Homeward Bound

Homeward Bound Chapter 40

It was a long drive to the nearest police holding station, time enough for me to think and for Matthew too. We didn't speak at all during the long drive and the officers didn't question us either. I only looked at Matthew when they had pulled up at the station and they both got out at the same time. That was when Matthew said his first words to me in a very long time.

'Tell the truth,' he advised.

'What about you?' I asked back quickly.

'I've nothing to lose,' he assured me, as the doors were open and we were given the option to get out, which we both did.

From the car we were taking into an area where they took their arrested to be logged in. They did Matthew first, who had nothing on him, a bit like me. I suspected all his stuff he'd had was still at the farm. He was taken down to the cells but as he passed me he smiled and nothing more. Then it was my turn. It was basically name, age and if I understood why had been arrested. I was asked, like Matthew to put my belongings on the desk. Like Matthew I came out with nothing. I took was then taken down to the holding cells, alone with was something. It wasn't quite though because someone else was singing very badly. I suspected it was a drunk that had been brought I for his own good. It was a shame his vocal cords couldn't be cut.

I sat on the hard leaden like bed, thinking, trying to second guess what might happen, wishing dad was alive to give me some advice. I had nothing, other than the sounds of others, door being opened and closed, shifting around.

I now wished I had never witnessed what I had. I now wished I was still ignorant to the fact I had been working for a fashion house that was clearly a front for something else. I was still thinking this when the door lock when and the door was open. I looked to the door where Nigel was stood. He indicated that I should follow him out, which I did.

I stalled when I reached him. He gave nothing away to how this was going to go. I dreaded to think I was going to be charged with being an accessory to the crime that I knew nothing about. I couldn't see any way out of this when I had been working for that man.

Nigel indicated that I should follow him out of the area we were in and through a fire door and along a corridor, until we reached an open doorway. He invited me in so I went, taking in the bleak room with a table which had a set of chairs either side of it. There was already a man there who was dressed in suit and tie, which I assumed meant he was high up the chain and meant I was in serious trouble. He indicated that I should sit down facing him, which I did and Nigel sat down next to this higher officer.

'Do you know why you are here?' the man in the suit asked me and I just shook my head because I wasn't sure. 'Okay, you've been arrested and held as a suspect in the Hatton Garden robbery that took place two years ago. My name is detective sergeant Browning, your name is Miss Cara Tucker, designer and employee to Stevie Fletcher, owner of Funky Fun fashion house base in the city of London. Is this corrected.' I nodded my head thinking being mute would help me. 'Would you please confirm this with a verbal response.'

'Yes,' I confirmed.

'How long have you been working for Mr Fletcher said company?' he quizzed me.

'About five years,' I explained to him.

'What is your job?'

'I'm a fashion designer, or should I say I was,' I confessed, to get a quizzed look out of him, so I sighed and added, 'he sacked me about a month ago, with no reference and without a month's pay.'

'Why was that?' he asked, to which I sighed and thought I had nothing to lose now.

So, I began to tell him, how about a month or so back that I had been working late and had gone to investigate what the noise was about. I explained how I had witnessed them putting something into the side panel of a red dress that I had designed for the middle east market. I carried on to tell him how I was getting fed up with having to come up with almost the same design, that all my other designs had been rejected.