men and a woman. The two men she recognised from Spice World the month before.
The woman shared the same hair and skin colouring as Grace. And, like Grace, she had long legs with a slim build.
‘Well, well, well.’ Eddie Steele was the first to speak, removing his sunglasses.
Grace swallowed as she brought herself tall to face her half-brothers and half-sister.
The situation was surreal. This was never how Grace had intended to meet her family. But then again, she hadn’t expected the first murder case she worked on here in Stoke-on-Trent to be so close to home.
It was hard to speak in such close proximity to them. Although they had never met, Grace wondered if they knew as much about her as she knew about them. Her mum, Martha, had certainly suggested that. She had also told Grace that Eddie was two years older than her, that she was two months younger than Leon and had a half-sister three years younger. Their father, George, had been sleeping with both her mother and theirs at the same time, for a number of years, leading a double life.
Aware they were all looking at her, Grace stepped forward, but still she said nothing.
Eddie turned to Perry. ‘I suppose you’ll be wanting to speak to us?’
Perry nodded. ‘We need to find out your whereabouts last night. General questions for now. This is DS Allendale.’
‘Hello.’ Grace held out her hand to Eddie. His grip was as firm as her own.
‘Leon’ – Eddie pointed to his brother – ‘and Jade’s our sister.’
Grace shook both their hands in quick succession, worrying in case any of them revealed they already knew of each other. The resemblance between her and Jade was so significant that she hoped Perry didn’t notice. She could almost see her own eyes staring back at her.
But more than that, it was the way Jade stood: on her right foot to the detriment of her left, similar to something Grace always did. And the way she smiled, the full shape of her lips. She wondered what their mother looked like; was she similar to Grace’s own? Martha Steele, née Benson, had been olive-skinned with dark brown hair and not an ounce of fat on her.
Grace took a deep breath and asserted herself once more. ‘I believe DC Wright knows you all, so if I can get on with the questioning, we can do the formal things later.’ She turned to Perry. ‘Can you go and talk to Trent Gibson?’
Perry frowned, but she waved him away politely. She wasn’t sure if the Steeles would blow her cover. On the one hand, it might be a good thing because then she wouldn’t feel so deceitful. But then again, she could be removed from the case and she didn’t want that either. ‘Tread carefully’ would have to be her motto for today.
She followed the siblings into a small and dimly lit hallway, its red carpeted flooring having seen better days. Walls were painted cream with the odd scuff mark. To the right was a door with a sign for toilets and changing rooms. Paint was peeling off the corner of the ceiling and the smell of artificial air-freshener lingered unpleasantly.
Grace looked around. She could see no security barriers, the kind accessed by a swipe card like the gym she used to be a member of in Salford, so there must be something else.
‘Is there a signing-in book?’ she asked.
‘Inside the main building,’ Eddie told her. ‘We have lockers too. Things have a habit of going walkabout unless we put them away, if you catch my drift.’ He pointed to a set of double swing doors. ‘Be careful, the swing might come back and hit you,’ he warned. ‘Don’t want to knock you out on your first visit.’
Grace forced a smile as he held the door open for her to walk through.
‘We’ll be saving that for the second time,’ he muttered.
She turned to him, seeing no friendliness in his features. Up so close, her resemblance to him was uncanny. More noticeably, Grace could see how much he looked like George Steele as she remembered him from around the time she and her mother had left. Eddie must be about the same age as her father had been back then. It unnerved her: this was going to be harder than she had imagined.
Once through the doors, the room opened out into a large area. To one side was an array of gym equipment around the outer wall. On the other was a boxing ring with several punchbags and weight benches around the side. Grace wondered why they weren’t separated. If she was working out, she wouldn’t want to see anyone punched to the floor, friendly or not. It would put her off completely.
‘And you say you only have the one establishment in the city?’ she asked Eddie.
‘That’s right.’
Walking inside Steele’s Gym made Grace realise why they hadn’t branched out across Stoke-on-Trent. Not everyone would like this set-up. It was intimidating, to say the least. Nick had mentioned that this wasn’t its only selling point. She hoped she could find out more about what was going on behind the scenes.
Eddie showed her into a smaller room on the right of the building. It had three doors leading off it. He pointed to the first on the left.
‘Come through into the office and we can discuss things further.’
It was a tight fit to squeeze everyone in. The room held a desk and computer, a filing cabinet with paperwork piled on its top and a small settee squashed in front of an opaque-glass window. Leon and Jade sat down on that, while Eddie went behind the desk.
Grace cleared her throat as they all looked at her, once again waiting for her to speak first. The atmosphere was loaded, but she wanted everyone to know that today was about Josh Parker, not anyone else’s grievances.
‘First of all, let’s get this over and done with,’ she started. ‘Any questions about why I am back are really none of anyone’s business but my own. I’m sorry to hear of your father’s death but I come here representing Staffordshire Police.’
‘As if we’re interested in anything that brings you here,’ Eddie snapped. ‘Your lot weren’t in the slightest bit concerned when our father was murdered.’
‘I doubt that is true,’ she interjected, her tone firm, before turning to the matter in hand. ‘Is there an overall manager or is it a joint effort?’
‘It’s a family-run business,’ he said. ‘Leon, alongside Josh, looks after the general running of the gym and the boxing club. Jade and our mum run Posh Gloss, and I oversee the finances and day-to-day running of everything. Has someone gone to tell Christa, Josh’s wife?’
Grace nodded. ‘We will need her to make a positive identification of the body. Can you take me through what would have happened at closing time yesterday?’
‘Josh was on duty with two other trainers until the gym closed at ten p.m. He usually stays behind to do his own workout then, so my guess is he was in the building for about an hour.’
‘Are
