Fireflies (9 page)

‘Well alright I wish I could be more of a free spirit like she is but I’m not’ Andrea stated.

‘Can you tell us how the evening panned out on Saturday?’

Andrea gave them a virtually identical version of what Tina had told them and about what they’d already given in their initial statements.

‘Do you live by yourself?’

‘No’ said Andrea. ‘I fell out with my father and step-mother a long time ago and went to live with my Gran and I still live there. She can vouch that I got home at half two just like I said in my statement because she always waits up for me, bless her. It is a bit of a passion killer when it comes to wanting to go home with a man but I don’t get the offers like Tina does, or even Donna, so it’s rarely a problem really’.

‘It sounds like you and Tina are absolute opposites’ said Rebecca.

‘Oh we are but I think that makes for a good friendship’ said Andrea. ‘Look, Tina is a tart with a heart. She just couldn’t do something as horrible as that. She likes men. Somebody who does something like that clearly doesn’t’.

‘Have you ever seen any sign of anything untoward happening in her life?’ Rebecca pursued.

‘Untoward? How do you mean?’

‘Well has she ever tried to be secretive about anything?’

‘Not that I’ve ever noticed’ said Andrea.
‘Quite the reverse. She’s an open book. She never leaves any details out when she’s telling you about her exploits with men’.

‘So she has an active life where men are concerned?’

‘Oh yes’ said Andrea. ‘Like I told you, she likes men’.

‘But there’s nobody special in her life?’

‘No’ said Andrea. ‘I think she’d like there to be but she hasn’t met the right one yet and she’s having a bloody good time whilst she waits. Nothing wrong with that’.

‘No, absolutely’ said Rebecca. ‘Did she have any bad experiences with men? Experiences that would’ve left her bitter or even damaged in some way?’

‘Not that I know of, no’.

‘So what do you think would motivate her to kill someone?’

‘Nothing’ said Andrea, adamantly. ‘She is not a killer and I’ll go on repeating that until it gets through to you’.

‘You were the acting manager here, weren’t you, Andrea?’ said Jeff after skimming his eyes over a document he’d read a few minutes before Andrea Kay came in to be interviewed.

‘Yes, I was’.

‘And during that time you put Tina in charge of the meat counter’.

‘Yes?’

‘Why did you do that?’

‘Because I needed someone to fill that post and I admit that I promoted my mate because I felt she deserved a chance that she hadn’t previously been given to run her own section’.

‘I see’ said Jeff. ‘During that time certain pieces of equipment went missing, didn’t they? I’m talking about several small meat cutting knives and at least two large meat chopping blades that look more to me like cleavers’.

‘So what are you saying?’

‘I’m asking if you ever got to the bottom of what happened to that
stock?’

‘No we didn’t’.

‘So what do you think happened to them?’

‘I’ve no idea’.

‘Well you see I’m just wondering if you covered up for Tina then and are still covering up for her now?’

When Jeff and Rebecca got back to the office DC Ollie Wright told them that a bag of clothes had been found in some undergrowth to the side of the Mayfair hotel car park. They match what James Clifton is seen wearing in the CCTV footage and they’re covered in Tina Webb’s fingerprints and DNA.

‘What did Andrea Kay say about the knives, sir?’ asked Ollie.

‘Well she was rather embarrassed about it in the end’ said Jeff. ‘But she did cover up their disappearance because Tina was her friend. She said that Tina was setting up a new flat at the time and she wanted to help her because she didn’t have much cash to buy things for it’.

‘I don’t have meat cleavers in my flat’ said Ollie. ‘But the one with James Clifton’s blood all over it and the smaller knives were all found in Tina Webb’s flat, tucked away at the back of a cupboard in her bedroom. Could they have been planted by the real killer?’

‘Well she says that the only other people to have a key to her flat are her parents’ said Rebecca.
‘Unless they’ve got something to do with this which I doubt’.

‘I think you’ve got a point though, Ollie’.

‘Unless we’re being fooled by this vulnerable tart with a heart act’ said Rebecca. ‘She was the last one seen with James Clifton, there’s absolutely no sighting of him leaving her flat on his own, no taxi companies have said that they picked him up and a meat cleaver with Clifton’s blood on it was in her flat and she has no explanation for any of it. Now we’ve found a bag of clothes which look like they belonged to James Clifton and have got her DNA all over them. We’ve charged people on a lot less, sir’.

‘Added to all that though, Rebecca, there’s no sign of any struggle in Tina Webb’s flat and no sign of Clifton’s blood there and she doesn’t have a car’ Jeff pointed out.

‘But who would have it in for someone like Tina Webb to the extent of setting her up for murder?’ said Rebecca.

‘As soon as we move forward something else pulls us back’ said Jeff. ‘And all we’re left with are a bunch of possibilities with nothing to tie them together’.

‘But if she’s not our murderer’ said Ollie. ‘If something did happen to Clifton after he left her flat then how do we account for the Rohypnol, the knife and the bag of clothes?’

Jeff stared at the mission board with its pictures and its arrows and notes in various different styles of handwriting.

‘But who could’ve helped her?’ Rebecca argued behind him. ‘The two friends she was with have got alibis for the remainder of that night’.

Andrea Kay hastily made up the bed in her Grandma’s spare room. Tina Webb stood numbly at the door.

‘There’ said Andrea. ‘You’ll be okay in here’.

‘Thank you’ said Tina before bursting into tears.

Andrea put her arms round her. ‘Hey, it’s okay’.

‘You know me, Andrea. I’m all gob and dirty talk. I never thought I’d ever go through anything like this’.

‘Tina, the police have released you under caution pending further enquiries. That means they don’t really think that you did it. And during those enquiries they’ll find out for sure that you didn’t’.

‘But I swear to God I knew nothing about those knives or those clothes. Somebody made sure they could be linked to me but who’d do that to me, Andrea?’

‘I don’t know, love’ said Andrea. ‘Are you sure there’s nobody in your life who you may have upset in some way?’

‘But to the extent that they set me up for murder?’

‘I know’ said Andrea. ‘It does seem a bit far-fetched but I’m clutching at straws trying to find some answers for you’.

‘You do believe me, don’t you?’

‘Of course I do. Do you think I’d invite a murderer to stay in my Grandma’s house? I know you didn’t do it, Tina. Nobody who knows you could ever believe that you could’ve done it. We’ve just got to convince those idiot police of that now’.

‘They want to pin it on me’.

‘They won’t succeed’ said Andrea. ‘Now I like Ryan your solicitor. He seems to have it all up top’.

‘I don’t know how I’m going to be able to pay him’.

‘You don’t have to worry about that’ said Andrea. ‘I’m covering the cost’.

‘No, Andrea … ‘

‘ …
look, I won’t hear any objection from you about it. I’ve still got some of the money my mother left me and I’m going to use it to get my best mate out of trouble’.

‘I’ll have to pay you back at some stage’.

‘No, you won’t. It’s a gift. You’re innocent and I’m going to help you prove it and whilst Ryan does what he needs to do my Gran says you can stay here as long as you like’.

‘Thank you’ said Tina. ‘Your Gran is letting me stay and I can’t thank her enough. I don’t think I could’ve been alone tonight. And I’ve got to speak to the Welsh dragon tomorrow’.

‘We’ll do that together’ said Andrea. ‘Now I think you should try and get some sleep.  Gran is downstairs making some tea and I’ll bring it up along with a brandy. We’ll fix all of this somehow, Tina. I don’t know how yet but we’ll find a way’.   

FIREFLIES EIGHT

After they’d finished for the day, Rebecca decided to give in and go for a drink with Jonathan Freeman.

‘So where are you from, Jonathan?’ she asked. She liked the way he looked. They’d gone straight from the office to the pub and he needed a shave. She liked that. She liked the way his hair seemed to fall back into a sort of order after he’d run his hands through it too. She also liked that slight gap in his top front teeth and the little dimple in his chin. Should she carry on talking to him or cut straight to the invitation back to her place? 

‘Portsmouth originally’ he answered. ‘But I went to university up here and after I qualified I decided to stay. Well there was a girl involved then but we’re not seeing each other anymore’.

‘There’s
a lot of people in the city these days from all sorts of places’ said Rebecca.

‘Yeah, well that’s the same everywhere’ said Jonathan who tried to keep his voice even. He didn’t want to give anything away.  

‘I meant that was a good thing’.

‘Oh so did I’ said Jonathan, putting on his best bewildered smile. 

‘Good’ said Rebecca. ‘Because anyone else might’ve been forgiven for thinking you were hinting at some kind of racism’.

‘Me? I’m no racist, Rebecca’.

‘I’m glad to hear it’.

‘I do think that immigration has gone too far though and we need to review it’.

‘What kind of immigration? The white Australian barmaid who served us our drinks five minutes ago or the black Somalian with a different culture who just wants a better life for himself and his family?’

‘Rebecca, don’t try and trap me into saying what I don’t want to say’.

‘I wasn’t trying to. But you’d know if I was’.

‘Don’t you ever let racial stereotypes get into your thinking at work?’

‘I see a crime, Jonathan, not a race’.

‘Then that’s why you’re a great detective’.

‘Well recovered. I’m impressed’.

‘My Dad used to be a Tory
councillor’.

‘Used to be?’

‘He defected to UKIP about six months ago on the issue of immigration. He thinks its gone way too far’.

‘Jonathan, let’s get away from politics. Otherwise we won’t get through another drink and it’s your round’.

‘I bought the last one’

‘I know. You’re such an old-fashioned gentleman’.

Jonathan came back from the bar with the drinks and said ‘I really hope you haven’t got me all wrong, Rebecca’.

‘So do
I’ said Rebecca who thought he was as sexy as fuck and wanted him there and then. ‘I don’t want anything serious, Jonathan’.

Jonathan paused in that way men do when they think they’ve been given a green light. ‘Who mentioned anything serious?’

‘Drink up’.

Rebecca asked Jonathan back to her place and happily discovered that he was a formidable lover who had more than a few ways to pleasure her. Jonathan
loved licking out a woman especially after he’d been in there with his cock. The tastes that were unleashed reminded him that he could never do without sex. He wondered if his Dad ever did this to his Mum. His Mum would no doubt think his Dad was disgusting for even suggesting it. He licked and kissed his way up Rebecca’s body, stopping to suck on each of her breasts before turning over and lying beside her. She’d been quick with her orgasm when they fucked and now, as her straight hair fell against his shoulders, he lit a couple of the strong continental cigarettes he liked so much and handed one to her. She took a long, deep drag.

‘If you’d have told me this morning when I came into work that I would be having that kind of sex with you before the day was out then I’d have laughed my head off’ said Rebecca who was feeling on top of the bloody world for the first time in weeks.

‘It was inevitable it was going to happen from that first moment we met in the office’.

‘But you didn’t know anything about me then?’

‘I knew you were giving me a hard-on’.

Rebecca laughed out loud.
‘Seriously?’

‘Yeah’ said Jonathan as he shifted his bum in the bed.

‘But you didn’t know anything about me. I might’ve been happily married’.

‘That didn’t stop me from having it away with the bride at a wedding’.