She refrained from rolling her eyes. ‘Tell me about the gatecrashers?’
‘I don’t know anything about any gatecrashers.’
‘Did you recognise any of them?’
‘I’ll tell you something, Inspector. I recognised near enough everyone in here. I’m from Cleevesford. I run a pub in Cleevesford. Everyone in here has crossed my path at some point. I have given every bit of information I have to one of your officers, the screechy-voiced bird who almost deafened me as she spoke.’
‘Please don’t refer to our officers as birds, it’s disrespectful.’ Gina knew he meant PC Kapoor.
‘Whatever. It was her, little miss screechy.’ He pointed across the room to Kapoor.
‘Have you been here all night? In this room?’
He pointed at Gina and grinned. ‘Trying to pin things on me again? I’d say this is harassment.’
She clenched her hands together. He had become embroiled in a few of their cases in the past and she’d never really had anything on him. ‘I just need to know if you left the room.’
‘Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. Screechy has my statement and that’s all you’re getting. Are we off, Elvis?’
‘All done, boss. I’m going to wait with Cass in the van. Need to get out of this place.’
‘You heard what he said. We need to get out of this place.’ He swigged the last of his beer, grabbed a box of glasses and followed Elvis out.
Gina slammed her fist onto the empty bar, then noticed the bride being comforted by her new husband and parents.
‘Guv. I got here as fast as I could.’ DC Paula Wyre said as she hurried over, red faced. ‘I’ve just chatted with Briggs and caught up with what’s happened. He also confirmed that an officer has visited the victim’s mother to break the news.’ Her usual straight black hair was slightly fluffed up. Her checked skirt hem met her opaque black tights showing legs rarely seen at work. That was what having to attend a crime scene did after being interrupted while enjoying a night out.
Gina’s phone beeped. She opened the email. ‘Just in time. Would you please tell PC Kapoor to make a list of people who attended the wedding in Greece and then we need to head out to speak to the victim’s mother. I have the address here. Meet me out the front when you’re done.’
As Gina turned to leave she saw Samuel Avery grinning at another woman before slipping his number into her hand and leaving. He was wearing a blue shirt. Gina shook her head and looked around. So were many of the other guests. Had Holly turned down his advances earlier that evening and was he the man Francesca thought she saw at Holly’s flat?
Chapter Eight
He walked between the trees at the bottom of the manor house and entered the thick woodland. The bustle had died down a little only to be replaced by press hanging around the front of the building. As he reached the clearing, he scanned the area. He was now far enough away to let it all out. Exhilaration, excitement, everything he’d bottled up so that he could blend in with everyone else while the police were asking all the questions. He’d comforted the weepy, looked sad and done exactly what had been expected of him. Playing the part had turned him on even more.
It was over for now. A wide grin spread across his face. He’d need to hurry back soon before he was missed. More than ten minutes and he’d definitely be missed. There were things to do. He needed to get away from this building as soon as the police gave him the okay. It wouldn’t be long now.
Glancing back, the shining beacon of a building he’d admired for years now felt like a threat but he had to return. Everything had to seem normal.
He ran through the events of the night, reliving when he had his hands around her throat.
A swell filled his pants.
Was it enough?
That question again. It was enough, for now. But it wouldn’t be enough for long. Still riding high on what had happened, he rubbed himself over his trousers, feeling an intensity like no other building up. He unzipped his fly and placed his hands in his underpants and smiled a little until he was shocked back into reality by a cracking noise coming from behind a tree. He zipped back up, cleared his throat and lit a cigarette, hoping that the watcher hadn’t seen what he was up to. ‘Hello,’ he called as he blew out a plume of smoke. He focused on the dense woodland. ‘Who’s there?’ He was by no means scared but the thought of someone hidden amongst the shrubbery, spying on him as he’d rubbed himself in the woods shook him a little.
A scrawny man stood and walked towards him, emerging from a hiding place behind a tree.
‘You were running from the police earlier.’
The scrawny man nodded. ‘I didn’t do anything. I was leaving and they started chasing me. I heard that some woman was killed.’
‘So why are you hiding?’
He shrugged his shoulders in his oversized denim jacket.
‘I know why you were hiding. You killed her didn’t you?’ He was going to have some fun with scrawny man, scare him a little. He knew exactly why the man was in the bushes, hiding away from the police. He’d seen him in the function room earlier that evening and he definitely wasn’t a guest, given that he’d snuck in through the garden. He wondered if the man recognised him but he didn’t think so, it was too dark for either of them to make much out. ‘Boo!’
Scrawny man flinched, his bottom lip quivering. ‘I didn’t. I was just trying to get out, I swear.’
‘So you come here and hide in the bushes from the police and you’re trying to convince me you didn’t kill that woman.’ He paused and took another drag on the cigarette. ‘I tell you what, I won’t say a word. What have you got on you?’
Scrawny man ran his fingers through his scruffy beard before giving up and turning out one of the pockets of his jeans.
‘It’s a lovely night. Moon’s out. Not too cold and we will keep this as our little secret.’ He patted the man’s shoulder a couple of times before grinning.
Scrawny man stared as if waiting to be excused.
‘Go on. Hop it.’ Before scrawny man scarpered off, he grabbed a little packet from his hand and watched as scrawny hurried deep into the woodland.
He pinched the cigarette and dropped it in his pocket, along with what he’d taken from scrawny man. Taking a lungful of fresh air, he headed back. The air had never tasted so good. Everything tasted good, felt good and smelled good. Life was amazing, and now he had a little something to make it even more amazing.
The swell in his pants returned. Power was everything. The game, the fun, his hands around her neck. He was ready to start planning his next move.
Chapter Nine
Cass wiped the last of her eyeliner away from her puffy eyes. The waterproof stuff was the best – it had lasted through her tears back home and the sweat that had dripped down her forehead all night as she’d served the crowd, all for a measly thirty-five pounds cash in hand. She’d been stupid to volunteer to help Samuel and Elvis, especially as it had been Kerry’s wedding, the girl who hadn’t given her a second glance at high school. Maybe now, Kerry would appreciate a real friend, not her plastic friends, Francesca and Lilly. Maybe now that Holly had gone, there would be room for a replacement number four. The Awesome Foursome – what a stupid name.