‘And did you? Kick them out?’
‘No, of course not. But the plan worked anyway. Suzanne was so mortified that she insisted on taking them away. I told her not to be so daft, but she wouldn’t stay. I think it was the cold-blooded way they did it that bothered her most. I’d told them about the tree, and they knew it meant something to me. They got up very early this morning and went out to the yard, uprooted it, brought it in here and systematically chopped it up with the bonsai tools. Quite an effort. They owned up to it straight away. Wanted me to see how incorrigible they would be.’
He reached over with the bottle and refilled Kathy’s glass.
‘I wish they hadn’t chosen that spot to do it,’ she said. ‘But why were they so upset at the idea of you and their gran?’
‘Their father ran away with some woman a couple of years ago, and then their mother went off the rails a bit. You know, feelings of rejection, depression, guilt . . .’
‘Yes . . .’ Kathy sipped her wine.
‘Then some rich bloke came along. Offered her a great time on some Greek island, but kids not welcome. So she got her mum to take them, just for a week or two. That was a year ago.’
‘Oh.’
‘Yes. So men are very bad news. They break up the family. Destroy their security. It had happened twice, and they weren’t going to let it happen again. They were going to hang on to their gran at all costs. Can’t really blame them, can you? Poor Suzanne. She tries so hard to do the right thing.’
‘You’re not going to give up, are you?’ Kathy said, surprising herself with the force of her question.
‘Give up? No. But I’d better let things calm down. Be patient.’
‘Maybe you can be too patient . . .’ she said, then stopped herself. ‘Anyway, that’s sad. And you’ve been sitting here working this out.’
‘Oh, it didn’t take long to work it out. No, mostly I’ve been sitting here wondering what else it can tell me.’
‘What else?’
‘Well, their story is Naomi’s story, isn’t it? Parents don’t cope, grandparents have to take over. It’s not uncommon. There’s a lot of it about these days.’
Kathy said nothing. In a way it was her story too.
‘But it brought it home to me what it does to the kids. They took quite a risk, after all. They could have alienated their grandmother and made her side with me. But they had to trust that they weren’t too late. They were prepared to do almost anything to hang onto her, what was left of their family.’
‘And Naomi?’
‘Yes, Naomi . . . A very determined young woman, wouldn’t you say?’
‘Tough, her grandparents called her.’
‘Tougher than them, certainly. They’re quite frail, aren’t they? While Naomi goes out to work to buy them lottery tickets, to keep alive their impossible dream of getting out of that estate and living in a cottage by the sea.’
‘I’m not sure . . .’ Kathy said tentatively. The wine and the shock on an empty stomach were making her feel dizzy, and she was becoming increasingly uncertain that she was following Brock’s train of logic, or even that there was one.
‘Where it takes us? Well, it took me somewhere I should have gone long ago. Do you remember the picture of Naomi’s elder sister on the wall of the Taits’ sitting room?’
‘Er . . . with the two dogs?’
‘Yes, that’s it. I got to wondering about the dogs.’
‘The dogs?’ Kathy stared at him, quite lost now.
‘Mmm. Goodness, we’ve nearly finished this bottle already, and I haven’t got a thing for you to eat. I was going to take you and Leon out to dinner somewhere. What do you think?’
‘I’m not sure I could get up from this chair and go out into that cold night again,’ Kathy said.
‘Pizza?’
‘That sounds good.’
‘Excellent.’
Brock got to his feet and went over to the phone. The pizza delivery number was on one of a number of cards pinned above it. It looked well thumbed, Kathy noticed.
‘So . . .’ Brock settled himself again in front of the fire. ‘The sister, Kimberley, I looked up her record.’ He waved a hand at the computer.
‘Drugs, wasn’t it?’
‘Yes, possession and supply. Also theft, from her employer, a veterinary practice.’
‘A vet?’ Kathy looked up sharply.
‘Hence the dogs, presumably. Perhaps the picture was taken at her work.’
‘Not the ketamine?’
‘Exactly. As well as cash, her employers accused her of stealing certain animal drugs: Stenbolol, an anabolic steroid, as well as a consignment of Ketapet which was never traced. She was also found to have supplied amphetamines and Ecstasy to two other employees.’
‘You think Naomi took over her sister’s drugs and sold them at Silvermeadow?’
‘I’m getting the batch numbers checked. If it is the same stuff, it’s just possible that Kimberley herself supplied Speedy before she was caught, but Naomi seems more likely. We know that she knew all about ketamine, and she knew Wiff.’
‘Yes.’ Kathy remembered how shocked both Naomi and Lisa had been when she’d told them the name of the drug they had found in Wiff ’s den. ‘She told me that Wiff was selling ketamine for someone else.’
‘Maybe he was buying it for someone else, from her.’
‘Naomi was supplying to Wiff and Speedy? And Kerri too?’
Brock stared at his glass. ‘That was the other reason I was feeling glum when you arrived, Kathy.’
They went over it again and again as they worked through the pizza and the second bottle, but got no further than the conviction that Naomi knew more than she’d let on. Finally Brock wiped his mouth and said, ‘I was sceptical at first, Kathy, but now I’m prepared to believe that you may be right, that everything is connected to everything else. That place . . . Bo Seager described it as a dream that had turned sick, and it is a bit like that. Like one of those buildings that gets legionnaires’ disease in its air-conditioning, or golden staph in its plumbing. Only this isn’t a virus. Once upon a time they’d have probably called in an exorcist to purge it. Now they give it to us.’
‘Mmm.’ Kathy felt her eyelids drooping. ‘Sorry I didn’t get to meet Suzanne.’
‘Another time . . . hopefully.’
‘At least you must have plenty of spare beds here now.’ She remembered crisp white sheets from an earlier visit.
‘Absolutely. And I can manage to supply breakfast. But I make toast in an electric toaster these days.’
‘Thank goodness for that.’
19
‘It’s about the photographs, is it?’ Mrs Tait asked. ‘You wanted to show them to Naomi?’
‘That and one or two other things, Mrs Tait. You remember Detective Chief Inspector Brock, don’t you?’
‘Course. Come in and sit down.’
Her husband straightened himself in his armchair as they came into the sitting room. He looked out of sorts, as if he’d just lost an argument. ‘Blimey,’ he muttered. ‘How many coppers does it take to change a bleedin’ lightbulb?’
‘Jack!’ his wife hissed, and said to Kathy, ‘Did you want to speak to Naomi in her room?’
‘We’d like you to be present, if you don’t mind, Mrs Tait,’ Kathy said, although of all the interviews with juveniles she’d conducted, she suspected that this one would have been a lot easier if they hadn’t had to have the relative present.
‘Sit down and I’ll fetch her then.’ She shot a warning look at her husband and hurried out.
‘Goin’ to snow, then, is it?’ he asked belligerently.
‘Could be.’
‘Last time it snowed the central heating packed in. Sod’s Law, innit?’
Kathy smiled. ‘Has Naomi got to go to work today?’
‘Yes. All weathers. She’s not put off by a bit of weather.’
‘Do you and Mrs Tait get over to Silvermeadow to see her when she’s working?’
>
‘The wife goes sometimes. Not me. Can’t be bothered, waiting for a bus.’
‘No,’ Kathy said, looking aimlessly round the room, at the new lottery ticket on the mantelpiece, the photo of the other sister. ‘Must have been easier for you when Kimberley was around. I suppose she had a car.’
Jack Tait frowned suspiciously at Kathy, then looked up as his wife and Naomi came in.
‘What was that?’ Mrs Tait asked. ‘Who had a car?’
‘We were talking about getting to Silvermeadow,’ Kathy said. ‘I suppose it was easier when Kimberley could take you there in her car.’
‘Oh, yes, she had a nice little car. What was it, Jack? A Renault, wasn’t it? But she didn’t go to Silvermeadow. She worked down Barking way, and if she wanted the shops she would go to Thurrock. She took me there several times. Jack didn’t come.’
‘Did she never go to Silvermeadow?’ Kathy asked.
‘I don’t think that she ever did. Did she, love?’ She turned to Naomi, who shrugged indifferently. ‘Anyway, how can we help you?’
Kathy showed Naomi the photographs. She studied each one slowly before shaking her head.
‘What about the little girl?’ Kathy asked, pointing at the picture, but again the answer was no.
‘So what’s this in aid of then?’ Jack Tait said. ‘I thought you’d found the bastard who was responsible for Kerri. The papers said he topped himself.’
‘There are still some loose ends, Mr Tait.’ Brock spoke for the first time, very deliberately. ‘And we’re pretty sure that Naomi can help us sort them out.’ He looked at the girl, who slowly raised her eyes and met his.
‘Like what?’ her grandfather demanded.
‘The man you just referred to, he died from an overdose of a drug.’
Mr Tait snorted with disgust. ‘Figures.’
‘This drug is manufactured as an anaesthetic, for animals.’
Kathy sensed both grandparents stiffen as this sank in. But Naomi, still and attentive, her eyes fixed on Brock’s face, showed no reaction at all.
‘It’s known as Ketapet, and it’s used by vets. In fact it’s one of the drugs that Kimberley was accused of stealing from—’
‘Now just wait a minute!’ Jack Tait half rose out of his seat, face reddening with anger.
‘Jack!’ his wife interrupted sharply. ‘I’m sure they’re not suggesting there’s any connection with Kimberley.’
‘Well, yes, I’m afraid there is, Mrs Tait. We’ve established that it was exactly the same batch of that drug that Kimberley took. Isn’t that right, Naomi?’
‘Naomi?’ her grandmother cried, horrified. ‘What’s it got to do with Naomi?’
‘I’d like her to tell us,’ Brock insisted.
The girl continued staring at him for a moment, then lowered her eyes. ‘I don’t know,’ she said softly. ‘I don’t know anything about it.’
Jack Tait immediately said, ‘There!’ His wife just stared at Naomi for a moment, then got up and went and sat by her side, putting an arm round her shoulders.
‘Naomi,’ Kathy said, ‘please tell us everything you know. It’s very important. You remember when I told you about the drug we’d found in Wiff ’s den? And you asked what the drug was? When I told you ketamine you were shocked and upset. You knew, didn’t you? Well, we found Wiff later that night, and Speedy. Both of them were dead, from overdoses of ketamine, the same stuff your sister had.’
Mrs Tait put a hand to her mouth, looking as if some familiar horror was revisiting her, but Naomi was as unmoved as before. ‘No,’ she said calmly. ‘I told you what I thought. I knew that Kerri had tried K, and I thought Wiff might have been killed by the same man as gave it to her.’
‘But how could it possibly be the same batch as your sister had?’
‘I dunno. I s’pose she must have sold it to someone, and they sold it to someone else. How would I know? You can give me a blood test if you like—I’ve never touched that stuff.’
‘But your gran just told us that Kimberley never went to Silvermeadow. Whereas you—’
‘You tricked me into saying that!’ Mrs Tait said indignantly. ‘I don’t know whether she went or not. She may have done, without telling me. But Naomi’s a good girl. She wouldn’t get mixed up—’
Her husband raised himself unsteadily to his feet, face furious. ‘I’ve ’ad enough of this.’ His voice choked with phlegm and he fought to continue, his good hand pointing at the door. ‘You get out, you hear? Get out!’
Brock got to his feet. ‘No need to get upset, Mr Tait. We’re going. We had to ask these questions, you understand. Last thing we want is to cause you more upset, especially at this time of year.’ He looked again at Naomi, giving her a kindly grin when she looked up. She made a sad little smile in return, and Mrs Tait, somewhat mollified, showed them to the door.
As they made their way along the deck, Brock muttered, ‘Yes, she knows.’ ‘You think?’
‘I’m sure of it. She had the same look that those two kids had when they showed me their handiwork with the tree. She knows exactly how her sister’s Ketapet got to Silvermeadow. But she’s thought her story through, and she’s very cool.’
He stopped at the stairs, resting his hands on the concrete wall as he thought about it. From below they could hear the footsteps of someone climbing up.
‘Her friend Lisa isn’t so tough,’ Kathy said.
‘That’s what I was thinking.’
The figure of a man emerged out of the gloom of the stairway. He glanced up and they recognised Gavin Lowry, looking even paler and more pinched than usual.
‘They told me you’d be over here,’ he said, slightly out of breath, vapour rising from his mouth. ‘Thought I’d see if I could help.’
‘Thanks,’ Brock replied. ‘How are things with you?’
Lowry shrugged. ‘Oh, you know, sir. Pretty shitty.’
‘Yes, I can imagine. Have you been talking to Connie?’
‘She won’t have it. Taken the kids to her parents. Told me to move out so she can come back.’
‘Maybe when the dust settles, Gavin,’ Brock said. ‘Sometimes it’s the secrecy that holds people together. Now it’s all out in the open she may have second thoughts.’
‘But is that what I want?’ he replied bitterly. ‘Way I feel right now, they’re welcome to each other. Anyway, I want to get stuck into some work, take my mind off things.’
‘Okay. You know Naomi, don’t you? She lives at the other end of this deck.’
Lowry nodded. ‘Yeah, I know her.’
‘We suspect she may have supplied Speedy with the ketamine, flogging him her sister’s drugs. We’ve just interviewed her, and she denies it, but we’re not convinced. You could keep an eye on the place for an hour or two, until we check a few things out, see she doesn’t try to dispose of any evidence.’
‘Sure. While I’m here I might catch the little toe-rags that tried to bomb me with the TV set.’
‘If you do, old son,’ Brock said, patting his shoulder, ‘just remember that they’re not Harry Jackson, okay?’
Lowry grinned and dug a pack of cigarettes out of a pocket. ‘Started again,’ he said ruefully.
*
Lisa’s mother groaned as she saw them standing there at her door, and asked them in reluctantly. ‘I’m on my way out,’ she said. ‘Sorry about that.’ She was wearing a short black leather skirt with matching jacket and boots, and enough make-up, Kathy noted, to light up Oxford Street.
‘This is very urgent. We need to speak to Lisa again.’
She sighed. ‘Well, if my friend comes you’ll just have to speak to her on your own.’
‘That’s not possible, I’m afraid. There has to be what we call a “responsible adult” present while we talk to her. If you prefer we can take her to the police station and get a social worker to sit with us.’
She wasn’t sure about that. She puckered her scarlet mouth and said, ‘Won’t take long, will it?’
‘That
rather depends on Lisa,’ Kathy said, looking at the pale face watching them through the gap in a bedroom door which had just opened a few inches. ‘If she can tell us what we need to know, we won’t be long at all.’
‘Well, come on then. Lisa! Come out and answer their questions. Hurry up.’
They sat down, and Kathy said simply, ‘We’ve discovered where the ketamine came from that killed Wiff and Speedy . . . and Kerri,’ she added, watching the girl’s eyes grow large. ‘It’s time you told us what happened, Lisa.’
The girl’s lips set in a tight line, and for a moment it seemed that she would defy them as Naomi had done, but then the line curled down at the ends, tears appeared at her eyes, and her whole body began to shake.
Perhaps the secret of telling the difference between false and true confessions, Kathy thought, lay in the fact that the first were designed to prolong matters, whereas the second were made to bring things to an end—an end long avoided, long postponed and now desperately sought. And she had no doubt that Lisa’s confession, when it eventually came, was of the second kind. It came out with an almost physical force, making the girl’s face grimace in pain, as if it were something bad she’d swallowed some time ago which had been sitting like a cold stone in her stomach, and now at last could be brought up.
It was very short, just three words.
‘We killed Kerri.’
Then she burst into tears.
Her mother stared at her with a look of astonishment, the two detectives with something like regret.
The tension was broken by the front door bell, absurdly playing the opening bars from ‘Teddy Bears’ Picnic’. Lisa’s mother jumped to her feet, muttering, ‘Bleedin’ heck,’ and raced out to answer it. The others waited without speaking while there was a short exchange on the doorstep, punctuated with expletives. Then the front door slammed and the woman returned to the room, her heels clacking on the plastic tiles in the hallway.
Now that the words had been said, the awful words she must have had to bottle up inside herself for almost three weeks, Lisa let the rest pour out, interrupted only by her sobs and moans.
The trouble with Kerri was that she had become unreliable and greedy. In the beginning, after Naomi had found where her sister was hiding the drugs, and had begun to steal them and sell them in a small way to friends, and then through Lisa and Kerri to friends of friends, they had worked together like a team, a small business venture, as Naomi had put it, for a modest but regular commission. After Kimberley was arrested and put away they thought their venture would come to an end, but Naomi seemed more determined than ever to keep it going. She managed to contact her sister’s sources and persuaded them to deal with her. Instead of fading away, their business flourished, their network of customers at the mall increasing month by month. It didn’t seem wrong. As Naomi had said to them, they were supplying a need, a market, just like all the other traders in the mall. And the mall people knew about it, or at least Wiff ’s patron and protector, who saw everything going on at Silvermeadow, knew about it, and he was paid a regular fee in kind for his co-operation. Early on he became interested in K, and took it on a regular basis. He had also requested Ecstasy, speed and poppers at various times.
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