Chapter 22
Twenty-Two
Gina
Gina fought to budge the rusty slide lock just over the top of the gate, catching her finger on a sharp bit.
‘Ouch.’ She snatched her hand back, checking to see if she’d cut it but she hadn’t quite pierced her skin.
O’Connor took over, eventually managing to wiggle the reluctant lock open.
As they sprinted down the passageway, a teen boy flung himself over the back of the fence.
‘Tell backup to hurry and cut him off at the back road,’ she said as she trudged over the soggy grass, her boots sinking into it with each step. ‘Stop, police.’ The boy ignored her.
‘Done.’ O’Connor half tripped over his feet but managed to somehow catch up.
Gina searched for a back gate but that would be too easy.
If there had been a back gate, the boy wouldn’t have been jumping over the fence.
She peered over the top, her fingers digging into a strip of slimy moss.
‘He’s heading down the passageway. I’ll climb over, you head back onto the road and cut him off.
Hurry, before he gets away. We can’t lose him. ’
If nothing else, Gina was sick of chasing boys around. Last night it was Abel Holloway and now, another boy. She climbed up the rickety fence, hoping that it wouldn’t give way underneath her weight, then she threw herself over, landing with a thud on the other side.
The boy rattled the wooden gate at the end of the dark path as if he was trying to break it off its hinges, or maybe it was stuck. ‘Stop, police.’ She held her identification up and started running towards him, cursing as she noticed the tear in the underarm of her coat.
One final shake of the gate later, the boy dislodged whatever had been jamming the gate and he burst through.
Great, she’d lost him. She held on to her aching side, wishing she were much fitter but the climbing and the running got harder with each year that passed.
She refused to believe she was too old. Fifties was not too old so she’d keep running and jumping without complaint.
As she reached the end of the path, she let out a breath, relieved to see that the boy had bounced into O’Connor’s chest. ‘Name?’ he asked.
‘Let me go. I ain’t done nothing.’
‘In that case, was that your garden?’ O’Connor asked.
The boy looked down at his feet. ‘It’s my friend’s house. He sometimes has his earphones in so he doesn’t answer. I’ve got a key but I forgot it so I threw a few bits of gravel at his bedroom window. I ain’t done nothing. I told you.’
Gina shook her head. ‘You were in a garden, looking through a window that isn’t yours when the owners are out. That looks suspicious. How old are you?’
‘Eighteen.’ That was a good start. Had he been a minor, things could have got more complicated.
‘You’re going to have to tell us what your name is. There’s no getting around that.’ Gina folded her arms, waiting. A police car stopped behind O’Connor, ready to take the boy away if she had to make an arrest.
‘Curtis. Curtis Dunton. I was here to see Brian. He’s my mate. I promise you, my mate Brian lives there and I even have a key, like I told you.’
Gina let out a long breath. ‘Curtis Dunton, we were looking for you. We’ve just come from your house.’
He slowly swallowed and stared wide-eyed under the rim of his hood. ‘Am I in trouble?’
She wanted to ask all about the dark path but she couldn’t. First Abel behaving suspiciously and now Curtis. The two youths definitely had things to hide and she was going to find out what they were.
‘There was an incident last night. A woman went missing and we have someone in custody. They’ve given your name as their alibi.’ She held her side and it still hurt. ‘Why did you run?’
‘’Cos I didn’t know who you were and you were chasing me, and you were police and I thought you might think I was burgling the place. You need to just get hold of Brian and he’ll tell you it’s fine.’
‘Where is Brian?’
Curtis shrugged. ‘He was meant to be at work today but he didn’t turn up.
He works at a café just next to the community hall.
I thought he’d be at home but he isn’t.’ Curtis started staring behind her.
She turned to see another boy walking across the road.
His gaze locked onto Curtis’s. ‘That’s Bri.
Looks like he’s home now.’ Curtis started to wave.
‘Bri, Brian. Tell the cops that I’m allowed in your back garden.
They just chased me over your fence, thinking I was trying to burgle your place. ’
‘It’s okay. He virtually lives with us. He’s my mate,’ Brian said as he walked towards them. ‘Where’s your key, Curtis?’
Curtis shrugged. ‘Forgot it, didn’t I?’
The taller teen in a dark-blue coat shifted his lank, damp hair that fell over his eyes to one side. Gina was losing the will to live as the two boys started chatting away about what had just happened. ‘Right, Brian, we need to talk to you. How old are you?’
‘Eighteen.’ His Adam’s apple slowly bobbed up and down. ‘Talk to me? What about?’
That message you sent to Curtis, she wanted to say but she held that comment in. The boys in front of her weren’t under her arrest and she’d sneaked a look at that message. ‘Can we go into your house? Would that be okay?’ A couple of neighbours started to gather on the streets.
‘Er, yes.’ Brian led them all back to the front of the houses, got his key out and opened the front door. ‘Can I see your IDs?’
Gina and O’Connor held them up. She popped hers back in her inside pocket and wiped the slimy moss off her hand onto her coat. The torn coat was a write-off now anyway.
‘We’ll go in the kitchen,’ Brian said. ‘And, check your shoes. My aunt doesn’t like shoes in the house but it’s okay as long as there’s no muck on them.’
Gina checked her shoes and followed Brian in as O’Connor and Curtis trailed behind. ‘DC O’Connor, would you speak to Curtis in the living room and I’ll speak to Brian in the kitchen area?’ The open plan area was large enough to have private conversations and it was just an alibi confirmation.
Brian sat on a bar stool at the kitchen island and began to continually half spin on it. ‘Am I in some sort of trouble? You’re not arresting me, are you?’
The fact that he looked genuinely worried told Gina he was up to something.
Between that and the message, she knew she had to keep him at the back of her mind throughout the investigation.
‘No, you’re not under arrest. We’re just following up on enquiries and your name has come up.
Last night, a woman went missing near the Ferndale shops.
We have someone in custody and he’s put you down as his alibi. Can I take your surname first?’
He frowned. ‘Thurston. It’s Brian Thurston.’
‘Thank you.’ Gina made a note. ‘Abel Holloway said you were outside the Ferndale shops, with him, yesterday evening between six and seven. Were you?’
He scrunched his brow and went to speak but stopped.
Gina could see that there was some sort of inner battle going on in his head, from his creased brows to his false starts and the stuttering that failed to produce any coherent words.
She wondered if Brian had already taken the dark path.
‘It’s important to answer honestly. If you don’t, it would be perverting the course of justice, which is a serious charge. ’
His shoulder slumped. ‘I was here.’
‘Alone?’
‘With Curtis. We were hanging about in my room and my sister was in. I was home between six and seven last night and Aunt Claudia came home soon after. Me and my sister live with my aunt. This is her house.’
Gina headed through to where O’Connor was speaking with Curtis about the exact same thing. O’Connor left Curtis on the leather couch and headed over. ‘Curtis was here with Brian.’
‘That’s what Brian said.’
‘But he passed the shops on the way. He didn’t stay but he said he saw Abel, but that was about four.’
Gina stood between the kitchen and lounge area.
Four that afternoon was a lot earlier than the incident and Brian confirmed that Curtis had been with him at the time of the incident.
Either way, Abel using him as an alibi didn’t stack up.
‘I’d like to thank you both for helping us with our enquiries and, Mr Dunton? ’ She glanced at Curtis.
‘Yeah?’
‘Don’t run away from the police in the future. There was no need for it.’
‘Sorry, err, officer.’
‘It’s DI Harte.’ She was left with the question, why did Abel Holloway lie about his alibis? She knew there were several more names on the list that would be followed up by uniform so she’d wait until they’d been checked out before confronting Abel.
‘I heard that a woman from Chez Ursula’s went missing by the shops last night,’ Curtis said. ‘Is that why you’ve got Abel?’
‘I can’t discuss the case at the moment as we’re currently investigating,’ Gina replied. ‘Do you know anything about her disappearance? We’re appealing for witnesses so if you can help, that would be great.’
She paused, wondering if one of the boys was about to offer them some free information, but the boys shook their heads.
‘No,’ Curtis replied. ‘I just wondered. My dad’s taken our dog to Chez Ursula’s before for a bath, when he stinks.’
Gina frowned. Mr Dunton never mentioned that he knew Mindy outside of being a tenant, but then again, she didn’t ask.
She was keeping Mr Dunton at the back of her mind for now.
He could have access to the house but could wasn’t enough.
She fired off a quick message to Wyre back at the station to have a look into Mr Dunton and his past.
Her phone beeped. It was a message from Jacob.
Guv, we have Spencer Grey in custody.