Chapter 29
Twenty-Nine
Gina
Spencer Grey wasn’t making it up when he said his mother’s house was in the middle of nowhere.
O’Connor had driven them down single-track winding roads for about a quarter of a mile and the police cars that followed had just pulled up.
Gina’s eyes were struggling to adjust to the darkness of the countryside.
PC Ahmed exited the car behind them, holding his torch out. As he walked nearer to the tiny chocolate-box cottage, covered in ivy, the intruder lights flashed on.
Gina stepped out and they all hurried towards the front door. O’Connor got the key out of his pocket and passed it to her.
Despite trying, none of them at the station could contact Spencer’s mother but with life or limb at risk, they were going in.
‘Can one of you head around the back? If Spencer isn’t our only perp, I don’t want anyone escaping.
’ She slotted the key in the lock and turned.
The door creaked open with a slight nudge.
On stepping into the tiled hallway, Gina turned the lights on.
‘Check the ground floor. O’Connor and I will go upstairs.
’ The two PCs headed along the hallway as Gina and O’Connor ascended the narrow staircase.
‘Mindy, it’s the police. Call or make a noise if you can hear me. ’
Shuffling came from upstairs but Gina couldn’t pinpoint it.
She burst through the first door – nothing but an empty bathroom with a dripping bath tap.
Her heart began to thrum as she burst through the second door which was a neatly decorated bedroom with a single bed in it.
She flung the only wardrobe open and it was full of clothes, but there was no sign of Mindy.
‘That noise. Where’s it coming from?’ O’Connor frowned and headed towards what had to be the main bedroom.
They entered, following the shuffling. The room was empty. Damp on one of the walls made the emerald-green paintwork look more like a murky sea green. She looked up. ‘It’s coming from the loft.’
‘Downstairs is clear, guv,’ an officer shouted from the hallway.
‘We need to check the loft.’ Gina glanced around the room and spotted the loft pole behind the door.
She grabbed it and headed back out onto the landing.
One of the PCs ran up the stairs to assist while another waited on the stairs.
She used the pole to open the hatch and get hold of the ladders.
Once they’d swished down, she stepped onto the bottom rung. ‘Police, we’re coming up.’
The rustling and scratching got louder with each step. She heard something that sounded like a faint squeal. ‘Mindy?’ An earthy scent hit her nostrils. She sniffed again, detecting ammonia. ‘Mindy.’
As she reached the top step, the PC passed her a torch and she aimed it in the direction of the noise.
She stumbled back as the bats came at her while trying to escape.
She slipped down several metal rungs, heart pounding and quite upset that she’d disturbed the endangered bats.
They’d clearly been coming and going through the damaged roof, the same side the damp had trickled down from.
‘You okay, guv?’ O’Connor asked as he helped her steady herself.
With a hand across her banging heart, she caught her breath. ‘Bats. It’s just bats. We should leave them be.’
PC Ahmed called up. ‘I’ve checked the two outbuildings. Both were unlocked and there’s nothing in them. There’s no sign that Mindy has been in either. On the way back, I spotted a vehicle of some description, large and white. It’s at the back end of the land.’
‘It could be the large white van we’ve been looking for. Maybe Abel’s information was truthful.’ Finally, a good break in the case. She hurried downstairs with O’Connor on her tail. ‘Let’s go and check it out.’
They jogged across the rubbly yard in the darkness with only the constables’ torches lighting the way.
She caught sight of the white vehicle but couldn’t see the front or sides.
It had been parked front first into an overgrown space.
As they got closer, Gina pushed through the spiky branches until she could see the vehicle.
‘It’s a small motorhome.’ She tried to prise the door open but it was locked.
‘Mindy, I’m DI Harte from Cleevesford Police.
Shout if you can hear me.’ She nudged forward, scratching her already torn coat on another clump of thorny branches until she reached the passenger door.
It was unlocked. She glanced back to the others who could barely get through.
With trembling fingers, Gina stepped up and kneeled on the seat, her knees digging into the cushion.
‘Hello,’ she called as she reached back down, taking a torch from PC Ahmed.
She fought with the curtain that divided the cab from the space behind it.
Again, there was another curtain at the back, concealing what was beyond. ‘I’m going to climb over.’
Her limbs ached as she got into positions she didn’t know she was capable of, before landing like a lump on the other side.
She used the cooker to pull herself up. All she could hear was her own pulse banging in her ears as she stumbled towards the back curtain, hunched over so not to scrape her head on the roof.
She gasped as she snatched the curtain open.
Several items of women’s lacy underwear had been left on an unmade bed.
There was a photo on the wall of Spencer and Mindy, laughing and eating hot dogs at what looked like the Birmingham German Christmas Market and the most alarming thing, reddish-brown stains all over the bed. Blood.