Chapter 9: Chapter 9

SIXTEEN

As Gina and O’Connor walked along the station car park, she spotted Darren’s large white van. It was exactly as Toby Biddle had described. He thought it was a Transit and it was. It also had dark green writing on the side, Mason and Sons Tree Surgery, and below it was a small logo of a tree with their office number printed underneath. With gloved hands she went to open the back door just as Keith from forensics pulled up in the staff spaces. As he approached, bag in one hand while the other hand adjusted his comb-over, he let out a small cry as he placed his bag on the floor. ‘Back is killing me. Bernard’s on his way so I’ll make a start when he gets here.’

‘I’m opening it up for a quick look, then it’s all yours,’ Gina said.

Keith passed her a hairnet to go with the gloves she was already wearing. She tucked her hair in and tried the handle. It was already open. She didn’t need the van keys. Maybe Darren Mason did forget to lock it the other day. She passed O’Connor the keys to put back in the evidence bag. The smell of marijuana escaped out of the door. She spotted the tiny bag of weed, no more than enough for one or two smokes. ‘Looks like we have him on possession.’ She’d pass his information over to PC Smith for his investigations. He’d no doubt want a word with Darren too. ‘Bloody hell that stuff stinks.’

‘I know, it’s rancid.’

She spotted a bag spilling over with ropes, harnesses, carabiners and a buckled waist belt. A petrol chainsaw had been strapped to a frame up against the one side of the van, along with a few other tools. ‘Pass me a forensics suit and some boot covers. I’m stepping in,’ she said to Keith.

He flinched as he bent over and passed her the items. As she zipped the suit up, she gazed at structure of the van. The cab section was divided by a large panel so she couldn’t see the seats. Leaning in, she gently lifted a few items. Her gaze travelled into all the corners, under the tools and in the crevices. The glint of something caught her eye. Reaching down, she turned the metal disc and waited for Keith to open a clear evidence bag. He got out some tweezers and gripped the edge of the item before dropping it into the bag. She closed the van door and handed the scene over to Keith.

‘To work it is then,’ he said as he finished suiting up.

‘If you find anything else, call me out. We have him in custody now and the clock is ticking.’

Back at the incident room, with O’Connor in tow, she entered, holding up their prize find. A small disc that looked like the type a dog might wear on a collar.

‘Found something, guv?’ Wyre asked.

‘Yes, as well as a bag of weed, we found a small disc with…’ She held the bagged item to the light and squinted at the grubby disc. ‘It has the letters E Ho on the front. It also looks like the rest have worn off. You can just about make out the E Ho. It’s been engraved in an amateurish way, almost

scrawled on, with a small sharp object. There is a brownish smear to the back. This could be a spec of dried blood. Get a couple of photos taken and send it straight to the lab,’ she said to O’Connor.

‘Yes, guv.’ He took the bag, then he and Jacob left to take the item to Keith and Bernard.

‘E Ho. Ho, who is Ho?’ Gina queried. ‘Darren’s surname is Mason. If this was from the Mason’s dog, the contact name would be Mason, surely. He mentioned the friend, whose flat he came from on the Saturday, his name was Callum Besford. E Ho…’

‘It could be a customer. Maybe a customer’s dog jumped into the van while he was working,’ Wyre added.

‘Could have. We’ll soon find out if any of the forensics that come back match those of our victim. Time to play the forensics waiting game. In the meantime, I need to see the CCTV at Crump Lane. Did you call them?’

‘I did, guv. Told them we’d be there soon.’

‘Let’s go.’ She grabbed her car keys from her bag and headed towards the door, with Wyre following. She checked her watch, there was still a bit of the morning left. Plenty of time to collect the CCTV footage and speak to Darren Mason again. As they headed out to the car park she spotted Jacob. ‘Prepare for a search of Mason’s house when we get back. We need also to speak to Callum Besford. Hope you haven’t got any dinner dates planned for this evening. It’s going to be a long one.’

‘Just cancelling,’ said Jacob as he pulled his phone out. Gina had nothing to cancel. She watched as Wyre typed out a

message to George. No one was ever expecting her to come home and for that she was glad.

SEVENTEEN

Gina drove in the midday heat through the snaking country roads as Wyre enjoyed the sun-drenched views. She listened to the birdsong through the open windows as she slowed down on the gravelly road. The smell of farm hung in the air; a cross between manure and cut grass, with a distant hint of smokiness. She slowed down a little more as she twisted and turned the car, avoiding potholes along the remainder of the road.

Trees sprouting from each verge met above them in a grand-looking arch. Dandelion seeds floated through the air and in through the car window. As they reached the main road, coming out of the short cut, she could see Crump Lane Petrol Station in the distance. The small independent station was a rarity, offering only two grubby pumps and a couple of spaces to park in for customers using the small shop. Behind it were fields of rapeseed flowers, covering the landscape like a thick yellow blanket. Just beneath the brow of a hill a patch of woodland met the cloudless sky.

She turned in, parking in one of the two spaces. ‘Let’s go and see what they’ve got.’

Wyre smiled and nodded, grabbing her pad and pen.

Wasps buzzed around the overflowing bin that welcomed customers as they entered. Wyre batted them away with the back of her hand as they rushed through the door, then were instantly hit by the air conditioning.

The shop was small, offering a few sandwiches and cans of pop in a fridge, the usual essentials such as bread and milk and racks of chocolate bars and crisps. A coffee machine whirred away in the corner as the shop assistant grabbed her almost finished drink and headed back behind the counter. She spotted the woman’s name badge. Beryl Day – Manager.

‘DI Harte and DC Wyre. We called earlier today. We’ve come to see the CCTV footage of Saturday morning, between six thirty and seven thirty.’

‘Oh, of course.’ She placed her coffee down. ‘Come through.’ The woman lifted a hatch and guided them into the small serving area. From the counter Gina could see the large split screen showing four active cameras and just under the counter sat a hard drive that was gently whirring away. The air con blasted onto the woman’s grey bun, almost unravelling a few of her loosely pinned hairs. ‘Sorry about the chill. I get far too hot in this weather.’

She needn’t have apologised. It was a relief to be cool. The humidity was getting worse as the hours in the day passed. Twenty-eight degrees, the morning weather report had warned. Wyre began to mark out a CCTV viewing log, ready to document times and movement. ‘What is your write-over period?’

‘Thirty days. Everything will still be on there for last Saturday. Here we go.’

‘Start at six in the morning.’

The woman pressed play and they watched until the front end of Darren’s van came into view.

‘Do you have any CCTV footage that covers the back of the van?’

‘Sorry, this is as good as it gets.’

The man got out of the van and slammed the driver’s door. Although not the clearest of images, she could definitely tell it was Darren. She watched as Wyre noted the time.

Six fifty-one in the morning.

They watched as he stood next to his van, grabbed his phone and pressed a button. Holding the phone to his ear, he began to pace. He placed the phone in his pocket and walked to the shop. At six fifty-six he left, holding a cup of coffee. With his spare hand, he made a one-handed call, pressing a button with his thumb and scrunching the phone between his ear and shoulder. He kicked the front of the van and placed the coffee on the ground before attending to the call properly. It looked like he was shouting but he turned his back to the camera as he spoke. He placed his phone back into the pocket of his long khaki-coloured shorts and turned around. They had a tear in them like a fashion tear at the knee. Gina made a note too. He was wearing a company T-shirt. He swigged his coffee and poured the rest on the road before wheel-spinning off in the direction of Laurel Lane. That was all they had.

‘I’ve put the footage on a disc for you.’ Beryl handed a box to Wyre who logged the item on her form. ‘It also contains the footage of him coming into the shop. All he did was come in, go to the coffee machine and leave.’

‘Did you see anyone else around that time or earlier?’ If she had seen someone around, a young girl maybe, her

information might back up Darren’s story, showing that he didn’t know she was in his van.

‘No. It was a quiet morning being early and a weekend. I think he was the first. I didn’t see a soul around before he turned up.’

‘Well, thanks for the footage.’

‘Always happy to help. Is he in some kind of trouble? I heard on the news, about the girl and something about an accident.’

‘We’re just following up on all enquiries at the moment.’ Gina headed back through the hatch and grabbed a bar of chocolate. ‘Do you want one?’

‘Me, chocolate? I’d need to do an hour and half on the cross trainer to undo that damage, guv,’ Wyre replied with a smile.

Gina placed her lunch on the desk and fished through all the rubbish in her trouser pocket to find some change. As the woman rang up the transaction she couldn’t help thinking about what they’d seen. Darren had looked agitated while on the phone, like he’d been arguing with someone. He hadn’t mentioned stopping to chat on the phone during his interview and he’d made two separate calls, one that looked to connect with the caller and another that appeared to ring out. Were they to the same person? He’d been so angry, he’d kicked his van. Were things not going to plan? They had his phone, soon all would be revealed when it came to his call activity.

‘There is something about that lad, that I think I should mention, you know, if he’s a suspect.’

‘Anything you can help us with would be most appreciated, Ms Day.’

The woman came to the other side of the counter and led them to the door. ‘I quite often come out for a gander, you know how things are. I sit here all day, sometimes with very few customers. They tend to come mostly in the mornings before work, or during lunchtimes. I have a chair.’ The woman pointed to the side of the building and Gina spotted the plastic garden chair. ‘When it’s quiet, I sit there, with a book. Anyway, he’d gone. I watched his van chugging up the hill towards Cleevesford. See that layby there?’ Gina shaded her eyes from the sun as she gazed into the distance. She could just about make out a large gated field with a small space in front of it. ‘He pulled in there and started talking on his phone again. He saw me watching so I went inside. I was watching and I suppose I was being nosey, but he wasn’t exactly hiding.’

‘Did you see anyone else come or go when he stopped on the hill?’

‘Not while I was out there. I did come in though, when he saw me. I wasn’t out there watching all the time.’

‘Thank you again, Ms Day. If you remember anything else, give me a call.’ Gina passed the woman a card and headed over to the car. ‘Can you give the station a call, find out when the search of Mason’s house is taking place?’ Wyre nodded. Gina gazed across at the hill as they stepped into the car. ‘Only a few seconds before, he’d stopped at the petrol station to speak on his phone. Why had he travelled up the road and stopped again so soon?’

It was her mission to find out.

EIGHTEEN

As they returned to the station, Gina headed straight to the kitchen. Briggs leaned against a wall and Annie was laughing at something he’d said. As soon as she spotted Gina, she stopped. ‘Don’t mind me. Oh, Chris, I’ll fill you in with the rest of what happened in despatch later,’ Annie said with a giggle as she grabbed a paper cup and filled it with cold water. It was rare to hear anyone around the station refer to DCI Chris Briggs as just Chris – it was normally, sir. They’d been intimate and Gina wouldn’t ever call him Chris while working. He grinned at her, not commenting on the informality that had slipped from Annie’s tongue.

The heat had been draining and chocolate on a stuffy day hadn’t been the most fulfilling meal. She could feel the last of the cocoa paste sticking to the roof of her mouth.

‘How did it go?’ Briggs asked.

‘I’ll leave you to it,’ Annie said as she left with her cup of water. ‘Call me later.’

‘Gossiping again? I don’t know,’ Gina said as she also filled a paper cup with water and sipped the cold liquid.

Briggs let out a small laugh. ‘Not about you, Harte, just everyone else. Okay it was about you a little. It looked odd, you leaving the station the way you did the other night and not

coming out for Wyre’s birthday drink. Gossip is still rife after the last case and everything you went through with the attacks. We’re all concerned, like family. You know how things are. If it were any one of us, you’d be concerned too.’

‘Well, thank you for not lying when I asked you. At least I know what I’m up against.’

‘We’re not your enemy, you know,’ Briggs replied as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

She took his hand and removed it. ‘I know. But seriously, all of you need to drop it. I’m not some delicate little flower you need to look out for—’

‘We all need looking out for in this job.’

‘Okay, but start planting some gossip that lets people know that I don’t need anyone fussing. That case was ages ago—’

‘Four months and you’ve only just finished the counselling sessions.’

‘Finished, that’s the important word here. I finished, I’m stronger for everything that’s happened to me and I have what is turning out to be a meaty case to get my teeth stuck into. I know I opened up to you about my past, in those moments where my safety was compromised, but I’m fine now. That was a long time ago. I’m not vulnerable, sir.’

‘We’re all vulnerable, Harte, and we all need friends. Just remember you have friends. I’m here to talk should you need me.’

She smiled and finished her water. He had Annie now. She wasn’t about to be confiding in him any time soon. ‘About the case then, sir. We’re planning to search Darren Mason’s parents’ house this afternoon. We have the team prepped.

Keith is finished with the van. He and Bernard are just repacking what they need and we’ll be heading over.’

‘What are your thoughts?’ Briggs asked.

‘Same as yours. He was hiding something, I’m just not sure what. I think his reluctance to let us search the van on a voluntary basis could have been because of the weed we found. After speaking to Beryl Day, the owner of the Crump Lane Garage, I think there’s a lot more to him and he’s definitely hiding something. He was angry in the footage when he was speaking on the phone. He even kicked his van at one point. Beryl also said that when he drove off, he then pulled over on the brow of the hill to talk on his phone again. Was he panicking about something?’ Gina frowned as she thought.

‘We’re no closer to finding out exactly when the girl got into or was loaded onto the van. The fact that she had been using drugs and weed was found in his van provides somewhat of a connection.’ Briggs began to undo his cuffs and roll his shirt up.

‘Not quite in the same league though. I’m really hoping that the search turns something up otherwise it’s back to questioning.’

‘What about his friend?’

‘I’ll go there on the way back from the search. Obviously, we have no right to search his home but Darren Mason had come from there. I’ll drop by with one of the team and get a witness statement. We’ll play it from there. I have a feeling they’re lovers.’

‘Lovers?’

‘Yes, listen to the recording of his interview. He mentions getting up and chilling with Callum Besford, but then he

breaks off during the sentence.’ Gina stepped back and looked around. Neither of them wanted anyone else to ever guess that they once may have been lovers. She threw the cup in the bin. ‘Right, I best get prepped for this search.’