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?’
