The Killer Inside: A gripping serial killer thriller (Detective Jessica Daniel thriller series Book 1) Read Free

doorway and asked for a rubber glove. She returned to the rack and carefully took the key ring hanging on the left hook. It had two keys on it. ‘What are you…?’ Cole started to say.
    Jessica took the key to the front door, which was still hanging onto the frame after being smashed through by the police. The door was big, heavy and double-glazed, the type that needed the handle pulling up so it would lock. She crouched and wiggled the key into the lock, turning it to make sure it was the right one.
    She then hopped up, striding back past the paper-suited officer and Cole, into the kitchen and through to the back door. It was locked, but the second key on the key ring fitted and turned. Cole was now behind her, next to the door, and spoke more forcefully this time. ‘What are you doing?’
    Jessica paused for a moment before replying. ‘If the front door was smashed in because it was locked, but the key was hanging in the hallway, then how did the killer get in – or back out?’

Chapter Three
    I t didn’t take long to establish that every window in the house was also secured from the inside. There was no sign of forced entry, none of the locks had been damaged, nothing was broken and no obvious items had been stolen. There was still a flat-screen television on the wall and a laptop on a desk in the living room. That didn’t mean other things hadn’t been taken but, with a standard burglary, something like a laptop – light, mobile and worth a few quid – would have been one of the first things out the door. Yvonne Christensen’s mobile phone was on the nightstand next to the bed, as well. It wasn’t top-of-the-range, but some scrote somewhere would have paid a tenner for it.
    Jessica left Cole, who said he was going to have to phone his wife to let her know he wouldn’t be home any time soon. She walked back to the Wilsons’ house, where she asked Rowlands to come outside.
    ‘Why did you dash off like that?’ he asked.
    ‘Mrs Wilson said she couldn’t let herself into the victim’s house. I remembered some keys hanging in the hallway, but the front door was locked because we had to smash it down. I figured that, if her friend down the road didn’t have a key, then how did whoever killed her get in? The back door and windows are all locked, too.’
    ‘So you reckon it was the husband, then?’
    Jessica let out a long hmmm . ‘Maybe, but that doesn’t make much sense. We don’t know if he has a key any longer but, even if he does, if you were going to kill your partner, you wouldn’t make it obvious, would you? It’s not like it’s one of those old-fashioned doors that locks when you pull it shut; you have to secure it yourself. If you knew you were one of a few people with a way in and out, you’d hide the fact that was how you’d done it. You could fake a burglary – but it’s so clean in there.’
    ‘Could the victim have let someone in?’
    ‘Possibly, but how, and why, did they lock the door when they left? The victim’s key is in the hallway.’
    ‘Maybe whoever did it secured everything to get a few days’ head start? They’re off in the Bahamas.’
    ‘If they did, then it’s not the husband. I phoned him a minute ago and asked if we could come pick him up. I didn’t tell him his wife was dead. He’s definitely around; he gave me his address.’
    She handed a piece of paper to Rowlands, then continued talking. ‘Can you take one of the liaison officers and tell the husband the news – then bring him to the station? Find out which university the son goes to, because someone’s going to have to tell him too. And we’re going to have to find out who has a key for that house.’
    Rowlands disappeared off towards one of the marked cars as Jessica walked back to the victim’s house to ask Cole what he wanted to do next. He was ducking under the tape by the edge of the garden as she approached. ‘I was supposed to be taking the kids to the zoo today,’ he said.
    ‘I don’t