Chapter 34
THIRTY-FOUR
‘We’ve got Pia Yates in interview room one. Mrs Yates’s family solicitor is on her way,’ Jacob said as he came into Gina’s office.
Gina stood from her chair. ‘Great. It’s time to learn about her relationship with Craig Crawford. We need to find him. The lack of leads on that count is beyond frustrating.’ She paused. ‘Where the hell can he be?’
Jacob walked with her towards the interview room. ‘I spoke to Wyre when we got back. Garth is currently looking into Craig’s bank accounts on his laptop and he hasn’t used any of his cards for two days. He knows we’re after him.’
‘Where could he be keeping Lindy? There wasn’t too much blood at Lindy’s house and no sign of a drowning which seems to be our killer’s MO.
Then again, he could be planning to drown her somewhere else.
’ Gina continued talking through the modus operandi.
‘The two murder victims were drowned. Kain was killed at home, yet the killer decides to move the body. The thinking is that the killer may have planned to come back later to clean up but we got to the scene first. He made mistakes and moved on or got distracted with his plans to take Lindy. Some elements seem well planned; others seem disorganised. He killed Zavier in a disused industrial building, on location, so there was no reason to move him. This time, with Lindy, he’s taken her offsite like he did with Kain.
The perp needs a place to take her, a place where there will be no interruptions.
How long had he been watching Lindy? Why was there a teddy bear at Justine’s house?
At the moment my thinking is that Craig might have left it there by accident but the whole case is a confused mess. ’
Jacob shrugged his shoulders and checked his beeping phone. ‘Hopefully Pia will be able to help with some of those questions now that her solicitor has arrived.’
‘I hope so. Time is against us. We need to find Lindy before the killer makes her murder victim number three.’
Gina stood outside interview room one and opened the door.
Pia sat rigid against the back of the chair, both feet planted on the ground.
Her clothes had been booked into evidence leaving the standard issue sweater and track bottoms swamping her petite frame.
She inhaled through her nose and blew the breath out slowly through her mouth, with her eyes closed. Then she opened them. ‘I feel sick.’
Her suited solicitor whispered in Pia’s ear.
‘Do you need a moment?’ Gina asked.
She shook her head. ‘No, I’m not actually going to be sick. It’s just, I can’t stop thinking about the kitchen and the blood. I keep thinking of Lindy.’ She gasped and rubbed her red-rimmed eyes. ‘It was just… so horrible. I’ve never seen anything like it and Lindy is my friend.’
‘We know you’ve had a shock but we need to find her, and we need your help. Time is against us so please tell us all you know.’
After introductions for the tape, Gina kicked off with the questioning. ‘I know you have already described your evening and you’ve explained why you went over to Lindy Pickering’s house last night, but can you do it again for the tape?’
Gina waited while Pia relayed everything she said in the car outside Lindy’s while her solicitor sat back and watched. The woman’s pen scraped across her pad as the heart pendant on her necklace kept knocking the table.
‘We need to talk about Kain Pickering next. We are currently looking for Craig Crawford and we have reason to believe you know him well,’ Gina said.
Pia swallowed and once again, her solicitor whispered in her ear. ‘Know him well?’ She raised her brows as if fishing for more information.
‘Can you tell me a little about your relationship with Craig Crawford?’ Gina hated that they were wasting time when Lindy’s life was on the line, but the last thing she wanted was for Pia to start saying no comment.
‘Relationship. We don’t have a relationship. He’s my friend’s husband and what has this got to do with Kain?’
‘Craig is a person of interest and we need to find him. That’s all I can tell you at the moment.’ Gina paused, knowing it was time to show their hand. ‘We know you’ve been in a relationship with Craig Crawford. A witness saw you leaving his rented apartment in Nightingale House.’
She inhaled and slowly blew out yet another slow breath, then repeated the action twice more with her eyes closed. Her calm exterior gave way to her biting one of her French manicured nails, then she opened her eyes and looked directly at Gina. ‘It’s got nothing to do with Kain.’
‘We have reason to believe it does.’ Gina couldn’t erase those photos from her mind; all stuck to the apartment wall.
The solicitor placed her pen down and whispered to Pia once again.
‘Okay.’ She puffed up her cheeks and sighed.
‘I’m married and I love my husband.’ She scrunched up her nose for a second and continued.
‘Craig’s wife, Justine, is my friend. We’ve been friends for years.
’ She pressed her lips together and her eyes started to water.
‘I didn’t mean anything to happen.’ She shook her head and sniffed. ‘Please don’t tell Justine.’
‘Mrs Yates. Our priority is Lindy’s safety. She is also your friend and her life is in imminent danger. This is serious. Do you understand what I’m saying?’
Pia began to shake and tears started spilling from her eyes.
‘Tell us how it started, from the beginning.’
She uncomfortably scratched her stomach area and pulled the sweater down towards her knees.
‘It was February. I’d had a fallout with my husband so I popped round to speak to Justine, but she was out.
Their son was also out and Craig asked me if I wanted to come in and wait for Justine.
’ She went to speak but closed her mouth.
‘How long have you known Craig?’
She looked down. ‘Since I was fifteen. We dated when we were about seventeen, but only for a term. We never mentioned that we knew each other to our spouses. We didn’t think it mattered and we definitely didn’t want to ruin our dinner party nights with petty jealousies.
I thought we had no feelings left… It just happened.
One thing led to another and we kissed. That was all.
We didn’t see each other for two months after that kiss. ’
Gina couldn’t help but think how easy it was to pick up from where you left off with a person from your past. ‘Is that when the relationship started?’
‘We started texting. We have these phones. He bought me one, just like, err, I don’t know, a pay-as-you-go.
We sent jokes and shared memories – that kind of thing.
Then he asked me if I would meet up with him.
We went for a walk, in Warwick – far enough away from Cleevesford. ’ She looked to the side and paused.
Gina didn’t need the full detail of how they got together. ‘Then it got more serious?’
She nodded. ‘Yes, about June. My husband was always busy working and we’re not…
’ She scratched her head. ‘We haven’t been close in our relationship for a year or two but I still love him.
It was stupid, irresponsible and I regret it.
’ She paused. ‘Craig would tell Justine that he was working away. He’d book an apartment and we’d make dinner and watch films, pretending we were a couple. ’
‘Is that what the apartment in Nightingale House was for?’
‘It started off that way but Craig told me he wanted me to move in so I said we were over. My husband and I have been having counselling sessions for our relationship, he doesn’t know about the affair, and things have slowly been getting better.
I thought I owed it to my marriage to give it my all. ’
‘What happened when you ended it?’
Pia whispered in her solicitor’s ear with her hand covering her mouth.
Gina watched as she frowned, then the solicitor nodded.
‘Okay.’ She swallowed. ‘It was about a month ago, on a Thursday. My husband works a little later on Thursdays as we send a lot of orders out on Fridays so he has a lot to sort. I went to Nightingale House to tell Craig it was over.’ She wiped her wet eyes.
Gina nudged a box of tissues across the table.
‘I don’t want Simeon to find out.’
‘Simeon is your husband?’
‘Yes.’
‘Does your husband know Justine, Craig, Danny and Lindy?’
‘Kind of. Justine and Lindy are my friends but Craig and my husband have joined us at the pub before… Craig and Simeon don’t hang out together outside of our friendship group and Craig and Justine have come over to ours for dinner in the past.’
‘Tell me what happened when you told Craig your affair was over,’ Gina said.
‘His reaction floored me. He shouted, telling me that he had done all this – the apartment – for me. He tried to convince me that we needed to leave our spouses that night and live there together and I flipped. I told him I didn’t want to live with him, that it was all a mistake and I didn’t want to hurt Justine or lose my husband.
’ She let out a sob. ‘Simeon would be so hurt if he ever found out, which is why he can’t ever know.
Please don’t tell him.’ She hiccupped a little and blew her nose.
‘You said that Craig’s reaction floored you.’ She wondered if Pia was referring to the shouting.
‘He grabbed me and threw me to the floor. He’s never acted violently before.
I saw the rage in his wide-eyed stare and, for a second, I thought he was going to hurt me.
I went to pull my phone out from my pocket – the pay-as-you-go – and Craig snatched it from me and trod on it.
I have never felt so scared in all my life.
All I could think was, I’m here in this flat.
No one but Craig knows where I am and we communicate on phones that aren’t contract phones.
He could just kill me and make me vanish. ’
‘I’m sorry to have to ask you this, but what happened.’ Gina felt her body tensing. She understood Pia’s fear all too well but she needed to know what type of man they were dealing with when it came to Craig.
‘He leaned over and said I was crap in bed anyway. He called me a selfish whore…’ She grabbed another tissue and sniffed.
‘He grabbed my arm and flung me along the hallway towards the door. There were bruises on my shoulder. I grabbed my coat and bag before leaving and he slammed the door. I don’t know how I managed to put my coat on given the state I was in but I did.
I put my sunglasses on to hide my puffy eyes and ran out the building as fast as I could…
I don’t want anything done about what happened.
I don’t want my husband to know but I do know one thing.
’ She paused. ‘Craig is capable of hurting people and he has a short fuse.’
Gina noticed that Pia was grappling with the idea that Craig could have committed such horrible crimes. ‘We need to find him, Pia.’
She creased her brows. ‘He said something else that night. He said we could make it work but she had to go. My mind has tried to erase that. She had to go – he had to be referring to Justine. I don’t understand what that has to do with Lindy, though.
I guess he could have been fed up that Lindy had asked Justine to help her brother with his alcohol issues. ’
Gina sat next to Jacob in almost silence, giving Pia a little time and space to keep talking. The solicitor’s necklace still scraped and bounced off the table as she made notes.
Pia continued. ‘I should have said something earlier, about what Craig did to me at the apartment, but I’ve been so caught up in protecting my marriage.
I didn’t think, and I feel like such a shitty friend right now.
I still don’t want Justine or my husband to know but you have to help Justine.
Her husband isn’t a nice person.’ She stared at Gina, her brow creased.
‘Craig is a dangerous, unpredictable man who can turn in a second and I’m so scared for her.
He also wasn’t keen on Lindy because she asked Justine to talk to Kain.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he hurt Lindy. ’