Page 19

EIGHTEEN

Gina sipped the tea that the witness had given to her, and Jacob leaned back into her huge marshmallow of a couch, as they faced the massive garden with the covered-up swimming pool. ‘Thank you for speaking to us, Ms Abiola. You say you had an altercation with a man in a blue car last week. Can you tell us more about that?’

‘I can do more than tell you – I have cameras and I caught some of it. Oh, there isn’t any sound, and I only captured our legs as the camera mostly points to my drive, so actually I will need to tell you.’ She began playing with a long black braid that fell over her shoulder. ‘I’ll tell you first, then I’ll play the incident. It literally lasted less than a minute, but he was horrible.’

‘Do you live here alone?’

‘Yes, but I have so much security, I’m not worried. If anyone messes with any lock or window on this house, the alarm goes off so loud it would wake the whole of Cleevesford.’

‘When did the incident happen?’

‘Just after five in the morning of Monday the twenty-sixth of August, so last week. I was leaving for the airport – I travel for work regularly and I had to be up early to catch my flight to Paris. As I watched the electric gates open, I saw his car there and I was so angry as he was blocking me in. I have signs up to stop the parents doing exactly that, as I have to come and go a lot. But it was early, so I knew it wasn’t one of them dropping a kid off at school. Then I spotted a man asleep in the car, so I tapped on the window and asked him to move. He seemed angry that I’d woken him, so he shouted something back. I couldn’t work out what he was saying as the windows were closed.’

‘What happened next?’

‘I wrenched his passenger door open – I was angry now. I really needed to be on the road, so I shouted at him again, asking if he was stupid as there were signs everywhere telling people to not block my drive. It escalated a bit. He shouted something I couldn’t quite catch followed by…’ Ms Abiola swallowed and paused.

‘What did he say?’

‘I will not repeat it. My mother brought me up to be better than that, but I will tell you that it was racist and misogynistic. Then he leaned over, grabbed the car door to close it and sped off.’

Gina almost wanted to shiver. She knew the type that Ms Abiola had had to deal with all too well. ‘Did you report him?’

She shook her head. ‘No, I was in such a hurry by now, I vowed to look at the footage later and report it, but there is no sound and the footage is awful, so awful you can’t see the registration number or him. I thought it was pointless.’

‘Did you speak to any of the other neighbours about this?’

‘No, I only got back from Paris last night. I haven’t even unpacked and I’m back at work today.’

Gina spotted the woman’s small executive trolley, its lid open due to being rammed full of paperwork and a laptop. ‘Can you describe the car?’

‘Dirty. It smelled funny, or he smelled funny. It was like mould and damp, or like a shower that’s going mouldy. The car was blue – more of a dark blue than a sky blue. My CCTV footage is in colour so you’ll be able to see the shade. It was a Fiesta. I know that as I bought my son one when he passed his test.’

‘How about the man, can you describe him?’

‘I was standing on the pavement in my heels, trying to look down. That made it difficult. I did see him when he was asleep. He was wearing a black baseball cap. As a guess, he was probably in his forties. He had a bit of brown stubble, and a round belly where his T-shirt had ridden up. He drove off before I could see any more. I really wished I’d looked at his registration number, then he would be easy to find.’

Gina knew that wasn’t the case if they were talking about the same man, and she was more convinced than ever that they were, especially as the description matched perfectly. But, of course, the description was of their John Doe, and he was dead. The driver of the white van had to be his accomplice, as she’d suspected earlier.

‘How could I have been so stupid? It’s just amazing how fast things like this happen, and how little you see.’

‘You’ve given us a great description of him, and we believe it might have been a stolen car anyway.’

Ms Abiola puffed out a breath and began scrolling on her phone. ‘Where do I message this footage to?’

Gina pulled out a card and passed it to her. ‘Me, please. And keep my card. Should you remember anything else, please call me anytime.’ Gina’s phone pinged.

‘Done, and thank you, I will. About the other incident, down at the school, is everyone okay?’

Gina thought it best not to reveal any details as yet. ‘Did you hear anything between five forty-five and six fifteen this morning?’

‘No, my soundproofing is really good in here.’

‘Can I see your CCTV for those times?’

The woman began to scroll. ‘Of course.’ She passed her phone to Gina. ‘Just press play. You can see the timestamp at the top of the screen.’

Gina pressed play and could barely see through the huge iron gates. ‘The gates were closed.’

‘Oh yes, I forgot. I guess the footage is no good. The gate blocks the road.’

‘We may need to speak to you again, but for now, thank you for your time.’

Jacob’s phone beeped as they both stepped outside. PCs bustled up and down doing door to doors. Gina pulled out her work phone to check her messages. ‘Any updates, Jacob?’

He ignored her as he continued reading his messages.

‘A family liaison officer has been despatched to Keeley Moore’s house.’

‘That’s good news. How is Ellyn, by the way?’ One of their other family liaison officers had been injured during the last case and had ended up in critical care.

‘I heard she is still recovering with her parents, but she should be back with us before Christmas.’

A message from O’Connor flashed up on Gina’s phone. ‘Another chess piece has been found. Bernard’s team bagged it up. It’s a white pawn and it was found near the bushes where John Doe died.’ She pictured John Doe, sitting in his car with his engine running throwing the chess piece out of the window. Had he felt like a pawn in all of this?

Another message pinged up. Gina summarised it for Jacob. ‘We have a name and address for the factory, and it’s open now. It’s called Crastone Foods Ltd. We need to update the team, but we won’t be making the morning briefing. We need to head over there now to see if we can find Marie.’