One Way Ticket (9 page)

“It will, I don’t know how just yet, but
I’m sure it will.”

I looked at Addi’s unconvinced face.

“First of all, I think we should speak to
the sister, see her for ourselves. We can’t just work off these reports.”

“She was already interviewed twice by the
other officers. She wasn’t involved.”

“I know but I’d still like to see her
myself. Can’t we say we’re introducing ourselves to her?”

“We?”

“Alright you. You’ve taken over the case,
we’ll tell her it’s a courtesy call, keeping her up to date.”

“Yes, maybe you’re right. Okay, we’ll go
tomorrow.”

“Good.”

We piled the paperwork back into the box.
Fortunately, he didn’t notice there were a few bits missing.

He stopped me as I was leaving the room.
“You must keep this between us, yes? You mustn’t talk about this with your
aunt. None of the details of what we’ve read today, nothing.”

“You wanted me to ask her for help
earlier.”

“Yes, but you can’t tell her about anything
you’ve read.”

Would I?

11 Mrs Robinson

I think we can establish the
answer to that is, yes. It didn’t make sense if Addi wanted Aunt June to help,
she’d have to know something about what was going on. I showed her the birthday
cards after dinner, laying them out on the kitchen table.

“What do you think? Do you recognise any
of the names?”

She fumbled around for her glasses.
“Molly? That could be Molly Henstridge, I suppose.”

“Hang on,” I told her as I scrabbled round
for a pad and pencil.

“Oh, there’s one from Simon.” My aunt
showed me a card with a cutesy teddy bear on the front. “I recognise the
handwriting.”

“Simon?”

“Simon Richards. Just someone I used to
know,” my aunt replied, a little mysteriously if you ask me.

“Louise?” Aunt June continued. “Don’t know
who that is.”

“Kate and Frank. I take it that’s the
O’Neills. I didn’t realise they knew her that well.”

“Yeah, I think they’ve been interviewed
already. Any others?”

“Tom? I really don’t know, Jennifer, it’s
quite a common name for people my age. Could be Tom Thornton, or Tom Philpott.”

I shoved the rest of the pile towards her.
“Come on, you said you were feeling bored this week.”

Aunt June grasped the rest. “Alright.
Don’t know that one. Don’t know. Hm. Elsie? I thought Elsie Meadows hated Tina,
it can’t be her.”

“I’ll put it down anyway, just in case.”

“That one could be from Alan Brooks.”

“What about this one?” I pointed out a
large, brightly coloured card with a heart on the front. It was signed, ‘All my
love, Paul’.

“Paul? I don’t know anyone it could be.”

“Are you sure? It looks like a good lead.”

“Nope, don’t know any Pauls.”

“What d’you reckon about her love life?
Her sister said she wasn’t seeing anyone when she was killed. What have you
heard?”

“Put it this way, I doubt if there was
just one.”

“Give me some names.”

“I don’t know, Jennifer. Why are you asking
all this? Where did you get these cards?”

“I may be helping with the police
investigation.”

“Addi’s stuck again, is he?”

“What can you tell me about Tina Lloyd?”

“I didn’t know her well. I can tell you she
always had to be the centre of attention when any men were around.”

“Talking of which, do you know who these
guys are?” I handed her the photo of Tina at her 65
^th
birthday
party.

Aunt June’s lips narrowed. “That’s Simon.”

“Simon Richards?”

“Yes. He and Tina must have gotten quite
friendly.”

Did I detect a note of jealousy there? I
had another look at the photo. The grey haired man Aunt June indicated was
wearing a patterned jumper the likes of which probably hadn’t been seen since
the 1980s. He had a bushy moustache which made me think he could be the
grandfather of one of the Village People. Was Aunt June really interested in
him?

“What about the others?” I asked.

“Not my type.”

“No, who are they?”

“That’s Tom Thornton, next to him is Alan
Brooks.”

I wrote the names down feeling I was
starting to get somewhere with this case and I’d only been on it a few hours. I
noticed the time on the clock.

“Have a think about those other cards, see
if you can come up with any names while I put the telly on. There’s a programme
I want to watch that might help with the case.”

Aunt June followed me into the lounge a
few minutes later. “This is what you wanted to watch? Columbo?”

“I’ve got to get some ideas from
somewhere.”

“You could at least choose a decent police
series.”

“Cagney and Lacey isn’t on.”

“I’ve just thought. That card from Louise,
could be from Louise Allen. They might have been friends, Louise worked at the
Hands charity too.”

I reported all this back to Addi in the
morning.

“Where did you get this information?” he
asked, his face dark.

“Where do you think?” I dropped the
birthday cards and photo on my desk. “Those must have fallen out of the
evidence box by the way. You’ll have to slip them back in.”

You’d have thought I’d asked for his first
born by the look on his face.

“I told you not to say anything to your
aunt! And you stole this stuff from evidence!”

He collapsed into Vara’s chair clutching
his chest (luckily she wasn’t sitting in it as she’d gone to the canteen). I
thought for a moment I’d actually killed him. “I’m going to be fired,” he said
eventually.

“You wanted my aunt’s help on this case.”

“You’ve taken evidence out of the station.
I’m going to be fired.”

“By who? Stop panicking and let’s get on
with the investigation. You said we were going to visit the sister today.”

“That was before you stole evidence.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Are we going or
not?”

He looked like he wanted to say no but we
both knew he needed my help.

“I’ll get my car keys,” he answered.

Addi didn’t seem very comfortable in the
car. He kept fiddling with the heater (which in my opinion we didn’t need), and
the windows.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to get fired. Could you
imagine my mother if that happened?”

Unfortunately, I could. “You’re not going
to get fired, you haven’t done anything wrong.”

“You’re helping me with this case. And
your aunt knows about it.”

“She’s not going to tell anyone, don’t
worry. I’m going with you to interview an expatriate, that’s part of my job.
There’s nothing to get into trouble about.”

Why didn’t he look convinced?

“How far away is this place?” I asked,
deciding to change the subject.

“About fifty minutes. A lot of expats have
moved further north since Kythios has gotten more popular. It’s cheaper up
there.”

We passed by a couple of fields dotted
with banana trees and I revelled in the feeling my life here was so much better
than my one back home. I bet none of my friends were working on anything as
important as a murder investigation either, not that I’d spoken to any of them
since my arrival. It felt like the pieces of my life had finally fallen into
place.

“What are you so happy about?” Addi asked
suspiciously.

“Can’t one just enjoy life?”

“We are investigating a murder. It may be
better if you didn’t greet the victim’s sister with a smile.”

“True.” To stop myself, I thought of my aunt’s
suggestion the night before that I phone my mother. It wiped the smile off my
face.

“We need to think of some tough questions
for this woman, get some new information out of her,” I said.

“She’s already been interviewed twice.”
Addi pulled a bundle of notes from his glovebox and passed them to me. “She has
an alibi, it’s been checked out. And her son and daughter. And any questioning
will be done by me, okay?”

“Well, remember to ask her about someone
called Paul.”

It took a little driving around to find
the right house when we reached our destination. It was a peach coloured
affair, not overly big, in an estate full of identical looking streets.

I don’t know what I was expecting Susan
Robinson to look like but it wasn’t the Sunday school teacher double that opened
the door. Pearl grey, neatly trimmed curls and a minimally made up face topped
a twin set with complimenting chiffon scarf. She couldn’t have looked any more
different to Tina if she’d tried.

“Mrs Robinson?” Addi queried. “Police from
Kythios. May we speak to you?”

“What’s it about?”

“Your sister’s death.”

Her eyes brightened a little. “Have you
caught them?”

“No, not yet.”

She looked up at the ceiling in that
annoyed way usually associated with teenagers. “I’ve already told you
everything I know.” The middle class, ‘butter wouldn’t melt’ façade seemed to
have wavered a little.

“I know, I’ve recently taken over the
case. Can I just have a few words?”

She hesitated for a second before letting
us in.

“It’s very unpleasant having to go over
this again and again,” she said, recovering her composure, and middle class
accent, as she offered us seats in her living room.

“I’m sorry.”

“You’ve taken over now? What happened to
the last man?”

“The chief thought I may do better.”

“Well, you probably won’t do any worse.”

The room was very tastefully decorated in
shades of beige and cream. There were a few photos on a shelf near my seat.
Susan Robinson in the middle of a man and woman who looked in their thirties,
presumably her son and daughter. None of Tina.

“You said the last time you saw your
sister was a couple of weeks before her death?” Addi began his questioning.

“Yes, that’s right.” Mrs Robinson was
sitting bolt upright on the edge of her chair, as if she were at a tea party in
a Swiss finishing school.

“And she didn’t mention being worried
about anything or anyone at the time?”

“No, nothing like that.”

“And you thought she didn’t have a
boyfriend when she died?”

“No.”

She wasn’t giving much away with her short
answers. Addi kept trying. “Was that unusual?”

“She had a lot of men friends but they
often weren’t serious.”

I opened my mouth to jump in but Addi got
there before me.

“Did you know the one called Paul?” he
asked.

“Paul? No, I don’t think so.”

“If she had been serious about a man,
would she have told you?”

“Of course.”

“You would describe your relationship with
her as close, would you?”

“Yes, we got on well. Why? What have
people been saying?” she demanded.

“Nothing. I just wanted to know how you
would describe it. And she hadn’t had any disagreements that you knew of.”

“No.” Susan Robinson seemed to be getting
bored of the questions. I had to admit they weren’t thrilling me either, it
wasn’t as much fun if I couldn’t ask the questions.

A young man working in her garden suddenly
came into view through the window. It was the man from the photograph.

“Do your children live over here too?” I
asked.

“My son does. My daughter lives in England but she visits often.”

As if hearing this, her son chose that
moment to come to the patio doors. Up close, I could see he was very good
looking, especially the golden tan. My heart surprised me by raising a beat or
two. Perhaps there was life in it yet.

“Sorry, didn’t realise you had company”
the man began, his voice cultured and intelligent. “I just wanted to check
where I’m moving this coriander bush to.” He gave a slow grin which captivated
me completely.

“It’s the police, dear, about Aunt Tina’s
death again.” She twisted round in her seat to ask Addi: “Have you finished?”

“Oh, yes. Thank you, we’re finished,
aren’t we?” He had to give me a nudge to break my stare at Mr Heart-throb.

“We’d just like to check if there’s
anything you could add about your aunt’s death?” I asked her son, just as an
excuse to speak to him mostly.

“No, I’m sorry. I wasn’t around at the
time.” He really was very good looking. And he knew it.

“Any men friends in particular you
remember her mentioning?” I continued.

“No, she didn’t talk to me about things
like that.”

I could see Addi shuffling his feet out of
the corner of my eye and decided I’d better wrap it up. “Well, thanks for your
time.” I gave him my best smile.

Mrs Robinson jumped in. “I’ll show you
out.”

Before I knew it, we were speeding away
from the most attractive man I’d seen in ages.

“So what do you think?” Addi asked.

“It’s my destiny to be single?”

“Yes, I didn’t think she seemed very upset
about her sister’s death either. What about the son?”

“Hands off, I saw him first.”

“There’s no motive for him though. There’s
no motive for either of them really. No motive and no evidence.”

“I think we should have stayed and
questioned him a bit more.”

“He’s already been interviewed. He wasn’t
in the country at the time of the death, he was in England, it’s been checked
out.”

“We still could have spoken to him
longer.”

“I don’t know if that helped much. We
didn’t learn anything. Except Susan Robinson wasn’t very like Tina.”

“People like to give themselves airs and
graces.”

“Huh?”

I tried to explain the concept of social
mobility to Addi.

“What do we do now?” he interrupted just
as I’d reached WAGs.

“Stop and have lunch somewhere?”

“I meant about the case.”

“There’s that list of names Aunt June gave
me last night. We go through them and see who you’ve interviewed already.
Hopefully, there’ll be a few names you’ve missed. It’s the men in this case
that are the key, I reckon. Oooh, a kebab shop!”

Addi looked at me.

“It is lunchtime,” I pointed out.

With a sigh, he indicated to pull over.

When we got back to HQ, I was in
no way surprised to find there wasn’t a handy list of the people already
interviewed. We had to trawl through the case notes to find them all and create
our own index. By the end, I could see a few of the names Aunt June had
mentioned were missing – Simon Richards, Elsie Meadows, and Louise Allen.

Whilst Addi went to look up their details
on the secure server, I typed up a set of notes that had appeared in my in tray
during my absence in the deluded hope it would look to any casual observer that
I was keeping up with my job.

“I’ve got addresses for them,” he
announced from the doorway ten minutes later. I picked up my coat and bag,
waved goodbye to Vara, and we were off again.

Simon Richards lived in a small apartment
complex, in a village five miles away. A few bright red bougainvillea blooms
still clung to a vine trailing round his doorway. My mind flicked back to Swindon where rain, no doubt, would be lashing their doorways, and experienced that smug
feeling again.