Chapter 41
Forty-One
Gina
Back at the station, Gina had tasked Kapoor with organising the warrant to arrest Jackson Dunton. O’Connor poured two coffees from the drip machine in the corner of the kitchen and passed one to her. ‘Any news from the door to doors on Dustin’s street?’
‘I checked with PC Ahmed when we got back and he said no. It was late, no one saw Dustin. It’s like he disappeared.
However, a PC found a trainer matching the description of the ones he was wearing when he went missing.
It was at the end of the road. That part is concealed by bushes so it’s a little way up from the house. ’
‘So, it looks like Dustin walked away from his car, all the way down the road until he came to a concealed area, lost a shoe and hasn’t been seen since?’
‘Yep. No one saw a thing and officers weren’t able to secure any CCTV footage of Dustin.’
‘I don’t get how no one saw a thing with Mindy and now no one saw a thing with Dustin.’ She sighed. ‘Our perp or perps know the area well and research exactly where to take the victims.’
‘Do you think it’s Jackson?’
She shrugged. ‘I can’t get that message out of my head, the one his son received about a dark path.
Curtis and Brian, they’re young, impressionable, and I feel like they were hiding something when we spoke to them, but we can’t exactly demand they hand their tech over.
They haven’t done anything wrong.’ She bit the insides of her cheeks.
‘We’ll have Jackson Dunton in custody before we know it.’
‘I’m not sure about that either. If Jackson knows where Dustin is, he might clam up and we might never find him if we make the arrest too soon. I’m thinking we should tail him instead. Have a couple of PCs put on watch on his street.’ She blew on her coffee and took a sip, recoiling at the heat.
‘Do you think it was all a bit easy, guv?’
‘Yes, I was thinking that.’ She nodded. ‘Far too easy. A wallet left behind that has a single bank card in it belonging to Jackson Dunton, an expired card at that. A scene that looks as clean as it just came out of the packet of a hardware shop. We’re a part of the killer’s game and the rules are, someone gets taken, then they die.
They’re using OpenMeSmiler to cloud things when it comes to who did it.
That site is a smokescreen, a lure for victims or a way to gain control over them.
Just look at the video sent to Mindy. It’s there to confuse us by introducing lots of people to the scene.
The men watching over fences and through windows?
That’s all it is, a distraction. Our perp is in all that somewhere but it’s up to us to sift out what’s relevant. Any news from Garth?’
O’Connor shook his head. ‘He’s still not been granted access to the site.’ His phone beeped and he smiled.
‘It’s nice you have something to be happy about during this horrible investigation.’
‘Sorry, guv.’
‘I meant it. It’s nice.’
He leaned over and showed her the photo that Mrs O had sent. A chef’s hat poked up behind a huge pyramid of profiteroles that had to be about three feet tall. The decoration as intricate as lace with tiny purple flowers entwined around the edge. ‘It’s apparently a croquembouche.’
‘A croquem-what?’ Gina smiled. ‘She is so talented. People will pay hundreds for a centrepiece like that.’ Gina smiled, as an image of her in a bridal gown sitting at the head of the table with a croquem-thing sitting proudly on it.
She pushed that thought away. She and Brodie had barely been together five minutes. Stupid.
Briggs barged in, almost making her spill her coffee over her hands. O’Connor snatched his phone back and put it away. In all the darkness, that moment made her realise that not all people were bad. They might deal with the worst of humanity sometimes, but there were good people out there.
‘Ursula has arrived and we’ve popped her in interview room two.
I’ve just been coordinating with Kapoor so the system is up to date and Garth is still working on getting into OpenMeSmiler.
He’s also about to start on Dustin Fuller’s laptop so I’ll keep you posted.
’ Briggs’s gaze met hers for a moment too long.
She wished she could tell what he was thinking.
She could feel the warmth of his body as he stood a little closer.
O’Connor smiled and swigged back a drink.
She hated that Briggs still made her feel something.
No, she had to forget him. Brodie was her very real future, the one she deserved and wanted. Briggs was her past.
‘Any news from Mindy’s post-mortem yet?’ O’Connor asked, breaking the silence.
Briggs cleared his throat. ‘Wyre and Jacob are still there. I know it’s underway. Anyway, I have to deal with the press release in a short while so I best get back to it. Keep me updated.’ He left them alone again. She finished her now cool coffee and she and O’Connor headed to the interview room.
She opened the door. ‘Ursula, thanks for coming.’
Ursula looked up, her eyes bruised from lack of sleep and too much wine; her lips cracked with dehydration. ‘That’s okay. My sister has Dooby and I don’t stink now. You want to formally interview me?’ She picked up the plastic cup of water on the table and guzzled it down in one.
Gina nodded. ‘It’s a voluntary interview. You’re not under arrest.’
She half smiled and sat back. ‘That’s good to hear, mostly because I haven’t done anything. Can we get started? I’m so tired, I just want to go back to my sister’s and I think I’ll stay there. I’ll give you her address before I go.’
‘We’ll get started then.’
O’Connor introduced them for the recorder.
‘Ursula, where were you yesterday evening?’ Gina asked.
‘After finishing up at the salon, around teatime. I can’t remember when exactly, I headed home and I stayed home all night. I didn’t leave.’
‘Was anyone with you?’
‘No. I called a friend and spoke to another, who called me.’
Gina knew that Edwin Hammond had checked on her. He said so outside the shop. ‘What are your friends’ names?’
‘Edwin Hammond. He called to see if I had any news. That was about seven.’
‘And the other one?’
‘Claudia Forster. It’ll be on my call log and I have her number if you need it.
Wait, am I providing alibis here?’ She glanced between Gina and O’Connor.
‘Why are you talking to me like I’m a suspect?
Mindy died. She was murdered. I’m distraught.
’ Her eyes began to water up. She used the back of her hand to wipe them away.
‘The questions are routine. I’m really sorry for your loss.
’ Gina gave Ursula a moment and pushed the box of tissues towards her.
She turned on the tablet in front of her and brought up the pizza photo, the one that had been uploaded to the fake profile that Garth was looking into.
‘I’m showing Mrs Grey a photo of a slice of pizza.
There’s a blurred-out step and some pavement in the background and the pizza is in focus, on the pavement. ’
She folded her arms. ‘Is this a joke?’
‘This photo is from a profile we’re linking to Mindy’s murder. Do you recognise the step?’
‘How can I? It’s blurry.’
‘We’ve analysed the photo. It was taken outside Chez Ursula’s on Friday the sixteenth of January at seven fifteen that evening.’
She frowned.
Gina opened the other photo. ‘This is a photo of the back of a house and it’s dated Wednesday the fourteenth of January at ten fifty-nine p.m.’
‘That’s Mindy’s house.’
‘Correct, Mrs Grey. That is Mindy’s house. Can you tell me where you were at these times?’
‘Given the times, I definitely would have been at home.’
‘Was Mr Grey with you?’
She slowly shook her head.
‘Can you please answer for the recording?’
‘No. I was on my own.’
‘Where was Mr Grey?’
She shrugged. ‘Probably with her.’
Gina knew that on the Wednesday, Mindy’s neighbour had spotted two people who she thought were men loitering around the back of the house.
They would have had the perfect vantage point to take the photo.
On the Friday, Mindy didn’t arrange to meet Spencer.
She was scared, crouching on the floor in her kitchen with a knife for protection. ‘By her, you mean, Mindy?’
‘That’s correct. Bloody slag.’
Gina got that Ursula was upset but she felt her teeth itch at that word.
‘I hate what he did to me. I knew he’d been with her.
I tried to catch them out and I couldn’t, then came the lies and he even had the audacity to accuse me of being tired or sensitive, or whatever other bloody gaslighting term you want to conjure up.
I was right. He was sleeping with her.’ Ursula shook her head, slower this time.
‘I liked Mindy a lot. He ruined our friendship. He took her from me.’ Tears began to spill. She grabbed several tissues.
‘So, you already knew about the affair before Mindy was taken?’
Ursula stared at Gina, as if it had just dawned on her that she’d slipped up. ‘I… err…’
‘Mrs Grey, it is an offence to withhold information like this. We are investigating the murder of your employee.’
‘But…’
‘But what?’
‘I knew you’d blame me or Spencer and Spencer isn’t the nicest of people.
I mean he’s a terrible husband and me, I couldn’t hurt anyone if I tried.
Believe it or not, I blamed my husband for their affair.
I know what he’s like. He manipulates people into doing what he wants them to do.
He gets all angry and aggressive – verbally – when he doesn’t get his own way, but he’s not violent. He… he…’
‘He what?’
‘I saw something and I wish I could unsee it. I didn’t want to have to share this with you because I didn’t think it was needed, but my husband isn’t who I think he is.’ She began to sob into the tissues. ‘I don’t know why I defend him. I quit defending him. I want my life back.’
‘Go on.’
‘His gaming computer, I made him get rid of it. Actually, I smashed it up and he took it to the tip the next morning.’
‘Why?’
‘Last week, about three one morning, I heard him creeping around.’ She let out a small laugh. ‘We don’t share a room, haven’t for ages now. I don’t want him near me and even more so after I saw what he was looking at.’
‘And what was he looking at.’ The muscles in Gina’s neck tensed as she waited for an answer.
‘Cameras. Women everywhere, in their own bedrooms, getting changed, putting make-up on, with lovers. Some men, young men. The woman, one woman he was watching, she looked just like Mindy and was drying herself. The woman stood there, naked, her back to the camera, her hair falling over her shoulders. I know it couldn’t be Mindy, it was just some weird porn or fetish thing, I guess.
Anyway, I flipped. I went to the garage, got a hammer, barged in and smashed that computer up until it was in pieces.
He fought me for that hammer but it was too late.
He took the computer to the tip first thing on Monday and he kept murmuring that I’d destroyed him, that I didn’t know what I’d done but he hated me and he never wanted to see me ever again. ’
‘Did you see the name of the site?’
She scrunched her nose up. ‘Smile, something…’ She frowned. ‘It wasn’t just a lookalike, it was Mindy, wasn’t it? He was watching Mindy and others through his computer.’ She swallowed. ‘I think I’m going to be sick.’