Within the Shadows by J.D MCG (book recommendations .TXT) 📗

'So, her husband comes back from work and finds her dead on the kitchen floor. Neighbours heard shouting earlier that morning between the pair. Do we have a time of death on our victim yet?' Jacob asked her.

'They suspect she died around 9 am. We need to ask Mr Roberts what time he left for work this morning,' she replied, still pinning information to the board.

Jacob continued writing things on a sheet of paper. Their list of questions was growing, even though they both felt this was going to be an easy case to close.

'What does Mr Roberts do for work?' Ally asked Jacob.

'He's a manager in the car industry or something along those lines.'

'He mentioned a stalker,' she continued. 'We need to ask him more about that. Description, build, stuff like that.'

'Do you think he could have just been making that up, to help with his innocence?'

'Maybe, but we still need to get as much information as possible,' she replied.

'Has his lawyer arrived yet?' he asked.

'Yes, he's currently in the interview room with Mr Roberts.'

Jacob stopped what he was doing for a moment, realising he'd totally forgotten about Barnes the past couple of hours. Barnes had been on his mind the last couple of days. His disappearance hit Jacob hard, especially after the death of his father.

'Ally, we've totally forgotten about Barnes,' he said. 'He's out there somewhere waiting for us to find him, and here we are, pushing his case to one side.'

'It's not like that, Jacob. We haven't forgotten about him, we just have no new leads. As hard as it sounds, we have to continue our jobs otherwise when the time comes, we'll never have the resources to find him,' she tried her best to comfort him, knowing full well, it wasn't working. 'Officers are on full alert, looking for anyone matching Lily and Barnes' descriptions.'

'I know. I just feel incredibly guilty.'

'I know what you mean. I do too.'

'I've got my dad's Will reading tomorrow,' he informed her. 'It's just been a hard couple of months.'

Ally sat beside him and placed her arm around him, pulling him into a hug. The pair of them sat there for a moment, embracing one another. Neither of them wanted to pull away. Jacob felt warmth and happiness from Ally, but every time anything happy flew into his mind, the memory of Lily came flooding back, making it harder for him to get close to anyone.

Jacob pulled away first. His eyes gazed into Ally's. She replied the gaze and her face gradually leaned in closer to his. Their lips were moments away from touching. Ally's eyelids slowly began to close.

Jacob jumped off his seat and grabbed his notes, alerting Ally that he'd moved further away from her. She opened her eyes to see Jacob standing on the other side of the room.

'I think it's time we interviewed Mr Roberts,' he told her.

Ally, all flustered, replied, 'Okay. Let's do this.'

The pair of them left the briefing room and continued their way towards where Jack was being held. Ally didn't know what to say to him. She felt extremely embarrassed about what had just happened. She didn't understand, thinking Jacob felt the same way about her as she did about him.

Jacob opened the door to see Mr Roberts sat next to his solicitor, who he recognised. He remembered Mr Ballard from when they had Alex Baker in custody.

'Mr Ballard,' Jacob held out his hand. 'Nice to see you again, despite the circumstances.'

Simon reached for Jacob's hand and engaged in a handshake. 'Nice to see you too, DS Wright.'

Ally placed a tape inside the recording machine and waited for the loud beep to end before speaking.

'This is Detective Inspector Ally Miller, with Detective Sergeant Jacob Wright on January 3rd at 9.36 pm, interviewing Jack Roberts on the death of Charlotte Roberts. His lawyer, Simon Ballard, is present,' she introduced for the tape. 'Mr Roberts, can you run us through your actions for today?'

'What do you mean by that?' he asked.

'We need an account of your day, from the moment you woke up to the moment we arrived,' Ally answered.

'Well, I woke up around 8, went to the kitchen and boiled the kettle...' He paused.

'And?' Ally noticed he'd zoned out.

Jack's eyes felt as if they had gone elsewhere. His blank expression made Ally, Jacob and even Simon feel scared. It was as if he'd gone somewhere else within his mind. After a few seconds, Jack snapped back to reality.

'I just remember having this excruciating headache. I can't really remember anything after that,' he explained. 'Though I do remember being at work but I can't figure out how I managed to get there.'

His eyes rocked from side to side. His forehead began to dribble with sweat. Jacob noticed how quickly Jack's behaviour had changed.

'Are you okay?' he asked Jack.

Jack didn't answer. He started to pant, gasping for breath. Jack lifted his head and gazed towards the ceiling with his mouth wide open, breathing as hard as he could. He felt as if he was losing air and not being able to breathe.

Jacob turned to Ally, she glanced back at him. She knew something wasn't right.

'Mr Roberts, are you okay? What's wrong?' she asked.

Jack again said nothing.

'We need to get someone in here,' Jacob informed Ally.

But then Jack stopped gasping and panting. He returned his head to look at them. Jacob and Ally were confused about what had just happened. So was Simon. Jack wiped the sweat from his forehead and interlocked his fingers on both his hands, placing them on the table in front of him.

'Are you okay, Jack?' Simon asked him.

'Yes, I'm fine,' he replied calmly.

'Are you sure?' Ally continued to ask. 'You