Page 34 of Then She Vanished

‘As I said he was a temp. The agency would have had that information. He was an unreliable idiot back then. I remember Marie lying to our supervisor at the time, saying he was ill when he wasn’t. She told me she didn’t know where he was, but she didn’t want him to get laid off.’

They had a name: Colson. It was a start.

She waited for Jacob to note that information down. From the description Wally had given her about the man at that time, their suspect had facial hair and wore a red Florida cap. Colson could have just not been wearing the cap and was clean shaven when he was with Marie but Gina didn’t want to dismiss any of the other potential men who Marie had been involved with. A crowd sat at the next table and began to speak loudly and play with their phones. ‘Do you mind if we continue to talk on the terrace, where it’s quieter?’

‘No, of course not.’ Nina led the way.

As they stepped out, a breeze whipped around Gina’s legs. ‘Thank you. Can you tell me more about any of the other men she dated?’

‘There was a blond guy, built like a brick shithouse who was a boxer. And another one who worked in an office somewhere. I used to tease her and call him City Boy. I don’t really remember any others. Oh, there was one, he was another temp, and I think Colson hit him.’ She began to scratch some dry skin from the groove in the side of her nose.

‘What happened there?’

‘Don’t remember. You’d have to ask Colson.’

‘Do you have any contact details for him or Marie?’

‘Yes to him, no to Marie. Actually, I don’t have his contact details, but I see Colson hanging around outside the bookies on Cleevesford High Street a lot. Every time I pass, he’s smoking outside before going back in. You might find him there. I said hello to him a few times but he doesn’t recognise me anymore. As for Marie, she left back then and I never heard from her again. I don’t think she resigned, she just stopped coming. I think she had family problems.’

Gina frowned, wondering why Nina hadn’t mentioned this information earlier. Better late than never, she guessed.

‘Oh, I think I remember something else. Marie’s surname… was something like Blair or Blaine. It began with a B.’

‘Would anyone else here know?’

‘I doubt it. I’m one of the longest-standing members of staff here, apart from the directors, and they had zero to do with the production line, not even at the big party in 2006. They pretty much only mingle with the office staff, and Marie didn’t work in the office back then.’

‘May we speak to the directors? Maybe they’d remember the other men you mentioned.’

‘I doubt it and it’s not going to happen anytime soon as one is in Jamaica on holiday, and the other is permanently overseeing our sister site in Belgium and won’t be back for another month, and then he’ll only be here for meetings.’

Gina cleared her throat. ‘I’m going to arrange for a police officer to work with you in taking statements. It may be that we have to interview the directors online if they’re not here.’

‘Okay, it’s worth a try. Like I said, I doubt they’ll be able to help but you never know. As for the other information you need, it will take a lot longer to check out the archives and I can’t make any promises that we’ll find what you’re looking for, especially temporary staff records, but we’ll do everything we can to help.’

A pigeon landed on the metal rail. Gina stepped back a little and waited for Jacob to catch up with the notes.

‘What’s this about, if you don’t mind me asking? I liked Marie so I hope she’s okay.’

‘We’re just following up on an incident and Marie’s name came up.’

‘I heard the news, and the only thing everyone is talking about right now is the dead man found at the farm. It’s not Colson, is it?’

‘We don’t have any more information as of yet, I’m sorry.’ Gina knew the description of Colson didn’t quite fit John Doe’s but there was an accomplice to consider.

‘I get it, you can’t tell me, but I remember thinking it strange that Marie never came back to work soon after Colson left. No one knew what her family problems were. We weren’t friends, so I never checked on her. I asked HR, but they just said she’d called and said she wasn’t coming back. It was strange, that’s all. She did mention something that concerned me.’

‘What was that?’

‘She thought someone had followed her home from work one evening. Some of our lines go all night, and one shift finishes at ten in the evening. It was the same then. She told me she didn’t want to do lates or nights again after it happened. Again, I think Colson would know more about this. Check out the bookies.’

TWENTY-ONE

As Gina and Jacob headed back to the incident room, she peeled her banana and quickly stuffed it in her mouth. Then she got her notes out and staked her place at the main table. O’Connor finished typing his notes up on the system before joining her, while Wyre was updating the boards. Kapoor placed a tray of glasses and a jug of water in the centre of the table.

Briggs cleared his throat. ‘I’m about to hold a press conference. Wyre has come up trumps with the scarf.’ He pointed to the photo of the girl sitting on the dirty mattress with the drawing. ‘It’s quite unique with the cupcake print. Wyre, tell us what you found.’

‘This scarf is made by a local designer who sells at craft fayres. It’s her print and she’s been going for the best part of forty-five years. We originally did an image search on a small part of the pattern and it was enough to bring up the whole scarf, which led us to her. She obviously can’t remember who bought the scarf – she’s made a few thousand over the years – but the good news is she still has one, and she has brought it to the station.’ Wyre pulled the scarf from a paper bag and pinned it to a board.

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