looked a lot cleaner and tidier but there was no mistaking the fact that Gina had seen her on at least three occasions.
The woman shrugged. ‘I don’t think we’ve met.’
‘You go to the café on Cleevesford High Street. Lucy’s Café.’
‘Oh, yes. I sit there and read sometimes. Sorry, I can’t remember seeing you. Probably engrossed in my book.’
‘That’s okay. Right, let’s carry on.’ Gina went through the rest of her personal details and now the interview could start. The shine on Cherie’s head looked damp and oily. Gina could smell her nerves oozing from her pores. Just a few moments in this room was making their person of interest sweat and itch. The woman scratched the back of her neck and her hands tangled in her hair. ‘Your friend, Penny Burton, hasn’t been seen since Friday morning. She was meant to be at your house on Saturday night. Can you tell me more about that and about your friendship? I’m just trying to get a sense of who Penny Burton is.’
The woman’s nose began to run a little. ‘Can I have a tissue?’
Gina slid a box across the table.
She took one out and wiped her nose. ‘Everyone arrived around seven thirty as planned.’
‘Everyone? Can you name them?’
She sniffed again. ‘Isaac Slater, Joanna Brent and Marcus Burton. Obviously, Penny didn’t come. Marcus said she was poorly but later told us that they’d had an argument and she’d left him.’
‘How do you know these friends?’
‘I know Isaac, Penny and Marcus from school. We all went to Cleevesford High.’
Gina knew that to be exactly what Marcus Burton had said. So far, so good. She allowed the room to become silent as she and Jacob looked at Cherie, knowing that her unease was growing by the second. A fleeting thought passed through her. ‘Okay, tell me about the evening, from their arrival.’
Cherie exhaled. ‘After settling in and a bit of small talk, we had dinner and caught up on what we were all doing. I could sense that something wasn’t right with Marcus, he was upset that they’d fallen out. After dinner, we went out into the garden to smoke, Marcus was quite drunk at that point. We talked for a bit and that was it.’
‘And after that?’
‘Nothing. They went home and we went to bed.’
‘Did Penny confide in you at all? Do you know what she and Marcus may have been arguing about?’
Cherie stared right across the table and shook her head. ‘They never said. I’m sorry I can’t be of any more use. I know they argued a lot and she often left him for a couple of days, that’s why none of us were worried.’ The woman stared again.
‘Alexander Swinton. You knew him from school too, didn’t you?’
She shrugged. ‘I knew of him. I didn’t know him that well, not well enough to call him a friend. I mean, he wasn’t even an acquaintance.’
‘Then why were you following him? We have a witness that puts you at the derelict house on Beckett Street late on Monday the twenty-sixth October.’
The woman opened and closed her mouth. Her gaze flitted across to Jacob then at the table. ‘I wasn’t there. That wasn’t me. I was at home with my husband. Ask him.’
‘And he’ll be able to confirm that?’
She nodded. ‘Am I under arrest?’
Gina wished she was. There was no way she could make an arrest at this moment in time without investigating further. The CPS would kick it straight out. She had a witness that heard Alexander speaking to a woman and he thought he heard him call the woman Chez or Shaz; that wasn’t enough. If her alibi checked out, that would leave them with nothing. ‘No, Mrs Brown, you’re not under arrest. It is an offence to pervert the course of justice, which means if you are lying and we find out, you could be charged. It’s a serious charge.’
‘I want to go. I didn’t do anything. I don’t know where Penny is and I don’t know anything about Alex’s murder. I’m not perverting anything.’
‘What aren’t you telling us, Mrs Brown?’
‘I want to leave.’ Her fingers began to tremble.
‘Mrs Brown, one of your school friend’s has been murdered and another friend is missing. We’re concerned for you too.’
‘Don’t be.’ She stood and placed her hands on the table. ‘I’m fine. I don’t know what all this is about. I’m upset that my friend is missing and, as I said, I didn’t really know Alex. My condolences go to his friends and