‘So you called him names. Can you tell me anything else? Did you see anyone following him?’
He shook his head.
‘Just going slightly off on a tangent, do you and your friends hang around at the graveyard?’ There was still a chance that the person outside the vicarage was nothing more than a childish prank, designed to scare the vicar.
‘No, I don’t personally. Me an’ my mates mostly hang around on the football field in the park. I remember playing dare with my friends at the graveyard, but that was when we were kids.’
Gina felt a smile forming behind her stern exterior. ‘When you were kids.’
‘You know, about fourteen, fifteen. We told scary stories about people being buried alive and their ghosts rising at Halloween.’ He paused for a moment. ‘That sounds bad with what happened. They were just stories – I think. Anyway, after we’d shit ourselves out, we’d normally run away after one of us pretended to see a ghost. That sort of stuff.’
‘Going back to Monday, can you tell us anything else?’
‘There is somethin’.’
‘Okay.’ Jacob glanced at Gina.
‘Can I have some Coke or a Fanta in a minute?’
Gina nodded.
‘He stays at this horrid place just off Beckett Street we call the tramp house, that’s where some of the homeless gather and bed down. It’s just a house that is fallin’ apart and ’asn’t been touched for a couple of years. We go there for laughs and we saw him arguing with a woman.’
‘Did you see her?’
‘No, we scarpered before she came out.’
‘What were they arguing about?’
‘She said he had ruined everything and to shut up. That was all I heard. Can I have that Coke now?’
‘PC Smith will be here in a moment, I’ll send it in with him. Thank you.’
‘Can I go home in a minute? I’ve told you everything I know.’
‘We need to check a couple of things first.’ There was still his young victim, Spencer Burrows to look into. ‘When you do go home, I don’t want to see you here again.’ She smiled at him.
‘You won’t.’
She jotted a note on her pad.
Who wanted Alex to shut up, and why?
Chapter Thirty-One
Cherie pulled onto the drive and swallowed as she turned her headlamps off. Christian had probably been calling non-stop and she hadn’t answered at all. She took a swig of water from the bottle in her glove compartment and got out of the car, leaving her bag in the boot. That could stay there. She hadn’t taken her phone; that was her very valid excuse. As far as she was aware it was still on the patio table in the back garden, turned onto silent. He peered through the window, grimacing at her every move as she slammed the car door closed.
As she reached the front door, he opened it. ‘Where have you been? The others have gone home.’
‘I went looking for Marcus.’
‘You came back to get the car and you didn’t even pop in to tell me what was happening? I’ve been beside myself. Marcus came back, he left his coat. He still couldn’t get hold of Penny.’ Christian paused. ‘So, where have you been all this time?’
She pushed past him and hurried out to the garden to grab her phone.
‘I tried to call.’
‘I left my phone when I left to look for Marcus. How was I to know he’d come back and gone home since?’ She went into their living room and stared out of the window into the garden.
He followed. ‘I can’t deal with this? What the hell is going on?’
‘What do you mean? I was worried about Marcus. He’d had a lot to drink and was beside himself over his row with Penny. That’s all there is to it.’
He shook his head and pursed his lips as he spun her around. ‘I’m sick of you treating me like I’m stupid. Even Joanna thinks something is going on between you, Penny, Marcus and Isaac. What aren’t you telling me?’
‘What aren’t you telling me? You and Joanna looked a bit cosy. I saw you glance at her arse when she bent over.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. This is just another of your attempts to deflect what we’re talking about. Let’s start again. What aren’t you telling me?’
Her shoulders slumped. ‘Look, I’m not hiding anything. We all go back a long way, that’s all. You know that. They’re my friends and I was just looking out for them. I’m worried about Penny. I know she’s done this before but you just never know. She’s not answering my calls at all.’ She couldn’t keep eye contact any longer. She looked away.
‘You’ve been gone nearly two hours!’ Christian grabbed the plant on the windowsill and smashed it against the wall. She flinched and took a step back. This wasn’t like her usually mild-mannered husband, but she’d driven him to it.
He kicked the coffee table, then the door. His dark skin looked blotchy under the eyes. ‘I can’t stand this any more. I stick by you through everything, the moods, the drink problem. You lose your job, I support you. You repay me by lying and hiding things – it’s sending me crazy. Nothing good has ever come from your secretive behaviour. Is there someone else? Huh.’
She shook her head and wiped the tears away.
‘You wouldn’t tell me anyway, would you? You’d let me think I was going mad for years, then I’d find out and then you’d still lie. That’s what you do, over and over again. I’m running on empty here. Just tell me what’s going on.’
She went to speak but then closed her mouth. ‘I can’t.’
‘You can but you won’t. Last chance or we’re done.’
She turned away and stared at the photo of her family all together on the beach during happier times. It was all a lie, she was never happy. She wasn’t capable of being happy.
‘If that’s how you want to play it, you can sleep on the settee.’ He stormed out. Seconds later, a handful of blankets flew down the stairs and landed in a heap.
She exhaled and slumped into a chair. Grabbing her phone, she pressed Marcus’s number. They had to talk and it couldn’t wait. She opened the back door as quietly as possible and headed out of the back gate and down the path. What she had to say couldn’t be overheard.
She glanced up at their bedroom window. The curtains were already closed and the light flickered off. She didn’t know how all this was going to end. All she knew was that she needed to talk right now. If she didn’t, she’d explode and that scared her more than anything.
Chapter Thirty-Two
‘What are you thinking?’ Briggs placed the pizza box on Gina’s kitchen table. She didn’t need him checking on her but given that someone was out to get to her, she appreciated that he’d dropped by.
‘We have Eveline Peterson, her son Alex is murdered. Then we have the stranger in the dark coat at a grave marked with Elsie Peterson’s name. Same surname. Wyre is looking into this. Whatever’s happening seems to be personal in every way. I’ve read the forensics report from the scene. It was pretty fruitless given the awful weather so I’m not holding out any hope at all for anything more substantial to come back.’ She opened the lid on the pizza box and took a slice to bite into, the stringy cheese stretching from box to her chin before snapping. It cloyed against the roof of her mouth. She chewed and chewed, suddenly not wanting to swallow the food. It was as if there was a stopper in her throat.