by Carla Kovach
‘I’ve already been through this. The other copper asked. Why don’t you just read what the copper wrote down?’
‘Because I want to hear it directly from you, Mr Meegan?’
‘Am I under arrest?’
‘No, should you be?’
He stared at Gina for a moment too long. She felt the weight of the moment between them but she refused to break eye contact.
‘What? No.’ He sat on the leather settee and leaned back. ‘I just don’t know why you’re asking me the same question again.’
‘Mr Meegan, a sixteen-year-old girl was murdered in the woodland that I can see from your back garden. If I didn’t question everyone thoroughly, I wouldn’t be doing my job.’
‘You lot are picking on me. I have a record and you know it. That’s why you’re here. Why aren’t you next door, or maybe three doors down giving them a second go over? You came here because I’ve done something that I bitterly regret which is now in my past. I’ve done porridge and I even got out early because I was a good boy. Besides, I never touched anyone. I don’t go around murdering girls.’
‘It is true that you’re a person of interest which is why I will ask again, where were you between Saturday night and the early hours of Sunday morning?’
He slammed the can of cider onto the table and folded his arms. ‘I was here all night, with Sandy, weren’t I, love?’
Sandy nodded.
‘Look at my wife. She needs constant care. I couldn’t just leave her to go and commit a murder. Besides, she’d know if I went out. We were together all night. I watched a series on Netflix and Sandy was reading her book.’
‘What were you watching?’
‘What?’
‘It’s a simple question. What were you watching?’
He paused. ‘Breaking Bad.’
Gina knew that series was on Netflix, she’d watched it herself.
‘You won’t catch me out because I didn’t do anything.’
‘Right, if you head into the kitchen, Mr Meegan, DS Driscoll would like to speak to you separately. I’ll speak to Mrs Meegan here.’
‘Oh, bleeding hell. We haven’t done anything. It feels like you’re interrogating us.’
‘We’re doing no such thing. This is routine questioning and it would look good if you cooperated fully. We can do it here or down the station.’ Gina clenched her right hand.
The man stood and headed out of the room. Jacob followed, leaving Gina alone with Mrs Meegan. ‘I’m sorry that you and your husband are being asked all these questions again but I need to make sure I’ve done my job properly by following up on the initial statements. May I sit?’
‘Yes, please do.’ The woman forced a worried smile. Gina could see the tremor in Mrs Meegan’s arms that she was trying to hide.
‘Could you please describe your Saturday evening up until you went to bed, in your own words and your own time?’
Mrs Meegan nodded and bit her bottom lip before speaking. ‘Frank was telling the truth. He watched several episodes of Breaking Bad that evening while I read.’ She pointed to the book on the coffee table. ‘I think I got through half of my book that night. At about eleven, he started helping me to get ready for bed. This takes a while. He doesn’t need to do everything for me but he’s always a shout away in case I need him. I wheeled myself into the downstairs bathroom. Washed and did my teeth and changed into my nightie, then I went into the bedroom. I can get into bed on my own but I remember being tired, I mean physically tired. It really helps me out if Frank gives me a bit of a lift. I then lay in bed watching TV for a couple of hours while Frank was in the living room still watching the TV.’
‘How would you know if he was there all night?’
‘I can hear the sliding doors opening if he went out the back way and I’d hear the front door locks if he went out the front. The bedroom door was left ajar and I even spoke to him here and there. I heard him making drinks in the kitchen and flushing the chain. Everything sounded like it normally did. He was in the house, I know it.’
‘Where is the bedroom that you sleep in?’ Gina couldn’t imagine that Mrs Meegan could hear all this from upstairs.
‘Just by the front door. We haven’t got a stair lift, so we sleep downstairs.’ Mrs Meegan scrunched her brow slightly.
‘I see.’
‘Can you remember what time Mr Meegan joined you in bed?’
‘Yes. It was about one in the morning and he fell asleep soon after.’ The woman’s temple twitched slightly and she looked away.
‘So, let me get this straight. At eleven you got ready for bed. Then soon after you were in bed and Mr Meegan joined you about one in the morning, then you both went to sleep?’
She smiled and shrugged. ‘That’s exactly it.’ Mrs Meegan ran her fingers through her hair and flinched a little. ‘I’m scared but I don’t want to say anything to Frank.’
Gina leaned in, feeling her heart rate pick up a little. That flinch was subtle but Gina had made a mental note of it.
‘The press. If they link Frank’s past to what happened to that girl, they’re going to hound us out of our home. It happened in Croydon. Once he was arrested my life was hell. I know what he did was wrong. Spying on young women in the way he did was unforgivable but we were both stressed and he knows what he did was wrong. We came back to Cleevesford for a new start.’
Gina doubted that Frank Meegan’s urges would go away that easily and the reports from Caro Blakely and some of the other teens about hearing and seeing someone spying on them would put Mr Meegan firmly in the picture. If he wasn’t involved in Leah’s murder, then it was quite possible he was up to no good spying on the teens and saw something. Gina really wondered if he was capable of taking that next step. He’d got his kicks from secretly filming women in public toilets or through their windows, then he’d replay the footage over and over again. It’s possible that a very drugged or drunken Leah confronted him and he took her down with ease, strangling her to death so that she couldn’t report him.
The woman swallowed and touched her head again.
‘Are you okay?’ Gina leaned in a little, providing a little bit of intimate space between her and Mrs Meegan, hoping that she might say more. She could sense fear in the woman. Gina remembered looking that meek and hunched, with a constant nervous tremor when Terry was at his abusive peak. She’d never have said a word against him, in fear of her life or her sanity. He tried to take both during the course of their marriage but she’d finally taken his life. Gina gulped, hoping that the woman in front of her couldn’t see that she too had been abused. It was like this unspoken code was bouncing between them. She also hoped that she wasn’t giving more away. Her anonymous messenger had seen through her. No, maybe this person just knew something about her past or was having a stab at guessing. There was still hope in that department. Gina swiftly took a breath in and exhaled through her nose.
Mrs Meegan shook her head and her eyes glassed over with tears that she was trying to hold back. At least she’d been more consumed with her own thoughts than what Gina was thinking. ‘He was in all night but he gets so angry with me. If the press hound us, then the community all gang up, he’ll take it out on me… I can’t go through it all again. I’m scared.’
‘Are you safe here? I can arrange something for you straight away if not.’
Mrs Meegan sniffed and wiped her eyes with her hands. ‘Of course I am. Frank was with me all night. I will swear that on my life. There’s no way he could have hurt that girl or have seen anything. If either of us knew something, we’d report it straight away.’
‘Is your head okay? You keep touching it.’
‘Yes, I just hit it on a shelf earlier. Nothing to worry about.’
Gina had lost her. Maybe talking about the parties in general might at the very least bring the interview back on track. She caught up with her notes and looked up again at Mrs Meegan, tilting her head with a smile to put her at ease. ‘I’m sorry that this is distressing for yo
u. May I ask about the parties that happen in the woodland? Can you hear the music from your cottage?’
‘If I’m honest, those parties are an absolute menace to our community. It’s not just Frank and I that get upset, the whole of Oak Tree Walk does. We’ve put in numerous complaints and petitions at the council, we’ve called the police in the past but no one does a thing. The parties keep on happening.’
‘Sorry to hear that. I’ll look into those complaints further when I get back to the station. It’s not something I work on but I’ll follow it up.’
‘The kids… they often park up here and we see them passing with all their booze and camping gear. Some of us have got a little angry and shouted the odd insult out of the window, not me though. The noise is horrendous. It’s not too loud from here but when you’re in bed and all you can hear is constant beats in the background until about four in the morning, it gets tiresome. We came to live in the country, not next door to a nightclub. Then there’s the mess. They get drunk and play pranks, like spray rude pictures on our back fences. There was a penis on ours over Easter and someone had sprayed the word wanker on the neighbour’s fence. Sometimes people have mentioned that their cars have been scratched or the wing mirrors have been pulled off. Things like that happen at the same time these parties are on.’
Gina thought back to what Oscar’s teacher had said about him defacing his locker with a Sharpie.
‘Frank spent all day scrubbing that mess off our fence but it didn’t help. He had to paint it in the end. Then there’s the litter and the vomit on the pavements. It’s just disgusting. They have no respect for anything and I’m not happy about the parties but neither I, nor Frank, would take the law into our own hands. We do things properly. Frank attends neighbourhood meetings where petitions are organised. That’s what we do.’
‘Do you have any CCTV?’ Gina was sure that uniform would have asked this question of everyone on the row.
‘No but we were talking about getting some. Frank is super wary that if his past came to light and we had CCTV, people would accuse us of spying on them. That’s how we live now.’
‘Is there anything else you can add? In the night, maybe while lying in bed, did you hear anything or anyone outside? Or did anything seem out of place or odd?’
Mrs Meegan shook her head. ‘I rarely leave this house and no, I didn’t hear anything unusual, just music.’
‘If you think of anything or you need to call me, here’s my card. If you’re scared, worried, or feel under threat in any way at all, don’t hesitate to pick up the phone.’
‘I can’t see why I’d be under threat. I suppose if the press get wind of Frank’s past, I’ll need all the help I can get.’ The woman took the card and pushed it deeply into her pocket. Her brow furrowed and she went silent. ‘I’m really tired now. Will they be long as Frank has normally put dinner on by now.’
‘I don’t think they’ll be much longer.’
The kitchen door burst open and Jacob came in alone. ‘Right, all done, guv.’
‘Well, thank you for your time.’ Gina gave one last smile to Mrs Meegan before they left through the patio doors and out the back. She would have asked if they could leave out the front but it seemed that the Meegans had had enough of being questioned.
‘What are your thoughts, guv?’
‘I’ll tell you when we get back to the car.’
As Gina placed her hand on the door handle a man ran out. ‘Are you the police?’ He glanced up at the Meegans’ cottage and in a low voice continued. ‘I’m Jim, Frank and Sandy’s neighbour. I have something to tell you.’
Twenty-Seven
‘Thoughts, then?’ Jacob popped a sweet into his mouth and the smell of orange filled the car as Gina pulled out of Oak Tree Walk.
‘That neighbour, Jim Berry, is going to start some trouble now that Frank Meegan’s past is out of the bag; I just know it. I guess all he had to do was put Meegan’s name into Google and search. It was as easy as that.’ Gina took a left onto a country road. The sun had all but gone as they drove under the trees that arched over the tarmac.
‘I saw that he’s quite prolific on Twitter when I was searching for comments on Leah’s murder.’
‘And?’
Jacob pulled his phone from his pocket and began tapping and scrolling. ‘Dammit. He’s already put something on Twitter about Meegan’s past despite us telling him not to for the time being. Now Mr Meegan will really be on the defensive.’
Gina slammed a hand on the steering wheel. ‘What the hell? Go on.’
‘It’s a link to an old article about Frank Meegan’s charge for recording a woman in a public toilet. He’s hashtagged Oak Tree Walk and there are already thirty comments and twelve shares. It’s been up less than ten minutes.’
Swallowing, Gina thought of Mrs Meegan. She was so close to saying something about her relationship with her husband but she’d clammed up. This would only make things worse for the woman. ‘We’ll get an officer to do regular drive-bys overnight and I suppose if things get really bad, we may need to see if the Meegans want a panic alarm installed. I’m actually worried for Mrs Meegan’s safety and well-being.’
‘I’ll arrange that as soon as we get back to the station.’
Gina’s phone flashed in its hands-free cradle. It was a message from Hannah that she’d read as soon as they stopped. Her stomach dropped. With every day that passed, she was getting ever closer to having this talk with Hannah, a talk she was dreading. She stared at the road ahead as they turned onto Cleevesford High Street, passing through to take the road off to the station.
The pain of not knowing exactly what Hannah knew was worse than being totally rumbled. The way her daughter had messaged was so clinical, lacking emotion and expression; not even Hannah’s usual angry tones came out. She thought of Leah and Mrs Meegan and it struck her. This could be her very last case if her own past was brought out into the open.
‘I can tell there’s something on your mind. Are you okay?’ Jacob crunched the last of his sweet.
Gina grimaced. ‘Hannah wants to visit soon. I just hope it’s not in the middle of this case but whenever it is, I can’t put her off.’
‘You’ll get to see Gracie which will be nice. I know you miss her.’ Jacob smiled.
Gina forced a smile back as she pulled into the station car park. If only she was getting to see Gracie. Hannah was probably coming alone for the talk; the talk that Gina didn’t want to have. ‘I’m heading in to just do a quick update then I’m going home. I’ll be on duty so if you hear anything, if Jennifer mentions anything useful, whatever it is, call me or message straight away. I really want to plough through the Oak Tree Walk neighbour statements tonight. Am I right in saying that no one had CCTV on that row or close by?’
‘Actually, two people had CCTV but the cameras only pointed directly into their back gardens. Uniform have looked but there is nothing of any use. Right, I’m popping in to arrange the drive-bys past the Meegans’ cottage, then I’m heading home for a nice hot shower. I’ll catch you tomorrow unless something big comes up in the meantime.’
‘Great and thanks. Oh, tomorrow, first thing, I want to speak to Leah’s parents and catch up with the family liaison officer. I know we haven’t spoken to them yet, but I want to delve in a bit deeper, see if the parents can help us get to know Leah a little better.’
‘Shall we meet at theirs?’
‘Yes, I’ll call them. See if nine in the morning is good. Unless you hear from me, see you then.’
‘Great.’ Jacob got out of the car and slammed her door shut.
Gina grabbed her phone, her stomach doing a sickening dance as she read Hannah’s message.
Hi, I’ll be with you about lunchtime on Sunday. No distractions. We need to talk.
Not even a, hi, Mum; how are you doing, Mum? Take care; love you. Every element of that message was cold. After their talk was their relationship set to be even frostier or over? Gina stared up at the station. She could se
e through the incident room window. Jacob walked past and was talking to O’Connor. That place was her life. Those people had become her family. It was all she had and now the fear of losing it was worse than anything she’d ever experienced. An image flashed through her mind. One of her standing in court telling every truth she could, then that was followed by her sitting in a cell, counting the days and years away, wondering if she’d ever see her granddaughter again. They say time heals but when you’re carrying the burden of guilt, every moment that passes is a moment closer to the truth escaping. Gina stared at the message again and struggled to swallow, almost choking as she did. A loud knock on the car window made her heart jump.
‘Alright, guv. I’ll catch you in the morning.’ Wyre smiled. ‘Are you okay?’
Gina turned off the engine and the air conditioning stopped. As she opened the window, warm air seeped in. ‘I’m all good. I’ll be heading home myself in a short while.’
‘We could go for a drink if you’re up for it?’
Gina scrunched her nose. ‘Thanks for the offer but I really need to get home for a shower. I feel as though I’ve been trapped in a sauna all day and then there was the post-mortem. I feel as dirty as hell.’
‘No worries, another time. Catch you tomorrow.’
Was tomorrow a day closer to the end of her life as she knew it?
Twenty-Eight
‘No,’ I yell as Frank forces me into bed. He slams me onto the mattress, not even stopping to make sure my pillows are comfortable. The violent throw has taken my breath away. I gasp as he speaks.
‘Shut up and stop fighting with me, Sandy. You know you can’t win.’ After grappling with me for a few minutes, he punches me in the side, knocking the wind out of me, then he turns the television on at almost full volume before slamming the bedroom door as he leaves. I hear the sliding doors in the living room opening, just like I did on the night of the murder. I should have told the detective when she questioned me. If I had, I wouldn’t be here now, waiting for a mob to form outside my front door. Like before, he’s deserting me and leaving me to face them alone.