Chapter 3
Three
Gina
O’Connor pulled his handbrake on outside the Ferndale shops.
Gina couldn’t help but think, what a dump.
She knew it was the antisocial behaviour that gave it that impression and she felt for what was left of the business owners and people who lived close by.
Litter spilled out from the bins and there was a pile of vomit outside one of the vacant, graffitied units.
To the right of the strip a lemon-coloured sign saying Chez Ursula’s on it cheered the row up.
A warm glow radiated from the huge window.
It would have looked perfect had it not been for the smear of mud in the middle of the glass.
She could tell that Ursula had poured her heart and soul into the little salon but apart from her shop, there was a pizza shop, a boarded-up barber’s and a long-gone sweet shop.
Moss and weeds grew from the top of the flat roof that topped the whole strip of shops.
She got out of the car and O’Connor followed her to the pet salon.
‘Looks like forensics are working the scene,’ he said.
He pointed to Bernard, the gangly Crime Scene Manager.
As usual, his white beard was tucked away in his beard cover as he and his assistants stood in the section that had been cordoned off by police tape.
The outer cordon reached further back and a PC guarded the scene.
As they entered Chez Ursula’s, PC Smith glanced her way.
She knew he’d already checked to see if their missing woman was home but her house had been in darkness and silence.
He held his police hat under his arm. Ursula Grey rolled back and forth on an office chair alongside the huge stainless-steel pet bath.
She dabbed her eyes with a tissue. Her long brown hair looked like it had nearly all fallen out of the clip that was loosely hanging from her head. He left her and O’Connor with Ursula.
‘I’m DI Harte and this is DC O’Connor. May we sit?’
Ursula nodded and rolled her chair towards them along the tiled floor to the little seating area where Gina and O’Connor sat.
She placed a bunch of keys on the table.
One keyring had a Yorkshire terrier on it and another with Ferndale written on it.
‘Do you have any news? The PC said he’d checked Mindy’s house but it’s too far for her to walk home.
She wouldn’t have left Hoppy like that and she wasn’t in, either,’ Ursula said.
‘Hoppy?’
Ursula pointed to the most beautiful rabbit that Gina had ever seen.
The white fluffball lay on a blanket in a huge basket while munching on some lettuce.
‘He’s Mindy’s baby. She would never leave him anywhere, least of all alone in the freezing cold.
That’s how I know something terrible has happened to her. ’
‘I can see you’re upset but we need your help. We need you to tell us everything you can so we can find Mindy. Can you think of anyone who might want to hurt her?’ Gina asked as she tilted her head.
‘Where do I start?’
That wasn’t what Gina had been expecting. She waited for O’Connor to take his notebook out.
‘We’ve had so much trouble with the youths around here and before you ask, yes, I’ve reported them.
Every time I leave they stare at me like they want to kill me.
They know I’ve told the police about them and they probably think Mindy did too, but she has nothing to do with all that.
Mindy handles the office and my paperwork, that’s all.
’ She frowned. ‘Those kids spend most evenings kicking a ball at my window. I’ve replaced it four times and I can’t even insure it now, but that’s nothing new.
All you lot keep doing is giving me a crime number.
’ She paused. ‘I can’t help wondering if one of them hurt her.
Have you searched the woods? I kept thinking she’d been hurt and maybe she ran into the woods and passed out.
I saw the blood…’ She bit her bottom lip and frowned again.
‘I’m so sorry you had to see that. Officers are checking the woods as we speak. Have there been any altercations between Mindy and the youths?’
Someone burst through the main door, followed by PC Smith.
‘Ursula, lovely. Could I book Sheldon in for his usual next Wednesday? He’s looking a bit unruly, total mess, actually.
Big mud incident and then there was the rolling in fox poo.
’ The man in the slim fit, tucked in shirt and smart coat and blue scarf frowned and glanced at everyone in the salon.
‘Is Mindy around? I think you said there would be a discount if she could practice on him. Sheldon won’t mind if he has an iffy cut.
’ He raised his brows. ‘Oh my God, are you okay, lovely? I’m so sorry for bursting in like that. What’s happened?’
‘Mindy’s missing.’
The man placed his hand over his mouth. ‘No way. I’m sorry. I saw the light on. I was next door assembling furniture ready for the grand opening next week and… That’s terrible. Is there anything I can do?’
Gina glanced at the man. ‘I’m DI Harte and this is DC O’Connor. How well do you know Mindy?’
‘I know her from here. Ursula has always tended to Sheldon, he’s my cockapoo. I was talking to Mindy the other day. Ursula’s training her to groom so I volunteered him.’ He shrugged.
‘What’s your name?’
‘Edwin Hammond.’
‘Did you see or hear anything around six this evening?’ Gina asked the man.
‘I didn’t see anything, I’ve been inside since about four and my windows are boarded up. The glazier is booked to sort that on Friday so I can’t see out when I’m in there. Actually, I could hear something going on outside around that time. I heard one of the youths shouting the word bitch.’
‘We’ll need to take your details and could we please take a statement at the station?’
‘Sure. Shall I head there this evening?’
Gina turned to PC Smith. ‘Could you please instruct Mr Hammond further?’
He nodded and took the man outside the salon.
‘So, the youths were harassing Mindy earlier.’ Ursula frowned.
‘There’s a really tall blond-haired lad.
He keeps holding his lighter up every time he has a cigarette and says he’s going to burn us down because that’s what happens to snitches.
Tonight’s threat wasn’t the first one. We’re scared of them but we can’t do anything, and once again, you lot don’t do a thing and now Mindy’s missing.
You have to find her.’ Her fists clenched.
Disappointment in Cleevesford Police was written all over Ursula’s face and Gina couldn’t deny Ursula’s experience. If only they had the budget to have officers on the beat everywhere. That would be a luxury, but they didn’t. ‘Can you please describe them? You said one was blond-haired and tall?’
‘They all blend into one but him, he stands out. All of them wear these puffy jackets with hats on under their hoods and when you see them, they hunch over so you can’t get a good look.
The blond one – he’s six foot tall, I guess.
He towers over me and he has a wiry frame.
’ She began to fiddle with the sleeves of her blue coat by running her chipped pink fingernails over the cuffs.
‘He wears these chunky trainers with orange stripes along the sides and a hoodie. When his coat and hoodie are unzipped, I can see what he’s wearing underneath.
It’s always the same clothes. The hoodie is grey.
It has a yellow smiley emoji with a cigarette balancing between its lips on the front.
His hair is shaven at the sides.’ She furrows her brows.
‘He has a couple of tramlines shaved onto the right side of his head and his eyes are ice blue. He wears an earring in an eyebrow, I can’t remember which one. It’s a silver bar.’
Gina was impressed with Ursula’s recall. Most people only managed a few details. ‘How old is Mindy?’
‘Twenty-eight.’
‘How long has she worked for you?’
‘About six months.’
‘And how long have you known her?’ Gina glanced at O’Connor. His pen scraped on the paper as he wrote.
‘Only since then but we’ve become really close, like besties. We go out together and she hangs out at my place a lot.’ She started to bite one of her chipped fingernails.
‘Did she seem okay when she was here?’
‘I thought she looked ill, sick maybe. She hasn’t felt too good lately but I don’t think it’s anything serious.
We groomed Hoppy, she quickly checked her work emails and muttered something about feeling ill before she dashed off.
I didn’t overthink it at the time but now I wonder if she had something on her mind.
I should have asked but I had a customer come in to collect her dog.
I was distracted. Mindy didn’t even say bye. ’
‘How long has she not seemed herself?’
‘I don’t know. A few days, a week maybe. Do you think that her going missing has something to do with her looking sick, and by sick, I mean worried, or maybe she wasn’t getting enough sleep?’
‘We don’t know at the moment. We’re just trying to build up a picture of how Mindy was earlier. Has she ever mentioned her past?’
Ursula nods. ‘She was in a bad relationship but she never liked to talk about it so I didn’t push it. Once she mentioned that her ex had been harassing her, like ringing and messaging all the time.’
‘Do you know who her ex is?’
‘No. I don’t know anything about her ex at all, not a name, a place of work, nor an address.
I know her brother helped her to leave the relationship with Hoppy and he paid the deposit on the little house she’s living in.
This job was her new start and I’ve been trying to build up the business and train her to groom the pets so I can give her more work.
’ Ursula swallowed. ‘I was in a similar relationship in my early twenties so I made it my mission to help her all I could.’