by Philip Cox
‘Not disturbing me,’ said Sully. ‘Tell him I said hi.’
Sully continued with his review preparation but could not help overhearing part of the conversation Jane was having with Tom. She was starting to raise her voice - not a good sign - and appeared to be getting stressed. She shortly came out of the bedroom looking flustered.
‘What was that all about?’ Sully asked.
‘Nothing.’
‘Didn’t sound like nothing. I heard you keep saying no; what was he asking for?’
‘You were listening, were you?’
‘Not deliberately. But you were talking so loudly...’
Jane went back into the kitchen.
‘What did he want?’ Sully asked again.
‘I told you - nothing.’
‘Was it about Lisa?’
‘Who said it was about Lisa?’
‘Well, who else would it have been about? Tell me, what did he want?’
‘If you must know, he wanted to look through Lisa’s stuff.’
‘Did he say why?’
‘Said something about looking for something to prove her death wasn’t an accident.’
‘Oh, I see. But you don’t think it was, either.’
‘No, I told you. I don’t.’
‘So what’s the problem? Maybe he’s on to something. Can’t hurt to look through her stuff. He was her husband, after all.’
‘Was. Now I’m her next of kin.’
‘Still don’t see your problem.’
‘I don’t want him or anybody else raking over what happened. The inquest is over, the funeral’s over; let’s let her rest in peace.’
‘But surely if he can find out how and why she died, it’s for the good? Looking over some paperwork can’t hurt.’
‘He wants to go over her place as well. I can’t go through that again.’
‘But this wouldn’t be the same, would it? It’s Tom, not -’
‘I don’t want her memory disrespected, that’s all.’
‘But this will hardly disrespect her memory.’
Jane burst out of the kitchen. ‘Of course, you’d know all about her memory, wouldn’t you? You’d have your own memories of her!’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Sully asked, hoping that it didn’t mean what he feared it might.
‘You think I don’t know?’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘About you and Lisa.’
‘Me and Lisa?’
‘I bet it was one big joke for you. Shagging one sister in the afternoon, then the other at night. Keep scores, did you? Was she better than me?’
‘Janey, don’t -’
‘Well, she’s gone now. You’ve lost a lover, but I’ve lost a sister. I’ve no doubt you’ll get another whore to sleep with, but I’ll never get another sister.’
Jane went back into the kitchen and stood with her back to the door. Sully got up and followed her in.
‘How long have you known?’ he asked softly.
She turned round, her eyes slightly moist. ‘A few months,’ she said. ‘One day, I was feeling ill at work, I came home early and saw the two of you in there.’ She indicated to the bedroom.
‘It didn’t last for long,’ he said. ‘We only slept together three or four times. Then agreed it was over; a mistake.’
‘Well it’s over now,’ Jane said.
‘Come here,’ Sully said, holding his arms out. Jane stepped forward and he held her.
*****
‘Jane said she took Lisa’s personal effects,’ Tom said. ‘But surely that would be stuff like bank statements, passport; those sorts of things. I wouldn’t include any work she had taken home as personal effects.’
‘But if she saw Lisa had work stuff, wouldn’t she have returned it?’
‘Possibly. Who knows? She never said.’
‘So there’s more chance that if Lisa had anything at home, it would still be there? You do know her address, don’t you?’
‘Sure. But Jane’s got the door keys, remember?’
‘We could break in.’
‘We could what?’
‘Break in. It can’t be that difficult: look at my place. And we wouldn’t be stealing anything of hers.’
Tom ran his hands through his hair and laughed.
‘What’s funny?’
‘You.’
‘Me?’
‘In the space of twenty-four, thirty-six hours you change from vulnerable office girl to housebreaker.’
‘Is that what I am? Someone you feel sorry for?’
‘That’s not what I said. Yes, I feel some sense of responsibility for you. If I’d ignored that note of yours, than we wouldn’t be sitting here now, talking like this.’
‘All right. Point taken. But how else are we going to get into Lisa’s place? It can’t be that difficult to force a door open.’
‘I’ve no idea. I’ve never -’
Tom’s phone rang.
‘It’s Jane again,’ he said as he picked the phone up. ‘Hi Jane. Again.’
‘..........’
‘You will?’ He looked at Amy, furiously nodding his head. She sat up.
‘..........’
‘Well, yes; that’s great. When can -’
‘..........’
‘Tonight is great. Is it okay if we both come?’
‘..........’
‘Amy. Amy Spicer. She worked with Lisa. You saw her at the funeral. She has the same thoughts as us.’
‘..........’
‘No, I don’t have it. Hold on - I’ll just get a pen and paper.’
Tom grabbed a pencil and yesterday’s Metro and scribbled down Jane and Sully’s address. ‘Right. Thanks, Jane. See you tonight.’
He ended the call and beamed at Amy. ‘She’s changed her mind,’ he said.
‘That’s great. What made her change it?’
‘Said after the first call, she talked to Sully.’
‘Sully?’
‘Her boyfriend. Short for Sullivan. He lives with her. Remember, he was at the funeral.’
‘Yes, vaguely.’
‘Anyway, apparently, Sully talked her round to changing her mind.’
‘Well done, Sully.’
‘Absolutely. So we’re back in business. No need for breaking and entering. She said come round around eight.’
‘Brilliant.’
‘Certainly gets us out of a corner. And if we find nothing, then at least we explored that angle.’
‘So what do we do in the meantime?’ Amy asked.
Tom walked over to the fridge and opened the door. ‘Do you enjoy shopping?’ he asked.
*****
‘See, it wasn’t that difficult,’ said Sully, as Jane ended her call. ‘You’ve done the right thing.’
Jane nodded. She smiled at Sully and went over to him, running her fingers through his hair as she stood behind him.
‘What are you -?’ he asked as she stepped over his legs and sat astride him. ‘Janey, I’ve got this -’ he started to say as she put her left index finger over his mouth. She leaned down and kissed him hard; not with any tenderness, but a purely physical action.
‘Does this mean I’m forgiven?’ Sully asked.
‘Almost,’ she breathed.
‘Honestly, I’m so sorry,’ he said. ‘The last thing I wanted to do was to hurt you.’
‘I know.’
I’m so sorry,’ he said again. ‘It was a one-off. It’ll never happen again. I swear.’
Jane looked down at him. ‘I know,’ she smiled. ‘But if it does, I’ll cut it off.’
Sully smiled at her and held her close. She put her arms round him.
He continued to hold her, a slightly bothered look on his face.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The first part of the day was spent dealing with domestic matters. After clearing away their breakfast things, Tom and Amy walked down to the High Street. Tom made a point of avoiding the area where the library was sit
uated, to avoid any unwanted meetings and difficult conversations. Their first stop was the local supermarket. The baked bean supper of the previous night had virtually emptied Tom’s larder, and they spent the next hour walking up and down each aisle with a trolley.
‘I’ll get these,’ Tom said, as they waited in a checkout queue.
‘In that case,’ Amy said, ‘I just need to get a couple of personal items. Meet you over there?’
‘Personal items?’ Tom queried.
‘Women’s things,’ Amy said quietly.
‘Oh, right; yes,’ Tom muttered, running his hand through his hair.
He paid for the items and met up with Amy again in the supermarket lobby. Between them, they managed to carry the four bags of Tom’s shopping and Amy’s one.
‘Let me give you some money towards that lot,’ Amy said as they walked back to his flat.
‘Don’t worry. You get the bill next time.’
‘But what if we solve this thing before the next time?’ she asked.
Tom did not reply.
Back at the flat, they unpacked Tom’s four bags; Amy took her bag of effects into the bedroom.
‘What do you do about laundry?’ Amy asked, wandering back into the kitchen. ‘I noticed you haven’t got a washing machine.’
‘Laundry room in the basement,’ Tom replied. ‘Entrance hall: instead of going up the stairs, go straight on. The door’s at the end.’
‘I need to wash some things. You got any need doing?’
‘Yeah, basket in the bathroom.’
‘What do you carry it all in?’
‘One of those big supermarket shopping bags. It’s at the bottom of the basket.’
‘Okay. What coins do I need?’
‘Here, I’ll get it,’ he said, fishing through his pockets.
‘No, it’s all right. I’ve got plenty of change.’
‘The washing machine takes four 50 pence coins; the dryer two pound coins.’
‘Should manage that.’
‘Here - hold on. I’ll come with you.’
‘I should be all right, shouldn’t I? Just going to the laundry room.’
‘Guess so. You don’t need to wait. Each cycle takes about an hour. We can go back and forth.’
‘See you in a bit, then.’
‘Amy,’ he called out as she opened his front door. ‘Be careful. Just keep your eyes open, yes?’
‘I will,’ she smiled.
After lunch, there was nothing they had left to do, so Tom suggested they just chilled out in front of the television. He dug out an old DVD box set of the final season of Lost and they spent the next couple of hours watching that. Afterwards, Amy asked where Tom kept his vacuum cleaner. Not sure whether to feel grateful or insulted, Tom told her, and she vacuumed the whole flat.
‘Want to earn my keep somehow,’ she said, by way of explanation.
‘What time will we need to leave to get to Jane’s?’ she asked later, as Tom fixed an omelette and chips for dinner.
‘She lives south of the river,’ Tom called out from the kitchen. ‘South Croydon.’
‘And how do we get there?’
‘Best way is to go to Victoria, and get a train from there. Their place is five minutes’ walk from South Croydon station. So we need to get away around six.’
*****
‘Even though it’s dark,’ Tom said later, as they walked down his street to the station, ‘we still need to keep our eyes open. Particularly on the way back home.’
‘I will,’ she said, gripping his arm. ‘It’s cold tonight, isn’t it?’
‘Yeah. Winter’s coming.’
‘Why don’t you have a car?’ Amy asked, as they waited for their train.
‘Don’t need one,’ he shrugged. ‘I used to have one, but it got so expensive to run. And parking’s a pain in the arse round here. I’ve got an Oyster card; that does me. What about you?’
She shook her head, shivering in the cold wind. ‘No. Took a few lessons, but they got so expensive. Probably could manage a car if I had to, but no licence.’
They changed at Victoria for a main line train headed for Brighton, and alighted at South Croydon at twenty minutes to eight. Rang Jane and Sully’s doorbell at ten minutes to. Sully answered the door.
‘Hey there, Tom, come on in. How you doing?’
‘Fine thanks. This is Amy; she worked with Lisa. Amy, this is Sully, Jane’s partner.’
Sully shook Amy’s hand and led them into the living room. Jane was sitting down, reading a magazine. She put the magazine down and stood to greet them.
‘Hello Tom,’ she said, walking over and kissing him. ‘And - Amy?’
‘Amy, yes; hi,’ Amy said.
‘Now I remember you,’ said Jane. ‘You were at Lisa’s funeral, weren’t you?’
‘Yes, that’s right,’ nodded Amy.
‘Are you two,’ said Jane to both Tom and Amy, ‘an item?’
‘No, no, no,’ they both answered in unison.
‘We’re just working together,’ Tom continued. ‘Amy has the same thoughts as me - as us - about Lisa’s death. We both think something dodgy is going on where they work, and that Lisa was going to blow the whistle.’
‘You think that’s what she wanted to talk to you about?’ asked Jane.
‘Pretty much, yes.’
‘What makes you believe this?’ Jane asked Amy. ‘Have you seen anything at work? I thought it was just a market research company.’
‘It is,’ said Amy as Sully showed her and Tom to the dining table. ‘But there’s a sort of inner circle of management: Sebastian Fleming the CEO, our team leader Gerald Wilson -’
‘It’s normal practice,’ Sully cut in, ‘for every firm to have a senior layer of management. Nothing untoward about that.’
‘I know, but this is more than that. There are some parts of the office where we ordinary staff are not allowed to go. Seriously not allowed, I mean. And ever since I have been there, there have been rumours of Fleming and his associates doing more than market research.’
‘What sort of rumours?’ Sully asked. Jane seemed oddly irritated at his question.
‘Nothing specific, just rumours. But when Lisa’s team started work on a particular account, she started to seem worried. I heard her ask Gerald something about the account and he didn’t give a proper explanation: just shouted at her to get on with the work she had been given to do.’
‘But it can’t be the sort of thing to get her pushed in front of a tube train,’ said Jane.
‘Maybe; but Lisa wasn’t the first team member to die in an accident.’
Tom looked at her, taken aback. ‘Come again?’ he and Jane asked.
‘A month or so ago,’ explained Amy, ‘a guy in the team - Gerald’s number two as it happened - was killed in a car crash.’
‘Yeah, but that happens,’ said Sully. ‘Sadly.’
‘Jimmy - Jimmy Khan - was driving up to Bradford I think it was, one Friday evening when he crashed.’
‘Anything suspicious?’
‘I think so. It was where the crash happened. He had come off the motorway and gone onto a side road for some reason. Then went off the road, crashed through some bushes and drove the car into a quarry. Apparently they felt he had lost control speeding round a bend. Accidental death.’
‘Again,’ said Tom.
‘We were all told the next morning. That’s when Lisa started to get freaked out. Before he was killed she and Jimmy would often been seen together chatting, heads together over paperwork. After the accident, she was like a cat on hot bricks, so nervous, so edgy, always looking over her shoulder; as if she was carrying the weight of the world.’
‘So that’s why you and Tom have joined forces,’ said Sully, earning another glare from Jane.
‘Something like that,’ answered Tom.
Nobody spoke for a moment until Tom broke the silence. ‘Is that Lisa’s stuff?’ he asked, indicating to a small box resting on the table.
‘Y
es, it is,’ said Jane sharply. They all sat down round the table.
‘May I?’ Tom asked Jane, pulling the box over. She nodded.
The box was slightly larger than a shoe box, the sort of packaging in which goods purchased by mail order arrived. The first item was Lisa’s passport: Tom picked it up and leafed through the pages. He smiled wistfully as he came across a couple of immigration stamps.
‘You okay?’ Amy asked quietly.
Tom nodded, put the passport down and picked up a number of sheets of paper. They were bank statements.
‘They are just her bank statements,’ Jane said.
‘Hmm,’ said Tom, replacing the statements.
Next were a few items of jewellery: a couple of necklaces, some dress rings and a silver broach.
‘Lisa didn’t leave a will,’ said Jane, ‘so I’m her next of kin.’
‘Jesus Christ, Jane,’ muttered Sully. ‘They haven’t come here for that.’
Ignoring this conversation, Tom put the jewellery down and picked up some photographs.
‘There’s a few there of the two of you,’ said Jane, apparently trying to be more amenable. ‘You can take some if you want. I don’t know if you kept any yourself after...’
‘A couple,’ said Tom. He looked through the photos: as well as four of him and Lisa, there were three of Lisa and Jane as adults. The rest - about ten in total - were all views.
‘Hmm,’ Tom said again.
‘What?’
‘None of her childhood. None of the two of you as children. In fact, I don’t remember ever seeing any when we were together.’
Jane just shrugged.
Next Tom picked up Lisa’s phone.
‘Obviously Lisa had that on her at the time,’ said Jane. ‘The police let me have it back after the inquest.’
‘Is it okay if I borrow it?’ asked Tom.
‘It’s no use. You can’t use it,’ protested Jane. ‘The account’s been stopped.’
‘Yes, but it’ll still have a call log on it,’ Tom said as he switched the phone on and checked it. ‘Maybe calls or text she received or made might point us in the right direction.’
‘Okay,’ Jane nodded.
She sat up as Tom came to Lisa’s purse. ‘The police gave me that back, too. Just her bank cards, all have been stopped, of course.’
Tom nodded and put the purse back into the box.
The last item was a key ring, with four keys attached. Tom picked it up.
