Judith leaned forward, focusing her attention on the footage. The camera captured nothing of Alexis’s face. She was wearing that hoodie, of course, with the hood pulled up, a few strands of dark hair poking out, and her face was in shadow. Judith watched the video play three times, taking in every detail she could. Alexis was wearing wide leg jeans, runners, and the hoodie. She was a little shorter than Judith, so maybe around a hundred and seventy centimetres. The clothes were too big for her. Her body was overwhelmed by them. But her body language, as she walked the hall, was purposeful.
Judith leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes, calling up her memories. She saw Alexis Turner again. That hair falling forward over her face. Bitten fingernails. Blue... no, brown eyes. She was almost certain they’d been brown. Claire Holdsworth also had brown eyes.
‘Is she doing that deliberately?’ Arnie asked.
Judith opened her eyes. The video was still playing in a loop. Arnie had abandoned his car park footage. He’d scooted his chair over a little, and his attention was on Judith’s screen.
‘Doing what?’
‘Hiding her face.’
‘Probably.’
‘There’s a camera at the entrance to the station and one in the waiting room. You could check those. See if she took it down on the way in or out.’
Judith waved her hand at the console in a knock-yourself-out gesture. She suppressed a smile. Arnie was a genius at this stuff, and he was easily distracted by anything new. You just had to put it in front of him.
‘What date was this, the twelfth? Around nine forty? Okay.’ Arnie’s hands flew over the keyboard, and the big screen divided into four. One screen continued to show Alexis Turner walking down the corridor to the interview room in a continuous loop. Another showed the waiting room, and the third and fourth showed the outside of the station from two different angles. Arnie rewound the video until he found the right moment, and soon they were watching Alexis approach the building, talk to the cop on the desk, take a seat in the waiting room, and eventually, leave it. None of the cameras caught a direct shot of her face.
‘Why didn’t someone tell her to pull her hoodie down?’ Arnie asked.
‘This might come as a shock to you, Arn, but when a young woman comes to us to report a sexual assault, we’re not usually in a rush to give her directives like that.’
‘Oh. Right.’
‘Thanks for your time, big man,’ Judith stood.
‘Hey Judith?’
‘Hmm?’
‘They went too far, messing with your bike. It was a dick move. I’m glad you got to the bottom of it.’
Judith looked at him blankly.
‘Rocky hasn’t told you?’
She shook her head.
‘Then you should ask him. It was good work. Really good work.’
* * *
She got to Rocky’s office just as he was stepping out. ‘Have you got a minute?’
‘Walk with me,’ he said.
She followed him back to the lift. ‘Arnie told me you figured out who screwed with my bike.’
Rocky gave her a tight, vicious smile. ‘I told you I’d get the little bastard.’
‘Okay, so who was it?’
‘Hold the lift!’
They both turned to see Lucy Phillips hurrying towards them, carrying a file and a tablet in her hands. Rocky blocked the lift door from closing.
‘Rocks, who was it?’