by Jim Bennett
‘Shame if you don’t. Beautiful woman like you'.
Julie now hoped that he was a bit older or had a penchant for women who were in the Autumn of their life. She didn’t generally consider herself to be a beautiful woman. She did think though that surely she was the more objectively attractive of the two. Mrs McGrath looked as if she had entered the world by being pulled through a bush backwards and had lived the rest of her life there.
Somehow Mrs McGrath continued to resist Winnie’s charms and said nothing.
‘Are you married?' He tried again.
‘He’s dead’.
‘You must get lonely'. His eyes conveyed an empathy that Julie was certain he didn’t feel.
‘Not really. You didn’t see anything funny that night then?' Mrs McGrath said, all business.
‘Nothing springs to mind'.
‘Alright then. Thanks’.
‘Wait’, Winnie called as Mrs McGrath turned to go. ‘Better take my number, in case you’ve got any more questions for me'.
‘You’re alright. We know where you are'.
‘You never know, you might need something when I’m off duty'. He patted down his pockets and after some fumbling about, he managed to find a crinkled up piece of paper. ‘You got a pen?' he said, suddenly remembering Julie’s presence. She had to remove her purse from her bag to locate one in its very depths and then handed it to Winnie. He took it from her without a word of thanks.
Mrs McGrath snatched the note from him and immediately stuffed it into her pocket. She began to walk away before Julie had a chance to reclaim her pen or put her purse back in her bag.
Julie had presumed that they would be going straight back to the car. However, once they reached the street, Mrs McGrath made a beeline for the office. Walking straight up the desk, she said ‘I need to know whether that bloke was at another job after the one on Lexington Avenue'.
‘I’m not sure if I…’, the receptionist started to say.
Mrs McGrath grabbed Julie’s purse from her hand and before she was able to protest, the old woman had unzipped it and tipped all the remaining coins onto the desk.
‘You can have all that. Haven’t got anything else'.
The receptionist stared at her for a moment in disbelief before coming to life again. She laboriously scraped the coins off the counter into her cupped hand. Only when they were all collected did she bring the computer to life again and pull up the requested information.
‘He went straight to his next job from the first one you asked about. He invoiced them for two hours and they paid it no hassle'. Having everything that she needed, Mrs McGrath turned and exited the small building at her normal speed. Julie followed the best that she could and closed the door behind her.
‘That’s not like you', Julie said when they were both sitting in the car again.
‘Mmmm?’
‘Checking an alibi. What happened to being able to tell if they were a murderer just by looking at them?’
‘Sometimes you can tell they’re dodgy but you don’t know why'.
‘It isn’t a different look then? Murderers don’t look any different to people who rob post offices?'
‘It’s not an exact science, is it?' Mrs McGrath said a little testily.
‘Alright, I only asked'.
‘You’re always going on about how we need to ask more questions and when I do, you give me grief about it'.
They arrived at a red light and Julie slowed the car to a stop. The silence that ensued felt all the more charged because of their inactivity.
‘Shall we leave the neighbours until tomorrow? Approach it with fresh eyes in the morning?'
‘Yeah alright', Mrs McGrath said, once again closing her eyes and allowing her head to slump to one side.
Chapter Seventeen
On Sunday morning, there was a bang on the door a full half an hour before her and Mrs McGrath had agreed to meet. On her way to answer it, Julie tripped over the hedge clippers that Mrs Sinclair had dropped off the day before Jack had been killed. If they weren’t hers and they weren’t Jacks, they must be Brian’s. Julie made a mental note to return them to him later this afternoon.
‘I thought we said nine oclock?' Julie said, opening the door to the old woman. She grunted in reply and pushed her way into the house. ‘We can have a cup of tea though? Agree on an approach'.
‘What are we agreeing on?' Mrs McGrath said, taking a seat at the kitchen table. She undid the buttons of her coat but didn’t take it off. ‘We ring people’s doorbells and ask them if they’ve killed anyone lately'.
‘Have you ever thought that the most direct approach might not always be the best one?' Mrs McGrath looked at her blankly. ‘You know, like maybe people won’t confess to killing someone just because you knock on their front door and ask them?’
‘Done much police work have you?'
‘Well no, but it seems like common sense'.
‘Doesn’t matter if they don’t admit it. I’ll be able to tell'.
‘Yes that’s all well and good, but they’re not being tried in the court of Mrs McGrath, are they? We need to have some evidence to give to the police if they’re going to take us seriously'. Mrs McGrath let out a deep breath and rolled her eyes. ‘What’s the point if your snooping isn’t actually going to lead to an arrest?'
‘Fine. What do you want to do?'
‘Who is it that you actually want to talk to?'
‘I did a bit of work last night when you were having your evening off'. Julie let the comment slide, already feeling her enthusiasm for this mad enterprise waning. ‘Managed to speak to everyone apart from that mad biddy at number 2, the hermit at number 40. Oh, and your other young thing across the road'.
Julie processed this information and said ‘you mean Mrs Stuart, John Taylor and Brian?’
‘That’s what I said, yeah. She’s got something against me and him at number 40 was too scared to open the door. Your man across the road wasn’t in'.
‘Sorry, why is he my man?'
‘Always chatting you up, isn’t he? See him when I’m putting out the bins sometimes'.
Julie found it amusing that despite admitting she was running a full investigation into the inhabitants of the street, Mrs McGrath still felt the need to invent a story to excuse her day to day snooping.
‘Why will they talk to us today if they wouldn’t yesterday?'
‘You’re going to knock. When they answer, I can come up the path and have a good look at them'.
‘Well as long as we’ve got a plan'.
‘Got to be one of them. I can feel it in my waters’. Despite having not touched the cup of tea that Julie had put in front of her, she necked the whole thing in one great swallow before marching out of the house.
When Julie left her house a few minutes later, she saw that Mrs McGrath was already standing outside of Brian’s door. Clearly she had forgotten that Julie was supposed to be taking the lead. She had been rapping the handle of her cane fairly discreetly against the wood. Discreetly for her that was. In fact, it was an almost gentle gesture which surprised Julie. However, the zen approach didn’t last long. After thirty seconds of waiting, she lost her patience and resorted to her usual banging.
‘I don’t think this is getting us anywhere', Julie said about a minute into the assault.
‘Got to be persistent. The bugger has to come out sometime'.
Julie saw the curtains next door twitch. She could really do without another uncomfortable confrontation with Mrs Sinclair. ‘Why don’t we come back later?' she said when there was a brief pause in the thudding. ‘Go and speak to the other two and then circle back around'.
‘We’re letting him get away with it then', Mrs McGrath said. She pulled back her arm to continue the onslaught.
‘Get away with what? You don’t know he’s done anything'.
‘Not doing his public duty'.
‘I think his public duty can wait until this afternoon’. The old woman thought for a second and then rac
ed down the path at her usual tempo. Julie managed to catch up with her just as she stationed herself behind the big fir tree at the bottom of Mrs Stuart’s drive.
‘Go on then', she said, giving Julie a little nudge with her cane.
‘Oh I’m taking over again, am I?'. Julie said, taking a peek up the drive at the ominous looking black front door. She hadn’t had much to do with Mrs Stuart in the past. Any early attempts at a friendly exchange had always received a frosty reception, so she had quickly stopped trying.
‘Keep up, I told you at the house. Good for your training anyway, isn’t it? Do a few of them alone'.
‘My training?'
‘On how to run an investigation'.
‘I can’t think of any situation in my life where that would be an advantage'.
‘What about if you found a dead teenager in your spare room?'
Julie gave Mrs McGrath an unimpressed look that Mrs McGrath promptly ignored.
‘Anyway, what makes her any different from everyone else on the street that you’ve…', Julie took a moment to search for the right word. Alienated was likely to be the best fit or harassed maybe. She settled on ‘questioned’.
‘I’ll tell you later. Come on’, Mrs McGrath said, giving Julie a firmer jab with her stick, ‘while we’ve still got the daylight'.
As Julie rang the doorbell, an overwhelming sense of dread overtook her. She suddenly realised that she hadn’t got the faintest clue what she was going to say. She was on the verge of going back to speak to Mrs McGrath for some guidance when the door was opened.
Mrs Stuart was of a similar age to Mrs McGrath. However, the two women couldn’t have been more different in appearance. Mrs Stuart’s hair was white from root to tip, but smartly. That, paired with her respectable blouse buttoned up to her neck and a long, black pencil skirt, gave her an air of gentility that Mrs McGrath couldn’t hope to match even on her most reserved days. As soon as she had opened the front door, she crossed her arms, just in case her visitor was in any doubt as to how much of an irritation her visit was.
‘Yes?' Mrs Stuart said when no explanation as to Julie’s presence was forthcoming. Julie continued to stare dumbly at her. It suddenly occurred to her that she couldn’t explain why she knocked on this estranged neighbours door because there wasn’t any sensible justification.
‘I was hoping to ask you some questions', Julie spluttered.
‘Were you now?’
‘About Jack. Jack Harper'.
There was a pause that made it clear that Mrs Stuart had no idea who Julie was talking about.
‘You might have seen him on the street. About 19. He was staying with me'.
‘All the young people look the same to me', Mrs Stuart said curtly.
‘He’d only been staying here for a few weeks. You might have noticed him because you hadn’t seen him before?'
Again Mrs Stuart said nothing.
‘So you haven’t seen anything unusual over the past few days?'
‘Aside from a nuisance visit from a little known neighbour?'
Julie began to apologise for bothering her before she was interrupted. ‘I may be old but I’m not blind. Of course I took note of the fleet of police cars that were parked outside your house. Is that what you came to ask me?'
‘Yes. Well, no. What I wanted to know. I mean, what I came to ask was…',
‘Get to the point, will you?' Mrs Stuart said, interrupting again. ‘I haven’t murdered anyone in their sleep as of late, nor do I have any idea of who might have felt the need to if that’s what you’re trying to ask'.
Julie could feel her face burning, the little composure that she had now lost to her. ‘I didn’t mean to suggest you’d done anything wrong. We’re just trying to find out if anyone saw anything?'
Mrs Stuart was smiling now. She seemed to be enjoying Julie’s discomfort, almost revelling in it. ‘And who is we?' she asked.
That moment, Julie heard the telltale tapping that told her that Mrs McGrath was making her way towards them.
‘No’, Mrs Stuart said. ‘No, no, no, no, no!' With each repetition of the word, her voice became louder. ‘You are not to step foot on this property'.
‘Calm down, you old goat', Mrs McGrath said. ‘It’s not about all that’.
‘I don’t care what it’s about', Mrs Stuart shrieked, losing all her previous haughtiness and becoming quite insensible. ‘There is nothing that you could possibly have to say to me that I want to hear'.
‘There’s no need to shout'.
‘I am not shouting', Mrs Stuart shouted. ‘I am explaining that I have no interest in whatever nonsense you and your little friend here have dreamt up'.
‘Can’t really dream up a dead body, can you?'
‘Wicked people come to wicked ends', Mrs Stuart said in a very convincing impersonation of a religious zealot. ‘You’d do well to remember that', she said, pointing at Mrs McGrath accusingly. Any further discourse was immediately halted when Mrs Stuart slammed the door in their faces.
‘What was all that about?' Julie asked when they were safely back on the street. ‘I didn’t realise you knew each other so well'.
‘Who says we know each other?’
‘You must have had quite a bit to do with her if she feels that strongly about you'.
Mrs McGrath shrugged. ‘Can’t help it if people take against me'.
They had started to walk towards John Taylor’s house for their next interview. ‘No I’m sorry Mrs McGrath, that’s just not good enough’. Julie stopped in the middle of the pavement. The old woman either didn’t realise or she didn’t care and continued alone. Only when Julie called her name again did she stop and walk back towards her.
‘Got to get on', Mrs McGrath said irritated.
‘I’m not going anywhere until you explain to me why that woman dislikes you so much'.
Mrs McGrath took little interest and began to scrape at something on the pavement with her stick.
‘You say jump and I say how high. Then when I ask you one little question, you won’t tell me anything'. Julie folded her arms in an attempt to display her indignance. Still the old woman didn’t seem to be taking any notice. ‘You don’t always have to act like you’re under siege. If you want my help, then this has got to go both ways'.
A further interval elapsed without any explanations and Julie had just resolved to go home when Mrs McGrath mumbled ‘cats’.
‘Cats?’
‘I was coming back from the shops one day when I saw her chasing a stray off her front garden with a broom. It wasn’t doing anything to hurt anyone, just sitting there minding its own business. Didn’t seem right, so I started feeding it'.
‘Right…',
‘Next thing I knew, her highness was at the door telling me I was ruining the neighbourhood. Encouraging vermin, all that bollocks'. There was a pause which suggested that Mrs McGrath had finished her story.
‘That can’t be the end of it, surely? The woman was ready to have a coronary when she saw you'.
Mrs McGrath’s attention on the patch of pavement that she had been prodding intensified.
‘Mrs McGrath?'
‘Bit later on, she found a load of rats in her cellar. Exterminator said that they’d been attracted by some nuts that had been put down there. Her nibs threw a fit at me. Said she wouldn’t have bought them because she’s allergic'. Mrs McGrath sounded so wounded that someone who didn’t know better may have been willing to accept this little fiction.
‘Christ, what were you thinking?' Julie said.
Mrs McGrath looked at her, stung. ‘You just believe her straight away?'
‘You’re not exactly known for being reasonable'.
‘Name one time I haven’t been reasonable'.
‘What about that poor telephone engineer that you chased off with your conspiracy theories?'
‘I was right about that. I showed you the newspaper'.
‘You showed me a story about dodgy accounting! It had nothing to do with the lad t
rying to fix your phone for you'.
‘I don’t think she did it'. Mrs McGrath said, willing to accept at least temporarily that her case was fundamentally lacking. ‘The woman is evil, but I’m willing to say that she didn’t kill the lad. Can’t get much fairer than that, can you?'
Despite it only being midmorning, it felt very late in the day to Julie. The unpleasant exchange with Mrs Stuart had made her see them as the rest of the sane world did. They weren’t the intrepid seekers of justice that she had allowed herself to imagine. Instead, she was the woman who was deluded enough to follow the whims of someone so unhinged that they were willing to fill someone’s house with rats.
‘Let’s get this over with', Julie said, taking the final few paces towards Mr Taylor’s house. She would keep her word and conduct this one final interview and then that was it. Her previous life may have been mundane and more than a little bit pathetic, but at least it was private. No one would see it and laugh at her for so woefully trying to reach above her station and absolutely failing.
Julie walked up to Mr Taylor’s front door without looking back to check that Mrs McGrath was following her. She knocked and waited for a response. Mr Taylor appeared in the gap between the door and the jamb, the chain still firmly attached.
‘Hello’, he said with a nervous smile.
‘Oh hello there’, Julie started. Before she could get any further, she saw the man’s gaze move past her to something in the distance. His complexion now ashen, he said ‘sorry, no', before closing his front door again. Julie heard the distinctive sound of several locks being engaged on the other side.
Julie turned and saw that Mrs McGrath hadn’t bothered to conceal herself behind the hedges at the bottom of the garden. Instead she was standing in plain sight.
‘I don’t think he’s coming back', Julie said, walking back towards her neighbour.
‘What did you say to him?'
‘I said hello, that was it’.
‘You must have said something else’.
‘I don’t think I’m the problem here'.
‘Bit rude’.
‘I’m just saying I’ve never had a problem with anyone on this street before I started knocking around with you'.
