couldn’t hear her on the phone when she was in the garden but she was talking to one of her friends about Alex living in some squat. They all knew where Alex was. I should have said something when I’d heard of his murder but I never thought for one minute his death could have been anything to do with the people I open my home too and cook dinner for. I didn’t give it a second thought. But now, I don’t know who to trust.’
‘I don’t suppose a triangle would mean anything to Cherie?’
‘What, like the shape?’
‘Yes.’
‘No, she probably wouldn’t know the difference between an equilateral and an isosceles. She used to bunk maths classes at school if she could. She even struggled to help the kids with their maths homework if they asked her.’
‘Thank you.’
Cherie was missing and given the circumstances, she had to work on the fact that she was in a box somewhere, the next in line to die – or was she the killer waiting to pounce? It was time to crack Isaac, the one who’d been lying about his whereabouts for the past week. Her phone rang.
‘I’ll finish up here.’ Jacob smiled.
She stepped out of the car. ‘O’Connor.’
‘Guv, we’ve had a call about the carving in the coffin. You’re not going to believe this.’
Chapter Sixty-Five
‘Mr Slater, this isn’t just going to go away.’ Gina was fast losing patience with Isaac, she could see Jacob was too as he rolled his eyes after another ‘no comment’ and they both had better things to do.
The tiny room stank with the waft of smoke that was coming from his battered-looking bomber jacket every time he moved. ‘We’ll go over some of the questions again. Does a ghost mean anything to you? Could it represent a place?’
Location three on the triangle was still a mystery and the only clue they had as to where another body might be buried. She felt her fists clenching. He knew how important it was that she had this information and he was purposely holding back, that much she could tell.
‘I’m saying nothing. Why should I give you all the rope you need to hang me when I didn’t do anything?’ He leaned back and gave her a wry smile. His stare was quite fixed and it made Gina want to turn away but she wouldn’t.
‘You lied to us about where you were on Monday the twenty-sixth of October. Why?’ Gina checked the time. Half an hour had gone by and the man hadn’t answered a single question. ‘Why?’
He leaned back and rocked the chair, smirking as he stared at the ceiling.
‘Your friend, Cherie Brown, is missing and we know she was at the squat on that night too, late that night. We know she was having some sort of argument with our victim, Alexander Swinton, and soon after he turned up dead. Where were you in all this?’ He continued to smirk. ‘Were you keeping lookout? Were you aiding and abetting? Were you in the garden wearing a long black coat? You can see how it looks. Your partner, Joanna, even lied for you, telling us that you were with her all night, but you weren’t, were you?’ Gina leaned in and stared at the man. His gaze met hers and his smile dropped. ‘What’s going on, Mr Slater? Did you lure Alex to his death? Did you dig the grave?’
‘I didn’t do anything.’
‘It’s not looking like that from here.’
He paused, his gaze once again piercing Gina’s, but she remained focused until he broke away. ‘Okay, I was with Cherie but it’s not what you think and I wasn’t wearing any long black coat. I don’t even own a coat of that description. I just needed to talk to her. She called me and told me where she’d be. I didn’t do anything and I knew when his body turned up that this would happen.’
‘What?’
‘You lot. I want a solicitor.’
One more chance, he was clamming up. ‘Your other friend, Penny Burton, was discovered dead this morning at the building site where you’ve been working.’
‘What?’ He seemed to be breathing faster through his nose, letting out little snorts every time he exhaled. ‘She can’t be dead, she can’t. Why Penny?’
‘That’s what we’re trying to find out. We’ve been talking to your boss, a lovely lady called Tracy, and she tells us that you’ve seemed a little distracted of late.’
‘That stupid cow. You’re barking up the wrong tree, seriously.’
‘What tree should we be barking