Grant shrugged. ‘No comment.’
‘Where is your burner phone?’
He shrugged again. ‘The arsehole who locked me in the boat obviously took it if you didn’t find it.’
Gina had called forensics and they had confirmed that no phone was found at the scene or in the surrounding area. ‘Did you see who locked you in the boat?’
‘No. I got hit and I think they injected me with something that sent me to sleep. At a guess and given the weird trippy dreams I had, I’d say it was ketamine. The next thing I knew, I’d woken up where you found me and I was tied up. All I could do was kick with both feet.’
‘When did you get attacked?’
‘Last night, about eleven.’
‘What were you doing at the boat at that time?’ Gina leaned forward, her gaze not leaving his. He would have had opportunity to murder Taylor.
‘I got a message from Annabel.’
‘Annabel had the number of your burner phone?’
He nodded. ‘I told her it was my work phone. She called me on it when I didn’t answer my other phone, as did a lot of people. My brother, my friends. It wasn’t a secret number.’
‘What did the message say?’
‘It said that she was in huge trouble and she needed my help. I know we haven’t had the best relationship but she’s the mother of my child. There was no way I wouldn’t meet her if she needed help. I had it in my head that someone was threatening her, someone who ran her and her friend over and I wanted to help her. It’s obvious now. Whoever did this to me was waiting at the boat pretending to be her. The message came up from an unknown number. They knew I’d go.’
‘Where have you been since we saw you at the café?’ Gina knew the man had to have been staying somewhere local.
‘Sleeping rough about five minutes from here, in a shed on Langley Road. I stayed there, not knowing what to do or where to go. I had Taylor calling me all the time on the burner and I knew you lot were after me. Taylor laid low too. I’m sure she mentioned that she’d been staying with one of her doped-up friends but I don’t know who. She wouldn’t have gone back to her aunt’s place. She was always moaning that the woman was constantly on her back and letting herself into the annexe. I kept out of the way because I wanted to find a way of clearing my name before I came to you. I knew you’d find the drugs and I knew you’d blame me for Annabel going missing. When I got that message, I hoped that everything would get sorted; that Annabel would be okay and we could start thinking about getting back to whatever normal we could manage.’
‘Do you have any enemies?’
‘No.’
‘Do you owe anyone any money? Maybe a drug dealer?’
‘No.’ He scrunched his brow. ‘I only owe the boatyard. I was meant to pay for the storage on the boat. I’d been going through a bad period with money.’
‘How so?’ Gina placed her hands together on the table and Wyre leaned back in the chair.
‘It was stupid. I wanted nice things like anyone else does. Nice clothes, good shoes. I wanted to go out, have a boat and get my Merc all done up.’ He paused. ‘That’s not all true. I…’ He blew out slowly and pressed his lips together for a few seconds. ‘I have a drug problem. Most of our money went on drugs. One lie to my wife led to another, until it felt like my whole life was a lie. I take speed.’ He began to tap his fingers on the table. ‘It started off quite innocent. I just wanted to be able to perform better and run faster, feel less sluggish. A guy at the gym told me that he knew what would help. He introduced me to speed. Fixed me up with his dealer and that was the start of it. Annabel and I had normal jobs, jobs that paid the mortgage, bought a few days out and an annual family holiday. We had our daughter to bring up. There was never much money left so I ended up drawing money with my credit card to buy drugs.’
‘Did you deal to pay for the drugs?’
‘No comment.’ It was obvious to Gina that Grant was going no comment on all lines of questioning that opened up discussions as to whether he was dealing.
‘What happened after that?’
‘I got fitter and faster but I also craved more highs. That’s when I really started to feel good about myself. I remember that Taylor had mentioned how fit I was looking. How pathetic does that sound? What a cliché.’ He placed his head in his shaky hands. ‘I enjoyed the attention. I mean, Taylor is fun, she’s fit, she was my escape from the trappings of family life but she wants more than I can give her. I stupidly said that I’d leave Annabel for her, I promised her, but I didn’t want to. Taylor was a fling, nothing more. I regret ever starting anything with her. She’s become clingier and goes on about us moving in together. I’m going to have to let her down gently, I suppose. She’s not a bad person. I know I’m the one to blame.’
Gina knew then that Grant had no idea that Taylor had been murdered. Either that or he was a brilliant actor. ‘I’m really sorry to have to tell you this, but Taylor was murdered last night.’
He flung his torso back and held the palm of his hand on his forehead as he exhaled. ‘It’s all my fault. I should never have started anything with her. Whoever has Annabel and has killed Taylor, they’re trying to get to me.’ He gripped the edge of the table, his knuckles white.
‘Which takes us back to the drugs. Who was supplying you?’
‘No comment.’
‘Mr Braddock, your wife is in serious danger. Who is your supplier?’
