by Carla Kovach
‘What time did Mr Ashmore arrive home?’
She shrugged her shoulders. ‘I can’t really remember. It was after twelve, maybe about ten past, quarter past.’
Gina placed her card on the table. ‘If you think of anything else, please call me immediately.’
‘Thanks, officers. She’ll call if she remembers anything else.’
From the corner of her eye, Gina watched as Tiffany lifted her feet off the tiled floor and hugged her legs. That girl wasn’t telling the whole story.
‘Wait, there is something. It’s about Mrs Ashmore.’ The girl dropped her crumpled tissue on the table.
Gina and Jacob resumed their positions, waiting to hear what she had to say.
Tiffany’s father put his head in his hands. ‘Sweetheart, what is it now?’
‘Dad, it’s okay. Something did happen earlier tonight. At one point I got a bit spooked. I heard a creaking sound in the garden and nearly shit myself.’
‘Language, Tiffany.’
‘Sorry, Dad. I was scared. I thought there was an intruder in the garden.’
Gina could see that the girl was trying to work out whatever she’d seen for herself. ‘What did you see?’
‘Someone in the summerhouse.’
‘Who?’
‘Jade. She came out of the summerhouse looking a bit of a mess to be fair. I hid behind the curtain with the kitchen light off, hoping that she hadn’t seen me. She glanced around the garden and left out the back gate. I just closed the curtains and waited.’
‘What time was this?’
‘Just before Noah came home.’ If Noah had just arrived home as his wife was leaving out the back garden, he couldn’t have been the one to attack her – that’s if Tiffany Gall was telling the whole truth.
‘Would this strike you as odd behaviour for Mrs Ashmore?’
‘Very. I don’t know why she’d come home then go out of the back gate.’ Mr Gall placed an arm around his daughter. ‘I should have called her to see if she was okay. If I had, she might not have gone back out and got attacked. But she looked like she was on a mission. She headed out that back gate pretty quickly, even leaving the summerhouse door open and the gate flapping in the wind. When Noah arrived home, he popped out to close both.’
‘Why didn’t you tell us this before?’
The girl took a sip of her coffee. ‘I don’t know. I told Noah when he came home and he seemed in a mood and I didn’t want to get him into any trouble.’
‘Why would this get him into trouble?’
She shrugged her shoulders. ‘I don’t know. It’s silly really, isn’t it? If he arrived home just as she was leaving out the back, he can’t have hurt her, not that he would. He’s a genuine guy, a nice guy. I don’t think she appreciated him.’
Gina felt her heart rate pick up. There was more, she knew it and she’d already guessed. Either Tiffany had an infatuation with Noah or they were having some kind of relationship. ‘Could we speak to Tiffany alone, Mr Gall?’
‘No, she’s my daughter and she needs a parent with her.’ The man slammed an empty cup on the side. ‘Sweetheart, you don’t have to say anything else.’
‘She’s an adult at nineteen and doesn’t need a parent with her when speaking to the police.’
‘It’s okay, Dad. Just go to bed.’ The man stood in silence for a moment before admitting defeat and leaving the room. They all listened as his heavy footsteps reached the landing.
‘I thought you might not want your dad to hear my next question. Were you having any kind of relationship with Noah Ashmore?’
Another tear slipped from the corner of Tiffany’s eye as she nodded. ‘I told him I love him. I kissed him once, last week, and he didn’t stop me. I don’t know how it happened but it just did. We were in the garden. Mrs Ashmore had gone out and Noah was just about to leave. They’d called me to look after Lilly. I was helping him move a pot in the garden that Mrs Ashmore had insisted on him moving and then it happened. We kissed. He told me how much he thought about me too. I knew they argued so it was just a matter of time before they were over, at least that’s what I thought.
‘When he came back tonight, he confirmed he’d had enough of it all and that there was more to life. He seemed really dissatisfied. I asked where they’d been and he said they’d just gone to a friend’s. I told him about Mrs Ashmore in the summerhouse and he just shrugged it off, saying that she left earlier and had drunk a few glasses of wine and probably staggered there, not wanting to embarrass herself by coming home. He said she’d probably gone to walk it off and would be back later. I asked about us and he said he couldn’t think and virtually shoved me out of the door.’
Gina felt a rush of excitement running through her body. Where had Tiffany gone after leaving the Ashmores’ house? Maybe she’d gone looking for Jade. ‘Did you see anyone else around when you left Noah last night?’
Tiffany’s gaze met Gina’s. ‘Creepy Colin. Noah’s neighbour. He saw us kissing in the garden and he saw me when I left Noah’s. Whenever I see him, he gives me the most revolting grin.’
‘Tiffany, where does Colin live?’
‘Next door to Noah. He’s always watching what everyone is doing. He thinks we can’t all see him peering through the gaps in his curtains.’ Tiffany shivered.
Six
‘Forensics have just pulled up.’ Jacob stood to the side as Gina walked from Noah Ashmore’s house to meet Keith coming out of his van with his toolbox. He stood on the roadside putting his forensics suit on. Another car pulled up and a crime scene assistant stepped out and met him.
‘It’s the summerhouse, you say?’ Keith flinched as he straightened his back out. ‘I feel as though I’m being dragged from pillar to post tonight. Straight from one scene to another. That’s how I roll.’ So did Gina, but she wasn’t going to enter into a conversation about it. As he zipped the suit up, he arranged his comb-over under the hood and proceeded towards the gate to the side of the house. Noah Ashmore stood just inside the hallway, now dressed in jeans and a jumper. Neighbours had filtered onto the street and were being encouraged to go back home by PC Smith.
‘Yes, just head through the gate. I’ll follow you. It was the last place she was seen alive.’ Gina followed him alongside the house and into the garden. As they stepped in darkness on the uneven slabs, Gina thought back to Tiffany and what she’d told them. Her father had confirmed that she’d arrived home at about twelve thirty. She’d woken him up as she’d left her key at home. One of the other neighbours had confirmed that they heard her knocking on the door and calling her dad through the letterbox.
‘Ooh, nice place.’ Keith placed his toolbox down on the patio and began erecting a portable battery light.
The garden had to be about forty foot long. A neat path led from the patio, dividing the turf until it reached the summerhouse. It looked to be the size of a small bungalow, two rooms reaching from one end of the fence, almost to the other, leaving only a small gap that led to the gate. The light came on and Keith brought it closer. The summerhouse was decorated with dark tartan curtains. One side looked as if it was used as a playhouse for Lilly, the toys on the windowsill giving its purpose away. The room on the right looked a little more sophisticated. Gina crept closer and shone her torch through the window. There was a comfortable settee and a coffee table. A small and well-equipped bar adorned the other end and was finished off with several bar stools. She pointed the torch to the floor. ‘Keith, there seems to be a mound of throws on the floor.’
He gently opened the door and led the way. Gina pulled on a forensics suit, gloves and boot covers and followed him in. He flicked the light on. ‘At least the light works.’
‘It looks like someone has just got out of bed, the way all these blankets are arranged. What’s that?’
Gina pulled on the nylon and slowly revealed a pair of tights. She couldn’t pull them any further. They’d caught on the bottom of a bar stool. ‘There’s a smell about this place. It smells… sweat
y. I can smell perfume hanging in the air.’ Two empty glasses sat on the bar, one was on its side with its contents splashed around it. Gina leaned over the glasses and inhaled. ‘Wine, white wine to be precise.’ A cork lay next to the half-empty bottle of Chardonnay. ‘Bag these glasses up. We need to find out who she was here with.’
After a few minutes, they left the summerhouse. Keith began cataloguing the samples and wine glasses as Gina gazed around the garden.
A neighbour peered out of his bedroom window. Gina didn’t need to ask his name, from Tiffany’s description she knew this had to be creepy Colin.
He pushed the window open and called to them. ‘I see things, I do. I bet you want to know just what I saw last night.’
Seven
Gina wiped her feet on the mat outside Colin Wray’s front door. The dawn chorus ended as Jacob closed the door behind them.
‘Coffee?’ Colin asked as he grinned at her, exposing his toothless mouth.
‘No, thank you.’ She’d have loved another dose of caffeine but one look at his home had put her off. The smell of stale laundry and cigarette smoke hung in the air, almost making her feel sick. Stomach rumbling, she followed the man into the lounge and sat on one of the armchairs, ensuring that Colin couldn’t sit next to her. Jacob had no option but to sit next to him on the sofa.
‘Okay, can I take your full name?’ Colin’s eyes travelled from her legs to her breasts. ‘Your name, please?’
‘Sorry, I don’t get many visitors.’ Gina could see why. ‘It’s Colin Wray. Call me Colin.’ His tongue ran across his gums as he eagerly waited to be questioned.
‘You said you saw something earlier this morning, or was it last night? What was it you saw and when?’
He leaned forward and opened his legs, almost touching Jacob with his knee. Jacob inched across the sofa as if trying to escape. Colin just widened his legs further. ‘Not a lot happens around here that I don’t see. I don’t sleep well. I’m retired and a lot of the time, I’m bored. She’s a bit of alright that one next door, a yummy mummy I think they call ’em. All legs and hair. Pleasing to the eye. I’ll admit, if I hear her door go, I check the window for a look. Just a look though. I’m not getting into any trouble with any birds.’
‘So you spy on her?’ Gina felt her fists clenching. Referring to the woman she saw on the pavement, her head smashed to a pulp, as a bird, in such a disrespectful manner was making her blood boil.
‘Don’t be daft. I just look out of my window if I hear things and it’s often her. I see things and I feel sorry for her, you know, always arguing with her husband.’ Colin widened his legs further.
Jacob stood and stretched. ‘Sorry, I’m feeling a bit achy. Carry on.’
‘I know the little tart a couple of doors down has been having it away with Jade’s hubby. I saw them kissing in the garden when Jade was out, tongues the lot. I know her type, dresses in tight jeans, asking for it she was. He’s a married man and she led him astray.’
Gina felt her hands begin to tremble and her neck redden. Never once did men like Creepy Colin blame a grown man for manipulating an impressionable girl. In another life, she’d have liked to punch him but any perception of disrespect towards him could lead to a complaint and after spending the past few months proving that she could cope with her work, she wasn’t going to give DCI Briggs any excuse to start asking her if she was okay every five minutes. She wasn’t undertaking any more counselling. ‘Mr Wray, please just tell me what you saw!’
He rolled up his pyjama bottoms and began picking at a piece of skin on his feet, then flicked it across the crumby brown carpet. ‘Got ya, you bastard! In a rush, are we?’
‘Look, Mr Wray, we haven’t got time to play games. During the early hours of this morning Jade Ashmore was found dead and I want to know what you saw or we’ll be taking this down the station.’
‘Hold your horses—’
‘No, Mr Wray, you don’t get to tell me to hold my horses. What did you see? If you keep me here any longer, I’ll assume you’re withholding information in a murder enquiry.’
The man leaned back into the flat burgundy cushions and sighed. ‘I don’t know what time it was, before or after midnight. I heard her back gate go. They really need to oil it, it’s always creaking when the wind blows. I watched her enter the garden with a man and they went in the summerhouse. Under the moonlight and with the faint glow coming from her house, I could see that the man she was with wasn’t her husband, Noah. He was taller, slimmer and had long hair. Anyway, it struck me as odd. I’ve never seen Jade get up to much, it’s normally her husband who catches the eyes of the ladies.’ The man fanned himself with his hand. ‘What happened next will blow your mind. Her palms slammed against the window. I opened my window a little so that I could hear. He was slamming into her from behind. He didn’t last long and I think towards the end she was trying to push him off but he wasn’t getting the hint. As soon as he was done, she pulled her dress down, they had words and she pushed him out of the way before leaving. She looked angry, maybe upset.’ The man stared into space and smiled. Gina’s stomach turned. He’d been unashamedly spying on Jade Ashmore as she struggled to get this man off her, that’s if he were to be believed. ‘Really slamming her, he was.’ A grin spread across Colin’s face as he stared at the wall ahead, obviously reliving the moment in his mind.
‘Slamming into her.’
‘You know, getting a bit of how’s your father.’
Gina took a deep breath. ‘They were having sex. Did it look like he was forcing her?’
‘Nah. It looked like she was playing a bit of hard to get from where I was standing. They were role playing, fantasy, whatever. Yes. That’s exactly it, Detective.’
‘And you could tell all that from your bedroom window in the dark?’
‘Yeah.’ The man grabbed his tobacco and began rolling a cigarette. ‘Mind if I smoke?’
When they found the man who’d been with Jade, she’d definitely question him hard about his conduct as well as Jade’s murder. Colin held his cigarette up and shrugged his shoulders. It was his house. Gina glanced at Jacob and nodded. ‘Can you tell me any more about this man?’
‘Oh yes, I recognised him straight away.’ Gina’s eyes widened, identifying the man in the summerhouse would certainly make their job easier. ‘He’s with a much younger girl, everyone talks about them. I saw them once at my local, the Angel Arms. It was months ago now. He’s got to be in his late forties, she looks like she’s in her teens. I’m sure she’s not but she looks like a hot young thing. Too hot for him.’ A shiver ran down Gina’s spine. There were too many people like Colin Wray in society. She was judging him and she wanted to judge him. He was all that was wrong with the world. This young girl he was describing was nothing but a piece of meat to him.
‘Do you know his name?’
‘Rhys. She is Aimee, the lovely Aimee. I see her around and if I was just a few years younger, I’d make a play for her. Always polite, that girl. Says hello if I see her in the shop. Lovely looking girl who knows how to flaunt it. Drives that man she’s with mad with jealousy sometimes. I’ve heard them arguing when they’ve been in the shop together. Anyway, it was him.’
‘Did you see them leave?’
He scratched his feet again. Gina wished he’d leave his crumbling feet alone as a smell rose up. ‘She left first, straight out of the back gate. I thought it was odd. He stood in the doorway of the summerhouse doing his shirt up. That’s when I got a good look at him. I didn’t see him leave. He may have left then or he may have stayed a little longer, who knows?’
‘What did you do then?’
‘The show was over so I went to bed and that was it.’
‘Was there anyone with you?’
‘I live alone.’
‘So no one can verify your whereabouts at all last night?’
He shook his head and puffed on his roll-up, blowing circles of smoke into the air. A red-skied morning began to illuminate the room. The
thought that he may have left his house quickly to follow Jade crossed Gina’s mind. She made a note to do a background check on Colin Wray. He may be in his seventies but she could tell he had strength. He didn’t appear frail in any way at all. She wanted to know exactly what the man was capable of.
Eight
‘Right, huddle round.’ Gina waited for everyone to take a seat at the main table before going through what they had.
DC Harry O’Connor licked his lips as he shoved the last piece of doughnut into his mouth. ‘I’ve got to pack up eating cakes.’ He undid his top button and patted his stomach.
DC Paula Wyre smoothed her straight black hair down as she grabbed a pen from the middle of the table. ‘You, give up cake, never. You know you love it.’
‘I’m with Paula, that’s never going to happen.’ Jacob leaned back comfortably, one foot on his knee as he chewed the end of his pen. PC Smith scraped a chair across the floor at the other end of the table, removing his hat as he fell into a seat.
The side door creaked as DCI Briggs entered and leaned against the doorway. Silence filled the room until Gina’s phone beeped. She pulled it from her pocket and felt her heart begin to hum as she caught sight of the sender’s name. She turned it on silent.
‘As you can see, I’ve written all that we have on the boards. Early this morning, thirty-four-year-old mother of one, Jade Ashmore, was found dead at the back of Gilmore Close. Bernard and Keith are still processing everything from the two scenes but I’ll come onto that in a moment. Suffice to say, they won’t be with us this afternoon. I also realise that most of you have been up all night knocking on doors, speaking to witnesses—’