Chapter 4
Four
Gina
On leaving Chez Ursula’s, Gina scrolled through her messages while waiting for O’Connor to brief PC Smith that he was to wait with her and guard the computer until Garth turned up to collect it. There was a message on her personal phone.
I’m home and I’m totally empty without you. Maybe I can call you in a bit, when you’re tucked up in bed. God, I miss you like crazy, Gina. X
There would be no tucked up in bed for Gina tonight.
Mindy was the most important person on her mind.
She replied to Brodie and ended the message with a couple of kisses.
As she glanced at the bushes dividing the car park and the side road, Bernard caught her eye and beckoned her over.
She waved, letting him know that she was on her way.
O’Connor came out of the pet salon and walked with her, ready to find out what Bernard wanted to show them.
‘I hope they haven’t found a body.’ O’Connor let out a deep breath, white mist coiling up.
‘Same.’ As they reached the cordon, the officer took their details for the log before passing them some gloves, a coverall and some shoe covers. After togging up, he let Gina and O’Connor into the cordoned-off area.
‘Stick to the stepping plates.’ Bernard pointed at them.
‘Will do,’ Gina replied.
After clunking on the metal slabs that led to the car, Gina glanced back.
A small crowd had formed at the end of the road and a uniformed officer was trying to move the people on.
Although it was dark, she tried to take in some of the faces just in case the perpetrator was amongst them.
A girl holding a phone started video messaging someone and a couple with two barking dogs pulling at leads stared at her.
O’Connor’s phone beeped. He took it from his coat pocket.
‘Guv, we have the victim’s brother’s address. ’
‘Great. We’ll head there as soon as we’ve finished here.
’ She took one last glance at the crowd before giving Bernard her full attention.
So many people were taking photos and the last thing she wanted was for anything to get back to Mindy’s brother before they’d spoken to him.
News travelled fast in small towns and Cleevesford was no exception.
It only took one photo marked up with the words police incident, along with a photo of Mindy’s car to alert a loved one. ‘Bernard, what can you tell me?’
‘Firstly, this scene is a nightmare. There is a mountain of things to process. So much litter, a huge collection of nitrous oxide canisters, even syringes – some fresh, some rusty and weathered. A lot of people come through here. Secondly, it’s been used as a toilet and it’s pretty messy. The lab is going to be busy.’
Gina sighed. A cluttered scene meant everything would take an age and, in the meantime, Mindy was still missing. Not only that, the way she’d been sent that video and those instructions, that was calculated.
‘How’s the search coming along?’ O’Connor asked.
‘Nothing has been found in the woods yet but I know uniform are still out there and a few forensics officers are with them, just in case anything is found. An officer with a drone walked into the woods a while back. Ah, there he is.’ Bernard pointed to the police officer who came out of the woodland holding the drone.
‘Anything?’ Gina mouthed, not wanting to draw the crowd’s attention.
The PC discreetly shook his head. She turned back to Bernard.
‘The car’s unlocked. It was unlocked when we arrived. The team has looked inside but there’s nothing out of place and there’s no sign that a struggle took place inside the car.’
Gina pictured the scene in her head and tried to imagine what might have happened.
After seeing that video and message, Mindy rushed out of the salon.
She placed her rabbit in its basket on the ground as she fumbled for her car keys.
She unlocked the door and as she went to pick the rabbit up, she was caught unaware and then there was a struggle, causing the blood on the windscreen.
After that, she disappeared. Gina shivered.
The perpetrator was more than an opportunist. They orchestrated the situation.
Who was the man in the video and who was her ex?
Were they one and the same? She had nothing but questions.
‘How would blood get onto the middle of the windscreen if she was at the driver’s door? ’
‘There’s more. If you look…’ He gestured for her and O’Connor to follow him.
The portable lights reflected off the car.
‘There’s also a scratch across the paintwork on the bonnet and the blood that you can see is just above it.
I’d say that some sort of struggle took place here and there’s also a shallow dent showing that something or someone landed on it with a bit of force. ’
O’Connor scrunched his brow as he took the scene in.
Gina stared into the darkness of the woods, wondering where Mindy could be.
No one had found any sign of her out there which meant the perp must’ve had a vehicle to take her away.
If there had been a dazed-looking, bleeding woman, struggling around the estate, someone would have called emergency services.
There had been no such reports. She shivered as she thought of Mindy out there somewhere, all alone and hurt, relying on them to find her and to bring her home.
‘Is there anything else you can tell me at the moment?’
‘As always, I’ll send you the report when I’ve completed it but that’s really all I have. We’re going to be here a while longer and the car will be collected soon and taken to the compound for further investigation, but that’s it.’
Gina checked her watch. It was time to head to Lonnie Carson’s house to find out what he knew about the relationship his sister ran from.
She glanced over her shoulder, hoping to spot the tall blond youth Ursula had described, but he was nowhere to be seen.
It seemed like a long shot putting him on the suspect list but she also knew that people could be petty.
They could commit the most atrocious crimes in the name of next to nothing and because of that, she couldn’t eliminate him or his gang as suspects until she’d spoken to him.
She also knew that young people were incredibly clued up when it came to technology.
‘There’s something here.’ A woman in a forensics suit placed an evidence marker down and took a moment to photograph the tiny chain before picking it up with her forceps.
‘We must have missed this the first time. It had been trodden into the earth and was trapped in a clump of grass.’ She walked towards them on the stepping plates until she reached Bernard’s side, then she held the bag up.
Gina scrunched her brow to see the tiny item.
The forensics officer continued speaking.
‘It’s a keyring with a tiny gold rabbit dangling off the end.
There’s something engraved on the back.’ The forensics officer held it to the light and scrunched her brows as she read it.
‘It’s a heart with the name Hoppy in the middle.
’ She glanced back. ‘There is a bit of flattened grass nearby that suggests a struggle. It looks possible that the struggle reached this area before someone then half-heartedly tried to plump the grass up again.’
O’Connor raised his brows. Gina swallowed. The keyring definitely belonged to Mindy. ‘She must have put up a fight before trying to run and then she was dragged back towards her car. The perp then had to cover up their tracks.’
O’Connor nodded, agreeing with her, as they headed back to the cordon, removed their protective clothing and put it in the bin.
She turned to the crowd again and at the back, the tall blond-haired boy in the smoking, smiley hoodie stood out above everyone else.
As soon as his stare locked onto hers, he bolted.
He knew something about Mindy’s disappearance. She couldn’t lose him.