You shake your head slowly in a disapproving way before fading into the darkness of the hallway.
‘I’m doing this for us,’ I shout as I hit the wooden arm of the chair, bruising my knuckles.
‘You’re doing this for you,’you whisper.
I want to storm out of the room and pin you against the wall but I know I can’t, it’s impossible. Then my phone pings, grabbing my attention. A smiley lights up in front of a photo. Women love a muscly man. It pings again and again.
‘Don’t do this.’Your shaky cries fill the room.
I head over to the record player to drown you out as I always do. Cranking up the volume, I let the music take me away to another place. A place where the memories are still raw. A place you and I go to together.
It’s two in the afternoon. I know where a certain girl will be right now and I need to be close to her. Close but so far away. The smell of her perfume will tantalise my nostrils and I may even feel warmth emanating from her skin. That would be perfect. I grab my coat, leaving the record running.
‘I’m coming with you.’You wipe your eyes as you step out of the darkness.
‘No you’re not.’ I hate that you want to follow me everywhere. You never leave me alone.
You barge past me and you’re already out the door. The record still plays as the back gate slams.
‘Am.’You stick your tongue out and laugh, having the last word. A raindrop hits your cheek and resembles a tear.‘You don’t need to do this.’
Shaking my head, I moveyouaside. I do need to do this and I will do this because I don’t have you in my life any more. I pull my phone out of my pocket and press the app one more time. The smileys keep on coming.
‘I’m here. I’m always with you. Stay, please.’You hold out your arms trying to lure me back home but I’m not going. I’m on a mission now.
‘Shut up and go home.’
‘Or you’ll…?’
I point to my lips and then to you.‘You know.’ I will shut you up and you know it. You sit cross-legged on the wet path that leads to our home as I walk away. For once, I’ve had the last word. Changes are happening around here, in fact, they’ve happened.
I’m in control now.
9
‘Okay. Guv said we’re heading back to the station after speaking with the bus company and she said can you find out who teaches Amber Slater’s course and get back to us?’ Wyre paused. ‘Yes, we’re here now, just pulling up outside the bus garage. Speak later.’
Gina parked alongside the chemist opposite the large open garage. Several buses were lined up and one stood over a large hole in the ground as a mechanic worked underneath it. The smell of diesel caught her nostrils as she stepped out of the car reminding her of Terry’s oily clothes when he used to come home after working as a tyre fitter – one of his many jobs. The memory of him almost turned her stomach. ‘I think I got the gist of that phone conversation. The appeal for witnesses is about to go out on radio and will be on the local news, and our victim’s father has been informed by uniform.’
‘Yes, Mr Slater is driving down from Tamworth in Staffordshire now. He’s desperate to be here. Jacob and O’Connor are heading to the morgue where they will meet him.’
Gina didn’t envy DS Jacob Driscoll and DC Harry O’Connor. Witnessing the heartbreak on a parent’s face when they saw their dead child always haunted her for a long time afterwards. As a mother and a grandmother, she couldn’t imagine how that must hurt. They stepped over a couple of oily patches and headed across the vast space full of echoing voices and people in blue overalls covered in grease.
Wyre checked her notepad. ‘Can we speak with a Mr Sale? He’s expecting us.’
The man raised one eyebrow as he wiped a dark streak from his cheek. ‘And who are you?’
‘DI Harte.’
‘DS Wyre.’
They held up their identification.
‘Okay. Follow me.’ He ruffled a few flecks of dirt from his hair with his grimy hands and pulled a rag out of his pocket to wipe them on. ‘Just through there.’ He pointed a dirty fingernail to a Perspex box of an office.
‘Thank you.’
The man behind the glass looked to be in his sixties and stared at a screen with a pencil in his mouth. His jumper didn’t quite reach over the bottom of his belly, exposing a thick line of hairy skin. Gina knocked.
