‘I don’t know. There wasn’t an incident that I can recall and she hasn’t mentioned any traumatic events. She doesn’t talk to me much. I think something happened between her and her friends. Isaac, Marcus and Penny. That is just my theory. They all seem to have some insider club thing going on and they do this nudge, nudge, wink, wink thing. She’s also quite terrified of Halloween and goes mad when trick or treaters knock, but she insists on having her friends over every year on the date she fears. I don’t get it. I really don’t know my wife at all.’ He leaned back and stared at the roof of the car as he ground his teeth.
Gina shuffled a little to get comfortable, moving her knee from right under the steering wheel. ‘The ketchup on the back of the kitchen door. It’s outlining a simple picture of a ghost. Can you tell me anything about that?’
He sighed and shook his head. ‘No.’
‘It means nothing to you at all, in any context.’
‘Only that she was scared of Halloween and that included ghosts, ghouls, vampires and anything else horror.’
Taking a deep breath, Gina knew she had to broach the subject of him not going back into his house until forensics had taken all they needed. ‘I’m sorry to have to tell you this but your house is now a potential crime scene. We have found remnants of a hooded black coat and a drawing of a ghost, which are both relevant to our current investigation. We need to search the house for further evidence. Do you have anywhere else you could go until we call you?’
He leaned back. ‘Go ahead. I need to get to the bottom of it to preserve my sanity. Something’s happened to her, hasn’t it? She’s next, isn’t she?’
Gina couldn’t rule out that possibility. ‘We can’t say as yet but we’re hoping your house may contain the evidence we need to find her.’
He pulled a bunch of keys from his pocket, removed two and handed them to Gina. ‘Front and back door keys. Oh, and here’s the garage.’ He passed the last one over. ‘I’ll be at my parents’ house. I have nothing to hide in there.’ He pointed to the house. ‘If Cherie does, then it’s time for it to come out. Can I go now?’
‘We’d appreciate you meeting one of the team at the station to give a formal statement.’
‘Okay. I’ll drive there now.’
‘Thank you.’
‘There’s one more thing. Cherie thought I couldn’t hear her on the phone when she was in the garden but she was talking to one of her friends about Alex living in some squat. They all knew where Alex was. I should have said something when I’d heard of his murder but I never thought for one minute his death could have been anything to do with the people I open my home too and cook dinner for. I didn’t give it a second thought. But now, I don’t know who to trust.’
‘I don’t suppose a triangle would mean anything to Cherie?’
‘What, like the shape?’
‘Yes.’
‘No, she probably wouldn’t know the difference between an equilateral and an isosceles. She used to bunk maths classes at school if she could. She even struggled to help the kids with their maths homework if they asked her.’
‘Thank you.’
Cherie was missing and given the circumstances, she had to work on the fact that she was in a box somewhere, the next in line to die – or was she the killer waiting to pounce? It was time to crack Isaac, the one who’d been lying about his whereabouts for the past week. Her phone rang.
‘I’ll finish up here.’ Jacob smiled.
She stepped out of the car. ‘O’Connor.’
‘Guv, we’ve had a call about the carving in the coffin. You’re not going to believe this.’
Chapter Sixty-Five
‘Mr Slater, this isn’t just going to go away.’ Gina was fast losing patience with Isaac, she could see Jacob was too as he rolled his eyes after another ‘no comment’ and they both had better things to do.
The tiny room stank with the waft of smoke that was coming from his battered-looking bomber jacket every time he moved. ‘We’ll go over some of the questions again. Does a ghost mean anything to you? Could it represent a place?’
Location three on the triangle was still a mystery and the only clue they had as to where another body might be buried. She felt her fists clenching. He knew how important it was that she had this information and he was purposely holding back, that much she could tell.
‘I’m saying nothing. Why should I give you all the rope you need to hang me when I didn’t do anything?’ He leaned back and gave her a wry smile. His stare was quite fixed and it made Gina want to turn away but she wouldn’t.
‘You lied to us about where you were on Monday the twenty-sixth of October. Why?’ Gina checked the time. Half an hour had gone by and the man hadn’t answered a single question. ‘Why?’
He leaned back and rocked the chair, smirking as he stared at the ceiling.
‘Your friend, Cherie Brown, is missing and we know she was at the squat on that night too, late that night. We know she was having some sort of argument with our victim, Alexander Swinton, and soon after he turned up dead. Where were you in all this?’ He continued to smirk. ‘Were you keeping lookout? Were you aiding and abetting? Were you in the garden wearing a long black coat? You can see how it looks. Your partner, Joanna, even lied for you, telling us that you were with her all night, but you weren’t, were you?’ Gina leaned in and stared at the man. His gaze met hers and his smile dropped. ‘What’s going on, Mr Slater? Did you lure Alex to his death? Did you dig the grave?’
