‘Which seems to be why she came here.’ Jacob peered out of the window. Gina guessed more of the neighbours would be out there now.
‘What are we missing? Susan disappears after seeing Dale. They argue, about what? We have no idea. That may mean that her coming here was not just about bookkeeping. What was it about? How does she know Dale? From what we now know, they didn’t go to the same schools. They’ve always lived in Cleevesford. They didn’t seem to communicate on social media even though they were Facebook friends. Then, Dale is murdered, throttled. Could Susan have done that alone? Dale was a large chap. Susan is little more than a waif. This is all bugging the life out of me. We need to speak to Dale’s parents and find out who his significant other is. Susan was getting divorced. Do you think she was seeing Dale? Is that her copy ofJane Eyre? I suppose forensics will be able to tell us if her prints are all over it.’
‘They don’t look to be a likely match.’
‘I agree, but I’ve been more than surprised in the past. I never try to guess other people’s tastes in partners.’ She left the room and hurried downstairs, eager to see the living room.
‘Anything?’ Gina asked Wyre as she entered.
Wyre shook her head. The smell of dog urine was turning Gina’s stomach. Looking through the kitchen would be a bigger challenge.
The large, netted bay window allowed quite a lot of light to enter the room considering it was such a dreary day. Gina felt the coldness hit the tip of her nose. This felt like a house no one had lived in for a while. It reminded her of coming back from a winter sun holiday and stepping into a vacant lifeless room. The largest television she’d ever seen dominated the one end of the room and a fireplace and hearth sat next to it. Clean – it hadn’t been lit for a while. Two dirty cups had been left on the coffee table. ‘I wonder who was here having a drink? Was it Susan or the Charlotte Brontë fan, or are they the same person?’ Wyre stood at the door, listening. Nothing else seemed out of place. Again, Dale lived a tidy life, he liked his home comforts if the scatter cushions and snuggle blanket were anything to go by. She passed the bookcase, noticing that Dale had a fascination with real-life crime. He seemed to own books about every serial killer she’d ever heard of, and now he’d been killed.
She returned her mask over her nose and opened the kitchen door. Keith was already taking swabs. Avoiding the many puddles and messes on the floor, she opened cupboard after cupboard. All his tins were in order, soups to the left, bean and pulses in the middle, tinned veg to the right. She shuddered. Reaching Terry’s level of perfection had been impossible. Not only did he measure the distance of the tins from each other, the labels all had to face the front, be perfectly centred and be clean. Tins could never touch the edge of the cupboard. He’d smell them all to see if she had cleaned them with a light disinfecting wash before putting them in his cupboards.His– everything had been his, including her. She shivered as she thought about how he’d ensured she complied. That crash of a tin over her knuckles had caused her to scream while he laughed. She flexed her hand and felt the thumb muscle resist. Ever since that day, that little bit of resistance had reminded her of that first time. He would never have let her go.
Terry had made her arrange everything to neat-freak perfection – Dale chose to exist in this perfect environment. She almost wanted to mess them up a little to free him, to free herself. She opened the cupboard under the sink and a stack of carrier bags escaped onto the lino flooring. Maybe all his cupboards weren’t so perfect. Maybe there was an underlying chaos in his life, one he struggled to hide. She had found his chaos. She opened the bin and noticed something that looked like red string lying on the empty dog food tins. With her hand in an evidence bag she pulled it out and held it up to the window. It looked like a long piece of red liquorice, none of it eaten and it looked to be neatly snipped at an angle. She opened his fridge, neatly stacked meat pies, and pasties – all out of date. In the other cupboards, crisps and nachos. No sign of anything sugary at all, except the red liquorice.
‘Oh hell. The mask isn’t helping,’ Jacob said as he entered, gagging under his mask – and they had only just started.
Gina’s phone vibrated in her pocket. Stepping out of the kitchen, she answered. ‘DI Harte.’
‘It’s Felicity, I spoke to you not long ago, the woman who lives opposite Dale, remember. You said to call if I could help. I think I know where Susan Wheeler’s car is.’
Thirty-Three
Gina hurried to the road where they were to meet Felicity, the woman in the beret. Finding Susan’s car might give them just the lead they needed to progress with the case. She spotted her standing by the roadside jumping on the spot as she rubbed her hands together. A frosty film glistened on the pavement as a ray of sun stabbed through the fast-moving clouds. A cold wind slapped Gina face on as she and Jacob stepped out of the car and hurried towards the woman. ‘I think you need to get a tow truck on standby. If it is Susan’s car, we need to get it checked over as soon as possible.’
He nodded, stepped aside and pulled out his phone. ‘I’ll catch you up.’
Damson Close. A cul-de-sac with a mixture of new builds and housing association properties. Some flats, some houses, some three-storey, some bungalows. It was a street that she knew to have a high turnover of people living there and it was only two roads away from Dale Blair’s house. Gina pondered as to why Susan would park two streets away from her client’s house and walk the rest of the way. Maybe she knew someone close by and was popping over to visit them after. Gina smiled at Felicity. ‘Thanks for calling.’
‘I pick my friend up here, for work. We’re on the afternoon shift. I went in for a coffee with her first. When we finished, I saw this car and thought about what you said. I don’t know if it’s the one you’re looking for but it’s silver and it’s a Peugeot and my friend doesn’t recognise it.’
Another woman waved out of her living room window and hurried out, locking the door on the tiny terraced house as she did. ‘I’d forget my head if it wasn’t screwed on.’ She held her phone up and smiled.
Gina scrutinised the number plate. It was indeed a silver Peugeot and it was, without a doubt, Susan’s car. ‘Thank you for calling. It is the car we’re looking for.’
The rotund woman standing beside Felicity checked her watch before doing the buttons up on her oversized cape-like coat. ‘We’re going to be late now. John will dock our break if we don’t get a move on or worse, we’ll have to make time up.’
‘Sorry, Detective. Is there anything else you need us for?’ Felicity straightened her beret.
‘Can I just take your name?’ Gina looked at the friend.
‘Alicia Downing.’
‘Did you see this car pull up or have you seen anyone by it at all?’
Alicia shook her head. ‘I hadn’t even thought about it until Felicity knocked on the door this morning. Cars are always parked here, they’re always a nuisance but I recognise a lot of them. There’s a large apartment block there and they seem to prefer parking out here instead of in their own courtyard. I’ve moaned to the management company no end. Anyway, I thought it was one of theirs and that maybe someone there had a new car.’
The little silver hatchback had blended in well with all the other cars parked up on the road and the pavement. It didn’t look special in any way. Gina nodded to Jacob. They were definitely going to need the tow truck. He pressed a button and held his phone up.
‘Have you seen this woman before?’
Alicia pulled her glasses out of her bag and peered closely at the photo. ‘No, although I have seen the appeal on the television. She’s missing. You’re looking for her. Pretty girl. I hope she’s okay.’
‘Has she got something to do with Dale?’ Felicity asked.
Gina didn’t want to give too much away. ‘We’re just concerned for her safety. If you see her, will you please call me straight away?’
