The larger part won; I just looked casually away and nonchalantly melted away my lips on my scalding hot tea.
“Hi, Josie. How are you doing? How’s Liam?” My eyes nearly popped out. It was Rich Richard. He was talking his coat off and hanging it on the back of one of the many, many vacant chairs at my table in Myra Hindley corner.
“Erm…isn’t it like, illegal or something, for you to sit with me here whilst your girlfriend is trying to burn holes in me using the power of thought alone?”
“Ha, Josie, you’re so funny.” Rich Richard was actually laughing. Ok….
“Richard, I’m serious. I mean, you seem like a nice bloke, so I’m only concerned for your safety. You’ll be ostracised by your own pack and left in the wilderness to fend for yourself. Think about it, old bean, before you actually park your bum-cheeks on that chair.”
“My bum-cheeks will be fine.” Richard was laughing loudly enough to draw stares from the table of hatred.
“Richard, your girlfriend is over there and she’s not looking too pleased with you.”
“I’m none too pleased with her either, if I’m entirely honest, Josie.” Well, he’d done it; he’d parked up and made it official. “I saw what was going on as I walked into the canteen. Do you really think I would join a group of people who were behaving so childishly?”
“Honestly? If you’d asked me, like, three minutes ago, I’d probably have said yes. But in fairness to me, I really don’t know you very well.”
“Well, I’m here now. I’m just going to get a drink.” He rose again. He was like some kind of giant Jack-in-the-box. “No flask?” Richard looked at the polystyrene cup and I felt rather bemused by the interest of the general populous in my refreshment habits.
“No, not today.” I shrugged.
“It’s a very sensible idea, actually. I wish I was as organised as you. Honestly, you could buy a whole box of tea bags for the price of a cup of tea in here.” Ok, I was reeling a bit. I knew I had been right all along, and now an economist was agreeing with me.
“Which is alright if you can afford it, I suppose.”
“No, it isn’t really. I mean, it’s kind of wasteful, isn’t it? I’m studying economics, I should know better.” Richard pulled a handful of change out of his pocket and looked down at it thoughtfully.
“Well, your secret is safe with me. Anyway, I’m not sure you’ll be ejected from the economics degree even if they do find out about your crazy and irresponsible spending habits.”
Richard wandered away to the counter, laughing all the way. I was left with the feeling that he was nice, but odd. Very, very odd.
No sooner had he wandered off than I was suddenly joined by two more guests. Well, not joined by so much as flanked by. I immediately recognised one of the CID officers who had carted Liam away the day before. He pulled out a chair and sat down right next to me. As the chair on the other side of me scraped back, I spun around to see another, older guy, presumably also a police officer.
“Do sit down.” I said quietly.
One look at their faces told me that my sarcasm was misdirected; they’d totally missed it. I was vaguely aware of Richard hovering a few feet away, clearly not knowing if he should come back to the table.
“Miss Cloverfield. I’m Detective Inspector Malcolm Thorn, and I’ve got a few questions for you.”
“Here?” I said, hoping that they would one day see how very wrong their behaviour was.
“Yes.” The Detective Inspector looked at me in a somewhat confused way.
“So that all of the people here think I’ve committed a crime, the way that they now think Liam Attwood has?”
“Excuse me?”
“Your methods are heavy handed. You treat potential witnesses as actual suspects, and you do it very publicly. There is a very good chance that you have ruined the university career of a young man who has actually done nothing wrong, simply because your officers insisted on making a performance of dragging him out of this very canteen in front of everyone.” I was more furious than I could ever have realised.
“Now look here. A young woman is missing and we have very good reason to suspect your friend has something to do with it. You need to tell me what you know about all this, or it will be all the worse for you.” Thorn threw the comment at me like a petulant child would have, and I just knew he hadn’t thought it though.
“What? Just run that by me again?”
“You heard me.”
“Are you accusing me of something?”
“Well… I… erm, no, of course not.”
“You just said that you have reason to believe that Liam Attwood has something to do with it and I should tell you what I know or I will be in trouble. Implying that I either have knowledge of, or was complicit in, a crime.”
“Don’t get smart with me.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it; it would clearly be a waste of time. So, what exactly is your question?”
“Well, has Liam told you anything of what’s happened?”
“No. As far as we are both aware, Hannah is missing. That is it.”
“Oh really!”
“Meaning?... Look, you cannot just stride into a public place and abuse an innocent member of the public.”
“Oh, is that what you are? Tell me, are you the same Josie Cloverfield who lives on the Moss Park estate?”
“How very foolish. If you thought I was guilty of something, then you would not be talking to me here. You would have arrested me. Instead, you have chosen to come here and assume that my knowledge of my own rights is so poor that I would be humbled by a few choice insults and threats. And yes, I am the same Josie Cloverfield who lives on the Moss Park estate. The same Josie Cloverfield who has never been in trouble of any kind in her entire life, unless living on a council estate is officially a crime these days. What, specifically, is your question? And what is it that Liam has done that you can so openly declare that you have reason to believe he is guilty of something?” I could not believe that it was me who was speaking.
Not only speaking, but speaking so very loudly. There was not even the clank of a plate to be heard throughout the entire canteen.
“Well, I didn’t actually say he was guilty of anything….” I could have done a victory lap. He’d been lying, and I’d caught him out!
“Actually, you did. If I can just rewind for you, you said a young woman is missing and we have reason to believe that Liam Attwood has something to do with it. You went on to threaten me that if I didn’t tell you what I knew, it would be all the worse for me.” Ok, I have a really chunky IQ, not to mention a fab memory for great swathes of text and conversation.
And I was showing off a bit, if I’m honest.
“Look, don’t push your luck. You could be in big trouble if you don’t co-operate.”
“I already have co-operated. I’ve already told police officers what I know, which is exactly nothing! Despite your appalling behaviour, if I did have something to tell, I would tell it. I have told you that I don’t because that is the truth. Yet you have chosen to come here and insult and threaten me. You have chosen to taunt me about a poor upbringing I can do nothing about, as if my home address should immediately make me a suspect.”
“No listen, we only wanted…..”
“Stop. I am refusing to speak to you any further, except to tell you that I will be making a formal complaint to your Professional Standards Department and the IPCC.” I reached for my tea, dismissing him with a flick of the head, Fliss Hardcastle style.
“The IPCC?” Thorn was in a bit of a state. He was a mixture of furious and dismayed. No doubt his heavy-handed tactics usually went by without being challenged.
“Yes, it stands for the Independent Police Complaints Commission.”
“I know what it stands for!”
“Obviously, I will start with Grantstone Constabulary’s Professional Standards Department, but if I’m not impressed, I’ll escalate my complaint.”
“Look, th
ere’s no need for that. We’re just trying to find a missing woman.” His voice was suddenly very much gentler, and his tone had turned into something you might coax a cat from behind the sofa with.
“Oh, I think there’s every need.” He should not have messed with a woman who had studied the police at such close quarters and for so many years.
“Well, I think you’ll find you’ll have to prove it, Miss Cloverfield.” He hissed, clearly surprised that his mini charm-offensive hadn’t struck gold.
“Well, I daresay witness testimony counts as evidence. I heard every word of that, Detective Inspector Thorn.” I had never been so relieved to hear such stridently posh tones in all my life.
As far as heroes went, Rich Richard was suddenly head to head with PC Betty Butler. “Richard Allencourt, by the way.” He nodded a curt introduction.
“Oh, are you indeed?”
“Yes.” Richard said, really slowly, and I almost laughed at the simple brilliance of his reply.
“So, since Josie is unable to tell you anything, perhaps this meeting is at a close?” Richard went on.
“For now.” Detective Inspector Thorn just couldn’t help himself.
His parting shot sounded utterly pathetic. Clearly, he could not walk away from anything without the feeling that he had won the fight. Even if he was just digging himself in deeper. However, finally he and his minion marched out of the canteen, and the chattering began once more.
“Oh my God, Josie! You were amazing!” Richard was, I must tell you, wide-eyed!
“Well, you did a pretty good job yourself. Thanks for coming in as a witness. Nobody else in here would have done that.”
“I wouldn’t have had the guts if you hadn’t already pummelled that Thorn character into submission.” He was beaming from ear to ear, and just a little bit wiggly, like a puppy.
“Well, I’ve seen a fair few police officers in my time. I’m glad to say that most are not like that.”
“Yeah, that was pretty crappy what he said, you know, about where you live and what-have-you. You should definitely complain.”
I have to admit, Richard was growing on me. Not because of his tall-blond-handsomeness, but just his way of doing things. I mean, even the last statement came out kind of level, you know, not pitying the pauper.
He seemed like a right-is-right kind of a bloke. He wasn’t taking me on as a cause, he just didn’t think the treatment I was getting from either his girlfriend or the police was fair, and he acted accordingly.
As a matter of fact, Richard, or people like him, were exactly what I had been hoping university life would be all about. A kind of moving on, where the stuff that had mattered right through school finally meant nothing at all. If I’d met more people like Richard, it might have changed me for the better too. I might not have been on-point all the time, waiting for insults.
“Yes, I definitely will be complaining.”
Suddenly, I wondered how much Richard knew about Hannah’s life. Since we seemed to have become kind of unusual buddies, I thought I might just as well ask him a few questions.
After all, hell would freeze over before I handed the photocopy of the diary over to that utter moron of a Detective Inspector. There was no way I would give him ammunition to wrongly accuse Liam with.
“Right, I’m going to get a fresh cup of tea. Do you want one?” I threw Richard my very most winning smile.
“I have to say, I don’t really know Hannah all that well. How long have you known her?” I really had to work on my technique, I felt totally blunt and awkward just asking Richard outright.
To make things seem more natural, I dunked my Kit-Kat into my tea. I don’t know why I thought that would make me seem like less of a snooper, I just did. As I dunked, I reflected that if I bought any more stuff in the canteen, I would have to see if I could do a double shift in the dry-cleaners on Saturday. Perish the thought.
“I’ve known her right through high school and sixth form. I mean, I didn’t always hang out with her and the others. That really only came about when I started dating Fliss.”
I cast a look over at Fliss; she was scowling in a way her skin might never recover from. Richard was sitting with his back to her too, which seemed to be making her even more incandescent with rage. I totally had to fight the urge to throw her a sneaky smirk. I’d have loved to, though.
“Oh?”
“Yeah, I guess I started seeing Fliss about a year ago. We were in the last year of sixth form. Before that, I’d kind of known the girls, but not so well.” Richard reached out and snapped off one of my Kit-Kat fingers.
As he popped it into his mouth, I smiled, all the while noting that Liam would never have got that far. “Then, all my friends went to universities out of town. They all wanted to go away to far flung places and have exotic experiences.”
“And you didn’t?” I laughed at the idea of exotic experiences just because you were in another county.
Richard was no so much funny as he was an unintentional comedian.
“No, not particularly. I just want to get my degree and get on with it. I kind of knew that if I followed my friends, I might not concentrate as well as I tend to need to. I’m not naturally gifted, you see. I have to put the hours in.”
“Yeah, I put a fair few hours in myself.”
“But not because you have to.”
“Huh?”
“You’re genuinely brainy, Josie. You have the kind of brain that universities were invented for. A couple of the guys on your course told me that you’re like Euclid or what-not when it comes to maths.”
Ok, so I suppose it’s not too many girls who would be flattered to be compared to the ancient Greek Father of Geometry, but I have to admit, I felt a little glow forming in my belly-area. Still, the thrill of pride notwithstanding, this was getting me nowhere in my investigations.
I was starting to wonder if I might actually just tell Richard what I’d done, vis-à-vis stealing the diary. It gave me horrible palpitations just thinking about it, but I really couldn’t see how I could introduce the subject of Emjay, as well as all the rest of it.
“Richard, look. I’m going to tell you something, but I really need you to keep it to yourself.”
“Ok.” He said so matter-of-factly that I almost didn’t know how to proceed.
In the end, I just did it. I told him all about my rage at the way Liam was dragged away and how I’d overheard about the police search on Dale’s radio and gone along to snoop.
I kept looking around me, making sure there were no witnesses to the conversation, and I was whispering so quietly that Richard and I were almost nose-to-nose by the end of it.
“So what? You didn’t steal it, Josie. You found it. Big difference. You were out on a walk and you found it.”
“But on the day of the police search!”
“So? How on earth would you find out about the time and date of a police search? They have no way of knowing you overheard the police radio. And anyway, the diary didn’t have Hannah’s name in it, so how would you be expected to know it belonged to her? I think you’re worrying over nothing.”
“Wowsers, you’re totally Mr Nonchalant, aren’t you?” I had to admit that I’d judged Richard so differently.
The guy he really was bore no relationship to the guy I’d assumed him to be for the five long excruciating weeks of the Hannah-Liam romance. There, you see, that’s the trouble with being judgemental. It didn’t matter which way you were aiming it, there was never really a way to excuse it. Even if it’s me doing it….
“Well, I think you’ve got deniability on your side. And anyway, if that Thorn guy is the lead investigator, I doubt he could make much use of the notes in it, other than to trump up even more painfully inadequate insinuations.”
“I feel oddly better about myself.”
“You should do. You’re pretty cool. I wouldn’t have had the nerve or the noggin to work it all out.”
“So, did you see any changes in Hannah in the
Summer?”
“Well, I didn’t see her much, but, yeah, I guess there was something.”
“What?”
“Nothing major, just a bit of odd behaviour. Odd for Hannah, I mean. It sounds lame, I suppose, but she got drunk a couple of times in the Summer. Like two weeks in a row or something. I guess that sounds like a stupid thing to highlight, what with her being old enough to drink and getting ready to go to uni, but still it was kind of out of character.”
“And she didn’t say why?”
“No, but then I didn’t ask.”
“Would she have told Fliss or Amelia?”
“Trust me, if she’d told Fliss, I would have known about it. Fliss doesn’t keep confidences, and she doesn’t have any real loyalties either.”
“Just a quick segue, Richard, but why are you dating her?” I knew I was being rude, but it had flown out before I had a chance to stop it.
However, Richard didn’t appear to see anything intrusive in my question.
“I just sort of fell into a relationship with her. Although I think it’s fair to say that I’m no longer in it.” He smiled in a comical kind of a whoops-a-daisy fashion which made me give a little involuntary snort of laughter. “Is she still scowling?” He winced at me.
“Oh yeah, hard. She’s going to need Botox if she doesn’t call it a day.”
“Ha! You crack me up, Josie.”
“Oh, in the diary Hannah referred to some guy called Emjay. It would have been written around the time she was here at uni I think.” I chose not to mention exactly what Hannah had written. It felt kind of unfair, you know?
“I don’t know anyone by those initials I don’t think.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t think I know anyone by the initials MJ. I’ll have to have a think about that. If I come up with any, I’ll text you.”
“No, not M and J. Emjay, spelt E-m-j-a-y.”
“Really? Is that even a name?”
“I thought it maybe sounded foreign? Like a foreign student here?”
“I don’t know that Hannah really hung out with any of the foreign students to be honest. Liam would know better, being on the same course and what-have-you.”
The Girlfriend: A Josie Cloverfield Detective Novel Page 7
