Page 95 of Vengeance is Mine

‘It’s one degree. There is also a layer of frost on your car. You’ve been here longer than half an hour.’

‘So, do I call you DS Holmes now, or DS Marple?’ he said, with a smirk.

‘I’m not getting at you – I’m worried. In the past year, the weight has dropped off you. You hardly eat. You rarely sleep, and you’re in this station day and night. It’s not good for you.’

‘We have a lot on at the moment,’ he said, acknowledging his heaving in-tray.

‘You’re not a one-man police force.’

‘Did you come in here for a reason, Sherlock, or just to see how far you could push me before you ended up assigned to marshalling the next Magpies home match?’

‘Sorry,’ she said, genuinely meaning it. ‘The forensics results are back from the long black hair found at Dominic Griffiths’ house.’

‘That didn’t take long. We usually have to wait ages.’

‘Since the story hit the press, orders have come from on high to get this solved as quickly as possible.’

Terry gave a wry smile. ‘It wouldn’t look good for the Super to have a vigilante killer roaming the streets. What have we got then?’

She opened her notebook. ‘The black hair was twelve inches in length, and it was synthetic.’

‘You mean it wasn’t real hair?’

‘That’s right.’

‘So, a wig or hair extensions, then?’

‘It looks like it.’

‘And I’m guessing no wig was found in the house?’

‘No.’

‘Huh,’ Terry said, sitting back in his chair, a pensive expression on his face.

‘What are you thinking?’

‘Dawn Shepherd had black hair last year.’

‘That would have been dyed, though, wouldn’t it?’ Kyra said. ‘Forensics will have been able to tell the difference between a dyed hair and a plastic one.’

‘What I’m getting at is, she changes her appearance. She had it whipped up into a kind of beehive. Also, she wore a lot more make-up than she does now. She was almost goth-like this time last year.’

‘And in the space of a year, she’s gone from that to shoulder-length dark hair, understated make-up and, well, a conservative dress style.’

‘Exactly. It’s a big change.’

‘So, you think she disguised herself, put on a wig, then went around to her dad’s house and beat him to a pulp before stabbing him?’

Terry thought for a very brief moment. ‘No. I don’t know. It’s possible,’ he waffled.

‘But why wear a disguise? Surely, she would have wanted to gain entry to the house as easily as possible, and with Dominic knowing her, he would have just let her in. There’s no reason for her to change her appearance. Also, she had a key. She had let herself in when she found the body.’

‘Unless she didn’t want anyone else in the street to recognise her. She’s been visiting him on an almost daily basis for the best part of a year. The neighbours will have seen her come and go.’

‘So, you think she deliberately softened her image over the last year and then disguised herself to confuse the neighbours?’

‘It’s a possibility,’ he said, wondering whether it really was.