‘And the names?’
The woman began scrolling through her camera. ‘I’ve left the paper where it is for now but take a look.’
Gina leaned over Kempsey’s shoulder and clearly saw two names.
Kain Pickering and Chris Briggs.
NINETEEN
JUSTINE
Justine sat in the family room at the police station waiting for Danny to join her. She started pacing up and down, not that she could really pace far given that they were holding her in an oversized box room that stank of old kebab. A tension headache started to spread across her forehead. She needed to get out of this oppressive building and give her stupid son a good shake. As for her husband, when she found him, she was going to be arrested for murder because she was going to kill him. How dare he simply vanish and leave her with all this on her plate?
Her mind wandered back to the hoodie that the detective kept asking about in the interview. Why did they want to know about some blue hoodie that Craig owned? That hoodie was bought from a shop and those shops were in almost every town in the country. Lots of men owned that exact design and colour. Anyway, as soon as they’d ransacked her beautiful house, they’d find the damn garment and leave them alone.
She couldn’t help but think about Danny and what he had asked her to do that morning. As instructed, she’d removed his laptop from the garden room and it was now in her mother’s hobby room. Her phone beeped.
The police seem to be at your house. Is it your son again? Has he been joyriding in some other poor soul’s car????
Great. Number five, the woman she’d been at war with over their bins was now relishing the fact that Justine’s home was being ransacked. She punched in her response.
With respect, mind your own business for a change.
No way she was being nice, despite always arguing with Craig over how things with their neighbour had escalated. She knew that the retired busybody would now be having tea with number seven. Goosebumps formed on her arms as she imagined what they might say if they found out her husband or son had been involved in a murder. Would Lindy hate her? They hadn’t been friends for long, but they’d all got along. Pia and Lindy would turn their backs on her. It wasn’t even her fault and she hated herself already.
Her body started to ache from all the tense pacing. Only yesterday, she’d been living her almost best life – almost only because of Craig – and now she was at the police station and all she could think was, what have her son and husband done? She couldn’t let the detectives hound Danny which is why she’d lied and forced Danny to lie too. She nervously bit her longest nail, tearing the gel layer off with her teeth. Danny was everything to her, despite spending all that time being annoyed with him for leaving his football boots lying around. This was bigger than that, so much bigger. If only she had nothing more to worry about than Craig having an affair with Simeon and Danny leaving his boots lying around.
Had she done the right thing? After all, her son told her he’d done something terrible and with her being a fixer, she had to correct his mistake.
Her stomach swirled with nerves. She spotted a plant and wondered if it would be okay to vomit in the pot if she had no choice. She found its presence slightly reassuring. She gasped and allowed herself to succumb to the overwhelm that had been threatening to burst out during the interview. She was on her own. It was okay to feel like this when no one was looking. She inhaled and exhaled rapidly and deeply until she was dizzy, then she sat back on the couch, thinking long and hard about what she’d just said to DC Wyre and she was so glad she’d told Danny to say the same thing.
It’s Craig. He hasn’t been himself lately. He’s always angry and shouts a lot. It all started when he paid a deposit in cash to Kain for our new home security system. He went to Maura’s house and argued with Kain…
TWENTY
‘I relayed that information to the team while we were back there,’ Jacob said as he drove.
‘How would the victim have Briggs’s name? And Kain’s too?’
‘That’s what we need to work out.’ Jacob continued along Cleevesford High Street. ‘Kain was in policing years ago, wasn’t he?’
‘He did six months and left. I checked.’
‘And DCI Briggs is off the case.’
Gina nodded, knowing she couldn’t mention that Briggs had called her. ‘I wonder if the DCI and Kain worked together back then.’ She paused. ‘And what about the other victim? It looks like he’d written both of their names down.’
‘Male, fifties. The age fits.’ Jacob shrugged.
Fraser had told them to stay on schedule and visit Sheena May. All Gina wanted was to head back to the station and see what he had to say about Briggs. Her fingers itched to message her ex-lover and tell him about the names on the note. She pulled her personal phone out, not being able to resist the urge any longer. She had to risk messaging the phone he usually used, just as a concerned friend.
Hey, are you okay? Do you need anything? Maybe I could pop by, see how you are?
Jacob pulled up on the high street, right outside Sheena’s house. It had been slotted in between a solicitor’s office and a funeral home. Gina’s phone beeped. It was a message from Briggs.
We can’t message.
She understood and placed her phone away again. The best thing she could do was to get on with her job. Her phone beeped again. It was a message from Brodie.
