53. Look Real Close

Back at Brampton’s office Kathy went straight for the album she’d been thinking about, yanked it from the banker’s box and flipped pages recklessly until she found the one she was after. She slowed down and pulled it carefully from its sleeve.

“Can you scan this? Preview it on the screen first so I can tell you the exact area to focus on.”

Brampton raised his eyebrows and watched her pacing. He quite liked it when she told him what to do. He wondered was that a bad thing? He slipped the photo onto the scanning bed and waited until it appeared on his screen. Kathy leaned in close and peered at the picture. He stepped back, but not very far, and leaned over her shoulder to look. It was Catrina on the beach with a man with long sun-bleached hair. It was one of the pictures Grant had taken with a telephoto lens. The man was in profile, but his face was not clear.

“Can you close in on their heads please and drop it into Photoshop.”

Brampton did as he was told and the two heads appeared on the screen. Kathy took the mouse and roughly outlined the long fair hair, cutting it short. She added a moustache and full beard. Then she coloured it all black. Brampton watched and his eyes widened.

“Son of a bitch!”

It was a quick, rough job, but they both saw it. Kathy turned to him, surprised he was so close. She didn’t pull back but looked up into his eyes and he said what she was thinking. “That’s a young Ken Rivers!”

“Oh my God, Sandy, where’s the other picture? The one with the man holding her in the cottage.”

He flipped the pages in the album she’d pulled out, didn’t find what he was looking for, went back to the banker’s box and lifted the album they had examined last. He laid it open on his desk and flipped pages. There it was. Another shot taken with a long lens, through the window of the Channel Lane Point cottage. He scanned it. They stared at it for a moment.

Kathy grabbed the mouse and traced around Shaye’s head and shoulders, blew it up and enhanced it, filling in pixels to give a solid picture.

“The hand on her neck, it’s blurred but it looks too big. Could that be a deerskin glove? Bloody hell, could this be the moment she was stabbed?”

Brampton saved the cropped image then reverted to the full-length shot. The person holding her had shoulder-length, sun bleached hair. Bleached being the operative word, he thought.

“We need to talk to Ken Rivers,” Kathy was saying. “But we’ve shared so much with him, I don’t want to spook him. Let me phone and see if he’s at the University. I can ask to drop by and see him tonight.”

She took out her phone and dialled his number. She listened to it ring and eventually got the message that he wasn’t in, please leave your name, number and a brief message.

Her message was short and, she hoped, casual. “Hey Ken, it’s Kathy. I have another question about the history of the dagger. Can I drop round tomorrow morning, perhaps you can help me understand some things? It’s Kathy Chatsworth,” she said again and grimaced at Brampton. He made a dismissive gesture and mouthed, it’s okay. She took a breath. “Umm, it’s Wednesday and the time is 10:56 a.m. Byee!”

Brampton was frowning. “Maybe I should go with you.”

“Nope,” she said firmly. “Thank you, but it’s better if I go alone. I’ll find out a lot more. He thinks I’m just interested, he knows you’re a cop.”

He looked hard at her, then nodded and turned back to the banker’s box. “Let’s go through the stuff we looked at yesterday. We might see more of good old Ken now we know he was there.”

For the next 40 minutes they leafed through albums. The fair-haired man could be seen in pictures of Catrina, sometimes barely in the frame, sometimes in the distance, sometimes close, never a full shot of his face. Both were now sure it was Rivers with a blond, shoulder-length do.

“He had a thing with Catrina. We know he was involved with Shaye, Madeline said they were flirting at the Stormont mansion. Oh Sandy, he could be our guy. But he’s smart. If he thinks we’re onto him ...”

He threw caution to the wind. He grabbed her arms, looked hard into her eyes. “You can go, but be careful. I can be right outside.” She shook her head, and he shook her gently. “You’re not doing this alone.”

***

Using speed dial Brampton called Kathy. He’d had a call from a panicked Gordon Stormont and when she picked up he got straight to the point.

“Just had a call from Gordon. The dagger and gloves are missing from the box. He’s only just had them returned to him. Did you find Ken?”

“He’s not at the University, but I think I know where he is. He disappeared yesterday and nobody has heard from him. He missed his morning class and he’s never missed one before, ever. I take it the gloves and dagger went missing early this morning?

“They were there last night. Get this, Gordon said Ken came by last, he was agitated. He asked to see the dagger, they talked about what’s happened, they shared a glass of Scotch but then Rivers left in a hurry.”

“I think I know where he is,” said Kathy. “I’m going there now. You’d better come too. Give me a head start, but hang back. I’ll talk to him. Wait for my call.”

She explained to him where she thought Dr. Ken Rivers would be and why. She was sure he had the dagger and gloves. She was sure he wouldn’t hurt her. Before Brampton could object she hung up and ran to her car.

She punched an address into the GPS, the journey time was half an hour. She was going to Channel Lane Point.