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Angela holds her gaze for a moment. ‘Because Hannah Jennings was a dirty little slut.’
Jennie raises her eyebrows. She can’t stop the shock registering on her face. Angela Totley started off prim, became emotional, and is now being provocative. Although her accusations are vague and more than a little evasive, there’s something very personal about the way she’s talking about Hannah.
Jennie pushes her a bit harder. ‘You mentioned earlier that it was hard for you to have an objective view on Hannah. Why was that?’
‘Well, like I told you, she wasn’t a student of mine, so I didn’t really know her,’ says Angela, starchily, taking another sip of tea.
Jennie holds her gaze. There’s something more; she just knows it. ‘Is that all? Because referring to her as a “dirty slut” sounds like a pretty strong view.’
Angela bites her lower lip. Puts her tea mug down with a bang. ‘Look. Okay. I didn’t like Hannah Jennings. Actually, if you must know, I hated her. That little slut was the reason I broke off my engagement to Duncan. It was why I had to get another job at a different school. The reason I couldn’t bear to stay in White Cross.’
Jennie feels her jaw clench. Her teeth start to ache.
‘Why did you hate Hannah?’ asks Zuri, her voice calm and sympathetic.
‘Because I saw them together, her and Duncan, the day she went missing. That little bitch was kissing him. Groping him right there at his desk in the art room after school, as if she had no shame, no morals. I just couldn’t …’ Angela pauses. Takes a breath. ‘Duncan was kissing her back. When I saw that, I knew our relationship was over.’
So the rumours were true. Jennie wishes Hannah had told her the truth about Duncan Edwards. She’d never confirmed or denied the rumours, and Jennie had just assumed they were fiction not fact. She knows better now. ‘There’s no mention of that in the statement you gave during the first investigation. Why is that?’
Angela shakes her head and looks contrite. ‘Because I was really embarrassed. Duncan pleaded with me not to tell the police. He said they were already looking at him as a suspect and if I told them about him and Hannah kissing just before she disappeared it would put the final nail in his coffin.’
‘So you protected him, even though he’d cheated on you and could have been responsible for Hannah going missing?’ says Zuri, clearly unimpressed.
‘I protected him because I knew there was no way he was responsible for Hannah’s disappearance,’ counters Angela. She looks at Jennie.
‘Duncan left Hannah and chased after me. We went home, arguing, in the same car, and continued to argue for the rest of the night. It was like a warzone in our apartment. The worst night of my life. Duncan insisted Hannah had provoked him, that she’d kissed him, and that he was about to push her off when I walked in. We yelled and cried and threw stuff, but neither of us left until the next morning, when we drove to school together and taught lessons for the whole day. I was with him the whole time.’
Angela fixes Jennie with a hard stare before she concludes, ‘Duncan couldn’t have had anything to do with Hannah Jennings going missing.’
Chapter 28
‘I don’t like her.’ Jennie knows she sounds unprofessional, but can’t resist sharing her personal opinion as they drive back to White Cross. ‘She withheld information relevant to the case in 1994, and she would’ve done it again today if we hadn’t pressured her.’
‘Just because you don’t like her, it doesn’t make her a murderer,’ says Zuri, evenly, as she indicates right and takes them around yet another roundabout on their route out of Milton Keynes.
‘I know that,’ says Jennie, glancing out of the window as they pass Stadium MK. ‘But it makes me suspicious not just of Edwards, but of her too.’
Zuri says nothing, concentrating on the unfamiliar road layout as they pass a huge Asda and IKEA superstore and cross more roundabouts, taking them out towards Bletchley and the A5 beyond.
Pulling out her phone, Jennie messages Martin, telling him to bring in Duncan Edwards and seize his computer and phone. ‘I’m having Edwards brought in. He totally bullshitted us about his relationship with Hannah. We need to let him know we’re onto him and push him harder.’
‘No matter how much of a dick he is, he’s got an alibi,’ says Zuri. ‘He can’t be Hannah’s killer.’
‘Not necessarily. Angela Totley might have given Edwards an alibi for the time Hannah went missing, but she’s also got one hell of a reason for wanting Hannah gone. They could have been in on it together.’
Zuri shakes her head. ‘I don’t see it.’
‘But it has to be Edwards,’ says Jennie, not wanting to think about what the alternative means. ‘He could have killed her because—’
‘There’s something off about the darkroom crew,’ says Zuri firmly as she takes the turn off another roundabout onto the A5. ‘Rob Marwood might have been ruled a suicide but that doesn’t mean he or one of the others can’t be guilty. Elliott Naylor certainly seemed to get more defensive in his latest interview.’
Even though she has her own nagging suspicions, Jennie doesn’t like Zuri suggesting her old schoolfriends are in the frame for Hannah’s murder. She bristles. ‘Never go behind my back again.’
For a moment Zuri looks confused, then she blushes deeply as she realises what Jennie’s referring to. But her expression remains serious. ‘I didn’t. I was updating the whiteboard in the incident room. The DCI saw me in there and asked for a catch-up.’
‘So you told him I took a picture of the darkroom crew and made out like it was a huge deal?’ says Jennie. ‘I took pictures of a lot of people at that school. My A level art project was a photography collection.’
‘I didn’t tell him it was anything,’ says Zuri, frowning. ‘But I couldn’t not tell him.’
