by Carla Kovach
Gina’s phone beeped in her pocket. She pulled it out and spotted Wyre’s name at the top.
Hi guv, we can confirm from all the CCTV that Amber Slater never arrived at the Fish and Anchor for her date. Also, there is no footage of her getting on any buses. We’ve been watching them all morning and there’s not one sign of her. The post-mortem is going ahead earlier than anticipated so I’ll head over now and I’ll keep you posted if that’s okay. O’Connor and PC Smith are on their way over to help with interviewing the neighbours.
Earlier was better than later. Gina had hoped she could be there. She glanced at the time. She could still make it for the second half if she got a move on.
‘Jacob. Amber never got on the bus. What happened to her between leaving here and getting to the bus stop?’ She hurried along the hallway and stared out of the window.
He joined her, holding the curtain back. ‘The person who sent those messages, NoName… they sound angry, and they’re not taking no for an answer.’
Gina pictured someone hanging around, watching the young woman and waiting for her to come out. So consumed with jealousy and rage, they had to know what she was doing all the time. She’d left her apartment all dressed up. Had they seen red and done something reckless or had it been more premeditated than that? With any hope the car park and the path to the bus stop may hold the clues that they were looking for. A snapped fingernail, a clump of hair, a torn bit of her clothing, a shoe, anything.
The front door led to a large car park. Beyond that car park was an underpass and the road that eventually led to Cleevesford High Street. Through the trees, she could just about make out the post with the red sign that was the bus stop. ‘I need a team searching the car park. Can you get down now and start cordoning it off. Monitor who comes and goes while I speak to Curtis downstairs. Someone must have seen something or heard something.’
‘On it, guv.’ Jacob moved his hand from the curtain and it flopped across the window as he moved. He nodded and left the apartment. Moments later, she watched him surveying the car park.
She pulled a pair of latex gloves from her bag and, kneeling on the floor, gently began pushing through the mountain of mess in the corner. The textbook had a refill pad sticking out of it and what looked like equations covered the page. She flicked through a few more but there was nothing of interest to note. She lifted a few more items of clothing, dirty mixed with clean, all creased, the heel of a shoe getting tangled in a bra strap. Shifting closer to the bed, she lifted the valance and peered under. Boxes of under-bed storage filled the space. Gina gasped and hit her head on the bedframe as a disturbed spider shot out from the darkness.
She took a deep breath and laughed to herself before getting back to looking under the bed. A tiny ornate box had been pushed against the wall. One that looked hand-decorated in an amateur manner with little jewels stuck onto the wood, some fallen off.
Stretching her arm out, she grabbed the lid of the box and slid it across the carpet until it had cleared the bed and she opened it. A little plastic package containing five sugar almond-coloured tablets that Gina was sure would turn out to be MDMA, more commonly known as Ecstasy.
Jacob called and she answered immediately. ‘Guv, O’Connor is here and he’s handling the cordon with Smith. You have to see this. We think we’ve found the spot where she was taken. I say taken because the street lamps have been purposely knocked out in one end of the car park, exactly where Amber Slater would have passed to get onto the path for the bus stop. There’s also something else you need to see.’
Adrenaline coursed through her veins. A clue to how Amber might have been taken could lead to a clue as to who killed her. The thought of the poor girl’s lips being glued together almost made her feel like gagging. Whoever did that to her had to be pure evil and she was going to stop them doing it to anyone else.
18
Hurrying across the car park, Gina met with O’Connor and Jacob. O’Connor bumbled around, looking for anything he could see in the verges that led to the underpass. PC Smith was starting to drag the cordon around the various posts and street lamps to keep any potential pedestrians away from what could be a crime scene. ‘Show me.’ She bent over to see what Jacob was looking at.
A shred of muddied pink material was encased in a chunk of ice between the two street lamps, each of which had smashed glass from their light bulbs scattered underneath.
‘She was wearing a pink jumpsuit when she left to meet her date last Friday, that’s what her friend Lauren told us. Get forensics here straight away and let’s all step away for now to preserve the scene. Who knows what else we might find.’ Gina backed off, away from the shattered glass and the others followed suit. She pulled out her phone and pressed Bernard’s number. ‘I know you’re up to your ears in it with yesterday’s scene but we need a team to hurry to Bulmore Drive, the car park that is outside numbers seventeen to twenty-two.’ She could imagine Bernard stroking his beard with a ruffled brow while he considered what she was saying. She could picture all the evidence bags that had been tagged and brought in overnight in boxes, ready to be processed and examined.
‘I’ll send Keith and Jennifer over now while I carry on with all the evidence that’s piling up over here.’
‘Thank you. Will you be joining us at the briefing later today?’ Gina flinched as a cool splat of hail came from nowhere, stinging her face.
‘I’m hoping to. You just can’t imagine how much stuff we pulled from the lake scene. We have the contents of most of the bins, and everything picked up from the car park. We had a team out dredging the lake too after you’d left. So much stuff and any little item could be the thing that solves the case. We are literally drowning in objects to analyse.’ He paused and made a smacking sound with his lips. ‘I’ll be there.’
‘Thanks, Bernard. I’ll make sure there are snacks. Look, I know you must be shattered like the rest of us so it’s all much appreciated. Speak later.’ She ended the call and Jacob nodded across to PC Smith who was filling out a log sheet, ready for the influx of officers and crime scene attendants to turn up. The young man with dark greasy hair stood outside the apartment block smoking what looked to be a roll-up. ‘I think we should speak to Curtis Gallagher, see what he might know.’
Jacob wiped the wet trail from his face. ‘Anything to get out of standing in this.’ They hurried back.
Curtis’s gaze met hers as he exhaled a plume of smoke. Someone who was always outside smoking may just have seen something that might propel the case forward. Maybe Curtis had seen Amber on the evening she went missing.
19
‘Curtis, may we speak with you now?’ Gina spoke as Jacob waited beside her.
The young man took one last suck on his roll-up, stubbed it out between his thumb and index finger, and then placed the rest in his pocket. ‘I can’t go wasting ’em, being a student and all. Come through.’
They followed Curtis along his hallway and into his lounge and kitchen studio area, which looked to be a mirrored layout of Amber’s apartment. The sparse room had a two-seater sofa in it and an oil radiator. A large television sat on a scratched wooden unit and a games console was strewn across a mustard-coloured rug. A desk piled with folders stood flush against the wall.
‘Sit.’ He gestured at the sofa.
As they sat, Gina felt herself being wedged in by Jacob. The sofa was far too small for two average-sized adults. Glancing around, she spotted an ornamental-looking bong and a pair of underpants in front of the washing machine. A jewelled black skull had been placed in the middle of a coffee-ringed table and looked to be peering in Gina’s direction. ‘We’d like to speak to you about Amber. We’ll be speaking to everyone in the block so this is routine. Going back to last Friday evening between seven and half past seven, did you hear or see Amber Slater?’
He began to pick a dried-up spot on his chin. ‘Not really, the only thing I heard was her coming down the stairs. I can’t remember what time exactly but it was about then.
These apartments aren’t really soundproof and she stomps loudly on her heels as she’s coming down the stairs. We can all hear each other coming and going. I heard her and Lauren talking on the landing, it sounded like Lauren was pleading with her to stay home. I don’t know what it is with that pair. One minute they’re the best of friends, the next minute they seem to ignore each other for days.’
‘Can you expand on that a little?’ Maybe there was more to Amber and Lauren’s friendship.
‘We all hang out together now and again, have a few beers in one of our apartments. It’s cheaper than going out. Look, you’d have to be from another planet to not see that Lauren has a crush on Amber, the way she looks at her. Amber is a serial dater, loves meeting new people. Lauren is the opposite. She sits on her own at home with only Amber as a friend. I can’t really tell you any more than that as I don’t really have too much to do with either of them.’
Gina thought back to the little box under Amber’s bed. ‘Does Amber use drugs?’ If nothing else, she needed to add ‘drug purchase that may have gone wrong’ to the killer’s list of motives. Sometimes the simplest of reasons can be behind a murder and drugs and the money associated with them were powerful in the motive department.
He awkwardly shifted his weight to his other leg before grabbing the torn office chair in front of his makeshift desk made from a piece of old worktop. He slid the folders out of the way and placed his elbow on the wood. ‘No.’
Gina cleared her throat as she and Jacob stared at the man.
‘Okay. She may have dabbled on nights out. I know she had an occasional smoke or a tablet when she went clubbing, but that was it. Was she a druggie? No way. It was a special occasion thing. It’s nothing unusual. Everyone does it. Not me, of course.’
Jacob relaxed his stare and caught up with his notes.
‘What was Amber like?’ He was opening up. Gina was sure that if she could get him to talk, he wouldn’t stop.
He pulled the hairband from his hair and ruffled it, freeing it before bending over to flick the heater on. ‘It’s getting cold in here.’ He grabbed a thick, mangy-looking cardigan from the back of the chair and put it on. ‘Amber… she always seemed happy. She was popular. She had endless amounts of energy for going out, experiencing new things and life in general. She was so glad to get away from her strict home, it was like she’d won the lottery or something when she moved out from her dad’s house. She told us that at home she had to be in by ten and even then Daddy would constantly call. He moaned about her clothes and her friends. He turned up here a few times even when she wasn’t in. It was like he was trying to catch her out with a man.’ He grinned. ‘Anyway, living here, she was free and she was making the most of her freedom by dating, going out. I even recall her saying that she did a parachute jump last year. She didn’t tell Daddy that either. The man would have freaked at his cotton wool-wrapped daughter jumping out of a big bad aeroplane.’
‘Were you and Amber close?’ Gina wanted to get down to the crux of any relationship they may have had although looking at him, she couldn’t see that he’d be Amber’s type, but then again, she always told herself, determining who a person would chose to be with was impossible. Maybe she liked his laid-back demeanour. She inhaled the combination of week old sweat and burger grease that came from his cardigan as he shuffled.
‘No closer than anyone else in the building. We just hung out and drank together on rare occasions and as a part of a group. That was it. The things I mentioned are just what came up in mostly group conversation.’ The spot on his chin had begun to seep a little. He swiped his finger across it. ‘I should eat better really.’
‘Who lives in the bungalow at the back of this building? The one with the private road that passes alongside this block.’
Curtis started biting the inside of his mouth. ‘The biggest party pooper around. If we even fart too loudly, he’s over, telling us to keep it down or our tenancies will be terminated. That will be the landlord. His father owns this block and he makes sure we know it. Toilet is leaking? Three weeks to fix. I cough? He turns up telling me to shut up. That’s a bit of an exaggeration but you get my meaning. When we do drinks in the block, we have to keep all the windows shut and try not to be too obvious.’
Gina nodded. ‘What’s his name?’
‘Vincent something or other. Don’t know his second name. It’s probably Arsehole, Vincent Arsehole. He’s not even that old for a landlord, probably mid-thirties, maybe forty if he had a hard life. I don’t know what his problem is.’ Curtis laughed.
‘Are you a student too?’
He nodded. ‘I’m a mature student, I mean twenty-six is old, definitely mature. I attend college though, not university like Amber and Lauren. I’m doing a two-year mechanics course at the college in Bromsgrove. Hoping to have my own garage one day. I always loved tinkering with cars so after a few years of working in pubs and cafés, I thought it was time to sort my life out and follow my dream.’
‘Just to clarify, where were you between six and ten on the evening of Friday the twenty-second of January?’
Curtis’s brow furrowed.
‘That’s last Friday?’
He pulled the half roll-up from his pocket and placed it behind his ear. ‘Now I need a puff. I was here all night gaming and like I said, I was here and I heard Amber coming down the stairs. My curtains were shut and I didn’t see or hear anything else. I don’t go out that much. I’m always pretty broke so I stay in and game until late.’
Gina listened to Jacob’s pen hastily scribbling away. When he stopped, she continued.
‘Did you go out for a smoke at all?’
He shook his head. ‘I don’t go out at night, it’s too cold. I’d get into trouble if Vincent Arsehole found out but I smoke in the bathroom and blow my smoke out of the window. The fire alarm doesn’t pick it up.’
Gina’s shoulder dropped slightly. She was hoping that he would have been in and out on that evening, and that he’d have noticed something, however small. ‘One last question, have you seen anyone suspicious hanging around the car park or outside the apartments?’
‘Now that you mention it, yes, a figure in the bushes.’ He got up from his chair and beckoned Gina over. She hurried to the window where he pulled back the yellowing voile and pointed. ‘Right there, just to the side of the underpass. I’ve noticed this weirdo around since the New Year, only now and again, and it looks like he stands and stares at the flat. He wears a hat, like something Frank Sinatra would wear, but even under the street lamps all I saw was a shadow but no features. Was he stalking Amber? Is that what you think?’
Gina moved away from the window and headed back to the sofa, not sitting this time to Jacob’s relief. ‘At the moment we’re investigating and this is something we will look into. Can you describe this person?’
‘Yeah, a shadowy figure that looks male. Broad shouldered and average to tall. That’s all I know. I really didn’t worry about who it might be as I only saw him through the window now and again, never when I went out.’
‘Can you remember when or how often you saw this person?’
He scrunched his nose and paused. ‘About two, three times per week. I joked in my head that it was probably killjoy Vincent trying to gather evidence of our bad behaviour to catalogue, just in case he wants to chuck any of us out.’
‘Did you ever think to report this person?’
‘Nah. I just closed my curtains and got on with life. In hindsight, I wished I had now. Sorry.’
Gina checked her watch, she was missing Amber’s post-mortem and it was looking highly unlikely that she’d make the meeting with the pathologist after. She made a mental note to message Wyre and ask her to cover everything that was needed in readiness for the briefing. Curtis began to chew his thumbnail, his teeth making a clipping noise as he gnawed away.
‘Thank you for your time. If you remember anything else, can you call me straight away?’ She passed him her card.
‘Of course.
’ He read it. ‘DI Harte.’
‘Can you confirm your surname?’
‘Gallagher.’
As they stepped into the hallway and out of the main door, Gina watched as the teams gathered to begin the search of the area for evidence. She watched from afar as O’Connor spoke and everyone listened. Her phone went and Briggs’s name lit up.
‘Sir.’ She waited for him to break the silence.
‘There’s been a lot of digging going on at this end into all the people you said to investigate further and Wyre gave me her notes when she left for the post-mortem. There’s one thing you will want to see in all this and we can’t leave it too long. Get back as soon as you can.’
She glanced back at the road that led alongside the apartment block and she could just about see the bungalow amongst the naked tree branches. Vincent the landlord would have to wait.
20
Madison closed her textbook and glanced across the desk at the rest of the library. Other students worked away in silence and a couple of girls about her age were whispering as they picked up a few books and carried on past her, down the stairs towards the ground floor. The bright and airy space was one of the reasons she loved studying at The Hive, the striking new library in the centre of Worcester City.
The window beyond framed a misty sky, one that made everything outside appear milky white. A fog was descending which would blanket the whole of the charming city. She loved gazing at the river when she went for a walk and she knew it would look just as stunning on a day like this. Time to wrap up warm, stretch her legs and get some lunch.
As she packed her books away, she spotted a pair of heavy black boots under one of the bookshelves. Had it not been for the shelf, the person behind it would be staring right at her. She swallowed and zipped up her bag, throwing it over her shoulder as she stood. Her twitchy hands were telling her to run, to get away but something deep inside was saying, you need to know who’s there.