to look into who your wife might have contacted and a lot of people who are distressed or even angry might decide to call a friend. That’s all.’
He flung his head back. ‘I’ve already asked them. Never mind. Penny, Isaac, Cherie and I have known each other since high school. We’ve been friends since. Christian and Joanna are Cherie and Isaac’s partners; we didn’t know them at school but we’ve all become good friends. Every now and again, we all get together at one of our houses for a meal, to have a catch up and a drink. That’s all.’ The hum of Marcus’s foot tapping on the floor made Gina’s eyelids feel a little heavy.
‘So, let me get this right. Penny didn’t want to go to Mr and Mrs Brown’s house on the Saturday and you argued about this.’
‘Yes, but it’s not how it sounds. She’d have argued about anything with me at that point. We rowed over nothing most of the time.’
Gina was far from convinced. ‘We may be able to check on her whereabouts by seeing if she’s used her bank cards and phone since. That may help us with locating her. We’ll take those details off you before you leave.’
The man swallowed and the foot tapping stopped.
‘Is that okay?’
He nodded and placed his elbows on the table as he leaned forward. ‘I just want her found. I know she had another phone too, a basic pay-as-you-go. Years ago, she had a fling and I found it. I know she keeps it in her drawer under the bed, hidden behind all her old clothes. She doesn’t know this but I regularly take a look at it. It helps me when it comes to trusting her. Up to a week ago, there hadn’t been any communications on it for months and the only things on it from back then were messages from work and friends when she lost her phone for a few days. Oh, she did put the number on Facebook back then, much to my dismay, telling the world about her lost phone.’ He paused in thought. ‘I can check to see if it’s gone.’
Gina remained silent for what felt like forever. ‘That would be really helpful. You say you know Alexander Swinton. Could you tell me how?’
He scratched his chin and leaned back up once again. ‘He was an old school friend. I haven’t seen him for over a year, since he split up with his wife. I heard that he was taking drugs and had got himself into a bad way. News like that travels fast in Cleevesford. Anyway, we were all shocked when we saw his photo in the paper and when we heard what had happened.’
‘How close were you to him?’
‘Not close at all. As I said, we were friends at school, and not even close friends at that. I just knew of him, that’s all. Sometimes we hung out and played football in the park. I didn’t know him well.’ He let out a titter. ‘We used to rib him about his mum’s garden gnome collection. She’s a bit weird. He took it in good spirits though. It came as a huge shock to all of us when we heard what had happened to him. I suppose his murder might have been playing on Penny’s mind; that may have been why she was really tense that night. I suppose given the way he was killed, we were all a bit tense. I don’t think we’re different like that, I think the whole town is tense. I mean, the person who killed him is still out there. Knowing what had happened to Alex just made me worry more about Penny.’
There was a connection between their murder victim and missing Penny, albeit not a recent connection, if Marcus was to be believed. Gina only hoped that Penny wasn’t going to be next. She glanced down at the names on the page and one stood out. She wanted to know more about Cherie or Chez. Had Cherie been the Chez who’d been shouting at Alexander Swinton at the squat?
Then, she paused at another name. Isaac Slater, their junior fire starter going back twenty years. That name had been on the list she’d been looking at when she’d fallen asleep. She wanted to jump up and scream with joy. They had a break and her instincts had been right. At last she had a lead.
Chapter Forty-Three
Lucy’s Café was vibrant in its usual way. Light, airy