by Roberta Kray
Harry kept his tone soft and reassuring. ‘How can I help?’
There was a small intake of breath, a gathering of courage. And then finally she spoke. ‘She said I could talk to you – on the quiet, like.’
The accent was local, the voice tense and agitated.
‘Of course,’ Harry said. ‘In complete confidence.’
Another pause. ‘And she won’t go to Social Services, right? I ain’t done nothin’ wrong. They’re not taking me kids away from me.’
Harry frowned, not catching her drift. He’d thought at first that she’d been referring to Lorna, but now he was starting to realise otherwise. ‘Er, when you say she …’
‘You know.’
Harry didn’t know. He tapped his heel against the edge of the desk, suspecting that they could be here all morning if he didn’t cut to the chase. ‘Do you have a name for this woman?’
‘Her,’ she snapped, as if he was being deliberately obtuse. ‘From the magazine.’
The light suddenly dawned. Harry rose smartly to his feet, interest flashing in his eyes. ‘Ah, you mean Jessica Vaughan.’
‘That’s it. She said I could talk to you.’
‘Okay,’ Harry said. ‘What is it that you’d like to tell me?’
There was another short silence. The woman hadn’t given her name and he knew she wasn’t going to. All he’d have to do was ring Jess and ask who she’d given his number to, but in the meantime he quickly ran through the list of possible suspects. It had to be one of the Minnie Bright girls. Definitely not Kirsten Cope, unless her acting abilities had improved drastically. And not Paige Fielding; he’d heard her voice at the market and it didn’t sound like this one. Which, by a matter of elimination, left Becky Hibbert – the one Jess had pinpointed as the weakest link. It seemed like she’d been right.
‘I ain’t done nothin’ wrong,’ the voice whined again.
‘I’m sure you haven’t. You just want to get things straight, yes? That’s completely understandable.’
Her voice tipped up a pitch. ‘And you won’t tell the others? You mustn’t tell the others. This is just between you and me, yeah?’
‘You and me,’ he repeated. His heart was beginning to beat a little faster as he waited for the revelation. Something else had happened that fateful day fourteen years ago, and possibly, just possibly, he was about to find out what.
‘Lynda Choi did call me.’
‘Yes,’ Harry said.
‘She wanted Kirsten’s number.’
‘But you didn’t have it,’ Harry said, trying to help things along. ‘So you … what? Put her in touch with Paige?’
‘I might have done,’ she said cautiously.
Harry’s eyes flicked up towards the ceiling. This was like getting blood from a stone. ‘And how did Lynda sound that night? Was she calm, upset, confused?’
There was a hesitation, as if Becky was rolling these three options around in her mind. ‘I dunno,’ she said eventually. ‘A bit …’
Another long pause.
‘A bit?’ Harry prompted.
‘She was kind of weird,’ she said finally. ‘Rude. I dunno. Maybe she was pissed. She wasn’t very friendly, didn’t ask how I was or what I’d been doing. After I told her I wasn’t in touch with Kirsten no more, she said I had to give her Paige’s number. Just like that. No please or nothin’.’
Harry walked over to the window, separated two slats of the blind and gazed down on the street beneath. ‘And that’s it? That’s all she said to you?’
‘Yeah.’
‘She didn’t mention why she wanted to get in touch with Kirsten Cope?’
‘Nah.’
Harry swallowed a sigh. So far nothing new, but he still lived in hope. He stared at the people passing by. ‘But she told Paige, right?’
There was a distinct hesitation. ‘Er …’
‘And you’re good mates with Paige, so I’m presuming that she told you.’
Becky paused again, clearly battling between the desire to say as little as possible and the urge to dodge any trouble that could be heading in her direction. The latter impulse won. ‘It were about that day, you know, with Minnie Bright and all. Lynda took off with Sam Kendall, yeah, but then later she changed her mind and went back.’
Harry could feel the hairs start to rise on the back of his neck. He let the slats of the blind drop back into place and turned away from the window. ‘Lynda went back to the house on Morton Grove? Are you sure?’
‘That’s what I said, weren’t it?’
‘How much later?’
‘I dunno. Not that long. It was after we’d legged it, though. We didn’t see her. She told Paige she felt bad, leaving Minnie there like that. We didn’t know nothin’ about it, not till the phone call. She didn’t tell no one back then, not even the filth.’
‘Why do you think that was?’
Harry could almost hear her brain ticking over as she tried to come up with an answer. In the end she resorted to her familiar response.
‘I dunno.’
‘Okay,’ he said patiently. ‘So she went back to the house. What happened next? What did she remember or what was so important that she suddenly felt the need to contact people she’d barely talked to in fourteen years?’
‘Well she didn’t tell me, did she?’
‘Come on, Becky,’ Harry said firmly, using her name for the first time. ‘It is Becky, isn’t it? Half a story isn’t any use. If we’re going to sort this out and keep you out of trouble, I need to know everything.’
There was another of Becky’s by now familiar pauses. For a moment Harry thought she was about to hang up on him, but instead she began to speak again.
‘Okay, okay, I’m doing my best. But I only know what Paige told me, right? She said Lynda was crying on the phone, going on and on about how bad she felt, that she’d known Minnie was still in the house and she should have done more to get her out.’
‘Hang on,’ Harry said. ‘How did she know?’
‘What?’
Harry reckoned he’d have more joy talking to a brick wall. ‘How did Lynda know that Minnie was still inside? Did she see her, speak to her?’
‘No, she didn’t see her. I don’t think so. But she saw a light or somethin’. Yeah, that was it. It had gone a bit dark and it was raining, which was why she didn’t hang about. But she reckoned she’d seen a light go on and off in the upstairs window, just quickly like, and it was too soon for him to be back so she’d known Minnie must still be inside. She called out to her and banged on the back door but Minnie wouldn’t answer. So she just left. That’s what she was stressing over. She felt bad about it, that she hadn’t stayed and tried harder to get her out.’
Harry frowned. ‘Right,’ he said. There was nothing in this information that changed anything. He could understand why Lynda would feel bad, would feel guilty, but he still didn’t get why she’d felt the sudden need, after all this time, to share the information with Kirsten Cope. Just the burden of a guilty conscience, or something more? He tried again with a question he’d already asked. Sometimes if you asked often enough you finally got the answer you needed. ‘Why do you think she wanted to talk to Kirsten especially?’
‘How would I know? Paige just wanted to get rid of her, that’s why she gave her the number. Said she was going on and on and none of it made any sense.’
‘Okay,’ Harry said, ‘but that doesn’t explain why you all decided to keep quiet about the calls. Why is everyone so bothered about them? And what’s with all the threats to Sam Kendall, the damage to her car?’
Becky’s voice turned instantly defensive. ‘I don’t know nothin’ about that.’
‘Okay, I believe you,’ Harry said quickly. ‘But come on, why did you all lie about the calls Lynda made? Why didn’t you just tell the truth?’
‘’Cause we’ll get the blame, won’t we?’ she snapped back. ‘For what happened to Lynda, to Minnie, for everything. That magazine woman will write all kinds of lies abou
t us and she’ll say it was our fault for making … for letting Minnie go inside in the first place.’
‘No one blames you,’ Harry said. ‘You were kids. You had no idea of what would happen. No one blamed you back then and they won’t now.’
‘Yeah, but people twist things, don’t they, put words in yer mouth. Paige said that—’ She stopped suddenly, as if she’d let slip something that she shouldn’t.
‘Paige said?’ Harry prompted.
But Becky refused to be drawn. ‘It doesn’t matter. That’s all I can tell you. I don’t know nothin’ else.’
‘Okay.’
‘And she’ll leave me alone now, yeah? That woman? She won’t come hassling me no more?’
‘I’m sure she won’t,’ Harry said. ‘Not if you’ve told me everything.’
‘I have. I swear I have.’
‘But if you remember anything else, anything at all, no matter how unimportant it seems, you can call me at any time. Will you do that, Becky?’
‘Sure,’ she said. ‘I’ve got to go now.’
Before Harry could say another word, she hung up. He put the phone down, stared at it for a long moment, and then picked it up again.
19
Jess answered straight away. He could hear the sound of a radio in the background, the faint chatter of a DJ. ‘Hi, Harry. What’s the news?’
‘I just got a call from Becky Hibbert.’
‘Great. That was quick. What did she say?’
Harry perched on the edge of his desk again. ‘Tell me you didn’t threaten her with Social Services.’
There was a short hesitation. ‘I didn’t threaten her with anything. Not exactly. I just mentioned in passing that being involved in criminal activities might bring her some unwanted attention from certain quarters.’
‘So you tried to scare her into talking.’
Jess drew in an audible breath. ‘Oh come on, don’t get all holier-than-thou with me. I bet you did much worse when you were a cop. Are you telling me that you never put any pressure on a suspect?’
Harry frowned. ‘There’s a difference between a bit of pressure and threatening to have someone’s kids taken off them.’
‘I didn’t do that,’ Jess said impatiently. ‘But let’s face it, if she is completely innocent as regards what’s been happening to Sam, she wouldn’t have been worried enough to call you. It proves that I was right about them hiding something. Anyway, spill. What did she have to say for herself?’
Harry wasn’t entirely comfortable with Jess’s methods – methods that, if they became public, could adversely affect the reputation of Mackenzie, Lind – but decided to drop the subject. He knew that whatever he said would be like water off a duck’s back. Jessica Vaughan was immune to criticism, and the more you pushed her, the more stubborn she became. He gave a quick sigh before providing her with a rundown of what Becky had told him.
‘So Lynda went back to the house,’ Jess said after an extended pause.
‘It appears so. You’d better give Sam Kendall a call and find out what she knows about it.’
‘She doesn’t know anything. If she had, she’d have told me.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
Harry could hear the defensiveness in her voice. ‘Well, the two of them left together, didn’t they? So how come Sam never mentioned anything about Lynda going back?’
‘Because she wasn’t aware of it.’
‘Except she didn’t mention them splitting up and going their separate ways either. Lynda must have made the decision five or ten minutes after they’d run off together. Why didn’t Sam tell you about it?’
‘Maybe she didn’t think it was important.’
‘Maybe,’ Harry echoed softly.
‘Okay,’ Jess said. ‘I’ll ask her about it. But putting that aside for the moment, I still don’t get why the other girls are so worried. There’s nothing new here, is there? We already knew that Minnie was still in the house, so the fact that Lynda went back doesn’t actually change anything.’
‘Becky reckoned that you were going to blame them for Minnie’s murder. I guess that’s reason enough to be worried.’
Jess gave a snort. ‘No, I don’t buy that. There’s something else, something they’re still keeping quiet about. Why go to all that bother with David Choi? It’s a complete overreaction. All they had to do was refuse to talk to me and I wouldn’t have a story.’
‘True enough, but people don’t always act in a rational way. And Kirsten Cope has a lot to lose. She’s in the public eye, and any bad publicity could mean the end of her career. Maybe she did overreact, maybe she did ask Paige to unleash her pet goon, but that doesn’t mean there’s any great mystery.’
Jess didn’t sound convinced. ‘Do you think Becky was being straight with you?’
‘Yeah, I think so. She was pretty wound up. And she didn’t want the others to know that she’d been talking.’
‘Mm,’ Jess murmured thoughtfully. ‘But maybe Paige didn’t tell Becky everything. Just enough to explain Lynda’s weird phone calls but not the whole story. She might have guessed that Becky wouldn’t keep her mouth shut.’
‘And she was right.’
‘I wonder why Lynda didn’t tell the police that she went back to the house. I mean, back then, when it all happened.’
Harry gave a shrug. ‘She was only a kid. She was probably scared – and feeling bad about being the last one there, the last one who could have got Minnie out before Donald Peck came home.’
‘So you think the phone calls were just some kind of guilt trip, an unburdening of what she’d been feeling for the past fourteen years?’
‘It’s possible.’
There was a silence that went on for several seconds.
‘What are you thinking?’ Jess said.
‘I’m starting to wonder if it was more than a light that Lynda saw.’
‘For example?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe something she didn’t think was important at the time, something that only clicked into place on the night she rang the other girls.’
‘Something that the others don’t want to come out.’
‘It would explain why they denied ever having heard from her.’
‘So what next?’ Jess said.
‘Give me David Choi’s number. I’ll call and see if he knows anything. And you can ring Sam and find out what happened after she and Lynda left.
‘Do you think David will talk to you?’
‘There’s only one way to find out.’
Harry scribbled down the number, said his goodbyes and hung up. He didn’t ring David Choi straight away. Instead, he walked around his desk and sat down, frowning. Immediately, he stood up again. He was too restless to stay still. What had Lynda remembered, or believed she’d remembered? It wasn’t just about the light. It couldn’t be. As he began to pace the office, he thought back to that day fourteen years ago when he’d been part of the team who’d searched the house in Morton Grove.
Stopping by the window, he flipped open the slats of the blind and gazed down on the street. But he didn’t see the station or the pavement or the people hurrying by. He was back in those rooms with the shabby furniture and the thin frayed carpets, the unwashed mugs and the overflowing ashtrays. The whole place had stunk of dirt and decay.
Harry’s stomach twisted as he thought of that climb up the stairs, of the horror that had been waiting for them. One foot in front of the other until the landing was reached. Grey light coming through a small window. A brief pause before the turning of a handle, the push of a door … and then the sudden wafting stench of death. A soft groan escaped from between his lips. There was nothing that could prepare you for that.
The breath caught in Harry’s throat. He turned away and slumped down in his chair. Then he leaned over the desk, put his head in his hands and rubbed at his eyes. But it didn’t matter how hard he rubbed or how hard he tried to forget. Some images would remai
n engraved upon his mind for ever.
20
Kirsten Cope paced from one side of the room to the other with the phone pressed hard to her ear. Her face, already pinched, grew increasingly tighter. She slapped her left hand angrily against her thigh.
‘For fuck’s sake, Paige, we had a deal. What are you playing at?’
‘Don’t have a go at me. It’s not my bleeding fault, is it? I can’t be with her twenty-four hours a day. Anyway, you don’t have to worry. She didn’t say nothin’.’
‘Oh yeah, and you know that for sure, do you? That silly cow doesn’t know the meaning of keeping her trap shut. If Becky has been—’
‘She hasn’t. The only thing she told the bitch was to piss off out of it and leave her alone. That was all.’
‘And you believe her?’
‘She wouldn’t lie to me. She wouldn’t dare.’
Kirsten stopped pacing and glared at the wall. ‘You’d better be right. If she talks, if she lets something slip, then—’
‘She won’t. Will you stop stressing. Becky knows what’s good for her. She won’t be blabbing. You’ll be the one who blows it, Kirsten, if you don’t calm down.’
‘Yeah, well, you haven’t got a private detective on your back. He came round here, for Christ’s sake. He was going on about that day.’
‘So what? He came to see me at the market. He hasn’t got a clue. He’s whistling in the wind, hun. How’s he gonna find out anything? I’m not gonna tell him, you’re not gonna tell him and Becky’s gonna keep her big gob shut too. So what’s the problem?’
Kirsten’s hand bunched into a fist, her fingernails digging into her palm. ‘You know what the bloody problem is.’
‘Well don’t take it out on me. I’ve stuck to my side of the deal, so if you’re even thinking of asking for the cash back …’
‘Did I say that?’
A brittle silence fell between the two women.
Paige was the first to speak again, her tone more conciliatory. ‘Look, I get why you’re freaking out, but you don’t need to. I’m taking care of things, aren’t I?’
‘I suppose.’
‘So we’re okay then, you and me?’
