Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
Gina
Gina read the messages that Spencer had sent to Mindy. Garth stood waiting for her to finish.
Mindy, I love you, please, you have to meet me. I know where you are because I’m outside. I have never loved Ursula like I love you. I’m leaving her.
I’m waiting. Why aren’t you coming out? I’ll come in there and both of our lives will be blown apart, yours more than mine. Don’t make me do it…
Gina read a couple of earlier messages. Mindy had broken up with him two days previously. ‘Is the recipient’s number registered to Mindy?’
Jacob shook his head. ‘She didn’t have a contract phone.’
Gina frowned. ‘Garth?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did you find anything at all, in maybe a hidden file on the crushed phone at the scene?’
‘I wish we had. It’s destroyed, reset and the SIM card had been removed. I was about to tell you all that. I have a few things to share but I’ll talk everyone through them after you’ve interviewed Spencer Grey.’
‘Okay, well we best head in and see what Mr Grey has to say for himself. Thank you for this.’
Garth nodded and headed back up the corridor.
Gina pushed the door open and waited for Jacob to sit next to the recording device so they could get started.
Spencer’s solicitor looked to be around thirty and her white hijab framed her face.
The solicitor whispered a few words to Mr Grey before sitting back in her plastic chair.
Jacob went through the motions again, introducing them all for the tape.
It was now almost five that afternoon, nearly twenty-four hours since Mindy had vanished into thin air.
‘Mr Grey, where is Mindy Carson?’
He shrugged.
‘For the camera, Mr Grey shrugged,’ Jacob said.
Gina continued. ‘Tell me about your relationship with Mindy?’
The solicitor whispered to him behind her hand.
‘We had a relationship.’
‘Had?’
‘She broke it off the night before last.’ He rubbed his stubble and looked away. ‘You have my phone, you can see she contacted me.’
‘Tell me what happened, Mr Grey?’
His shoulders slumped as he and his solicitor whispered again for a few seconds. ‘We had something. I didn’t intend for anything to happen but she was always around our house.’
‘Our?’ Gina needed him to clarify.
‘My and Ursula’s house. She kept inviting Mindy round all the time because Mindy had run from a bad relationship and Ursula kept saying that Mindy needed help.
Mindy needed to work more hours than Ursula could afford to pay her so we dipped into our savings.
God, I hated bloody Mindy then, but something happened.
I don’t know how, really. It was like it was meant to be when we kissed.
Mindy felt awful because Ursula had helped her so much and I felt like a right rat because Ursula and me, we’ve been married for ten years now. ’
‘So, you began an affair with Mindy?’
He nodded.
‘Can you speak for the tape?’
‘Sorry, yes.’
‘You sent Mindy a message yesterday at seventeen forty-five. “Mindy, I love you, please, you have to meet me. I know where you are because I’m outside. I have never loved Ursula like I love you.” Then there was another immediately after.
“I’m waiting. Why aren’t you coming out?
I’ll come in there and both of our lives will be blown apart, yours more than mine.
” Did you harass Mindy when she came out of Chez Ursula’s before forcing her into your car and taking her? ’
‘No.’
‘It’s not looking good for you, Mr Grey.
’ Gina paused to let her statement sink in.
‘What does OpenMeSmiler mean to you?’ Spencer Grey would have had access to Mindy’s home.
He’d have plenty of opportunity to set up the cameras and link them up to her Wi-Fi.
Given the last message he sent to her, he was clearly obsessed.
The solicitor whispered to him and he shook his head.
‘I can deal with this myself,’ he shouted before turning away from her.
The solicitor dropped her pen on the table.
He pressed his lips together and stared at Gina and Jacob for a few seconds.
‘I could go no comment all the way but your questions are absurd so I’ll humour them. Open me friggin’ what?’
‘Smiler,’ Gina repeated.
He shrugged. ‘Don’t know what that means.’ He sniffed and scratched his nose before looking away.
‘You were outside Chez Ursula’s and Mindy left. What happened then?’
He shrugged. ‘I don’t know because I didn’t hang around. I knew sending that message was a huge mistake and I felt like a fool so I drove off.’
That was convenient, Gina wanted to say. ‘Did you see anyone else around?’
‘Only the kids that do Ursula’s head in. They were kicking a ball around.’
‘Where were you parked?’
‘By Mindy’s car so Ursula wouldn’t see me through the front window.’
‘What time did you leave?’
‘About a minute after I sent that message. As I said, I knew I was making a fool of myself. I took my sorry ass out of the way.’
‘Where did you go?’
‘Home, then I got a call from Ursula telling me what had happened and I panicked.’
Gina checked her notes. ‘You brought Mrs Grey to the station after that so she could make her statement but you failed to collect her. Where did you go then?’
‘I stayed at my mum’s house. She’s on holiday. I’ve been watering her plants. I needed to get away because I thought you’d see the messages I sent to Mindy and blame me, so I bought myself some breathing space in the hope that she’d turn up.’
‘Can anyone verify that you were at your mother’s house?’
He shook his head. ‘She lives in the countryside and has no neighbours.’
‘Does she have a doorbell camera or CCTV?’
He shook his head. ‘No.’
An empty house in the middle of nowhere was a perfect place to hold a kidnap victim but it was all sounding too easy.
It was possible he’d taken her there first before moving her on to another location.
Gina couldn’t dismiss that he may have left a clue behind or even Mindy.
They had to check the land, outbuildings, sheds.
‘We’ll need the address and keys to the house.
’ Mindy’s safety was her first priority and if Mindy was there, they were going to find her.
‘What? I can’t give you my mum’s keys, she’ll go mad if she knows the police have ransacked her house. You can’t go in there.’
‘Mr Grey, Mindy is missing and we have reason to believe she’s hurt and needs urgent medical attention. She hasn’t been seen since yesterday and you were the last person to contact her. If you don’t give us the keys, we are still going in.’ She knew they could in the name of saving life or limb.
He let out a slow breath and started whispering with his solicitor. ‘They’re with my things that you took when you lot arrested me.’ Beads of sweat formed at his brow. Could Spencer Grey have been stupid enough to lead them right to Mindy?
‘I’ll also need a list of the locations that you’ve been working at recently and your employer’s details so that we can verify what you say.’
He folded his arms and leaned back, staring up at her almost through his eyelashes.
She wanted to look away but she wasn’t going to give Spencer Grey the satisfaction of making her do that.
‘Okay. The details are in my phone. I don’t have them on me right now.
’ He wiped the sweat with the back of his arm.
‘And your mum’s details?’
‘They are there, too. Under Mum.’
‘How familiar are you with covert surveillance devices?’
‘I’m not. I’m in the business of scaffolding.’
Gina continued. ‘You can get these kind of devices anywhere and they’re very cheap and simple to use.’
‘If you say so, DI Harte.’ He rolled his eyes.
She was getting to him and him slipping up and telling them exactly where Mindy was would be the perfect outcome.
It was time to push him over the edge. ‘I’m going to show you something.
’ Gina paused. If Spencer didn’t make the video, it would be a shock to him and she had to bear that in mind, but right now he was at the top of the list as a suspect and it was evidence.
‘Okay.’ He unfolded his arms, not taking his eyes off Gina until she opened the laptop and clicked play.
‘I’m showing Mr Grey a video of him and Mindy Carson having sex.’
He broke eye contact with Gina and shot a glance towards his solicitor. ‘What? This can’t be real.’
The video ran, showing his eagle tattoo going back and forth as he and Mindy had sex, on the same flowery quilt cover that Gina had seen on the bed. Mindy’s birthmark was also clearly on display. She paused the recording. ‘That’s a very distinctive tattoo. Is that you, Mr Grey?’
He swallowed. ‘Yes.’
‘Did you covertly record yourself and Mindy, using her laptop or another device in her bedroom, before emailing it to Mindy yesterday evening while she was at Chez Ursula’s?
’ He pressed his lips together. ‘Did you send it to get her to leave? Were you so angry that she broke up with you, you resorted to threatening her with this private recording?’ Gina pressed play again until the message came up at the end.
She watched Spencer slowly read it. Gina read it aloud for the tape.
‘The message at the end reads, “Delete this message. Leave the salon now. If I see you touch your phone, I’ll send this to all your contacts. That birthmark is so unique.”’
‘But, why would I send it to everyone? I wouldn’t want Ursula or anyone to see that.’
‘You declared your love for her in the messages you sent just before you disappeared. You said you were leaving your wife for her. You were upset because she dumped you. Is that correct?’
He went to open his mouth and then closed it again.
‘Mr Grey. Where is Mindy? She’s bleeding and she needs medical treatment. It’s not too late to do the right thing. If you love her, you’ll tell us.’
He began to seethe, breathing in and out until the veins on his temples bulged.
‘I do love her.’ He slammed a fist on the table, making the laptop and their paper cups of water bounce.
‘Whoever did that violated me, too. Don’t you see?
’ He paused. ‘I’m a victim. Whoever recorded her, recorded me, too, and you’re treating me like I’m a criminal. ’ He folded his arms.
The solicitor butted in. ‘My client has had enough now. He has no more to say.’
‘But—’
‘Mr Grey, please let me do my job.’
The interview was over. Gina needed to grab Mr Grey’s keys and head over to his mother’s house.
Leaving Jacob to tie everything up, she left and hurried back to the incident room where Garth was sitting at the head of the table. ‘We’ve had a big breakthrough. We’ve found OpenMeSmiler.’