Chapter 47
Forty-Seven
Gina
Gina hammered on the door until Curtis answered. For an eighteen-year-old, he still looked so young. ‘Hang on.’ He closed the door on them and the barking got quieter. He opened the door again. ‘Sorry, I had to shut Rex in the kitchen.’ He gave them a long look. ‘You again?’
‘Us again. Is your dad in?’ She knew the answer to that one.
‘No, he’s working and hasn’t been home all day. Then I think he said something about a date. He might not even be back tonight.’
‘He wasn’t just home?’
Curtis shook his head. ‘No. I haven’t heard from him at all this afternoon.’
‘Someone just left your house. A man in a thick coat, with a hat on.’
Curtis frowned. ‘I’ve been home a few minutes and there was no one in.’
‘Do you know where your dad went?’
‘Er, let me see. We have apps on our phones. I’ll be able to find him. He’s probably at the Angel Arms. I know he mentioned that he might go there after dinner.’
‘Do you know the name of his date?’
‘No.’ Curtis began swiping and prodding his phone, then he frowned. ‘That’s odd. He’s on the road where Nan used to live, when she was alive.’
Mindy’s house. She beckoned PC Smith over. ‘I’m so sorry to tell you, we have a warrant for your father’s arrest so we’ll need to search your house—’
Curtis darted up the stairs and Gina followed. He leaned over his computer and began moving the mouse. An array of stripes and zigzags filled the screen. Curtis ran his fingers through his hair and banged on the keyboard several times.
‘What’s going on?’ Gina asked.
‘I, err, I was just trying to fix my computer… I was in the middle of doing something when you knocked and I remembered. Sorry. I guess I’ll sort that later.’
Even though Curtis was not under arrest, she was deeply concerned about what he might be getting himself into.
She glanced around his room, turning her attention to whatever was right opposite his screen.
The action figure on the shelf wasn’t facing the same way as all the others.
It was tilted slightly to the right. ‘May I take a look?’ She had a warrant but she didn’t want to scare Curtis any more than she had to.
‘Er, yes. Dad gave me those and I started collecting other He-Man things. Why do you want to look at my collection?’
She put her woolly gloves in one pocket and pulled on a pair of nitrile gloves from her other pocket, then she shifted the She-Ra figure to the left. The lens of a small device peered at her.
‘Is that…? Has someone been watching me?’
PC Smith and O’Connor entered the room.
‘PC Smith is going to stay with you and another car is on its way.’ Gina had to wonder if the man who just left the house had planted the camera.
‘But my dad, why do you want my dad?’
The dog’s barks from the kitchen made Gina flinch.
‘I can’t discuss the case with you at the moment but we just need to interview your dad.
I’ll leave you in the capable hands of PC Smith.
Do not leave the house as he will need to interview you, too.
’ Her chest tightened at the thought of what that camera meant.
She stared at the computer camera lens, then at the zigzagging screen.
Curtis had to be a target and she had no idea why Jackson would want to spy on his own son.
Was it even Jackson? If it wasn’t, why was he at Mindy’s house now, knowing that it was a part of a police investigation, especially as he claimed to not have a spare key?
She gestured for O’Connor to follow her and as soon as she was out the door, she messaged Briggs to update him and the team. We’re heading to Mindy’s house now. Jackson’s there.
As they ran towards O’Connor’s car, PC Smith burst out of the front door. ‘Curtis… Curtis…’
Gina darted back. ‘What’s happened?’
‘I turned my back for a second. The dog escaped from the kitchen somehow. I was helping him try to catch it in the living room and when I went back into the kitchen, he was gone. Did he come out here?’
Gina shook her head. ‘Round the back.’ They darted through the hallway and the back door was unlocked. The gate swayed in the gentle breeze. Gina sprinted towards it, glancing up and down the lane that ran along the back but there was no sign of the boy. She sighed. ‘We’ve lost him.’
Two PCs arrived. ‘I need you to search for the boy. He’s just left on foot. He could have gone up or down the lane. Do your best to find him.’ They ran ahead. Gina didn’t have any more energy to give chase and they couldn’t lose Jackson.
Shaking her head, Gina led O’Connor back to the car. She made the call for backup to meet her at Mindy’s house while she was being driven. O’Connor turned the heating up and the feeling in her fingers started to come back. She blew into her hands and rubbed them together.
O’Connor pulled up at the end of Mindy’s road and they got out just in time to spot Jackson inserting a key into the lock and stepping into the house.
There wasn’t a vehicle parked outside Mindy’s house.
She glanced up and down, searching for a van, or anything else that still ticked with a warm engine but there was nothing.
Jackson wasn’t even wearing the clothes he’d left the house with but he could easily have removed the overcoat.
Or it wasn’t him. She shivered as she thought of Curtis arriving home and the man leaving.
What if it wasn’t his dad? She quickly typed out her concerns in a message and sent it to PC Smith.
She crept closer to the house. The bedroom light that used to be Mindy’s flashed on.
After beckoning O’Connor to follow her, she nudged the unlocked door open and took the stairs one by one, not making a sound.
The scene hadn’t even been released. Jackson was not permitted to be in the house and they had an arrest warrant for him.
Her stomach sank and her legs came over a little shaky.
What if he’d hidden Dustin right under their noses?
Jackson had to be the man who’d left his own house in the thick overcoat.
It could have been a stranger planting a camera but it was more likely to be the man who lived there.
As she reached the top of the stairs, O’Connor tripped up the step below her, almost knocking her into the bathroom door. They stopped and held their breath, both knowing that one wrong move could leave them with a hostage situation.
‘Who’s there?’
Damn, he’d heard them. ‘Police.’ She ran across the landing, ready for whatever was to come.
‘Jackson Dunton, you are under arrest for the murder of Mindy Carson and the kidnapping of Dustin Fuller. You do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.’ She stared at the bed behind him and frowned.
Jackson put his hands in the air like they were on some American cop drama. On the bed lay a painting of a bunch of sunflowers in a blue vase. She frowned and Jackson glanced at the wall, then back at her. There was something there he didn’t want her to see.
‘You had a key all the time.’
He looked down.
Gina stared at the busy rose-covered wallpaper until she saw what he’d been glancing at.
In the centre of one of the flowers there was a dark dot in one of the flower buds.
She stepped closer and saw in the middle of one of the painted flowers was a pinprick of a hole.
They’d missed one of the cameras during the search and Jackson was there, tampering with the evidence.
She grabbed her handcuffs, turned him around and cuffed him. ‘Where’s Dustin? Where is he?’
He turned his head, his body still facing away from her. ‘No comment.’