‘Ah, yes, Peter, five:eight. I remember now.’ Sally stretched her arms in front of her then picked up her tea.
‘Why did you choose that one?’
‘I don’t know. I suppose I was scared after seeing that person in the graveyard. I was just reminding myself that the devil is always there, testing us, and that we should be watchful.’ She furrowed her brow. ‘It’s odd. It’s not one I normally use but someone said it to me recently. Maybe it was one of the parishioners, one of the parents or one of the people we help at the AA meetings. That’s why I remembered it.’
Gina felt her fingers begin to twitch with excitement. She wasn’t totally letting Sally off the hook right at this moment. There was still the matter of the used shovel leaning up against her house but there was something about Sally. She couldn’t believe the dainty vicar who ran mother and toddler groups and joined people in matrimony could be the one committing the coffin killings. She’d come across the coffin killer herself but identifying that person would be near impossible from what she’d seen. All she knew was that she’d heard a woman’s voice. ‘Think. Can you remember when it was said or in which group?’
She shrugged her shoulders. ‘No, I wish I could. Is it relevant to the case?’
Gina cleared her throat. ‘I can’t say anything just yet as it’s relating to an ongoing investigation. All I can say is we need a name. One more question, how did the shovel end up against your wall? Is that where you leave it?’
‘What shovel?’ Sally took another sip of her tea and moved a strand of hair from her mouth.
‘The one against the back of your house.’
She stood and looked out of the window. ‘I have no idea how that got there. It’s not even my shovel. I’ll confess to not having any gardening tools, we have a gardener for all the church grounds, but he hasn’t been for two weeks. That shovel wasn’t there yesterday. I don’t want to stay here.’
The woman rubbed her eyes. Gina could understand her fear. ‘Forensics and uniform will be here soon. I can make sure that after we’ve left someone drives by and keeps an eye on the church and vicarage. Would that help?’ Gina knew the budget would be blown but at the moment, she wanted Sally to be reassured that they could protect her. She swallowed. Maybe she wasn’t safe. ‘Do you have anyone you could stay with?’
‘My sister lives in Redditch. I could travel into work from there. I’ll call her and write her phone number and address down for you, in case you need to ask me anything else. I don’t want to stay here at night, not at the moment.’ The dog made a whining noise and lay back on her boot. ‘Yes, Jerry. We’re going to stay with Auntie Elaine.’ She patted the dog’s head.
Gina’s phone beeped. She checked the message from Wyre.
‘We have to get back to the station. Please try to remember who mentioned that verse about the lion, we really need to know who said it.’
Sally stared at the wall and scrunched her brow. ‘The more I think about it, I’m sure it was on the Sunday a couple of weeks ago. I have a list of names somewhere. I’m doing a charity run to raise money for the roof in a couple of weeks and I was taking names of sponsors. I think the list might be at the church but I’m not sure. Can I get back to you when I’ve found it? I’ll start searching when you leave but there are so many nooks and crannies, it could take a while.’
‘Please do. Call me as soon as you’ve found it.’ Gina placed one of her cards on the table as she reread the message on her phone.
After Gina had guided an overworked Keith from forensics in the direction of the hole and shovel, she led Jacob back to the church car park. ‘We’re onto something. That message was from Wyre. They’ve just been to Cherie Brown’s house, the one who hosted the Halloween night dinner party. Her husband has called saying he arrived home this morning to find their house wrecked. She’s missing. We need to get over there now.’
Chapter Sixty-Three
Cherie stared at her phone.
Meet me at the haunted pond. You know, where we used to tell scary stories when we were kids. No one can know you’re coming. I have to tell you something and it can’t wait. Someone is trying to hurt me and I know who. Hurry. Penny.
Cherie turned her phone off, glad that Christian could no longer ring. She took a swig from the bottle and stared at the sky as she leaned back on the bench. She inhaled the stench from the murky old pond. This was where she was meant to be: the hangout. A place where the adults could never find them, set back from the estate by the nature pond that had long given up on nature. It was home to trolleys and plastic wrappers. They’d called it the haunted pond on account of Penny thinking she saw a lady in the lake ghost emerging from an upturned bike. They’d all laughed at her back then. No wonder Cherie hated Halloween with all the fear it brought with it.
She fell to the floor on her knees, bending to see the underside of the bench.
Cherie loves Isaac. It was still badly carved in the wood. She’d also tried to carve two cats – love cats, but no one else could tell what they were. She’d fancied Isaac back then but not now. For a short while she thought there might have been a spark but then Joanna came on the scene. Besides, she’d been in the middle of her alcoholic turmoil and her marriage had been shaky – a bit like now. She tipped the bottle of vodka down her throat as she remembered the ghosts of her past. This had been their Halloween meetup place all those years ago, before heading to the school disco.
She got back up onto the bench and glanced through the overgrown weeds. No one was coming; besides, it might not even be Penny. Anyone could send a text from a burner phone, she knew that much, but curiosity had overwhelmed her. She had to come and put an end to all this nonsense once and for all. Who? Marcus, maybe. Isaac – yes. Should she be worried? No. If it was Isaac, he had brought her here for a reason. It was the only place they’d kissed. Their one and only encounter as teens. Only he knew about the kiss and they hadn’t spoken about it since. There’s no way she’d kiss him now.
She huddled up and lay on the damp wood. No one was coming. Not a soul. She turned on her back, taking in the granite clouds as they sped by. Shivering, she zipped up her hoodie, just as a sheet of rain began to fall.
Planting her feet on the earth, she felt her knees wobble as her vision deceived her. She’d had too much to drink. Maybe if she could just get back to her car. She could turn her phone back on and if another message didn’t come through, she could sleep the drink off then drive home. As she stepped in the mud, she almost slid along the edge of the pond into the scum. She let out a little laugh. ‘That was close.’
A rattling noise came from the bushes. ‘Penny, Isaac – I came.’ She half-expected one of them to appear but there was no one. She took a few steps forward and parted the brambles before continuing. That’s when she saw the hole in the ground filled with a coffin. She turned to run and bumped into the hooded figure in the long black coat. As she gasped for breath, a hand came up and injected her swiftly before removing the hood.
‘I… I destroyed that coat,’ was all she could murmur.
‘You destroyed me too, but I’m back.’ The voice wasn’t meek, not like she remembered.
She should have known. She had been recognised despite trying to disguise who she was as the woman before her watched on. Her disguise hadn’t worked that well. She now knew that this woman had also been at the squat while she’d been trying to send Alex packing. ‘You’ve been at my house, watching me on the night I had everyone round for dinner.’
‘When I saw Alex after all that time, I then noticed you and wondered how I didn’t recognise you before that moment. Yes, you’ve changed but not that much. Not so much that I wouldn’t recognise such evil. Did you all like my messages? I thought that would get you all going.’
