Had Rozzie’s withdrawal from social media and into herself come at the same time as finding out she was pregnant? Kim wondered.
‘Warren, you seem like a man that appreciates directness. When did you last sleep with Rozzie?’
He coloured instantly. ‘Err…I’m not…I…About seven months ago.’
Kim had seen him do the calculation in his head. She suspected it was to coincide with the beginning of his new relationship. Had there been a crossover?
‘Did you know Rozzie was pregnant?’ Kim asked. She was getting a clearer emotional response firing questions at him.
His jaw dropped open. ‘No…no…I didn’t know.’
‘Would you be prepared to submit a DNA sample so you could be ruled out as the father?’
His response was immediate and definite. ‘No, Officer, I’m sorry but I’m not prepared to do that at all.’
THIRTY-SIX
‘Penn, any clue when Percy is getting here?’ Stacey asked.
‘Dunno – give him a call.’
Percy was a techie from Ridgepoint who sometimes got lumbered with transporting evidence. He hated driving and was never pleasant if you tried to chase him.
‘You ring him. Last time I called he ripped my head off about the traffic on Hagley Road.’
‘Why, you got something urgent?’ Penn asked.
‘Just a timeline I wanna follow. Boss just said Rozzie withdrew a bit six months ago, which I’d already noticed on her social media, but I’ve just been trawling through her YouTube channel and found a few negative remarks around that time, all from someone named Martey.’
‘Like what?’ Penn asked, sitting back.
‘On a video for headbands, which incidentally, you could do with watching, he tells her that she’s cheapening herself with mindless promotion. On another he says she’s wasting her brains and being lazy; on another he calls her a marketing whore. It’s like he’s been getting more aggressive.’
‘Has she responded?’
‘No, and I’m wondering if that’s the reason for his escalation. Has he been trolling her posts for some kind of reaction or acknowledgement? Has he contacted her directly on other platforms?’
‘May not be a he,’ Penn offered. ‘Plenty of women can become fixated with who they perceive as minor celebrities too.’
‘Agreed,’ she sighed, minimising the screens she had open. She felt like she was on a roll with this line of enquiry, but she needed Rozzie’s devices to go deeper, and they were probably stuck in traffic somewhere between here and Ridgepoint.
For now she’d have to turn her attention to checking out family members.
She typed Daryl Hewitt’s name into the PNC system. The Police National Computer held every detail of offenders: name, address, date of birth, characteristics and offences.
She expected no hits but was surprised when his image popped up on screen.
Her eyes widened as she read further down the page.
My, my, Daryl Hewitt you have been a naughty boy, she thought as she reached for the phone.
THIRTY-SEVEN
Daynes Furniture was located at the end of Hagley High Street. The building was made up of two halves – a three-storey block that housed a sizeable showroom on the lower level and two floors of offices above. The rest of the property was single storey, approximately the size of a football pitch, accessed by a double roller shutter.
The cars parked in front of each part of the building appeared to be symbolic: Jags and Mercedes to the left and Fords and Citroens to the right. She wondered if the divide was as obvious inside the building.
‘Fell on his feet here, didn’t he?’ Bryant asked as they all got out of the car.