The call ended and Madison arrived at the river. The whooshing of water was running violently under the bridge, dragging whole branches with it. She glanced across, unable to see Worcester Cathedral in the distance today. There was no time for lunch now. She hurried back to the university car park for her car and checked her watch. It would take her a good forty minutes to get back to Cleevesford so best not to delay. As she half ran and walked, she called one of her classmates to excuse her from the next lecture. She’d have to catch up on her missed lecture notes over the course of the week. As she reached her car, her phone beeped again.
I’ve booked something exciting for tomorrow night. Please say you’re free.
She dropped the phone in her pocket. He could wait. Without knowing how things were going to be with Nanna, there was no way she’d be able to answer that question. She only hoped that he hadn’t gone to much expense. As she turned her engine on, she spotted someone standing alone in the mist, nothing more than an outline. She revved the car up and pulled away, leaving whoever it was behind without looking back.
21
‘Well, how about that? Mr Collins, the lecturer, has an allegation on file against him for inappropriate behaviour.’ Gina threw her coat over a chair in the incident room as Jacob shivered a little on entering. The heater cut out, leaving the room silent until Briggs coughed and sat at the head of the main table. When she’d seen Mr Collins, she knew something was off but she couldn’t pinpoint what it was. Now she knew. All she needed was the finer details.
Gina and Jacob sat at each side of him.
Jacob pulled out a bag of crisps and Gina opened a cereal bar, both of them eager to eat something while they worked.
‘Where are Mrs O’s cakes when you need them?’ Gina knew that O’Connor’s wife would be treating them to something lovely soon as she’d been working on her brioche, but it wasn’t today and today she craved something more than a cereal bar. It had already been full-on and it wasn’t about to stop. Her mind flashed back to the sight of Amber’s body lying in the shallow water and then forward a little to Amber’s father, Theo Slater. She had to work this out and quick. He deserved to know who killed his daughter.
‘What have we got then?’ Jacob crunched on a crisp and leaned back in his chair.
Briggs ran a hand through his hair, his eyes looking a little shadowy around the edge. He gave her a glance and she smiled. ‘We have Mr Collins in interview room one. I want it recorded even though he’s come in voluntarily.’
Gina crunched on the chewy nut bar. ‘What do we know so far?’ A spec of nut hit her arm as she spoke.
Briggs flicked over a few sheets of paper in a refill pad. ‘He’s thirty-seven years old, married with twin daughters, aged four. This report goes back twelve years, when he was twenty-five. He started out by teaching various elements of management accountancy through home courses but this involved monthly meetups for the students. One of the meetups took place in a room that was rented at the back of a café in Birmingham. After the tutorials were over, one of the students stayed behind to ask a few questions and this led to them having drinks in a bar together. She claims that he met up with her at other times under the guise of helping her through a tricky module, but on the fourth occasion she said he’d tried to kiss her, then groped her. She claims she pushed him off and left but then the messages started. In them he’d claimed she’d been leading him on all this time. He kept sending the messages and she was sure he’d been following her too. She thought she’d seen him outside where she lived and on the street when she’d left work. The only other thing outside her statements is a neighbour’s. A woman next door to Miss Gregory saw and described Collins watching Miss Gregory from the street. She reported it to the police but there wasn’t enough evidence.’
Gina’s mind flashed back to when she worked part-time in a shop while at college. At seventeen, she couldn’t forget the manager, his breath stale with coffee, who happened to accidentally touch her bottom every time he brushed past her. If only she knew back then what she knew now. At the time she’d been too scared to say anything, not wanting to be dismissed from her job. Her mouth suddenly felt dry as a memory of Terry pinning her to the bed flashed through her mind. Sexual assault was more common than people thought. She swallowed and cleared her throat, trying to ignore the prickling sensation that was creeping up her neck.
‘How about the messages? Didn’t they offer enough as evidence?’ Gina wondered what enough evidence meant in this case.
Briggs cleared his throat. ‘Looking at the case, it seems that it was dropped by the victim. The messages alone weren’t strong enough to take the case to court anyway and there was never any direct evidence of him following her. There were talks of a restraining order but in her words, the harassment stopped and she just wanted to forget him.’
‘So he gets away with it.’ She shook her head. It was a story that was all too familiar. Small-time harassment, stalking, domestic abuse, it often went without punishment or the case was dropped. Evidence was hard to find in a lot of cases. She only hoped that Mr Collins hadn’t been harassing Amber in the same way, leaving her worried for the future of her course if she spoke up. Again, she thought back to her first job and she knew that her slimeball boss had done this on many occasions to the many girls that worked there. The other staff even joked about him making the whole thing seem less serious, making Gina believe that he was untouchable.
Jacob screwed up his crisp packet and threw it in the mesh bin. ‘What was the victim’s full name?’
Briggs flicked to another page. ‘Scarlett Gregory, age nineteen at the time. She was working for a company in Birmingham called Revelation Logistics as a trainee accountant. She lived with her parents in Hall Green back then.’
‘I suppose we best see what he has to say for himself?’ Gina stood and pushed her chair under the table. ‘Any news on the contents of Amber Slater’s laptop?’
Briggs scrolled through the emails on his tablet. ‘I’m expecting an update soon. I’ll keep you posted. Hopefully we’ll have something back before the briefing.’ He gave her a small smile before grabbing his pile of work from the table and leaving.
‘I suppose we best see what our Mr Collins has to say. Given what has happened to Amber, his past behaviour is nothing short of creepy.’
22
Gina placed her fresh mug of coffee on the desk in the interview room.
Jacob pressed the record button and the machine began rolling.
Mr Collins looked up and smiled. The muscles around his mouth were betraying him and his eyes were telling a different story. The faint odour of sweat that filled the room on such a cold day told her that their suspect was nervous. ‘Mr Collins. I know you’ve already been told, but you are here voluntarily, you can leave at any time but we’d like to talk to you about Amber Slater. For the tape, DI Harte…’
‘And DS Driscoll are conducting the interview.’ Jacob kept a neutral expression as he spoke.
Mr Collins shuffled in his seat, keeping his hands on his lap, under the desk.
‘Of course. I just want to help.’ He pulled his blue tie loose and unbuttoned the rest of his grey overcoat. The top of his black hair almost looked white with shine as the light from above caught it. Gina was sure there was more warmth coming from that than the whirring heater.
‘Can you confirm you full name and age?’ Gina crossed her legs under the desk and leaned in to meet the gaze of Mr Collins.
‘Clayton Collins. I’m thirty-seven.’ His dark eyes felt like they were drawing her in. Despite how unkempt he looked, Gina could see that he’d perfected his demeanour to be almost flirtatious. The slight smile when he said his name, the intense look but not quite a stare, only held to the point of possible uncomfortableness but not a moment longer.
