Chapter 16
Sixteen
Gina
Daylight had soon rolled around and she was already driving back to the station.
O’Connor had stayed behind for a while longer to process the homeless woman and Gina had been grateful to leave the station for her bed.
At some point soon, the double espresso she’d necked should kick in, but it hadn’t yet.
They had nothing so far on Carmen. Gina knew they’d be letting her go if the pub had provided an alibi.
‘Morning,’ she said to Nick the desk sergeant as she headed through to the incident room.
O’Connor sat at the main table working through a few notes.
She frowned. ‘You did go home, didn’t you?
You do know I can’t approve twenty-four seven overtime? ’
O’Connor laughed and passed her a thick piece of buttered toast on a plate.
She saw the greasy paper bag that it must have come from.
‘I bought extra toast from the café on the high street, just in case. And, yes, I did go home, got myself a couple of hours and couldn’t sleep anymore so I came back in.
The bed’s cold when you’re alone. I can’t wait for my wife to come home. ’
Gina didn’t have the energy to think about her cholesterol today so she happily took the toast and began gobbling it down. ‘Any developments?’
‘I followed up on the pub alibi with PC Smith last night. The woman who manages the Slippery Fox opened up and although not too happy about the hour, she showed us the CCTV and it confirmed that Carmen Spelling was there all evening, including the time when Mindy went missing. We’ve had to let her go for now. ’
‘How about Spencer Grey? Has he turned up?’
O’Connor shook his head. ‘No sign of him. I’m not sure if it’s guilt or if he’s hiding from his wife.’
Gina glanced at the board. ‘We still don’t know who the other visitors to Mindy’s house were.
Two people peering over the fence and another entering through the back door.
Maybe we still can’t fully rule out that Carmen might be one of those people or that there is more than one person involved.
Why are so many people hanging around her house?
Have you heard anything back from Garth as yet?
’ She hoped digital forensics would be able to cast more light on the situation.
‘No. His team left late last night and they’re resuming this morning.’
Briggs cleared his throat as he walked in.
His gaze caught Gina’s and even after everything that had gone on between them, she still felt a little something when he looked at her.
She wondered if he was remotely hurt at having seen her with Brodie in the car park last night.
If he was hurt, he was covering it well. He smiled.
She smiled back. ‘Morning.’
‘I’m working on the press release for later.
I’m going to approach it as we’re looking for a missing woman and put Mindy Carson’s name and a photo out there.
We don’t want to give the kidnapper any reason to hurt her so it will be just an appeal for her whereabouts and safety to start with, until we have more information and we know how to play this. ’
‘Agreed. We don’t yet know who we’re dealing with or why the perp has her.’
‘I’ve just come off a call,’ he continued.
Gina and O’Connor looked up at him. ‘I’m up to date with last night so I can brief the team when they arrive soon.
You and O’Connor need to head straight to Cleevesford General.
Abel Holloway has come round and the staff have said you can talk to him as long as you keep it brief. He’s not in a good way.’
‘How about the knife, sir,’ O’Connor said. ‘There was blood on the knife.’
Briggs checked his watch. ‘I’ll call forensics now. I requested that it be fast-tracked.’
Gina shivered, a bloodied knife had to provide some of the answers they were looking for.
It was too much of a coincidence that Abel Holloway had been running away with a bloodied knife while they’d chased him.
Her stomach turned as she thought about the blood smeared down the windscreen and the threats coming from Abel to burn the salon down. He wanted Mindy hurt, even dead.