‘And you didn’t pop out after that?’
‘No. I wouldn’t leave my kids at home on their own while I went out, which is why I need to get home before my neighbour has to go out.’
Gina placed the photo of Dale back into the folder and closed it. ‘One last thing, do you know anything about trackers, in cars?’
He sat bolt upright and held her gaze for a second too long. He went to speak, then stopped. ‘Why would I know anything like that?’
‘We found one in the boot of Susan’s car, under the spare wheel.’
He shook his head.
‘Thank you, Mr Wheeler. Is there anything else you think we should know?’
He scraped his chair on the floor as he stood and shook his head. ‘Only that she cheated on me, then she threw me out. I left as she asked. She wanted the kids, the house and more money in maintenance that I could possibly ever afford. She became secretive, hiding things, going out and trying to say it was work all the time. She came home smelling of alcohol and kept pushing me away. That was around the time I caught her with him at the pub. It was probably down to him, that Dale. He probably promised her the world and then let her down.’
He stood and stretched, flexing his muscles. Gina couldn’t help think of what Ryan had said. Dale was unfit, a little scruffy and had barely any handsome features and he was on the chubby side. Ryan was the opposite, light tan from working outside even though they were heading towards winter, muscular and lean, chiselled jaw – he certainly was a closer match for Susan. Something wasn’t adding up and it wasn’t solely to do with how they all looked.
‘She accused me of having an affair, in the court papers, but there was no affair. One of the kids had told her I’d been on a date. I leaked that to Phoebe on purpose. I wanted Susan to hear that because I was trying to make her jealous. I did go on a date to prove a point but it meant nothing and led to nothing. Thought I’d tell you in case that comes out next. Her mother Mary is bound to say something to make me look bad.’ Gina sensed the tension between Ryan and Mary.
‘Who did you date?’
‘No one of any significance, just a woman I met in the pub and it was only a dinner out. I didn’t even think anything of her and the date led to nothing.’
‘Did Susan ever speak to you about her childhood, about running away?’
‘She mentioned it. She was a bit of a rebel. She mentioned running away with friends and staying in some caravan. That’s all I know. Look, I really have to go. Besides, she came back and she’ll come back again, I’m sure of it. She loves the attention, that’s all.’
Gina clenched her fists. Everyone used Susan’s past as an excuse not to worry about where Susan was, dismissing her whereabouts as attention-seeking. She could see why Mary was frustrated with it all, but she still had to keep that fact at the back of her mind.
‘We know, and we don’t have any reason to think that this is the same. She is missing and her whereabouts are important to us and they should be to you.’ He kept looking at his watch. She could tell he needed to leave. ‘Interview terminated at ten sixteen.’
Ryan opened his mouth to speak and obviously thought better of it as he picked his keys up from the table.
Jacob held up his pad and Gina squinted to read his tiny writing.
Post-mortem is being prepped. We need to get there.
‘Thank you, Mr Wheeler. We’ll be in touch. If you think of anything in the meantime, please contact us immediately.’
He nodded, zipped up his hoodie and left.
‘We best go then. Never a dull moment in this job. Everyone is certainly jumping on the dismissive bandwagon, just because Susan ran away as a child. We don’t know why she ran away. What we do know is it doesn’t mean the same thing has happened again.’ Gina dropped her pen on the table.
‘With Dale’s murder added to the equation, it’s looking more like she could be on the run rather than running away.’ Jacob waited for her response.
‘Firstly, I hope you’re wrong and secondly, I hope you haven’t had breakfast yet.’
Forty-Three
The pathologist acknowledged Jacob and Gina as they stood behind the glass divide. The scalpel he held glinted as it caught the intense light above. All fully donned in gowns and masks, Gina was glad she wasn’t the other side of the glass. They looked restricted, almost stifled by their clothing. She could equate it to attending a crime scene and having to wear the crime scene suit, hearing muffled material with every move and struggling to grip as well in the gloves.
The clean crime scene investigator moved in front of the pathologist for a moment, taking a few last shots with the camera. Gina swallowed. She’d seen it so many times but it never failed to send a shiver through her. The bodies couldn’t feel pain any more, her logical brain told her that, but knowing didn’t make it any easier to watch. He placed the scalpel into the metal kidney dish. He was just prepping.
Dale Blair lay on the stainless steel slab and his body was no longer anything more than something to process, turn into data. Weights of organs, swabs, blood tests. Gina forced herself to look at his pale, abused body and took in the greenish tinge to his skin. She knew that his internal organs were beginning to decompose. She stared at the lower parts of his body. Overnight the blood had settled along his back, bottom and his lower legs, a look Gina had also seen many times. His knee was bent slightly up off the table where rigor mortis had started to set in while his body was in the woods.
‘What are your thoughts?’ Gina glanced at Jacob as the pathologist made the first incision.
‘He’s a large bloke.’
