‘No. He ignored me when I asked him if he’d like me to make him a scarf. I thought he was cold so I offered.’ June shrugged.
‘That was very kind of you.’ Gina smiled.
‘He was definitely on something, June. I swear, she’ll talk to anyone because she’s got a big heart but she does worry me.’ Cyril squeezed his wife’s hand. ‘Ah ha, four down: rotten.’ He picked up his pen and went back to his crossword.
‘Thanks, Lucy, and thank you, June.’ The elderly lady had a sad look in her eyes as she gave Gina a parting smile.
Back out in the crisp air, Gina shivered. ‘We’ve got time for a quick chat with our vicar, Sally Stevens, then we’ll head back to the station and catch up with the investigation where I’ll check this CCTV out, see if I can get a close up on his face. So, we’re looking for an Al.’
Gina pulled her hood up and glanced back at the shop where she caught Cyril staring at her over his newspaper. She scrunched her brow and looked away. Why was he now acting weirdly? She felt in her pocket for the letter. It rustled, reminding her of its presence.
To the right was George Street. She pictured their angry stranger – now victim – sitting against the wall wrapped in a sleeping bag. She still couldn’t work out why he’d been lurking around on the night of the incident. Maybe he wasn’t staring at her, maybe it was something to do with the kids or the church behind her. Maybe a homeless man with a bit of a mouth on him made the perfect target and they’d been giving him some grief. ‘We need to track those kids down, the ones who were here beating the boy up.’
‘It’ll be a miracle if we do that with the CCTV footage from the church. It’s as blurry as hell. I don’t hold out any hope at all.’
Gina glanced back at the café. Cyril’s head was now concealed by newspaper. Maybe she was making something out of nothing. Why did it feel like Cyril knew something she didn’t?
Chapter Thirteen
‘Ms Stevens? I’m DI Harte and this is DS Driscoll. May we speak to you for a moment?’
‘I literally have ten minutes before I open up for our stay and play group. If I’m late, there’ll be grouchy toddlers everywhere.’ She smiled broadly, showing a set of ultra-white teeth.
Sally Stevens wasn’t much like Gina had imagined her to be. She’d imagined a mature woman, rotund and smiley, more like the one in The Vicar of Dibley. Sally was a lithe woman who exuded youth. Her wavy mahogany-coloured hair fell over the shoulders of her pinafore dress, which led to black opaque tights and a pair of chunky lace-up boots. Her pale face and dark eyes gave her a gothic appearance. The only thing that gave away her position was the white dog collar that she wore around her neck. She beckoned them in, pointing to the sitting room with her long black nails. A dog banged and barked against a closed door.
‘Is it about the incident at the bus stop? I gave one of your officers all the recordings from the church CCTV.’
Gina shook her head as she stopped in front of the stone fireplace. The two settees looked comfy but they weren’t staying long enough to sit. ‘It’s not about that, I’m afraid. It’s about something far more serious.’
‘Is it to do with all the commotion in the woods? I was walking my dog this morning and got turned back.’
The press were all over it and Gina had spotted the first mention of a body on their social media before leaving for the café. ‘Yes. A body was found in the woods last night and we’re currently investigating, which is why we’re here. Have you seen anything unusual recently, maybe over the past day or two?’
Sally let out a small huff. ‘Only one thing, but it’s Halloween. I don’t know if what I saw was unusual for Halloween, which is why I didn’t bother anyone. I normally get kids hanging around; sometimes I listen to them playing but only because it’s quite funny. They tell stories about the dead coming out of the graves – one of them recites some stupid words or sits alone in the graveyard while the others look on from afar, usually laughing.’ Sally smiled. ‘These things either end with the poor kid who’s undergoing the dare running away screaming or they sit it out and get a cheer. Once they all realise nothing is going to happen, they leave. The only thing they get is cold. It’s Halloween tomorrow, so I’m expecting this to all happen again. I know it sounds cruel, but I sometimes turn my lights off and make ghost noises out of the downstairs toilet window to scare them. I have a weird sense of humour. It’s all part of the fun and nothing bad is meant by it. It’s theatre, that’s all.’
‘What did you see?’ Gina was more interested in the unusual rather than the expected.
The young vicar scrunched her brow. The dog started to bark again. ‘A figure in a long dark coat with a hood that covered their face.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘Come with me.’
Gina glanced at Jacob as they followed the vicar upstairs. Each step creaked in the old house. As they reached the landing, Gina spotted that one door was open, the door to the master bedroom. She followed the woman past the wooden four-poster bed and stopped at the window. As she stepped closer the floorboards felt spongy and the wardrobe rattled.
‘It was from here. This is where I was when I saw the figure, just at the back of the graveyard. The dog woke me with his barking. It was about three in the morning on Wednesday. Jerry doesn’t normally bark in the night so it had me concerned. We’ve had a few burglaries at the church in the past and I know I’m set back a little from the main building, but I do try to stay alert. Whoever was hidden under the hood looked up at me. Nearly scared me to death. I ducked behind the curtain and waited a few minutes before looking back out, then they were gone. I ran around the house in the dark, checking out of every window, but I didn’t see the figure again. No one had tried to break into the vicarage as the alarm would have gone off. It was then I checked the CCTV. Whoever was out there had avoided the two cameras that we have. The one facing the front of the church that also catches the road and the one that covers the back of the church and the vicarage. There are no CCTV cameras on the graveyard, so I have nothing I can give you. It’s a big area for two cameras but that’s all the budget stretches to, I’m afraid.’
Jacob pulled his notebook from his pocket.
‘Can you tell us any more about this person?’ Gina leaned on the window ledge and tried to imagine how scary it would have been for Sally Stevens when she saw the figure. Living alone in this big house with its creaky floorboards would have heightened the fear.
She shook her head. ‘No. From here, I couldn’t really get much of an idea of the person’s height and, well, the figure was covered in the huge coat so I couldn’t even estimate their build. I don’t know whether it was a man or a woman and I couldn’t see their face, not even when they looked up. There are no lights out there at all and I recall it being cloudy, so the moon didn’t even give off much light. Had it not been for the long coat material moving a little with the breeze, this person probably would have blended right into the night.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘I don’t want to hurry you but if I don’t get down there, I’ll have a load of parents and children getting cold outside the church.’