Chapter 40
Forty
Gina
As O’Connor trundled up the tree-lined Raven Drive, Gina unclipped her seat belt, ready to step out of the car as soon as he pulled over.
They hurried to the boot and took out their stab vests.
The Victorian four-storey building with its two crumbling pillars left Gina standing in its shadows.
Scaffolding hid the other features, along with the afternoon gloom that had been around for the past week.
Two police cars and a van were parked, hidden from the main house and several uniformed officers caught up with them, one carrying a battering ram.
PC Smith nudged through and spoke in a hushed voice. They could only do their best in not letting any occupants know they were there. ‘We tried to contact the owner of the property but there was no one in and no one answered the number we have for the company. We left a message.’
She addressed the officers in her loudest whisper.
‘Okay, we’re going to have to go in regardless.
It could be a matter of life and death for Dustin.
An ambulance is waiting at the end of the drive, ready to receive him if we find him in there.
’ She paused. ‘We don’t know if Spencer is working with someone else so he might still be behind all that is happening.
We don’t have enough evidence to eliminate that theory.
Whoever has Dustin is dangerous, so stay vigilant and keep back from them.
After all, we know that Mindy was stabbed in the back.
’ She swallowed as she caught sight of a white van that had been parked alongside the house.
They still hadn’t found the white van that Abel claimed to have seen just before Mindy was taken. ‘Can you two go around the back?’
The two uniformed officers sprinted away, around the building.
Gina poked a finger underneath her stab vest. It never failed to make her feel breathless or maybe it was the fact that they were going into the unknown?
She stood at the pillars and took one step at a time until she reached the front door.
On trying the handle, she nodded to the other officers to try windows, other doors – any way in that didn’t rely on bashing the door down.
If they could enter discreetly, that would be a better option.
O’Connor waved a hand. ‘Windows are locked.’
PC Smith ran back and forth checking everywhere. ‘All locked up, guv.’
She knocked. ‘Police, open the door.’
No answer.
She nodded for the PC to continue. He brought the battering ram back and started slamming it against the heavy wooden door.
On the fifth strike it almost gave way and one more groan from the hinges, it gave up completely, bouncing off the wall as they charged in.
Gina entered first. ‘Police! Is there anyone in the house?’ She tried to turn the lights on but the house remained in grey gloom.
Devoid of furniture, the tiled floors and high ceilings left their words echoing.
She nodded to two PCs to quickly scan downstairs.
‘Clear,’ one of them said as he continued through the rooms, checking more thoroughly.
She ascended the creaky stairs until she reached the first floor.
In turn, each of them burst through a door, revealing nothing but empty rooms. Same with the second floor.
There was only the attic left. Getting breathless from all the stairs, Gina inhaled and exhaled a couple of times before continuing up the final few to the attic.
O’Connor came up beside her and stopped.
The door to the attic was padlocked. She grabbed it then pushed and pulled with all her strength, tearing some of the rotten wood away from the frame.
She kicked the door, determined that it wasn’t going to beat her.
One final kick had it crashing open. ‘Police!’
The pitch-blackness took her breath away.
The last thing she needed was to be spooked by a colony of bats coming at her again.
She grappled for her torch and held it in her trembling hand, then she gasped.
Light glinted off the metal chains that lay in a pile on the floor next to the chair.
Thick plastic covered the area under it.
O’Connor held his torch out to further illuminate the dark corners.
She drew a line with her torchlight as a scurrying sound caught her attention.
Her heart banged against her ribcage, the vest ever tighter, like a vice squeezing the life out of her, then she exhaled as she caught site of the creature.
A grey squirrel darted into the corner, escaping through the floorboards.
She exhaled and placed a hand over her chest. At least it wasn’t bats.
She ran over to the chair and shouted to O’Connor. ‘Call it in. We need forensics at the scene.’ Scrunching her brow, she kneeled down, taking in the chains and the chair, looking for any sign that someone had been in it not long ago.
‘Do you think the perp was going to bring Dustin here or maybe he’s already been here and they’ve moved him?’ O’Connor gazed around the room.
‘I just don’t know. It doesn’t feel right. There’s not a single mark on this plastic and the chains look like they’ve just been tipped out of a bag from the hardware shop. Also, there’s not a single scuff or scratch on it. The room is bare apart from this set up.’
‘Do you think it could be prep for a future victim?’
‘Maybe,’ Gina replied. ‘Or…’ She had another thought but it was too early to share.
‘Or what?’ O’Connor asked. ‘Are you thinking that it could’ve been scrubbed clean?’
She inhaled, not noticing the lingering scent of cleaning products. All she could smell was damp wood.
‘There’s something on the floor, just behind the rafter.’ One of the PCs carefully stepped over towards the far end of the attic to take a closer look.
‘What is it?’ Gina peered over but couldn’t see anything.
‘It’s jutting out from behind a rafter.’ The PC bent over to take a closer look. ‘It’s a wallet and something silver. Actually, it’s a silver earring in the shape of a bar and it’s… it’s covered in what looks like blood.’
The PC pulled a pair of gloves on.
‘Can you check inside the wallet?’ Gina asked.
The PC opened the wallet.
As soon as the PC read the name on the card, the hairs on the back of Gina’s neck prickled.
She grabbed her phone and called Briggs.
He answered immediately. ‘We’re heading back to the station.
There’s a sheet of plastic with a chair on it in the attic.
Next to it are some chains. We’ve found a wallet and a possibly bloodied earring.
This is all at the house conversion that Spencer had been working on. ’
‘We have Spencer in custody,’ Briggs replied.
‘I know but we can’t rule them out as working together. Keep Ursula there when she arrives as I need to interview her.’
‘We won’t be able to keep him for much longer now. Who does the wallet belong to?’
‘Jackson Dunton. Mindy’s landlord. It’s his.’