Bradshaw donated her keys. Poe donated his phone; Lee didn’t want her screen scratched and Poe’s looked like he stored his in gravel. They used Bradshaw’s pencil case as a makeup bag.
‘From the top,’ Poe said.
‘You’ve been dying to say that, haven’t you?’ Lee said.
‘Just call me John Sturges.’
‘Who?’ Bradshaw and Lee said together.
‘Bad Day at Black Rock?The Great Escape?Ice Station Zebra?’
They looked at each other in confusion. Lee shrugged. ‘I’ve heard ofThe Great Escape,’ she said.
‘I am very disappointed in both of you,’ Poe said.