Letting in Light ✔️ [Completed] [Book two]

Chapter 29

Have I eaten anything today? I idly wonder as my stomach growls like a bear. I glance at my watch. We've been sat here for five hours, thirty nine minutes and counting...

"Ms. Cooper?" Detective Phillips says loudly in his broad Yorkshire accent. 

Daniel nudges my thigh, bringing me back to reality.

The scene around me shows that the police have quickly turned my happy little flat into a crime scene. The forensics team arrived around an hour ago, and already it doesn't feel like my home anymore. I hear the quiet shuffling of the white plastic suits of the forensics team, and the clicks of their cameras photographing my fucking stuff. The smell of the plastic sheets they are beginning to bring into the room makes my lungs constrict with the intensity of the stench. It reignites the fury in my chest, making me feel completely violated... in my own home. I could scream in sheer anger, resulting in the half a dozen officers processing my flat thinking I'm insane.

I force myself to focus my mind. I desperately need to get this interview over with.

"Sorry. Could you repeat the question?" I ask as I rub my temples. Daniel pulls my hand away from my face, and kisses across my knuckles. I look up at him, and smile weakly. The young police sergeant who is quietly making notes looks at Daniel with such a simpering stare at his loving gesture I think she might cry.

"I promise, we're nearly done. I can only imagine how frightening this must be for you. My question was, how are you so sure that your ex-husband? Mr..." Detective Phillips flicks backwards quickly on his notepad. "Edward Mathers isn't involved?"

"We're not ruling him out." Daniel answers resolutely at the exact time as I speak.

"I just don't think it's him." We both stare at each other. "Look, Detective Phillips, my ex-husband and I had a... complicated relationship." I talk as evenly as I can, trying to keep the emotion out of my voice.

Daniel snorts in disgust. I cut my eyes at him in a silent warning. Detective Phillips evidently doesn't miss the unspoken words that pass between us by the way he annoyingly chews the end of his pen before scribbling something down in his notepad.

"But, please know that he is a garish and self-absorbed man who craves control and attention. I genuinely don't believe that all of this..." I wave my arms to highlight my clothes on the floor that one of the forensics team is currently documenting. "...is him." I then place my hand over my heart as I speak, truly believing the words that I am saying.

"Well, he will remain a person of interest until he can be ruled out." Detective Phillips puts a star next to Ed's name on the page of his notepad which infuriates me. "Daniel, can you please supply a copy of the list of fans that you've had issues with in the past that your manager prepared?"

"Yes, I will email it to you now." Daniel picks up his phone, and the Detective's  business card from the coffee table so that he can copy his email address. "There are more names than I would have guessed, but you will see that some of them are from a while ago. There are scores of others where individuals have been inappropriate, but because the incident was a one off, I won't have their names I'm afraid." He looks at Detective Phillips apologetically.

The Detective nods in understanding as he looks at the list of names on his phone as soon as the email comes through. He continues to nibble the end of his pen through his heavy auburn beard, making me want to yank it out of his mouth. "Do any names jump out at you for us to start with?"

"Erm..." Daniel bites the inside of his thumb so I know he's struggling with the fact that his job means that he has to keep a list of stalkers and crazy fans. "I've been looking over the list since last night. Some of them have blurred about what happened. Chris will be able to tell you about the content of any injunctions that we had to get. But, in terms of the people on the list who made me feel genuinely fearful for my safety..." He reviews the list again with his brows deeply furrowed for a few seconds. "Those interesting individuals would be Lily Marks, Dana Ferguson, Anthony Gibisi, and Georgia Marsloe." Daniel physically shudders when he reads out the names. "Most people on the list were harmless but just took things a little too far. But, even after being in the spotlight for eleven years, those names still stick out." He points dramatically at his phone as he accentuates each word.