Page 54 of Her Hidden Shadow

Gina raised her brows. ‘Please go on.’

‘There was a strip of my hair missing, underneath. About an inch wide and two inches long. I thought the hairdresser slipped, and I had so much hair, it didn’t matter. I’d used a student at the college to save a bit of money.’

Gina made a mental note to ask Tiffany about her hair. She observed Hazel for a second longer as she tried to picture her back then with long blonde hair and the blue eyes. She then imagined Hazel carrying another couple of stone and in her mind, she could almost see Tiffany. She too had blonde hair and blue eyes.

The baby began to cry, and Hazel’s wife knocked and entered. ‘She needs feeding and that’s something I can’t do as we forgot to express, sorry, love.’ She passed the baby to Hazel.

Gina stood and they wrapped up the interview.

‘Please let me know what you find out,’ Hazel said as she pulled her sweater up to feed the baby.

Gina assured her that they would.

As they headed to the car, thoughts kept whirring through Gina’s mind. He had a type when it came to Hazel and Tiffany, but Sienna didn’t fit the picture. He’d certainly broken his pattern and not only by murdering Robbie. She wondered if the hair was the trophy. As far as she was aware, Bernard or the pathologist hadn’t mentioned a chunk of hair missing from Sienna’s head. That would have flagged up during the post-mortem.

‘That’s confused things even more,’ Collier said as he got into the car.

All she could do was nod. She had no words for him, especially as he’d already decided it was Jacob. Collier was now in this to close all other avenues. It wasn’t how it should be but that’s how it was. ‘We’ve got time to visit Amos Jeffrey. Can you clear it with Sullivan?’ Here she was, playing by the rules.

He nodded and pulled his phone out. They had Hale in custody. If it was him, she was going to make sure he never left.

Forty

Gina knocked on Amos Jeffrey’s door again. Collier stood on the step behind her. Ms Hale next door peered through her window. As soon as Gina spotted her, she pulled the curtain across. A frail man using a walking frame opened the door several minutes later. ‘Sorry, my old bones won’t let me move any faster. Who are you?’ He looked at each of them in turn. Gina spotted the camera housed in a black dome above his door.

‘I’m DI Harte, this is DI Collier. May we come in?’

He shrugged. ‘I guess. It’s always nice to have visitors. Although, I do have a woman coming over soon, so you best be quick.’

‘Are you Mr Jeffrey?’

He nodded. ‘Amos.’

‘We’ll try not to take up too much of your time.’

He turned his back, slowly shuffling with the help of a walking frame. Gina led the way and Collier closed the door. He turned into the dining room, laid neatly with place mats and candles.

‘Date night.’ He nodded for them to sit. ‘Make sure you don’t mess the table up. Right, what can I help you with?’

Gina sat and smiled. ‘I need to ask you a couple of questions and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention them to anyone else for the time being as we’re currently investigating some serious crimes.’

‘Sounds intriguing. Go ahead. Discretion is my middle name. I see all but say nothing. Sorry, I don’t have a lot to do and I’m the only one on the road with CCTV.’ He dabbed his bald head with a serviette as the log burner roared away. ‘Sorry about the heat, she’s always cold.’

‘We need to speak about Saturday night.’

‘Okay, I was in. As you can gather, I don’t get out much, especially in the evenings. My dancing days are non-existent.’ He let out a laugh.

‘Would you have your CCTV from that night?’

He shook his head. ‘No, it’s written over after forty-eight hours.’ He leaned back on the kitchen chair and pressed his lips together. ‘I was sitting in here though, with the curtains open. I like to watch the world go by. It makes me feel less lonely.’

‘Do you know Mr Hale, your neighbour’s son?’

‘Oh him.’

Gina noticed that Amos’s expression changed from cheery to a frown. ‘He was a little shit in his teens. He scratched my car, threw a firework at my shed and graffitied my back wall. But that was a long time ago. I hear him arguing with his mother here and there and I heard them arguing on Saturday but that was earlier in the day.’

‘Did you hear what they were arguing about?’

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