Chapter 12
Twelve
Gina
Gina bit her bottom lip, leaving Ursula with her thoughts for a few seconds. It was clear that there was another thigh close to her husband’s.
‘Why would you want to know that?’ Ursula frowned, went to speak and stopped.
Gina felt for the woman. Not only did her husband have an eagle tattooed on his thigh, it was a winking eagle.
That seemed like a niche design and from what Gina remembered, the eagle on the thigh in the video did look like it had one eye shut but she’d dismissed it at the time because the lighting on the video had been low.
‘Why?’ Ursula wiped her watery eyes. ‘How could she do that to me? How could he hurt me like that? I let Mindy into my home. I helped her all I could and she did that to me.’
Gina didn’t have the answers but she did need to find Mr Grey. She suspected he was the man entering Mindy’s house through the front door. ‘Does your husband have an accent?’
‘He’s from East London.’
Just as Mindy’s neighbour had described.
They’d tried calling him. Ursula had called again, but he wasn’t answering.
She left O’Connor with Ursula and headed into the corridor where she met Jacob.
‘We need all units on alert for Spencer Grey and we need to arrest him on suspicion of Mindy’s kidnap. ’
‘I’ll get that sorted, guv.’
‘Then go home and get some sleep. It could be a while before we get him.’
‘Thanks, guv.’
Wyre headed down the corridor. ‘Carmen Spelling is here.’
Gina checked her watch. It was almost three in the morning.
‘O’Connor and I will interview her in a minute.
’ She updated Wyre on what they’d just found out.
‘Can you delve a little deeper, try to find out where Mr Grey could have gone to, and organise the search warrant for his house? Also, Ursula has no money or cards on her which is why she was frantically pacing outside. Could you also arrange for uniform to drop her home and remain with her? If Mr Grey returns, I want him arrested and brought in immediately for questioning.’
He was high up on her suspect list. He had access to Mindy’s house and her life.
Her mind went back to the other men, especially the one who’d been entering Mindy’s house through the back door and her thoughts went straight to Carmen, the woman who was now at the station and had threatened to kill Mindy.
Could there even be more than one person involved?
After a quick gulp of coffee, Gina and O’Connor were sitting in another interview room with Carmen.
O’Connor introduced them for the tape while thirty-two-year-old Carmen nervously bit her stubby nails.
Her lank black hair fell over her face as she leaned forward.
The smell of stale whisky had already started to circulate around the room.
‘Do I need a solicitor?’ Her fake leather jacket squeaked as she shifted in the chair.
Gina was nervous that they didn’t have enough to arrest Carmen on.
Hearsay of a threat wasn’t proof but so far, Carmen had cooperated.
‘You are here voluntarily to speak to us about your relationship with Mindy Carson. As you know, Miss Carson went missing yesterday evening. We are concerned for her safety and we’re urgently trying to locate her.
’ Carmen let out a long slow breath and frowned.
‘We can stop if you’d like a solicitor. Would you like us to stop? ’
‘No, I don’t have anything to hide. Ask me whatever you like about Mindy.’
‘Thank you. Your cooperation with the investigation is much appreciated. Miss Spelling. Do you drive?’
She nodded. ‘I have a van.’ She cleared her throat. ‘I’m a plumber.’
‘Can you tell me where you were on the evening of the fourteenth of January? That’s last Wednesday.’
She shrugged and took a sip of water. ‘At home.’
‘Was anyone with you or can anyone corroborate that you were at home?’
She shook her head and sipped more water. As she placed the glass down with her shaky hands, water slopped over the top. ‘No.’
The neighbour had reported that there were people out the back of Mindy’s house on the evening that Carmen had no alibi. ‘How about Friday the sixteenth, at eleven that evening?’
‘Home alone again. I live alone. I would’ve been in bed.’
That was the night Mindy’s brother received a call from her, telling him she was scared. Gina pictured her terrified, sitting on the kitchen floor holding the knife. ‘Why did Mindy think that if you found her, you’d kill her?’
Carmen sat up, her eyes wide and pupils dilated. Her eyes began to well up. ‘I… I…’ She couldn’t get her words out.
‘We take threats to kill seriously, especially if the person they were aimed at has gone missing under suspicious circumstances.’ Gina needed Carmen to hurry up and tell her something, anything, before it was too late.
‘Mindy went missing between six and seven yesterday evening. There was blood left behind and there were signs of a struggle. Did you come here to make good on your threats and take her?’
‘No, I loved Mindy, I still love Mindy. Why would I hurt her?’
‘Where were you around six yesterday evening?’
‘I’d finished a job in Cleevesford. I fitted a bathroom and got off around four.’
‘Where was this?’
‘Four Seasons House. It’s a bed and breakfast on Frogmore Drive.’
Gina tried to picture where that was. It was rural and about five miles from where Mindy vanished. No automated numberplate recognition – perfect for kidnapping someone. ‘And after that?’
‘I went for a walk. Just down the road from there, by the lake.’
‘Did you see anyone while you were there?’
She shook her head.
‘Why did you threaten her?’
‘I…’ She wiped the trailing tears with her sleeve. Gina pushed a box of tissues across the table and Carmen took one. ‘I was angry. That threat, it was just hot air. Have you ever been angry and said something mean?’
Carmen wasn’t even denying the threat. ‘Can you tell me a little about your relationship and your break-up?’
‘She left me last June and took our rabbit, Hoppy, with her. Earlier that day, we argued and by the time I got home from work, she’d left with her stuff.
I called her over and over again but she wouldn’t answer until the next day.
’ She bit her bottom lip, then continued.
‘I thought we were happy until that moment. We’d talked about children, marriage.
We’d started looking into adoption, then she left and my life fell apart.
Up until then, I had this picture in my head of what our family would look like, of our wedding and it was all gone, just like that. ’ Carmen clicked her fingers.
Gina frowned. ‘Did you threaten her because she left?’
‘God no. I’m not some sort of controlling monster.’
‘When did you threaten to kill her?’
‘When she answered her phone the next day. It’s not what you think. I am not an abuser she had to run and hide from.’
‘Why did you threaten her?’
‘The house I live in, it’s rented. I’d been saving up for a deposit to buy our own house so we could finally start our new life together.
A week earlier I’d told Mindy about the little nest egg and we were so happy.
After she left, I thought sod it. I decided I was going away, last minute to Bali, but when it came to pay for it, my card was declined.
I logged in to my account and the whole fifteen thousand pounds I’d saved was gone.
She’d transferred it to her personal account. ’
‘Did you report this?’
Carmen wept into her lap. ‘I never gave up hope that she’d come round, that we’d sort this out, and I felt guilty because I did drunkenly threaten to kill her.
I harassed her. I called her non-stop. I thought you’d arrest me for all that which is why I didn’t report her.
Most of all, I still had this hope that everything would be okay, that she’d eventually come back to me and bring the money with her.
’ She paused. ‘I haven’t hurt her. I wouldn’t. ’
Gina couldn’t help but feel for Carmen but then again, her alibis were non-existent.
She had a van which would make it easy for her to kidnap Mindy.
She looked strong, quite muscular compared to Mindy.
In the video, Mindy looked a little soft bodied and petite.
They’d have to check with Carmen’s neighbours, see if any of them saw her on the nights in question so she couldn’t be ruled out yet as a suspect. ‘How did Mindy seem before she left?’
‘She hadn’t been herself for a while. She wasn’t working.
I wondered if there was someone else. I confronted her but she told me I was being stupid.
She’d been distant, distracted and jumpy, and I woke up in the night on occasion to find she wasn’t in bed.
When I went to check on her, she’d be in the living room, sitting there in the darkness and on approach, all I’d hear was her slamming the lid of her laptop down.
One night, I asked her what she was doing and she looked up at me and smiled and said, “nothing, everything’s just fine”, but I know beneath her smile she was carrying some deep, dark pain.
She shut me out and I don’t know why.’ Carmen bit a piece of skin from around her thumbnail.
‘Whatever happened yesterday, I think it began around then. I was never a true threat to Mindy but someone was. Whoever was bothering her then has to have taken her.’
Gina exhaled slowly. She didn’t want to get this wrong and letting Carmen go now risked her destroying evidence.
Spencer Grey was definitely a suspect but she had to keep the investigation open.
‘Carmen Spelling, I’m arresting you for the kidnap of Mindy Carson.
You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court.
Anything you do say may be given in evidence. ’
‘I came here voluntarily. I answered all your questions. Someone out there has her and it isn’t me. You’re making a huge mistake.’
‘We’ll need the keys to your van and house.’ Mindy had been bleeding. They had no time to waste. Gina couldn’t afford to let any more of it tick by. A woman’s life was at risk.
Carmen threw her keys onto the table and hiccupped. Gina checked her notes. When the PCs arrived to bring Carmen in for interview, there was no sign of a van on the drive.
‘Where’s your van?’
‘Parked by the lake near Frogmore Drive.’
‘Why is it still parked there if you went for a walk after four this afternoon?’
‘I left it there.’
‘Why didn’t you go back?’
Her dilated pupils fixed on Gina. She shrugged and carried on talking, but slurring a little more.
‘I walked to the pub after leaving the van by the lake and I drank too much. When the pub closed, I went back to my van. I was going to sleep in it but it was too uncomfortable so I called a taxi and you know the rest. Your lot brought me in.’ Carmen started to weep.
‘It’s the anniversary of our first date.
Last year we went there for a walk and had a pub lunch to celebrate.
I was missing her so I stopped there and went for a walk. I wanted to be close to her again.’
They needed to find the van, now. How close exactly did Carmen want to be to Mindy?