Chapter 6
Six
Gina
Gina ran through the cordon. She couldn’t lose the blond-haired youth.
The crowd had thickened and the woman who’d been having a two-way video call was recording Gina.
‘Police, move aside.’ She held her identification up and, with zero urgency, the small crowd began to part.
She almost tripped over the two dog leads as she reached the road.
‘Over there, guv,’ O’Connor said as he caught up with her. The woman filming heard and kept focusing on them. She knew they’d appear in the ‘What’s Up Cleevesford’ Facebook group later that night, which is why they had to catch the youth and then speak to Mindy’s brother.
The youth darted across the road and half slipped, twisting his ankle slightly.
Still at speed, he limped behind a block of flats.
Gina sprinted across the road. ‘You go the other side. Cut him off,’ she said to O’Connor.
Gina headed to the right of the flats, bursting through an unlocked gate.
She struggled to get down the overgrown path, scratching her hands on the wild bramble bushes.
There was light at the end of the dark path and she had no idea where it would bring her out.
She burst onto a patch of grass, facing a long row of garages.
There was a six-foot fence all around the car park, garages and main building.
O’Connor called from the other side of the locked gate which was controlled by some sort of coded keypad.
‘I can’t get in, guv. It’s locked.’ O’Connor rattled the gate and pressed a call button on the keypad. ‘Great, no one’s answering.’
‘Go back and come the way I came. He must be in here somewhere. I’ll start looking.’
There’s no way the youth could have escaped through the thick brambles and climbing with a hurt ankle wasn’t likely.
He had to be somewhere in the private garden.
A man came out of the main back door. ‘Police,’ she said, interrupting whatever he was about to say.
‘Have you seen a tall blond-haired teen in your block?’
He scrunched his brow. ‘I’ve been speaking to my neighbour in the hallway for several minutes. No one has come in. What’s happening? No one can get in here without the code.’
‘Your side gate was open.’
He shook his head. ‘I wish people would lock it. They’re meant to lock it. Idiots.’
‘Could you please go back inside for your own safety.’
‘I’m not scared of some teenager.’
‘Please.’ Gina needed him out of the way. The youth had been desperate to get away and desperate people were dangerous people. She peered over at a neat row of bins.
The man sighed and went back to the doorstep where he stood and watched for a moment before going inside. O’Connor ran onto the scene, red in the face, huffing and puffing. She walked over to the bins and O’Connor flashed his torch behind them. ‘No one there.’
She started by opening the bin lid at the far end, then moved onto the others in turn.
She recoiled as the stench of rotting food blasted up her nostrils, but there was no sign of the youth.
There was no other way out and she didn’t believe the fence could be easily climbed with a bad ankle and certainly not with the trellis all across the top.
It would have broken under his weight. ‘He’s here, somewhere,’ she said.
A lump in the muddy border caught her eye.
‘What’s that?’ There were two shiny canisters in a clear bag sitting next to a shrub.
O’Connor pulled a pair of nitrile gloves and an evidence bag from his pockets. He scrutinised it further. ‘Canisters and pills.’
She glanced around again. There were no other hiding places.
O’Connor continued to poke around. ‘There’s a small craft scalpel and it looks like there’s dried blood on it.’
‘Call for backup and bag it.’ Checking for fingerprints would easily link both back to the youth if they were his. The scalpel made her flinch as she imagined a bleeding Mindy, trying to escape her aggressor.
Her heart started booming in her chest. Three cars were parked up opposite the garages.
She bent over to see if he was lurking underneath them but she couldn’t see anyone hiding.
Two police officers ran down the path to join them.
O’Connor briefed them and they hurried to Gina’s side.
‘We need to check the garages. Be prepared, he might still be armed with something else.’
They started with the first of the eight garages.
Each was locked until they reached the fifth one.
One of the uniformed officers opened it and all four of them stared into the dark.
One of the PCs flashed his torch at the garage full of old furniture.
A three-piece suite blocked the way. ‘Police, come out with your hands up.’
Clattering came from the back.
‘We know you’re in there. You’re surrounded and there’s no way out.’
Silence. A few more seconds and they’d have to start removing the settee to arrest him. She turned as the back door opened again and the same resident came out. ‘Sir, go back inside now.’
‘No, sorry, I need to go out and I need my car.’
As one police officer went to deal with the man, the youth burst through, knocking the settee onto the other officer. He yelped and fell to the ground. ‘O’Connor, help him.’
The youth darted across the car park, still half limping.
As he reached the gate, he threw himself at it and started to haul himself up, then he cried out in pain as he placed his foot firmly onto one of the railings.
Gina grabbed his good leg and started pulling him back towards to the ground.
She couldn’t let him escape. Mindy’s life might be in his hands.
‘I’m DI Harte from Cleevesford Police and you are under arrest for the kidnapping of Mindy Carson and threatening behaviour.
You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something you later rely on in court.
Anything you do say may be given in evidence. ’
‘Go and die, pig.’ He snatched his foot from her and kicked her in the shoulder so hard it sent her hurtling back.
Winded, she almost smiled as O’Connor stepped in and dragged him off the railings, pulling him to the floor.
The officer who had been dealing with the resident of the flats ran over with the handcuffs. They had him.
‘Name?’ Gina asked as she rolled her shoulder to assess the pain. It was nothing but it had taken her breath away. He glared at her with his dilated pupils. ‘Name.’
‘Kylie-fucking-Minogue.’ He spat next to Gina’s shoe.
‘I know him, guv,’ the police officer interjected. ‘You’ve got yourself a nice little collection of charges for possession, haven’t you, Abel?’ He turned to Gina. ‘This is Abel Holloway, twenty years old. I brought him in a few times last year.’
The youth limped and grinned. ‘You want to know about the woman, don’t you?’
Gina raised her brows.
His eyes were even more dilated than a few minutes ago. From what she could see, he was as high as a kite. He roared and began to kick and scream as O’Connor and the police officer got the resident to open the gates for the police van. ‘She was a bitch and I’m not telling you pigs a thing.’
‘Was?’ Gina swallowed.
He nodded and spat again. ‘She deserved everything she got. Everything.’
He knew something. He could even have Mindy holed up somewhere. Could he have killed her? She stared into his cold eyes and shuddered, knowing she had to get him to speak.