Page 39 of The Tapes
‘We were supposed to be on a job together today. That’s our van.’ Dina nods along the street towards the vehicle. The officer clocks it with a nod. He’s in a suit, so a detective.
‘When did you last see him?’ he asks.
‘Yesterday. We work together most days and we had a pair of jobs out near Gatacre.’
The officer has a pad out now and writes something with another nod. ‘Can you come and talk to my sarge?’ he asks. ‘It’s this way.’
He doesn’t wait for a reply, stepping away from the kerb and back towards the flat. ‘Can she come?’ Dina asks, pointing to me. ‘Eve worked with him too. I don’t think I want to do this alone.’
The detective scans me up and down and then says it’s fine, before taking us over the road, underneath the police tape and down a set of steps to the front of Owen’s flat.
I’m struggling with the bemusement of it all – which isn’t helped as it turns out the ‘sarge’ is someone I know only too well. It was around twenty-four hours ago that I was sitting with Detective Sergeant Cox in the canteen of the police station. She’s as surprised as I am, rocking away a fraction and letting out a confused ‘Eve…?’ when she sees me. With Dina and the other detective, four of us are huddled on the doorstep – but the first officer soon steps away, leaving only us three.
‘What are you doing here?’ Cox asks.
‘Owen was my workmate,’ I say. ‘Dina works with him directly and she called me.’
Sergeant Cox turns her attention to Dina, asking the same questions her colleague had before. Owen had been at work theday before, he’d not shown up in the morning, and hadn’t replied to any messages or calls. Cox makes her own notes but it’s impossible to miss the sideways glimpses in my direction. How am I tied up in all this, after already arousing her suspicions yesterday?
‘Do you know if Owen was having any problems?’ Cox asks, talking to Dina.
‘I don’t think so. I was with him all day yesterday in the van. I think he said he was playing five-a-side in the evening.’
That gets a nod, as if Cox already knows this. ‘There’s a post on his Instagram about the football,’ she says. ‘We’re trying to track down anyone he might’ve played with.’
‘I don’t think I know anyone on his team.’
Cox writes something on the pad.
‘What happened?’ Dina asks. ‘Someone said carbon monoxide…?’
The sergeant lowers the pad and glances past us, up the stairs. There’s nobody there. ‘This isn’t official yet,’ she says. ‘There’ll be an autopsy, plus we’re still tracking down family members. We’ve got a phone number for his mother but nobody’s answering, so we’ve sent someone to the house…’ She tails off, then checks over her shoulder towards the flat, before apparently making a decision.
‘I need your discretion here,’ she says, looking between the pair of us.
‘I’m not going to tell anyone,’ Dina says. ‘I’ve already told the office I’m taking the day off.’
I immediately wonder who she spoke to, given I’m not at the office. Somehow I keep making things about me, which is when I realise Sergeant Cox is looking in my direction. ‘I won’t either.’
Cox thinks for a second more and then: ‘It looks very much as if Owen hanged himself.’
‘No, he didn’t,’ Dina replies immediately.
‘I’m sorry,’ the officer replies. ‘Like I said, there will be an autopsy but that’s what it looks like.’
‘I, just…’ Dina’s struggling, looking to me for an answer I don’t have. ‘I was with him yesterday,’ she says. ‘We were talking about the jobs we had today.’
‘His landlord has a cleaner who visits every two weeks,’ Cox says. ‘She found him hanging from a light fitting.’
It’s brutally direct but perhaps that’s Cox’s way. Dina’s staring towards the door and there’s a moment I think she might burst past the officer to see for herself.
‘He wouldn’t hang himself,’ she says.
Cox doesn’t reply, though it’s hard to know what she could say.
‘Are you sure?’ Dina adds.
‘I am really sorry to have to tell you. We are still investigating and there will be an autopsy. We’ve got his phone, so perhaps there’ll be clues to his state of mind on there. We’ll be speaking to his mum shortly, so we might get answers then. For now, we’re still trying to track down who he was with last night.’
