Officer Blythe nodded. ‘You and Ella are safe now, Rebecca,’ he reassured her. ‘Has anyone else got a key to your property? A cleaner? A family member perhaps?’
‘No. No one,’ Rebecca said with certainty, before quickly adding, ‘only Lisa, my sister-in-law. She lives next door.’ Watching as Blythe made a note in his notepad, Rebecca added, ‘But she’s got nothing to do with this. It was a man I saw tonight. Not Lisa… I gave you his description.’
Again, Officer Blythe nodded his head.
‘This is all just procedure, Mrs Dawson. We’ll send a couple of officers round and check that Lisa hasn’t seen or heard anything tonight. We can also check that she still has her key in her possession too. Just to be on the safe side,’ the officer confirmed. ‘Rebecca, we’re going to do everything in our power to catch him. You have my word on that. I have my officers searching the garden and the rest of the street. There are patrol cars searching the neighbouring roads too. You and Ella are safe now, whoever broke in here can’t get to you now,’ Officer Blythe said, offering the woman a small reassuring smile as Jamie came back into the room carrying two mugs of tea.
They lived in a wealthy area of Kensington. The detached houses on the street were set back with large gardens and ample driveways.
‘Trust me, if he’s still out there, Rebecca, we’ll find him. Especially once we get a clearer image of whoever he is from your security footage,’ Officer Blythe added, nodding at another officer to set up the surveillance footage on the TV in the lounge so they could go through it together.
He hadn’t disclosed the investigation’s findings so far to the couple, because the truth was that he and his team had nothing to go on as yet. There was no sign of a break in. No footprints or fingerprints anywhere.
The intruder had somehow managed to get away almost without a trace. Whoever it was had covered their tracks expertly, knowing exactly what they were doing.
‘And you didn’t see anyone in the street when you returned home, Mr Dawson, is that right? There was no sight of anyone leaving your garden just before you entered?’ the officer said, directing his question now to Jamie, his tone slightly stilted. He was more than aware of the building tension in the room.
Jamie shook his head.
‘No. I didn’t see anyone. All I heard was Rebecca’s screams. That’s why I ran through to the back garden. I thought someone was hurting her. Christ, when I found her on the grass, bleeding and covered in mud, I didn’t know what to think. I’ve never seen her look so scared. It was like she was in a trance…’
‘You don’t believe me,’ Rebecca said, raising her eyes, her voice almost a whisper.
Whatever he said, he didn’t believe her.
He thought this was all just another one of her nightmares. That she’d been sleepwalking. That she’d simply imagined this intruder tonight.
That this was all in her head.
‘Rebecca. I’m not saying don’t believe you. I saw how scared you were, I believe that you thought you saw someone.’
‘Thought I saw someone, Jamie. In our house. In our daughter’s nursery. It was real.’
‘Your nightmares always feel real, you’ve said it yourself enough times. And what about the other day? The man in the park you claimed attacked you? Was he real too?’
‘You were attacked, Mrs Dawson? Recently?’ Officer Blythe interrupted the couple as he picked up on the undercurrent of their stilted conversation.
‘Yes… No… I don’t know,’ Rebecca admitted. ‘I know this sounds crazy, but I’m not sure. I think someone pushed me, but I’m not certain. I mean, it all happened so quickly, and I wasn’t really paying attention. Maybe I fell…’
‘So, you didn’t call it in?’ Officer Blythe said, raising his brow questioningly at Rebecca, before scanning back over the notes he’d already made. He was unaware of any previous incidents reported at this address even though he’d asked control for a background on his way there.
‘You should have let me call the police,’ Jamie spat.
‘There wasn’t anything to report. I didn’t even get a good look at whoever it was, and it all happened so quickly,’ Rebecca explained, searching her husband’s eyes for some understanding, some compassion at least. But all she could see was Jamie’s embarrassment that they were having this argument in front of the officer.
‘So, you can’t describe this person?’ Officer Blythe asked, poising his pen again, hopeful of any additional information or detail about the perpetrator to his statement. ‘Can you describe him to me? His build? What he was wearing? Anything at all?’
Rebecca shook her head. ‘No. Not really. He was dressed all in black, his hood pulled up around his face. But that’s to be expected isn’t it? It was raining heavily. He was tall, I guess, and broad. I mean I could be describing half the male population here…’
‘And tonight? Can you describe what you saw tonight?’
Rebecca shook her head sadly.
‘The image on the baby monitor wasn’t clear, it was too grainy,’ Rebecca said with a shrug. ‘Outside in the garden, it was too dark to make out his face. I could only see his silhouette. He was tall and broad too…’ She shuddered, her voice trembling at the recollection. She’d felt the menace coming off the man in waves as he stood there, deadly still under the blanket of darkness at the edge of the garden, watching her.
‘You think it might be him. The same man? That he followed me home? He knows where I live?’ Rebecca asks Officer Blythe.
‘We don’t know anything just yet. We just need to get all the information we can to piece everything together and do our best to catch this man,’ Officer Blythe said, sensing that Rebecca was holding something back, that she wasn’t telling him everything.
‘Is there anything else you can tell me, Rebecca? No matter how trivial, or how silly you think it might sound…’ Blythe said gently, watching the couple closely as they exchanged a look.
Rebecca spoke first.
‘I’ve been feeling as if I was being watched. When I went out. If I took Ella for a walk in her pushchair, or if I went to the supermarket, I kept getting the feeling that I was being followed. But every time I turned and looked, there was no one there. I tried to convince myself I was imagining it, but then I started feeling that someone was watching me inside the house too.’
‘Someone inside your home? Can you elaborate on that? Were there signs of a break in?’ Officer Blythe waited patiently for Rebecca to continue.
They still hadn’t been able to discover a point of entry for the intruder which was troubling him greatly. Even more so with what he was hearing now. It was starting to become very apparent that tonight may have been a targeted attack.
‘I know how it sounds weird. I mean, nobody can get in here, can they? It’s just this horrible feeling…’
‘I can’t do this,’ Jamie said suddenly, his voice coming out louder than he anticipated. ‘I can’t just sit here while we waste this police officer’s time.’ Jamie shook his head at Rebecca, before directing his attention back towards Officer Blythe. ‘Rebecca’s been having a hard time lately. Since Ella. They don’t tell you any of that, do they? The doctors and midwives at the hospital, when you’re getting ready to go home with a new baby. About the shitstorm that could be waiting for you. Rebecca has been struggling. She’s not been well.’
Officer Blythe nodded his head, keeping his judgement to himself as he waited for Jamie to explain.
‘She was diagnosed with post-natal depression. She hid it from me at first, the fact that the doctor prescribed her with some medication, antidepressants,’ Jamie said, his tone tinged with sadness. ‘I didn’t realise how bad she was until now.’