Chapter 43
FORTY-THREE
Gina sipped on a warm cup of chamomile tea in the hope that it would calm all her nerves.
She’d tensed up while interviewing Fabien Stone and she was glad that he was back in his cell.
On passing by she’d heard him hitting and kicking the door, claiming it was all a set-up and that he knew nothing about a blue metal bar.
Exhaling, Gina knew that Fabien was well and truly in the picture but was he in it enough to take Briggs completely out of it.
She needed to talk to him whether he wanted to talk to her or not. She had to know if he was involved.
O’Connor stepped into the kitchen. ‘Guv, I’ve just finished interviewing the girl, Keri.
Her mother sat in on the interview and they’ve just left.
Keri claims that the blood on Fabien’s coat was from a rat.
She came in and screamed when she saw the creature escaping the broken trap under the boardroom table.
Mr Stone apparently hit it with a hardback book, killing it.
Apart from that, she didn’t tell us anything useful.
Stone keeps himself to himself on the top floor of the building and the other debt collectors quite often work from home. ’
Gina frowned. Keri had backed up Stone’s claim about the blood on his coat and she now had no doubt that they’d come across the blood-splattered hardback. The case was getting more deflating by the minute. ‘Thank you for the update. Is Sheena still being interviewed?’
‘Wyre has just finished with her. I saw her heading to the incident room. As suspected Sheena is providing an alibi for Fabien Stone on the night of Kain’s murder and the other incidents.’
They’d partially ruled out Fabien with the rat blood but tests would still be done to corroborate his and Keri’s version of events, however Gina had no reason to mistrust what Keri had said.
Fabien did know all their victims and the levels of violence he’d displayed couldn’t be ignored.
There was still so much to untangle, none of it helping them to find out where Lindy was.
Her stomach jumped at the thought of what the previous victims had been through.
Both drowned within a short period of time after their attack.
They needed a proper break in the case and she had to find it before it was too late.
She thought of Lindy, just a few years younger than her.
She couldn’t help but picture in her mind the terror she must be going through.
She imagined being plunged into a tub full of water and not being able to breathe, then she gasped before carrying on down the corridor.
She headed to the incident room where Kapoor typed on a computer in the corner of the room. Wyre stepped in holding a pile of files that she placed next to Kapoor. ‘I’m just popping to the shop to grab some lunch. Do you want anything?’
Gina’s stomach churned with nerves and worry for their missing person but it was also screaming for her to eat more than a pear. She pulled a ten-pound note from her pocket and gave it to Wyre. ‘A tuna or egg salad would be great. Thank you.’
Wyre grabbed her coat and left.
On glancing at the names of the friend group and their husbands, Gina made separate notes on another board. There had to be another link she was missing. Their cropping up all over the investigation was no coincidence. She called Kapoor. ‘Anything from the appeal?’
‘Nothing, guv. Someone called about a red-haired man in Tesco car park but it wasn’t Craig, sadly. He’s like a ghost. Do you think he could be hurt? It just seems strange that no one has seen him.’
‘If I hadn’t seen those photos in his rental apartment, I’d have considered that.
’ Again, she thought of Briggs. He’d know exactly how to get into an apartment to plant evidence.
He could easily work out how to frame Fabien, too.
A wave of nausea flashed through her body.
No, there had to be something else she was missing.
Actually, she had to speak to Briggs now and sitting around trying to make sense of everything without having that conversation was holding her back.
She hurried outside and stood at the other end of the car park with her personal phone held to her ear while she hoped he’d answer.
A chilly breeze whipped past her legs and up the back of her jumper. She shivered.
‘Gina. What is it? You’re not meant to call me on this phone. I told you.’
He was slurring his words and Gina had never even seen him drunk.
She knew to tread gently and Briggs knew exactly how to play the game – drunk or not.
‘You need to tell me what the hell is going on. This investigation is leading me to you and I don’t think I can hold back the tide and if you keep me in the dark, I don’t know if I want to.
I know I screwed up our relationship but you were harsh on me.
Whatever. This isn’t about you and me; it’s about the case.
Have you got anything to do with Kain and Zavier’s murders and do you know where Lindy is? ’
‘I can’t believe you’re asking me this?’
‘Well, I am. There’s something that’s niggling away at me.
A big part of me can’t help wondering if both Craig Crawford and Fabien Stone are being set up.
You’re involved but I don’t know how. Both Zavier and Kain used to be police officers years ago.
Have you met or worked with them in the past? Did you know them?’
He remained silent.
‘Chris, this isn’t the time to refuse to speak. It’s me, Gina. You’ve held my darkest deepest secrets but I need to know what’s happening your end, the end that Brodie won’t discuss with me.’
She listened as Briggs burped and scrunched up a can. His dog whined in the background. At least he had company.
‘Are you drinking?’
‘I had nothing to do with all you’re accusing me of.’
A shiver tickled the back of her neck as she was transported back to when Terry used to scrunch his cans up when drunk, mostly before he turned the television up loud and beat her to the floor.
She gasped as she remembered her face being pressed into their old coarse carpet.
As for Briggs, she’d barely even seen him merry so she knew it must be bad.
‘I will always care for you, Chris. You have to talk to me. You called me and said you needed me to do something. You can’t blame me for thinking the worst.’ Briggs wasn’t Terry.
She refused to believe he could ever be like Terry but he wasn’t himself.
‘Gina, I shouldn’t have called you and said that. You shouldn’t be calling me now. Why do you have to make all this so hard?’
She glanced back at the station and up at the window of the incident room but no one was watching her looking all flustered with her phone pressed to her ear in the car park. The cold damp air began to seep through her clothes and she began to shake. Why hadn’t she put her coat on?
‘Me? You’re making this hard. I’m risking my arse here talking to you. Those men were murdered and I’m scared something will happen to you. Did you know the other victims? Shit, help me out here. I’m not even meant to be asking about the side of the case you’re involved in.’
‘Well don’t. Everything will all come out soon.’
‘What’s that meant to mean? What did you need me to do?’
‘When I called you, I wanted to say, I need you to believe me.’ His voice broke up. ‘I need to get some rest.’ He hung up.
‘Chris… Chris…’
But he had gone, leaving her shaking and holding the phone. Maybe later, she needed to pop over, see if she could get any sense out of him. If he’d been drinking, now wasn’t the time.
‘DI Harte, have you made any arrests yet?’ A reporter wearing a rain mac ran across the car park.
She ignored him and hurried back into the station, back into the incident room where she stared at the board until her head began to throb with anger, frustration and the fear that Lindy would soon turn up dead if they didn’t get their act together.
‘Guv.’ She flinched as Wyre placed Gina’s salad and wooden spork down next to the boards. ‘I’m heading back to the main office to update the system.’
‘Okay.’ Gina opened the box and speared some browning lettuce. What the hell was she missing?
She started making notes on the board.
Pia and Simeon Yates. Pia reported Lindy as missing. Pia had been having an affair with their main suspect, Craig, and his wife, Justine, was her friend.
Justine and Craig Crawford had a son called Danny. Craig was on the run and Danny and Justine were staying with her mother. Craig knew Fabien and they both had issues with Kain. One personal and one debt related.
Lastly, Lindy Pickering was Kain’s sister and now she had been taken.
Zavier – his connection was that he was in the police too, just like Kain… and Briggs.
What did the teddy bears mean?
‘Kapoor.’
She swivelled around in her chair. ‘Yes, guv.’
‘Can you do a deep dive into this friendship group. I want everything you can find on them. Internet searches, social media, anything. We’re missing something that’s right under our noses.’
‘Sure, I’ll get onto that now.’
‘I need to speak to Justine and Danny. I’m going to grab Jacob and head to her mother’s.
Craig is keeping well out of view and that’s a hard thing to do when half of the town is looking out for him now that his face has been aired.
There’s a chance he’s been in touch with them.
Justine might even be helping him. Is there a family liaison there with them? ’
‘Yes, guv. I know that PC Masondo said he was heading there a short while ago so he must be there now.’
‘Great.’ Gina did her coat up and threw the salad box in the bin. Just as she was about to head to the main office to get Jacob, she almost walked into Brodie’s chest. ‘Sorry, sir.’
‘Gina, I’m going to let you in on the other side of the investigation.’ He ushered her over to a quiet corner away from the bustle of the station. ‘Something has happened and you know the case well. Victim two, Zavier used to be police and he worked with Kain.’
‘I guessed that much and reading between all the lines, I’m guessing that Briggs knew them too. Anything else come back from the Kidderminster team?’
‘Nothing that will help us or that we don’t already know but something big has happened and we need to get to the hospital.’
‘What is it?’
‘DCI Briggs has been attacked in his home.’
A wave of dizziness washed through her. She reached out and steadied herself on the wall, trying not to let Brodie see how affected she was.
She’d spoken to him a short while ago. He hadn’t been himself.
She should have sensed that something was wrong.
Did Briggs even know he was about to be attacked?
Her heart started banging. Despite what he might have done, she wanted to drop everything and be by his side.
She had no option but to air what she was thinking.
If she was thinking it, she knew Brodie was too.
‘He worked with them, didn’t he? It’s obvious. ’
Brodie took a deep breath and nodded. ‘I can’t confirm, okay? What we need to do is question him about the attack.’
A nod told her everything she needed to know.
Briggs worked with Zavier and Kain. He was as much a part of all this as the people on their board, only now she knew he was a victim and not a perpetrator.
It had all happened so fast. His dog had been whining while she was on the phone to him.
Had the perp been there waiting for him to finish his call?
She trembled at the thought and she hated herself for the way their conversation had gone and all he wanted was for her to believe him.
She knew he needed her to believe that he didn’t have anything to do with the murders of Zavier and Kain. ‘How hurt is he?’
‘It’s bad, Gina. If it wasn’t for the neighbour wondering what was wrong with the dog, he wouldn’t be here. Uniform are on their way over to seal the scene.’
She swallowed the lump in her throat. They’d soon find out that she had called Briggs. It was best to tell Brodie now. ‘I called him, on my personal phone, just before it must have happened. I wondered how he was, that’s all.’
He opened his car door and they both got in. Brodie didn’t speak. He stared out of his windscreen watching it as it demisted. ‘I wish you hadn’t.’
‘Are you going to report me?’
‘No, because I need you on the case, but it will come out. Time is of the essence to find whoever is behind all this. I’ll keep my mouth shut but if you ever say I said you told me, I will deny it.
’ His eyes met hers and he smiled warmly.
He was still the Brodie she knew from back then, at least she hoped he was.
‘Did he say anything that might help the case?’
‘No, I asked how he was and he was…’
‘He was what?’ Brodie frowned.
‘He was slurring and sounded really drunk and it’s not like him.
He barely drinks.’ She added quickly, ‘From what I know. And his dog was whining. I think the perp was already in the house.’ She bit her lip and scrunched her brows as something hit her.
‘I thought he was drunk but what if someone had drugged him?’