One Left Behind: A completely gripping and addictive crime thriller with nail-biting suspense (Detective Gina Harte Book 9)

by Carla Kovach

  Eleven

  ‘For the tape, your full name is Rodney Brett Hackett, date of birth, twentieth of September 1961. DI Harte and DS Driscoll interviewing and the time is thirteen hundred hours.’

  ‘I can’t be staying here too long. I told you, my load is overdue and I really need to get to Oxford and, what’s more, you’ve kept me waiting ages. I’ve been sitting in reception twiddling my thumbs for over an hour like I’ve got nothing to do. Get a friggin’ move on, please.’ His cheeks and nose reddened like he was wearing a mask. His Meat Loaf T-shirt swamped his skinny frame. A tattoo of a snake wound around his right arm, escaping beneath his sleeve.

  ‘Mr Hackett, a young girl was murdered last night and all we want to do is find who did this, so your cooperation is much appreciated.’ Gina felt her collar getting damp as the temperature crept up. Jacob leaned over and turned the desk fan on and its gentle whirring began to fill the room. ‘Did you see this girl while you were parked up last night?’

  Gina pulled out the photo that Leah Fenmore’s parents had given to them from the paper file and slid it across the table.

  ‘Never seen her in my life.’ He leaned back in the chair, legs wide open, arms crossed.

  ‘You didn’t see her when she came into the café to buy some food last night?’

  He shrugged.

  ‘Only the café owner, Mr Tallis, said that she came in while you were both having a discussion about the impact of Brexit on the haulage industry. He said he had to stop your discussion to serve her.’

  ‘I guess I didn’t take any notice. I think I went for a piss.’ The man grinned.

  ‘And where are the toilets for the Waterside Café?’

  ‘In the toilet and shower block that’s next to the main building.’

  ‘So to access the toilets, you had to go outside. She would have left just after.’ Gina felt adrenalin working its way through her body. He’d left the café while Leah was being served which would definitely give him opportunity to wait for and speak to Leah, maybe take her back to his cab and give her the lager. Then maybe, she’d told him that she and her friends were camped up in the woods for the night.

  His stare felt as though it was boring into Gina. ‘I did not see her.’

  ‘Her friends tell us that she came back with a four-pack of lager and they stated that this was given to her by a man in the car park. The Waterside Café doesn’t sell alcohol. You were the only person with a cab who was parked up for the night. No one can park there free of charge so there would be a record of anyone else present. The only man she could have taken the lager from is you.’

  He sighed.

  ‘A used condom was found under your cab.’

  ‘I. Did. Not. Touch. That. Girl. So I gave her a few beers to have with her buddies—’

  ‘So you did give them to her?’

  ‘Okay, okay – yes! She was being a little jokey and laughy, saying that she and her friends were having a party and how guilty she felt for not bringing any drinks, which is partly why she’d gone to get food. I felt sorry for her and she looked a bit spaced out. We were all young once. I made a joke about her not getting too off her face, then I gave her the cans. She thanked me and went trundling off back to her party.’

  ‘You can see how this now looks. You have obstructed us in our investigation and that puts you firmly in the picture.’ Gina paused. ‘Did you head over there, later that night?’

  ‘No way. I didn’t head anywhere. I was asleep.’

  ‘Going back to the condom. What explanation can you give me for that?’

  He shrugged. ‘Other people parked up that day. It must have been left there by someone else.’

  ‘So, when the lab results come back your DNA won’t match the DNA that we find in the condom. The forensics team are working the area as we speak.’

  He sat up rigid in the plastic chair and shuffled around a little, nervously brushing down his jeans. ‘I want a solicitor.’

  ‘And that is your right. Do you have a solicitor in mind or is it the duty solicitor?’

  ‘Duty.’

  ‘We will need to take swabs and your clothing as you are at present a person of interest. These tests may also eliminate you.’

  He shrugged and began biting his thumbnail.

  ‘Can I get back to work soon?’ He checked his watch.

  ‘We need to continue the interview. As soon as your solicitor arrives, we will do so.’

  ‘What if I just leave, walk out?’

  ‘We’re looking at placing you under arrest for the murder of Leah Fenmore while we investigate further. At the moment, Mr Hackett, you had opportunity, you spoke to the victim when you told us you didn’t, and you lied when we asked if you recognised her. That gives us ample grounds to keep you here while we investigate further.’

  The man kicked the leg of the table and swore under his breath.

  Gina glanced at Jacob. There was no way Hackett was leaving the station until they’d checked his cab for evidence relating to Leah’s murder. ‘Interview terminated at thirteen hundred hours and seven minutes.’

  As they packed away, she noticed Rodney Hackett glancing up at her when he thought she wasn’t looking. As always, everyone had something to hide, she just wondered if he was trying to hide the fact that he’d murdered a sixteen-year-old, Leah Fenmore.

  The image of the fingermarks around the victim’s neck made her feel like throwing up the breakfast and lunch she never had. The nauseating emptiness was making her feel worse and her own flashbacks to the past were worming their way to the forefront of her mind. Feeling like someone else is holding your life in their hands, that they get to choose at the moment of strangulation whether you live or die can be thrilling for some, she was aware that people played such dangerous sex games, but it was never thrilling for her. It was terrifying. Gina’s throat began to constrict. That message Briggs had received meant her secret was known. It had to be about her. She grabbed the paperwork off the desk and left Jacob to finish up. She needed to get out so that she could breathe. In her mind, she kept telling herself to forget the past, to move on, but trauma is trauma and it won’t let you forget. And when you manage to put it aside, some harbinger of doom comes into your life. Her past would always hold her hostage.

  ‘You okay?’ Briggs pushed the door open while holding a drink.

  ‘Yes, sir. All good.’

  He opened the door for her to go through first. ‘We’ll have a briefing when the interviews are finished. I know you said you wanted to interview Oscar Spalding but you were tied up with Hackett so I took that one. Oscar’s father was making a bit of a fuss and kept saying that his son had been through enough. As we don’t have anything to keep him on, we had to let him go for now.’

  She placed her hand on her neck and rubbed a little. ‘Where are we with Leah Fenmore’s parents?’

  ‘Obviously distraught. They want to see the body but given that it’s so soon, the mortuary isn’t even remotely ready for them yet. We’ve sent them home with a family liaison officer.’

  ‘Great.’

  ‘Briefing at, say… four this afternoon?’

  ‘I’ll be ready. I think I’m going to pop back to the Waterside Café. Since speaking with Rodney Hackett, a few more things have come to light. We also need to discuss Mr Hackett’s arrest before his solicitor arrives. I’ll update you before I go but he’s definitely a suspect and he started off in the interview by lying. Also, interviewing him threw up a few things that don’t match John Tallis’s story and I don’t want him to have too long to think about things.’

  ‘What are you thinking?’ Briggs leaned on the door frame.

  ‘Tallis said that he and Hackett were having a conversation when Leah entered the café for some food but he didn’t mention that Hackett had left by the time he’d finished serving Leah. I want to know why. We’ve also confirmed that Hackett spent time with Leah in the car park and gave her a pack of lager.’

  ‘Yes, stay on it. I agree
, putting it back to Tallis is the best thing to do. I read up on the notes so far, a condom was found under Hackett’s cab, is that right?’ Briggs sipped his coffee, holding the delicate polystyrene cup with his thick fingers, looking like he might crush it.

  ‘Yes, Keith collected it and I believe it’s now at the lab being fast-tracked but, as we know, the analysis won’t come back for at least twenty-four hours. I’m hoping that we can get Rodney Hackett’s swabs to the lab ASAP, then we’ll be able to see if there’s a match. In the meantime, it would be great if Tallis could tell us more. Hackett claims that the condom must have already been in the car park before he pulled up. Maybe he’s telling the truth.’

  ‘Does he have any previous?’

  Gina frowned. ‘Only for throwing a bottle of urine out of his cab window on the M5. It was just his bad luck that there was an unmarked police car behind him in a traffic jam that day.’

  ‘So, one minor offence.’

  ‘Yep. Right, if I’m to get back before the briefing, I need to go now.’

  ‘We’ll catch up later. Oh, before I forget, you might want to grab a slice of fruit flan before it all goes.’

  ‘Mrs O’s latest bake?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘She’s a lifesaver.’ If she was to cull the queasiness, that sounded like a good plan. She saw Briggs looking nervously at his phone. ‘Any more messages?’

  His shoulders dropped. ‘I didn’t want to worry you.’

  ‘I need to know and I’m worried already. I’ve been worried all morning.’ She swallowed.

  He held his phone up and she read the message.

  You’re as guilty as she is!

  ‘We could do without this.’

  ‘I tried to call the number but all I got was a dead tone. I’d say it’s a burner phone.’

  ‘You know or you’re guessing?’ She knew that Briggs could maybe have researched that much.

  ‘It’s a burner.’

  ‘Dammit!’

  Jacob burst out of the interview room with all the paperwork under his arm. ‘I’ve explained to Mr Hackett what happens next.’

  Gina cleared her throat and Briggs smiled. ‘Are you okay to head back to the Waterside Café with me in the meantime. I have a few questions for John Tallis and they can’t wait.’

  Jacob nodded. ‘Yes, definitely. I’ll grab my things. Everything okay?’ Jacob scrunched his brow.

  ‘Just tickety boo.’ Gina hurried past, not wanting Jacob to see through her. Her phone buzzed and she shook as she stopped in the corridor to check it.

  GUILTY!

  Twelve

  The afternoon sun was beating down on the shimmering tarmac in the packed car park. Trees rustled as a hot breeze caught them. The blue cloudless sky went on forever.

  ‘Right, let’s find out what Tallis has to say,’ Gina said to Jacob. She inhaled and her lungs felt a little hot. Her flat shoes clonked on the ground until they entered the café and her trousers were sticking to her legs.

  The hum of voices filled the room. One man laughed raucously and another told him to shut up as he was trying to hear the news. The smell of fried food was dense. A woman in a checked shirt bit into a sandwich and a stream of egg spurted from the other side. Gina knew it wasn’t a good time as John Tallis caught sight of her through the queue, while trying to flip a burger at the same time.

  A young woman came out from around the back with a huge block of cheese and a tray of eggs.

  ‘Mr Tallis, may we speak with you?’

  He raised his brows and mouthed, ‘Really?’

  Gina nodded and sat at the only free table with Jacob.

  ‘Hally, can you manage for five?’

  The girl nodded and took the burger flipper from him before he joined them at the table with a bottle of cola. As he unscrewed it, it almost fizzed over. He took a long swig and used a napkin to wipe the sweat off his brow before belching. ‘This is not a good time. I’m run off my feet.’

  ‘Apologies for that but we really need to ask you a couple of questions and it can’t wait.’

  ‘Okay.’ He screwed the lid back onto his drink then removed his white cap before ruffling through his sweaty hair. ‘Make it quick, if you can. Hally only backs me up, she doesn’t usually cook out front so she’s bound to get flustered in a minute.’

  Gina glanced up at the girl who looked to be between sixteen and twenty. She smiled and served with one hand as she used the flipper to place a burger on a bun with the other. ‘She looks like she’s coping amazingly.’

  ‘So she is. What do you want? I told you everything I know earlier.’

  ‘We need to check something with you. Can you please go through the night before again when Rodney Hackett was in here talking to you? You said that Leah Fenmore came in for some snack food. Tell me about that.’

  ‘This is ridiculous.’

  ‘It would be really helpful.’

  He rolled his shoulders and rubbed the back of his neck before sliding his chair closer to the table. ‘I was sitting talking to Rod when the girl came in. I served her and she went, then I went back to my conversation. It’s as simple as that. There is nothing else to add.’

  ‘Except that when you were serving Leah Fenmore, Mr Hackett claims that he left to go to the toilet and then he spoke to the victim outside for a while, so you didn’t carry on your conversation as soon as you’d served Leah.’

  He scrunched his brow as Jacob began making a few notes. ‘Okay, I just checked a few things, you know, tidied up a bit so that I could leave dead on ten. I loaded the dishwasher, wiped the surfaces down and then I talked on the phone for a few minutes, then Rod was back. That was when we carried on with our conversation.’

  Gina glanced between all the people lined up at the counter. The queue was getting longer. ‘Did you wipe the whole counter down?’

  ‘Yes. Why would I only wipe some of it down? Believe it or not, I have a four-star hygiene rating and I pride myself on keeping everything clean. Admittedly, it’s not an upmarket eatery but it’s mine and I keep it pristine.’

  Gina turned her chair a little. ‘So, when you wiped that end of the counter, you would have had a full view of the car park through that huge window.’ Gina pointed at the glass that almost covered the top half of the whole wall. ‘And, as you say, it’s a very clean place. Those windows are gleaming.’ She wasn’t about to pull him up on the ketchup that Jacob nearly put his hands in earlier. The state of his tables wasn’t much to boast about. ‘You would have seen Mr Hackett talking to Leah in the car park.’

  He shrugged his shoulders. ‘Well, I might have seen them.’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me that when we spoke earlier?’

  ‘Well, I know he didn’t do anything and a trucker is probably an easy target. He’s an alright bloke and, yes, he spoke to the girl but that was it.’

  ‘Did you see him passing anything to her?’

  John scrunched his nose up. ‘No. He just looked like he was being friendly, you know, saying hello as she passed. I remember loading the dishwasher after that and that’s out the back. I didn’t see a thing after that.’

  ‘John, can I get some help here?’ Hally called.

  ‘Duty calls.’ The man stood and pushed his chair under the table. ‘I really have to get back to my kitchen.’

  ‘As soon as this crowd dies down, I want you to head to the station to make a formal statement. Potentially perverting the course of justice by not telling the truth about what you saw is a very serious offence, so next time a police officer asks you what happened, be honest, or it makes you look like you have something to hide.’

  John Tallis’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. ‘I am so sorry. I will come and make a statement in a bit. I promise. Can I get you a drink in the meantime?’

  Gina stood. ‘No, thank you. Just come down the station before your evening meal rush.’ Jacob closed his notebook and popped his pen in his pocket.

  ‘Will do. I’ll ask Hally to stick aroun
d for a bit longer.’ The man scurried back behind the counter and took the spatula from his flustered-looking assistant.

  Gina’s phone beeped and she read the message.

  ‘We best get back. One of the residents on Oak Tree Walk has a past record and after an officer went around to ask if anyone had seen anything, he got short-tempered with her.’

  ‘What past record?’ Jacob asked.

  ‘Voyeurism. Specifically, installing equipment with the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification.’

  Thirteen

  Four in the afternoon soon came. Gina quickly followed Jacob through to the incident room. The smell of sweat and food along with the thought of someone sending her sinister messages made her recoil. Wyre and O’Connor were fanning themselves with their notepads and Briggs had loosened his tie. PCs Kapoor and Smith sat at the far end and were sharing a pack of chewy sweets that were giving off a strong smell. ‘No Bernard or Keith?’

  Briggs stood to the side of the board. ‘They’re still processing everything from the crime scene, trying to fast-track as much as possible. Bernard has just this minute emailed his initial findings and there is something.’

  ‘Great. Let’s get started and you can tell us all. Hey, can I have your attention?’ Gina hushed the chatter in the room and stood at the front of the long table. ‘We have an update from forensics.’

  Briggs stepped forward. ‘Leah Fenmore had recently had sex. Bernard couldn’t confirm whether it was that evening or a little earlier but we’re hoping for more details tomorrow.’

  ‘Any sign of a struggle? Any injuries?’

  ‘No. The only thing that was actually found was condom lubricant inside Leah.’

  Gina headed over and glanced at the board. A photo of Leah Fenmore had been stuck in the middle, then the crime scene photos had been pinned underneath. She couldn’t believe that the girl they found in the woodland was the smiling girl with the braces in the school photo. The body had a bluish tinge, the type of colouring that is left when all life has gone. ‘Tell me that we still have Rodney Hackett here?’