‘I know his name, officer. Is he okay?’
That was her first question answered. Gabe hadn’t been in touch.
‘Gabriel is missing. He left the house on Monday morning and hasn’t been seen since.’
There was a moment of silence before he spoke.
‘Finally seen sense, has he? Well good luck to him.’
Stacey put his animosity to the side for a minute to ensure that there’d been no contact.
‘So he definitely hasn’t been in touch with you?’
‘I’m the last person he’d contact. If he can’t go and visit his sick mother who’s just eight miles up the road, he’s hardly going to travel to Bristol.’
‘Mr Denton, there’s obviously bad blood between the two of you but—’
‘Bad blood? Oh yeah, and I’m happy to tell you why. It’s when you go through so much shit as kids, when you have no one so you rely on each other. We were best mates and brothers. Never did I see my life without him. But she soon put paid to that. Drove a wedge between us the day they were married. And it’s because of her that he never visits our mother.’
Stacey had heard all this before, a family member blaming the spouse or girlfriend for everything. Even worse if the relationship had been a particularly close one, but Gabe was a grown man with a responsible job. If he wanted to visit his mother, he would. She was interested in what had caused the rift in the first place.
‘I assume you’re talking about Beth.’
‘Of course – who else could convince him of something so foul?’
‘Sorry?’
‘She told him I came on to her on their wedding night, that when we had a dance, my hands were all over her. There were tears, words like violated that made me sick to my stomach. I’d never looked at her in that way. I may have had a few drinks, but I would never have disrespected my brother like that. There were things said in the heat of the moment that can’t be unsaid. We never spoke again after that night.’
Stacey could hear the emotion in his voice. The pain was still there after all these years, and what made it worse was that it was probably just a misunderstanding.
‘He never tried to call me once.’
‘Did you try and call him?’ Stacey shot back.
‘No and I never will.’
‘Even though you miss him?’
There was hesitation.
‘Yeah, despite that. Look, my train is due any minute. He hasn’t been in touch. This trip down memory lane hasn’t been a pleasant one and I don’t want to relive it all again.’
‘Okay, Mr Denton, thank you…’
‘I hope he’s okay but do him a favour – if he’s managed to get himself lost, let him stay that way.’
The phone went dead in her ear and Stacey knew that her last lead had dried up.
She couldn’t help but be intrigued by what had taken place between Beth, Craig and Gabriel and the seriousness of the incident to warrant the two brothers not speaking for years. There must have been something to Beth’s accusation if Gabe had believed her and cut his brother out of his life.
Whatever the story, the boss wasn’t going to let her go any deeper because of a drunken fumble on the couple’s wedding night. The work was piling up on Penn’s desk, and she couldn’t justify any more time away from the main case.
The only thing left to do was tell Beth Denton that they had no idea where her husband had gone and they didn’t know if he was ever coming back.
FORTY-FIVE
‘Where to, guv?’ Bryant asked once they were back in the car.