He remained silent.
‘For the tape, Mr Braddock isn’t replying. Where were you on the night that Annabel was taken?’
‘At the cabin, with Taylor.’
‘She couldn’t verify that you were there all night. She said she was really drunk and went to bed and that you stayed in the living room.’
‘I didn’t go anywhere. I watched TV.’
‘What did you watch?’
He stared blankly at the wall behind Gina with his mouth open before his attention came back to her. ‘I can’t remember. I was tired. Maybe I fell asleep.’
‘Why did we find bloodied tissues in the bin on the decking?’
He swallowed. ‘I cut myself on the cap of a beer bottle while I was unscrewing it.’
‘The blood belonged to the victim of a hit-and-run. It belonged to Jennifer Bailey, the friend that Annabel was with on the night she disappeared. Those bloodied tissues place you at the scene. That’s the only way they could have ended up in the bin at the cabin.’ Gina leaned back, her stare intense. They had caught Grant Braddock out on a huge lie. His feet began to tap erratically on the floor. She wondered how long he’d last before his need for drugs would incapacitate him. They were racing against the clock for so many reasons now; the biggest being Annabel. ‘We’re looking at very serious charges here. Kidnapping and false imprisonment of your wife; attempted murder of Jennifer Bailey. I think you need to start telling the truth.’
‘I feel sick. I need a break.’
Gina glanced at the solicitor, who spoke up. ‘I request that my client has a break.’
‘Granted. We’ll take five minutes.’ Gina tidied the case papers into a pile while Wyre spoke for the tape before stopping it.
She hurried out to Briggs who had been watching from behind the two-way mirror. A part of her wished that she didn’t have to talk to him given that he wanted to speak to her. She didn’t want to hear, not now. ‘He left Jennifer in the road to die. Whatever happened, he’s guilty of that and now he’s lying through his teeth. If he’s lying about that, what else is he lying about?’ Keeping calm was going to be hard. She thought of what Jacob was going through, of him and Jennifer losing the baby they’d only just both found out they were having and Jennifer not knowing anything that had been happening while she lay in an induced coma, fighting for her life. Grant Braddock calling an ambulance straight away may have made all the difference but instead he’d left her there to die.
‘We’ve had an update from forensics.’ Briggs cleared his throat.
‘What is it?’
‘There was a keyring left at the hit-and-run scene, amongst all the fancy cocktail sticks. A print has been lifted but it doesn’t belong to Annabel or Jennifer and we don’t have a match on the system. This was dropped by someone else who was there at the time as it was on top of their items.’
FORTY-NINE
Annabel
It’s a weird feeling, being drugged over and over. I have to keep thinking my name as if I’m saying it aloud in my head. Annabel – that’s who I am.
As for my captor, it’s not Grant. Grant didn’t take me to the boat and leave me there. I wish it had been Grant. I could have reasoned with him. I heard Grant groaning in pain last night, just as I thought I might get my own freedom back but it wasn’t meant to be.
Trying to get off a boat while in a woozy haze isn’t easy. He cut the ties from my hands and feet so that I could get down but all the while, I felt the crowbar touching my shoulder. I knew I needed to leave a sign that I’d been at the boat and the only thing I had time to do was leave the pi symbol on the bottom as I climbed down the ladder, finishing it with a full fingerprint. My signature.
Throughout, he made sure I knew the knife was in his pocket and he’d use either that or the crowbar. Grant is as good as dead. I know that now. He won’t let Grant live and he even told me he was going to go back and finish him off. This man thinks he loves me, but this isn’t love. He took me. He imprisoned me and now I’m once again bound and tied but in the boot of a car. I know where he’s taking me. All this because I turned him down. My marriage is over, I know that, but I wanted the chance to find myself, to be on my own. I was going to give Grant the chance to get clean and come back to be the best father he could be and hope that the nasty things he said and did were just because of the drugs. Even though he’s been an awful husband, I’m struggling to hate him. Maybe it’s because I don’t love him or maybe I pity him. He lied about so much. He thought I didn’t know about his stash of drugs and money but I did. I also knew his other phone wasn’t a work phone. He must have thought I was stupid. As if his company would have given him such an old basic phone. There’s no way he could work on that.
Taylor thought I had no idea what was going on but I had my suspicions before I found that note. A part of me couldn’t believe that the girl I once taught at high school was sleeping with my husband. The thought of them having sex turns my stomach, even now. I could smell her on his bedsheets in the spare room. They’d been in there together while I was at work. Talking to Jen had cleared my head. I was ready to confront him.
I now know that Taylor has been murdered. My captor told me. She hurt me deeply but there was no way she deserved what she got. Grant is trapped inFreedom. Taylor has been stabbed and now my captor wants Cally. That hurts more than anything else. My hands quiver as I struggle fruitlessly with my binds. Even if I was able to step out of the car boot and run, I know I’d fall. I’m weak and nauseous.
An image of my little girl fills my mind and the thought that the person who put me here is now going for her makes me sick to the stomach. I’m her mother. She grew in my womb. I stroked my belly and sang to her in the hope that she would know how loved and wanted she was. The thought of the little person I pushed from my body being scared, hurt, or worse is more than I can bear.
I try to kick again but this time, someone has heard me.
It’s him. Now that I know who I’m up against, I feel worse. Everything about this is worse than I’d ever imagined it could be. Both mine and my little girl’s lives are over.
FIFTY
The tape was rolling again. ‘Feeling better?’
