Page 53 of Her Hidden Shadow

Gina swallowed. ‘Three actually. One woman was strangled in her own home, very much like your attack, and another where the woman was murdered.’

‘He’s escalating, isn’t he? He wanted to kill me so badly, but I fought, and he hated it. Who was number four?’

‘A man who was with the third victim that evening.’

Hazel scrunched her brow. ‘That doesn’t fit his pattern, obviously. I’m gathering he got in the way.’

Gina nodded. ‘It looks that way, although we can’t be certain yet. It sounds like you’ve spent a lot of time analysing your attack.’

She nodded and opened her brown eyes wide. Gina had seen a past photo of Hazel on file and she had blue eyes. Gina knew she had to be wearing coloured contact lenses. ‘I did and I still do, well attacks and murders in general. I love true crime programmes.’ She cleared her throat. ‘The first couple of years were a fuzzy blur. I thought he was everywhere, that he was watching me, so I read and researched everything I could so that I could understand him better. Know your enemy, that was the idea. I thought, the more I could learn about his type, the more of a chance I had of recognising him if he came into my life again.’

‘And do you feel as though he’s come into your life again at any point?’

She shrugged. ‘I didn’t feel safe in that house anymore, so we moved. Since then, I stay off social media, I work from home, and I rarely go out. I finally feel as though he doesn’t know where I am. I told the police this on the night and I’ve repeated this many times since, but he had to have been stalking me. He attacked me when Karin was away, so he had to know our routine. One week per month, Karin had to work in the New York office. It was an inconvenience, but she loved that job. He must have known I was alone in the house.’

Gina waited for Collier to scrawl a few notes. She made a mental note that Tiffany Crawford’s attack was the same in that her husband was away at the time, on a stag night. Sienna’s attack was different though. It didn’t follow the same pattern, but the scarf linked Sienna and Tiffany. Also, Sienna was never home alone, she lived with her landlady. Was that why he changed his pattern? ‘Do you remember seeing anyone in the run up to her leaving for New York or during the weeks before?’

She nodded. ‘I told the police. It was as if someone was there all the time, but I could never see who. Things got moved around the house and I could sense someone was maybe watching me through the windows. I’d catch movement out of the corner of my eye and as soon as I turned, there would be nothing or no one there.’ She paused and let out a laugh. ‘I dismissed it, wrote it off as stress and me being nervous when I was home alone. Anyway, when he came into my house, I was asleep, but he knew his way around. He knew where I slept because while I slept, he came into my room and took my phone. I lie awake imagining him watching me sleep, waiting for his moment.’

‘Can you talk me through that night, as you remember it?’

Hazel looked down and bit her nail.

‘We’re really sorry for putting you through this. If you’d rather not, that’s okay.’ The last thing Gina wanted to do was re-traumatise Hazel but there was a killer on the loose. She hoped Hazel would continue. ‘But he is still out there, and we want him caught. It might be the smallest thing that helps us to catch him.’

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. ‘At first, I heard the noise, just a tap maybe. I can’t really remember but it woke me up. My phone wasn’t on my bedside table, and I panicked. I knew I left it there and I could hear someone approaching. I was too slow to block the door with some furniture and before I had a chance to think, he opened it and stood there. He was taller than me, wore dark clothes and a balaclava. All I could see was these intense staring eyes in the dark and I knew he was going to kill me. The room lit up. He had my phone in his hand. I pleaded with him, begged him to take my bag and car but he wasn’t interested in those things. I knew then that it was me he wanted so I ran at him. I remember falling back. Maybe he pushed me, or I tripped. I’m not sure. When I was down, I kicked him directly in the balls. While he was groaning in pain, I got up and ran to the stairs.’ She stopped and took a few deep breaths.

Hazel’s knee began banging the table and her hands shook.

‘I know this is hard and I’m sorry we’re asking you to talk us through it again. You’re now at the stairs.’

‘I ran down and I think I slipped down a couple. I remember thinking if I fell, I’d die because he was so close. I raced him to the front door and just as I was about to open it, he hit me with something. My earring fell out and then he tried to strangle me with one of my own scarves. Not once did I give up. We had an umbrella stand by the door. I grabbed one and I jabbed him with the end of a golf umbrella. I’m not sure where I caught him or how much damage I did but he keeled over. I opened the door, and I ran barefoot with the scarf still flapping round my neck. I ran in the dark until I reached the care home down the road. I banged on the door, they let me in, and the police turned up. When they went to the house, he’d gone. He did bleed but I’ve been told he’s not on your files, so they’ve never been able to identify him from that.’

‘The report seems to show a lack of suspects. I think one of your colleagues was cleared as he had a firm alibi.’

She nodded. ‘That’s right. I can’t think of anyone who would have wanted to kill me, yet the attack seemed so personal. I’ve been through every person I know, racking my brains.’

‘How long had you and your now wife been in a relationship then?’

‘A couple of years, at least. I’d had other partners, two men and a woman, but I hadn’t been in contact with any of them for ages. All my break-ups have been civil. No weird neighbours or friends either. I really don’t think it’s anyone I knew. I think he targeted me, but I don’t know why. Maybe I was an easy target, living in the country, being alone sometimes. Maybe that’s the only reason he chose me.’

Gina watched Collier write slowly and then continued as he finished his sentence with a full stop. ‘I haven’t seen anything in your report that suggests this but as far as you were aware, was anything left behind that didn’t belong to you?’

‘No.’

Gina pondered that information. If the pattern was correct, they had found the strangler’s first victim. She was the intended, not like Robbie Shields. The perp had watched her, planned his attack meticulously, then he messed up and got hurt resulting in his blood being left behind. That screamed early attempt. There was no blood left after Tiffany’s attack, but she too managed to fight him off. Sienna wasn’t so lucky. By then, he was experienced in how they fight back, and he was ready with a weapon which was used to stun her first.

Gina pulled a paper file from her bag and removed a photo. She showed Hazel the earring. ‘This was found at the scene of the second attack. He jabbed the victim with it.’

‘And you know that’s my missing earring so it must be him. Let me guess. He takes something from one attack and incorporates it into his next attack and the same happened for attack number three. As nothing was left at my scene, I was the first.’

Gina nodded. ‘Please don’t mention that information to anyone. We’re keeping it out of the public domain as it may be the very thing that catches the killer.’

‘I won’t and I understand why. It’s been a long time since I’ve slept well at night even though I’ve moved and have a different surname. My job has changed, everything about me has changed. I’m naturally blonde and my eyes are blue. I spend ages disguising the old me and I’d like her back one day. I’d like to live again. I’d like to have a Facebook account and be able to post my holiday snaps like normal people. I don’t want to walk into a shop and think he’s the man in the queue behind me.’ She stood, walked over to her bar and poured herself a brandy with her shaking hands. For all her bravado, Gina could tell that Hazel was trying to bottle her fear up. ‘Do you want one?’

‘No, we’re good, thank you,’ Gina replied on behalf of her and Collier.

‘There’s something I didn’t mention and now that I think of it, I should have. I’d been to the hairdressers that day and didn’t think much of it, but you said it might be in the detail. It might be nothing.’

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