"You need to take a look at this." Harry threw the folder of paperwork on the desk in front of Detective David Day. "Instead of hounding an innocent man you should have been doing your job."

Day huffed. "What is it?"

"Read it." Harry jerked his head. "There are at least four other suspects all with good motives to kill Sally Parks and I can guarantee the semen you found on her body belongs to one of them. Get off your fucking arse and do your fucking job properly or I'll put in a report."

*

David Day threw the last page of the reports on the pile. He leaned back in his chair. How had he missed all of this? Harry Butler was right. He hadn't done his job properly but Rohan Wayland fitted perfectly. He had motive. Had made threats. DNA evidence. There were witnesses to the angst between him and the victim. An unstable background. Fertile ground for murder.

Day grabbed his evidence file. CTV footage showed Sally Parks heading to the back stairwell and every other person remotely involved with her was shown to go down the front stairs. But that meant nothing. If it was one of the Sykes employees, they could have easily gone down the front and come in through the roller door at the garage. They all had passes.

The CTV had been disabled which meant this murder could have been planned. It had to be someone from Sykes. Even though other workers from different offices also used the carpark they wouldn't have known there was no CTV at the door which led from the stairs into the Sykes rooms. So, the CTV footage he had was useless.

He had Wayland's DNA under Sally Parks' fingers nails and the story Wayland had told had been backed up, though not convincingly by Penny Macy. Day wondered why she had been vague. At first, he thought it was because she'd had a soft spot for Wayland or maybe Wayland had threatened her.

Looking at what Harry Butler had given him there could be another reason. He'd have to get auditors in. Mercer Kennedy had been no help with the scratch because she said she'd gone back to her desk and hadn't seen it happen.

The semen they found in Sally Parks didn't match Wayland's DNA so if he killed her it wasn't a sexually motivated crime. Or maybe it was. Maybe he was jealous. Even his blood on Sally's shirt had been explained and confirmed by both Penny Macy and Mercer Kennedy.

Then there were the witnesses to the fight at Ruby's Café. Annie Mitchell's evidence had been useless to Wayland because the time he'd got to her place still gave him plenty of time to kill Sally.

Now he had the file on Mercer and knew her background, could she have covered for Wayland out of some misguided belief she needed to protect him. Two birds from similar nests.

The Base Sledge Microtome Sally Parks had been hit on the head with had been wiped clean of any fingerprints. Jack Benny said anyone who worked at Sykes would have easy access to it and the fact there were no fingerprints didn't mean anything because all the equipment in the lab was kept clean and sterile. Gloves were always used.

They'd been lucky to have found any trace of Sally Parks DNA on the unit because it had been pushed behind another exactly like it. This was the only mistake the murderer had made. If they had left it to the front, it would have been used and Sally's DNA would most likely have been contaminated or wiped completely away after its use that day.

Then there was the urine sample scam. Was Wayland involved and Sally had threatened to report it? Day looked at the very thorough report on this again. The defence forces were onto it. From what was in front of him, Wayland had nothing what so ever to do with it. He sighed. There was only one way to get to the bottom of it and that was to bring them all in again.

I hope Detective Day does his job properly now.

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