‘She always has her phone and her bank cards on her. I didn’t see anything else missing but I probably wouldn’t know if anything was missing. She has loads of clothes and make-up, there’s no way I could tell.’
‘Could she have gone to a friend or colleague’s house?’ Gina hoped this case was as simple as that and that Penny Burton would be found staying with a friend.
Marcus Burton pressed his lips together and sat up straight. ‘She didn’t really have friends whom she went out with. The only friends she really has are the ones we were seeing on Saturday night.’ He scratched his nose. ‘As for colleagues, apart from the annual Christmas bash, she never goes out with any of them.’
‘What does she do for work?’
‘She’s in business development for a CCTV company. She travels around meeting clients here and there, but mostly she’s office based. The company is located in Bromsgrove.’
‘Can I take the names of the friends you said you were seeing and I’ll need their address too? Where were you all meeting?’
She spotted him swallow and pause before answering. ‘Fifteen Willow Way. The evening still went ahead, I still went to theirs for dinner. At this point, I wasn’t overly worried about Penny leaving me. As I said, this happens a lot for us. We were invited over for dinner by Cherie and Christian Brown. The other guests apart from me were Isaac Slater and Joanna Brent.’
She made a note to get their addresses too when the interview was over. ‘And how do you all know each other?’
‘Does that really matter? My wife is missing. This is nothing to do with them.’ Marcus’s cheek dimpled as he ground his teeth.
Gina caught Briggs’s eye. She knew that he too could sense that something was off about Marcus’s response. ‘As I said, we will need to look into who your wife might have contacted and a lot of people who are distressed or even angry might decide to call a friend. That’s all.’
He flung his head back. ‘I’ve already asked them. Never mind. Penny, Isaac, Cherie and I have known each other since high school. We’ve been friends since. Christian and Joanna are Cherie and Isaac’s partners; we didn’t know them at school but we’ve all become good friends. Every now and again, we all get together at one of our houses for a meal, to have a catch up and a drink. That’s all.’ The hum of Marcus’s foot tapping on the floor made Gina’s eyelids feel a little heavy.
‘So, let me get this right. Penny didn’t want to go to Mr and Mrs Brown’s house on the Saturday and you argued about this.’
‘Yes, but it’s not how it sounds. She’d have argued about anything with me at that point. We rowed over nothing most of the time.’
Gina was far from convinced. ‘We may be able to check on her whereabouts by seeing if she’s used her bank cards and phone since. That may help us with locating her. We’ll take those details off you before you leave.’
The man swallowed and the foot tapping stopped.
‘Is that okay?’
He nodded and placed his elbows on the table as he leaned forward. ‘I just want her found. I know she had another phone too, a basic pay-as-you-go. Years ago, she had a fling and I found it. I know she keeps it in her drawer under the bed, hidden behind all her old clothes. She doesn’t know this but I regularly take a look at it. It helps me when it comes to trusting her. Up to a week ago, there hadn’t been any communications on it for months and the only things on it from back then were messages from work and friends when she lost her phone for a few days. Oh, she did put the number on Facebook back then, much to my dismay, telling the world about her lost phone.’ He paused in thought. ‘I can check to see if it’s gone.’
Gina remained silent for what felt like forever. ‘That would be really helpful. You say you know Alexander Swinton. Could you tell me how?’
He scratched his chin and leaned back up once again. ‘He was an old school friend. I haven’t seen him for over a year, since he split up with his wife. I heard that he was taking drugs and had got himself into a bad way. News like that travels fast in Cleevesford. Anyway, we were all shocked when we saw his photo in the paper and when we heard what had happened.’
‘How close were you to him?’
‘Not close at all. As I said, we were friends at school, and not even close friends at that. I just knew of him, that’s all. Sometimes we hung out and played football in the park. I didn’t know him well.’ He let out a titter. ‘We used to rib him about his mum’s garden gnome collection. She’s a bit weird. He took it in good spirits though. It came as a huge shock to all of us when we heard what had happened to him. I suppose his murder might have been playing on Penny’s mind; that may have been why she was really tense that night. I suppose given the way he was killed, we were all a bit tense. I don’t think we’re different like that, I think the whole town is tense. I mean, the person who killed him is still out there. Knowing what had happened to Alex just made me worry more about Penny.’
There was a connection between their murder victim and missing Penny, albeit not a recent connection, if Marcus was to be believed. Gina only hoped that Penny wasn’t going to be next. She glanced down at the names on the page and one stood out. She wanted to know more about Cherie or Chez. Had Cherie been the Chez who’d been shouting at Alexander Swinton at the squat?
Then, she paused at another name. Isaac Slater, their junior fire starter going back twenty years. That name had been on the list she’d been looking at when she’d fallen asleep. She wanted to jump up and scream with joy. They had a break and her instincts had been right. At last she had a lead.
Chapter Forty-Three
Lucy’s Café was vibrant in its usual way. Light, airy and the windows had returned to normal. No more looking out through artificial cobwebs. Lucy worked frantically behind the counter, trying to get bacon sandwiches out to the group of fluorescent-clad builders that were patiently waiting for their breakfasts.
Briggs slurped half of his coffee down in one go. ‘I needed that. It’s been a long night.’
The teenage girl who was assisting in the shop placed Gina’s second cup down. ‘Thank you. I’ve only got an hour. I’m meeting Jacob at Isaac Slater’s address. Wyre was still trying to contact Cherie Brown as we left but so far, there has been no answer on her phone. If we can’t get through, I’ll turn up after speaking to Isaac Slater. I need to get to the bottom of what’s going on.’
‘Good call about pulling up old arson cases. At least we have a connection.’
‘It was the matches. I mean who uses matches these days? Most smokers I know use a lighter. I even use one of those long lighters to start my fire off.’ She blew her coffee and tentatively sipped but it was too hot. ‘It might turn out to be a nothing thought on my part.’
‘Or, it might turn out to be everything. Haven’t you always said that there can be a clue in the smallest of thoughts?’
