Chapter 18
Eighteen
Gina
Gina stood next to O’Connor at the nurses’ desk, waiting to be pointed towards Abel Holloway’s room. The nurse confirmed that he was fit to be interviewed. ‘It’s the second room on the left,’ the nurse said, before turning back to her computer.
On reaching the room, she nodded towards PC Ahmed, who sat on a chair outside the door, reading a super car magazine. ‘Morning, guv, DC O’Connor,’ he said with a nod.
‘Morning. How’s the patient?’
‘He’s rough but awake. Not yet well enough to be taken to the station.
They have him under observation and he’s likely to be in for at least another day.
I asked if he wanted a solicitor and he told me to get lost and said no because he’s innocent.
His mother has been informed on his request but she wants nothing to do with him after he got high several months ago and trashed her flat. He lives alone in a bedsit.’
‘Has it been searched following his arrest?’
‘Yes, guv. He barely has anything. There was a tablet. It’s with digital forensics but on the surface, it looks like there is nothing incriminating on it. A burner phone was recovered at the scene but it looks like it had been reset to factory settings.’
Gina peered through the little window wondering what Abel had to conceal when he reset his phone.
Another nurse was taking his vitals and filling in a chart.
She returned the clipboard to the back of the bed and opened the door with a smile.
Gina and O’Connor entered as she left. Gina sat on the chair, right next to the bed, and O’Connor sat on the other plastic chair that had been pushed up against the corner sink.
He took his work mobile phone out to record the interview on.
Unfortunately, Mindy was still missing and the interview couldn’t wait.
Her life was in their hands. O’Connor started the recording and introduced them both, stating where they were and that it was eight thirty in the morning.
‘Abel Holloway, I’m DI Harte and this is DC O’Connor. You have been arrested for the kidnapping of Mindy Carson.’
O’Connor continued talking Abel Holloway through the process and once that was completed, Gina started. ‘You’ve waived your right to a solicitor and agreed to this voluntary interview.’
‘Yep,’ he replied with a croaky voice.
‘Where is Mindy Carson?’
He groaned as he sat up, his face ashen with dark circles under his eyes. The hospital gown hung off his thin frame. He reached towards his side table and picked up a plastic glass of water and sipped. ‘Beamed up by a spaceship.’
Gina sighed. She knew this interview wasn’t going to go well.
‘Where were you between six and seven yesterday evening?’
‘In a world of my own.’ He laughed.
‘You were seen in the vicinity of where Mindy Carson went missing.’
He leaned his head back on the bed frame and slowly exhaled. ‘I hung out, played football and that’s it. The others will tell you that, I was in sight at all times.’
‘The others?’
He reeled off several names of the youths he claimed were with him at the time, giving their addresses.
‘Thank you. We’ll check out your alibis.’ Gina knew that they’d more than likely lie for him. ‘You threatened Ursula Grey last night at around seven. You said you’d burn her shop down.’
‘I didn’t. She’s a liar.’
‘Where were you on the nights of Wednesday the fourteenth and Friday the sixteenth of January, at around eleven p.m.?’
‘With my mates, the same names I’ve already given you. I always hang out with them.’
‘You didn’t like Ursula Grey and Mindy Carson, did you? There have been numerous reports made by Mrs Grey of intimidation and antisocial behaviour and they name you in those reports. Did you hurt Miss Carson as an act of revenge?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.
No, never. I wouldn’t hurt anyone. Yeah, they weren’t happy with me and the others playing football by their shop because the ball hit their window a couple of times.
Maybe you should look at Ursula.’ He smirked.
‘Chez Ursula and her dodgy husband. He’s always giving her assistant this smarmy look.
He follows her out to her car and touches her arse. ’ He grinned.
‘Did he follow her out to her car last night?’
He shrugged. ‘I don’t know because I was playing football. He did threaten to smash my face in, though. He sounds like a violent man. Look, just check out my alibis and let me go.’ He folded his arms.
‘Mr Holloway. Where is Mindy Carson?’ She had to press him.
‘I told you, I don’t know.’ He paused. ‘Okay… I saw a white van pull into the road, where Mindy parks but I don’t know if it was anything to do with that woman going missing.’
‘What make was the van? How big? Did you get the registration?’
He smirked again. ‘Don’t know, don’t know and no. I don’t go around remembering registration numbers, do I?’
‘You don’t know if it was a big van like a Transit or a small van, just a bit bigger than a car.’
He shook his head.
‘Was it a van? How would you see a van from the shops?’ If he saw a van it would be a larger type of van, like the one Carmen owned, but that van had been ruled out. Then again, she wondered if Abel Holloway was trying his hardest to get all attention off him. Maybe there wasn’t even a van.
‘That’s all I have. Take it or leave it, but that’s it. You pigs are stupid.’
She wasn’t going to get much more from him other than smirking or insults.
‘There’s also the drug charges but the team will interview you regarding those back at the station when you’re well enough to attend.
’ Gina’s main focus was finding Mindy. It was time to mention the knife.
‘Tell me about the knife we found by the garages last night?’
He shrugged again. ‘Don’t know anything about a knife.’
‘So, when we get the results back from the lab it won’t have your prints on it?’ There was no point lying and she had to make Abel see that.
‘Okay. It’s mine.’
‘There was residue of blood on the knife.’
His sunken eyes widened. ‘What?’
‘There was blood on Mindy Carson’s windscreen. How did the blood get onto the knife?’
He shook his head and frowned. ‘You’re framing me.
You. Are. Framing. Me.’ He swiped the box of tissues and his water off his bedside table and accidentally dislodged his cannula.
The monitor started to beep. ‘I’m not talking to you, pig.
I want a solicitor, now. I’ve changed my mind.
I’m not saying anything else. No comment. ’
A nurse rushed in as O’Connor declared the end of the interview.
‘I guess he kicked off, guv?’ PC Ahmed asked.
She nodded. ‘Yep. It’s safe to say that he’s feeling a lot better now. I’ll leave it to you to organise the interview for the drugs and canisters found at the scene.’ Her phone buzzed. It was Briggs. ‘Sir.’
‘Gina, Wyre has an address for Mindy’s landlord and he’s home right now.
A PC headed there earlier and spoke to him.
We don’t have anything to arrest him on at the moment but we need to be aware that he could have access to the property.
He doesn’t have any other properties. He inherited the one Mindy rents from his mother when she died.
I’ll message you the address in a moment. ’
She quickly briefed Briggs with a summary of the interview. ‘Great, O’Connor and I will head straight there.’
‘I’ve managed to speak to Bernard,’ Briggs said. ‘It’s about the knife and the blood.’
She listened to the rest of what he had to say and wanted nothing more than to scream.