‘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—’
Briggs took a step forward. ‘What did Bernard say?’
Gina handed a pile of reports to Jacob who took one and passed the rest around the room. ‘All the information we have so far is collated in this report. We’ve also updated the system with our finds so far. Time of death. Our witness, Vicky Calder, said she saw a man moving the body not long after twelve thirty this morning. The Ashmores’ babysitter, Tiffany Gall, saw Jade Ashmore leaving their summerhouse just before Noah Ashmore arrived home. She confirmed that this was between midnight and twelve fifteen. Until the post-mortem results tell us any different, we are working on the knowledge that Jade Ashmore was killed between midnight and twelve thirty.’
Everyone was flicking through the notes Gina had prepared. She pulled a strand of hair from the side of her mouth and tucked it behind her ears. ‘After attending the scene, it looks clear that Jade had been attacked at the back of Gilmore Close and dragged a few feet before being interrupted by our witness. This is where she died. There is no evidence to show that she had been killed somewhere else and then moved. Our killer wouldn’t have had time for that.’ She paused. ‘A small chunk of her hair had been cut away as you can see.’ She pointed to the photos on the board. ‘Also, one of her fingernails was missing. It seems possible that the killer could have removed it, maybe as a trophy, along with the hair. Maybe it was ceremonial, just a thought.’
Jacob leaned forward and placed both feet on the floor. ‘Whoever did this must have been in quite a state looking at the injuries.’
‘Bernard’s first instincts suggest that the murder weapon is something flat-ended. If you look at the edges of the wound, you can see an imprint on the one side of her forehead.’
The right side of Jade’s face had been pounded. The flesh on her cheek hanging off, exposing bone and muscle. Gina swallowed and turned away from the photo. She’d had a doughnut for breakfast at the station and skipped lunch. The feeling of emptiness in her stomach combined with the photos filling the board were making the doughnut repeat on her. She undid her top button, hoping to alleviate her indigestion. ‘Looking at the blood spatter, we can see a tiny stream along the fence that looks to have come from her broken nose. She must have been leaning up slightly. After that, nothing, apart from what was pooled around her. It had rained a little before the tent was erected so some of the blood had started to run. We found no murder weapon at the scene, no footprints. One thing we could tell was that the spatter wasn’t consistent with the scale of her injuries. It would have been messy. The perpetrator must have covered her up during the attack. What with? We have no idea at the moment. Did they come specifically for Jade Ashmore or was Jade Ashmore simply in the wrong place at the wrong time?’
Paula Wyre flicked over to the next page in the report. ‘Her injuries are brutal, guv.’
Gina’s gaze followed the board until she stopped at the photo that Noah Ashmore had given to her. A photo of Jade as she was before. Her shoulder-length mousy brown hair framed a heart-shaped face, petite nose and large hazel-coloured eyes. ‘We have several witnesses. I’ve already mentioned Vicky Calder who was out walking her dog and the babysitter, Tiffany Gall. But there are more. Seventy-eight-year-old Colin Wray. He is the Ashmores’ neighbour and, from the statements, he is known as a bit of a creep.’
Jacob dropped his pen on the table. ‘He’s definitely a bit creepy, guv.’
‘We interviewed him, my notes are there to read. Tiffany admitted she had a crush on Noah Ashmore and a short while ago, she kissed him in his garden. She also saw Colin watching them. Colin also admitted that he’d watched Jade Ashmore in her summerhouse with a man just before she was murdered. I’ll come onto that in a minute. Colin has no alibi and lives alone. Did we find out anything further about Colin Wray?’
Jacob nodded and opened his notebook. ‘I checked to see if he had a record and he does. Minor assaults on younger women involving inappropriate touching, antisocial behaviour – trying to look through his neighbours’ windows, etcetera, and they were all women. He even has a conviction for stealing underwear from a washing line which sounds like such a cliché, I know. This happened where he last lived and was probably why he moved.’
The afternoon sun shone between the branches of the tree in the car park, drowning the board in light. Gina walked over to the window and pulled the blind. ‘Smith, did any of the neighbours see anything? I know you coordinated the door to door at both locations.’
He yawned and wiped the sleep from his eyes. ‘The team knocked on doors all morning but no one saw a thing.’
‘So, nothing new to go on there. Okay, what we do know is that Jade and Noah Ashmore were attending a party on the evening of thefifth of May at 27 Houston Close. There were other people at the party and the host’s name was Dawn Brown. We had Paula take an initial statement from her, which we will follow up on soon. Can you give us a rundown?’
Wyre nodded as she crossed her legs. ‘She can’t remember when Jade left the party or who with as they’d all had a few drinks. She remembered there being a bit of tension between Noah and Jade, and she remembers him walking out with Aimee, which corroborates Noah Ashmore’s version of events. She also gave us a list of first names. That list contained the name of a man called Rhys, who attended with his partner, a woman called Aimee.’
Gina smiled. It seemed to be coming together, they just had to find out who Rhys was and where he lived. She knew from what Colin had said that Rhys was local. ‘That at least ties up with what Colin Wray said to us. He said he recognised the man coming out of Jade’s summerhouse and that he knew him to be called Rhys.’
Flipping over a few pages in her notebook, Wyre studied what she’d written and nodded. ‘Dawn Brown also seemed very vague when it came to her guests. She doesn’t seem to know them that well, saying they all lived close by and she just wanted to get to know some of the locals better. She didn’t even know their surnames or where they lived. She said she just met them out and about, at the shops or on the High Street, and had asked them over on that date. In fact, she wasn’t much help.’
