Page 33 of Her Hidden Shadow

Wyre opened the paper file and passed Gina his details. She quickly scanned the page, taking in all the key pieces of information. ‘You work at Happy Drinker’s Wine Shop, the one on the corner of Link Street. Is that correct?’ Gina knew that Link Street was a short walk away from Robbie and Lauren’s bungalow.

‘Yes, I’m the manager and I was working there alone on Saturday night. I have passed the CCTV to one of your officers so you can get exact times. The footage is timestamped.’

‘Thank you for that. That will help us a lot. Can you tell us what happened, from the moment you saw Mr Shields, until he left.’

The man nodded and pulled his chair closer to the table. ‘I was sweeping up. We open until ten at night, but we don’t get a lot of customers in that late. He came in around nine thirty. He grabbed a bottle of White Zinfandel and I remember him loitering, so I offered him some help. When he turned to face me, I thought he was going to pull a knife out because he just stared. It wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened. Robbers seem to think we have a ton of cash in the till, but the truth of it is we mostly take card payments. Anyway, at first, he looked like he was on something but then his demeanour mellowed, and I could see that he seemed upset, almost teary. I knew I’d misjudged him. I asked if he was okay, and he shrugged and slammed the wine on the counter. He said that his life was over.’ The man paused.

‘Did he leave then?’ Gina wondered for a moment if he knew what lay ahead for him.

Mr Sallis shook his head. ‘I tried to engage with him. My first thought was that he might be suicidal, and I wanted to make sure he was okay before he left. I told him that every problem could be solved, well I said something like that. I said that he shouldn’t be too hard on himself. Really, I had no idea what to say. I sell wine. I’m not a therapist, but I did my best. He then looked at me, slammed a ten-pound note on the counter and hurried off. I found the whole encounter strange and I really worried that I’d said something wrong. When I went home, I told my wife and that night, I struggled to sleep because what he said played on my mind. There was something seriously wrong and now you tell me he’s dead. He knew his life was over. He knew he was going to die.’

Gina mulled over the man’s statement. Had Robbie Shields known what was going to happen to him or was he upset that Sienna was going to tell Lauren about their child? ‘Did you see him leave?’

‘Oh, yes, he headed left out of the shop, and he looked to be on foot. We only have two parking places outside, and neither were taken. He carried on walking all the way to the end of the road. If he came by car, he would have parked close by, and I’d have seen him get into a car.’

Gina visualised the wine shop and Robbie leaving. Robbie had taken the fastest route back home on foot.

‘There is something else.’ Mr Sallis nervously pulled another hair out.

‘Was this after he came into your shop?’

The man nodded. ‘I decided to close early. At about quarter to ten, I locked up, got into my car and started driving home. When I got to the end of the road, I saw him kicking a lamppost, so I pulled up at the junction and watched him. He smashed the wine against it and hurried off through the houses flinging his arms in the air, in a frustrated way. A part of me thought I should pull over, but I didn’t. Now I wish I had. Did he die by suicide?’

Gina passed the notes back to Wyre to pop back into the file. ‘No, please don’t feel that you didn’t do enough. It was kind of you to ask him how he was. Have you ever seen Mr Shields before?’

He shook his head. ‘No. But I thought I recognised the woman, the other victim that was on the local news. I saw that report just before leaving to come here. Or maybe it wasn’t her who I saw. My glance at the TV screen was brief. I didn’t really catch the whole report as I was rushing out the door.’

Pulling a photo of Sienna from another file, she handed it to Mr Sallis and spoke for the tape. ‘I’m handing Mr Sallis a photo of Sienna Moorcroft. Is this the woman you recognise? Take a long look.’

He took the photo and gazed at it for a few seconds. ‘You know, I’m sure it is. Yes, it was her. I’m so sorry. I wished I’d seen the news report in full but then again, I’m here now so you can ask me about her too. She came into the shop earlier on the Saturday and I remember her buying a ready-mixed cocktail in a can and a small bottle of cola. Oh, and I think she bought crisps.’

‘What time was this?’

‘I can’t remember. Sometime in the afternoon, maybe after five thirty. I’ll check the CCTV later and send it to you.’

‘What was she wearing?’

‘A short black dress, no jacket. I kept thinking that she must be cold.’

‘Was she wearing a scarf?’

He closed his eyes for a few seconds and tapped his fingers on the table before opening them again. ‘No.’

Gina needed to rule out that the flowery scarf did belong to Sienna. ‘Was she with anyone?’

‘Well, I did get curious. She was all dressed up. It can get boring in the shop, so I do tend to people watch and make up little stories in my head about their lives. It passes the time. When she left the shop, she hurried across the road in her heels and got into the passenger side of a dark saloon car, which drove off a couple of minutes later.’

‘Does your CCTV cover that area?’

‘No. It only covers the inside of the shop and the pavement directly in front of it. The cameras used to capture the road and beyond, but the people living opposite complained about their privacy. It wasn’t worth the hassle, so we had its line of sight adjusted.’

Flicking through the paperwork, she tried to find out what type of car Gerard Hale drove, but she didn’t have that information to hand. She knew that Robbie Shields owned a black VW Passat so that put him in the picture. Then she remembered being told that Hale drove a black saloon and a black four-by-four. Gina wondered if one was a company car. She needed to check. ‘Can you describe the driver?’

‘No, but I did see a silhouette of them both. She leaned in and they kissed passionately, like a pair of teenagers. They were too far away for me to even begin to describe him, that’s if it was a man; that would be me assuming. It could have been anyone.’ He scrunched his brow. ‘There was something else.’

‘What is it?’

‘There was an altercation after they kissed. I saw a hand come up. She then slapped her companion before he or she pulled away. They must have been arguing, at least I think that’s what I saw. The driver sped off, literally burning rubber.’

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