Page 37 of Her Hidden Shadow

‘What’s in it?’

‘He’s been stalking Sienna. He talks about her meeting up with a man at cafés mostly. Oh goodness.’

‘What is it?’

She cleared her throat and began to read. ‘It says, “That bitch. She’s nothing but a cheap whore and to think I thought I could marry that. She’s not going to get away with what she did to me, and she lied. All that time she was with him too. The plan. Make her pay. Follow her, fuck with her head. She deserves it.” Then—’

‘What is it?’

Gina realised she was staring at the emoji. ‘There’s a doodle of a gun. He wanted her dead.’ She read the passage again and it almost took her breath away. From what Gina had heard, they’d had a whirlwind romance that resulted in Sienna moving in with Gerard without giving it much thought. He must have started out charming to make her move that quick and to think, all he wanted to do was trap her, own her and take her money to solve his own problems.

She gasped a little. It sounded much like the start of her relationship with Terry all those years ago. What is visible on the surface is nothing like what is going on in their heads. These manipulators always have a plan. They know how to erode self-worth and to control. Sienna had escaped him at the onset, but he’d lingered around and stalked her, refusing to let her go.

‘Let’s run through this theory. Sienna met up with someone earlier that day and went to the wine shop. Maybe it was Robbie, maybe it wasn’t. At some point, she had sex, but we don’t know who she had sex with. Sienna goes to see Robbie at the bungalow as soon as Lauren has left. Maybe they had sex. Maybe she then tried to pressure Robbie to tell Lauren about their daughter. In a state, he popped out to clear his head and get some wine, leaving her at the bungalow. Frustrated and furious, he smashed the bottle in a temper. On returning, he found that Hale was already there and that he’d killed Sienna. We know that Hale was following Sienna. The address of the bungalow is written on his board. Maybe Hale watched Robbie leave and in a fit of jealously knocked on the door. Sienna might have thought that Robbie had forgotten his key. Hale then entered and killed her. Robbie then returned to the chaos and he’s in the way so maybe Hale locked him in the cupboard while he finished with Sienna. After, he knocked Robbie out and wrapped him in the rug. Hale could have used Robbie’s car to deliver the body to his own car before returning the car to the drive. The mustard-coloured fibres in Robbie’s boot show that the rug had been in there. Hale knew time was running out and that he’d have to deal with Robbie later, so he quickly cleaned the bits of the car he used. He didn’t leave much evidence. There were no fingerprints so I’m guessing he knew what to do. He gloved up, kept his hair under a hat. It was a calculated attack.’

‘And there was someone lurking at the property when Lauren arrived back from her night out.’ Wyre opened one of the cupboards as she spoke.

‘He may have come back to look for the nail file and on hearing her, scurried off. He didn’t hurt her because she didn’t see him, and she wasn’t his target.’

‘What about the case of Tiffany Crawford? How does Hale fit in?’

Gina exhaled. ‘I wonder if she knew Hale. That’s a link we’re going to have to investigate, see where the evidence leads.’

Wyre pulled out a folded pile of clothes that looked like they belonged to Hale’s mother, then her hand got caught in a pair of tights and a scarf. She opened the next cupboard and there were more scarves, all silky and decorated with beautiful animal and botanical prints. ‘Guv, there are scarves, and lots of them.’

‘Do we know where his mother lives?’

‘Not offhand but the man who runs the site will have her details for billing as she and Gerard are joint owners.’

‘We need to speak to her. I know we have this link with the flowery scarf and Tiffany Crawford’s attack, but we can’t rule out that one of Ms Hale’s scarves was used to strangle Sienna. It is possible that she owned the same scarf. We need to ask her if she recognises the print, if it was hers and if it is and it’s missing. If she answers yes, we have him.’

Twenty-Seven

Tiffany

She’s watching him from afar but it’s like she’s above him, looking down. Maybe she’s flying. For some reason, she has it in her head that he has all the answers but when she tries to scrunch her eyes to focus, all she can see is a shadow. Chills run through her, a bit like when she had the flu that one time. She can’t stop shaking. She closes her eyes, not wanting to be taken down this path again. There’s nothing she can do to stop it; however hard she fights the fear bursts from her ribcage. Silence surrounds her. It’s not right. She was in a town. There were cars and the sound of people out and about, walking at night. Slowly, she prises her eyes open. That’s when she sees him. He’s above her and she sees the blue flowers, but she can’t breathe as she drowns in them. So many flowers.

Panic floods her body. She closes her eyes again. That’s when she hears Kieron shouting at her to stop. Hands taut; she screams out. On opening her eyes, she sees blood, lots of blood. She’s killed him.

‘Tiffany, stop it.’

‘What, where am I?’ She scrunched her brow and stared up at the moon.

‘Ouch.’ Kieron holds his hand under his bleeding nose.

‘What happened?’

‘I know I shouldn’t approach you when you’re sleepwalking, but you were about to step in that broken glass. You hit me in the face.’

She glanced down at her hand to see blood dripping from her fingers. ‘I’m so sorry. I can’t believe—’ She didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t meant to hurt him again.

‘It’s okay, Tiff. It was an accident. You were asleep and my nose will be okay. It’s not as bad as it looks.’ He removed his hand. The bleeding had at least stopped but that didn’t make her feel any better about herself.

What was she doing around the back of the flats, next to the dustbins? ‘How did I get here.’ She trembled and hugged herself as she stood in her pyjamas. On looking down, she could see that a blackened banana skin had worked its way between her toes. She kicked out and let out a slight scream as it hit the fence.

‘It’s okay, darling. Come here.’ Kieron pulled off his coat and threw it over her shoulders.

That’s when she noticed that he was in his lounge pants and bed T-shirt. ‘Were we in bed? What time is it?’

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