One Way Ticket (15 page)

19 Back To Black

“You still haven’t found Louise
Allen or the Paul guy from the birthday card?”

Addi fidgeted with his pen. “Look, it took
four days just for the authorisation form to come through to get the number Louise
Allen used to ring her mother. Then I had to fill in another form to trace
where that phone actually is. These things take time, you know, especially over
Christmas. The lab boys always have a party Christmas Eve. They’ve promised me
they should have a location for the phone she used by today.”

“Glad they’ve got their priorities right.
A party? I wasn’t invited to any party.”

“Admin staff never get asked. Well, apart
from Big Annita in the post room.”

“I knew there had to be some Christmas do
going on somewhere. What other parties didn’t I get invited to?”

“That was it, you haven’t missed
anything.”

“Huh. Louise Allen’s probably moved on by
now anyway. She could have gone round the world in the time this is taking. In
the films, they know within hours, a day at least.”

“This isn’t Hollywood. These boys are in a
union. They’ll get there, eventually.”

“It’s just whether half the population is
going to be murdered in the meantime.”

“No one else is going to be murdered.
There haven’t been any more bodies.”

I flicked through the rest of the file.
“You haven’t made much progress.”

“I have. Look.” He took the file from my
hands and found a page near the back. “I made a list of everyone in the area
with a first name of Paul or Pavlos. 47 men. I rang every single one. Took me
two days.”

“What did you find?”

“None of them knew Tina, or so they
claimed. I couldn’t find a link between any of them and her.”

“So we still haven’t found Paul?”

Addi let out a big sigh. “No. It could be
he was just a visitor, or maybe he hasn’t applied for the residency permit, not
everyone applies when they should.”

Residency permit? “Oh. When is that?” I
asked.

 “When they’ve been here three months.
Everyone should have registered then, like you did.”

“Right.” Like I did.

“It’s a difficult case. No obvious
suspects, no clear motives. It’s hard to know where to turn next. If you don’t
want to help…”

“I didn’t say that. Let me read the rest
of the file first.”

“I’ll go check if the lab’s come back with
anything yet.”

“Have a fag, you mean?” I mumbled to his
retreating back.

I’d only just found the form to apply for
a residency permit online when he came racing back. “I’ve found her,” he
shouted. “Louise Allen.”

I toggled my screen away from the form.

“The lab traced the phone to a shop in the
mountains. I’ve rung the owner, he remembers Louise Allen, he had to give her
change for the phone. And she was in there just two days ago.”

“So, she’s somewhere in the mountains?
That still sounds like an awfully big place.”

“Hah. It’s better than that, I’ve found
out where she’s actually staying.” He paused.

“Go on then, tell me.”

“The owner remembered she was with a
worker from a local retreat. I’ve just been on the phone to them and they’ve
confirmed she’s staying there. I’ve got her.”

“A retreat?”

“Some kind of health facility. We’ll drive
up, okay? We’re running out of time, the chief’ll be back in a few days.” Addi
jangled his car keys.

“What now? It’s almost lunch time.”

He rolled his eyes. “Okay, have your lunch
first.”

“What have you brought?” I enquired slyly,
knowing his mother always packed him off with a substantial feast.

“I don’t know, shall I go get it?” he
asked resignedly.

When he returned, I relieved him of a
substantial quota of his feta pies and biscuits (which I felt was a public
service as he wasn’t getting any smaller in the waist department). Addi had
finished eating way before me.

“Aren’t you done yet?” He packed up the
rest of the biscuits before I could grab anymore. “We don’t want to leave too
late; it’ll take a while to get there.”

It was only when we left that I realised
the skies had turned leaden and threatened rain. “Should we leave this till
tomorrow? I think we’re going to get wet.” I peered through the windscreen at
the dark clouds sweeping ominously over the mountains.

“No, it will get better as we go up,” Addi
said.

As the first few spots hit the windscreen,
Addi dismissed them and debated how we should handle Miss Allen. “We don’t know
why she’s there. They wouldn’t tell me any information over the phone.”

“So it could be anything - nervous
breakdown, drug addiction, generally hiding after committing a murder?” I
asked.

“That’s about it.”

“Then how do we deal with this?”

He squirmed about in his seat a little. “I
haven’t done that training yet.”

And they’d given him a murder
investigation?

I stared out of the window and tried to
admire the scenery whizzing by but, in the rain, it wasn’t much to look at.

“What’s the name of this place we’re going
to?” I asked after a while.

“The Apostles Priory.”

“I’d better watch my manners, it sounds
religious.”

“Yes, it’s part of the Atlas monastery.”

“In the mountains? The Atlas monastery in
the mountains?” I asked, my heartbeat rising.

“Yes.”

“We’re going back to the monstery
monastery!” I almost shouted at Addi in horror.

“The what?”

“Atlas monastery - dark, grey, ugly
building, as much charm as a Victorian insane asylum?”

“I’ve never really thought about it, but I
suppose it isn’t the best looking place.”

“Best looking? It’s a horrible, creepy
place.”

The scenery flashed past as the car took
us nearer and nearer to what was beginning to feel like my doom.

“Can you drop me off somewhere and I’ll
wait for you?” I asked.

“What?”

“Drop me off. I know this sounds silly but
that place gives me the creeps. If I’d known where we were going I would never
have agreed to it.”

“There isn’t anywhere nearby, the nearest
village is about 20km away. Don’t worry, it’ll be alright. It’s a very well
regarded place.”

“Not by me.” I sank back in my seat,
bottom lip thrust out.

“You can sit in the car park when we get
there.”

I couldn’t believe we were going back to
that place. Maybe I’d watched too many horror films but something about it felt
evil. Despite what my aunt thought, I wasn’t usually one for hysterics and I
was surprised myself at the strength of feeling this place brought out in me.

I spent the next hour twisting myself into
knots, hoping for the car to breakdown so we would never arrive, but all the
time we just got closer and closer until the monastery tower appeared in the
distance, swamping the skyline.

 My hands felt clammy as Addi pulled the
car into the car park.

“Are you coming in?” he asked.

The rain was falling harder now, creating
a deafening racket on the car roof. The grey sky reduced visibility, making
everything dark and brooding. The monastery tower could still be seen though,
looming ominously overhead. It was hard to imagine people really came here to
feel better. It just needed a bolt of lightening flashing through the sky to
create the perfect horror scene. I wasn’t going to sit here on my own.

“Yes, hold on,” I told him, scrambling to
get out of the car, “I’ll come with you.”

We ran through the rain to the front door
where, to my relief, a different, normal looking monk stood ready to greet us.
He gave us directions to the Priory at the rear of the complex with a pleasant
smile.

“Let’s try to be quick, shall we?” I asked
Addi as we followed the signs. It had taken nearly two hours to get here

and it would be dark in another
two. Under no circumstances did I want to be hanging around here then.

“This woman is a suspect in a murder case.
A case I want to get closed. We’ll be as long as we need be.”

Crossing a small courtyard, we’d just
reached the other side when the rain turned torrential and started pouring down
like a pure sheet of water. I tried not to read it as an omen.

“I thought it didn’t rain much here? What
happened to the drought?” I asked, once we were in the dry.

“It’s not as bad as it was,” Addi replied
as we tried to shake off as much water as we could from our clothes. “This
still isn’t enough rain.”

“Are you kidding?” I asked. My fringe was
sticking to my forehead, causing rivulets of water to run down my cheeks.

“It all falls at once, what do they call
it? A flashing?”

“A flash flood, I think you mean.”

“Most of this water will run off, it’ll be
lost. It’s very sad.”

“Yeah, what you really need is a long
spell of it raining all day, every day. Works wonders back home for cheering
people up.”

We’d reached the inside of the retreat. It
was surprisingly bright and inviting. Paying guests obviously warranted such
luxuries as paint on the walls and carpets, better yet, they had chosen some
decent colours (not brown).

There was an excruciating forty minute
wait whilst Miss Allen finished her self help group (I couldn’t help wondering
why it was called ‘self’ help if she was paying royally for it, I read the
price list in the waiting room). Next, we had to wait for her to change into
clothes that ‘would be more receptive to our questioning’, the rain pouring
down the whole time and the sky darkening ever further. I was in agonies.

“If you think she is the murderer, can you
just arrest her? We don’t have to wait for back up, do we?”

“She’d pretty much have to confess for me
to arrest her.”

“Why? Roger Bale didn’t confess. You
arrested him.”

“He lied. I’d probably have to contact the
local police to let them know if I want to arrest this woman.”

Crap. That sounded time consuming.

I looked at my watch again. “Do you think
she’s done a runner?”

I was still explaining what that meant
when Louise Allen finally appeared.

At 51 years old, she was just old enough
to have lived through the seventies, and it looked like she was trying to
relive them again now. Her outfit was some kind of wafty kaftan with a lengthy
string of beads cast artlessly on top. Her (dyed) blonde hair was worn
straight, long and loose around her face. She could have been a size 8 or 18 in
that baggy garment (it looked quite comfy actually).

I could tell straightaway she wasn’t the
killer (don’t ask me how I can do this, it must be some kind of gift). A tiny
part of me was annoyed that we still hadn’t found Tina’s murderer, but mostly I
was relieved we would be leaving quite quickly.

Or so I thought. Addi had decided to go
into full police mode. He started lecturing Miss Allen on her disappearance.

“I didn’t want people to know where I
was,” she explained. “That’s why I didn’t tell anyone.”

“It looks suspicious that you disappeared
just after Tina Lloyd died.”

“Tina? What’s that got to do with me?”

“You didn’t think that we would need to
speak to her friends?”

“I guess I didn’t think about that. I
wasn’t good friends with her.”

I tried to follow their conversation but
it was difficult to spare the time from checking my watch every minute. 

“How long have you been here?” I heard
Addi ask her.

“Since the 7
^th
of October.”

Four days after Tina’s death.

“And what are you being treated for?”

I looked up from my watch to hear her
answer.

“Stress,” she replied, suddenly looking
down at the floor.

 Stress? On this holiday island? She
couldn’t be short of a bob or two, not if she’d been staying here for six weeks.
What did she have to be stressed about? Was she the murderer? Could I have been
wrong? (I know, hard to believe.)

“Not your love life?” I quickly gambled.

Louise Allen stared at me for a moment as
if I’d said something amazing, before blinking a couple of times and looking
away again. “No, just stress.”

 It felt like I had just touched a nerve.
“Anything in particular bring that on?” I pushed.

 “Just everyday life. It’s a strain
sometimes, isn’t it? I’ve come here to recharge.”

Perhaps she had a mother like Addi’s.

“When was the last time you saw Tina
Lloyd?” Addi asked as I went back to my second hand.

“Ages ago. Just after the summer. I only
knew her very slightly really.”

Funny how everyone said that.

“Do you know if she was involved with
anyone at the end?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t keep up with her
love life.”

Did I detect a hint of sarcasm there?
Maybe a tinge of bitterness? Was she a scorned lover? I should know one when I
see one.

I looked at my watch again and realised we
were less than thirty minutes away from sunset, not that there was much
sunlight around with the rain still pounding down.

Addi went over her answers one more time,
hoping to trip Louise Allen up, but she stuck to the same story - she hadn’t
seen Tina, didn’t know of any reason why anyone would want to kill her, didn’t
know who she was involved with. I wasn’t as convinced about her innocence now,
she was definitely covering something up but there didn’t seem to be a way of
cracking her.

“I guess that’s all,” Addi eventually told
her grudgingly and let her go. I could see he was disappointed we hadn’t been
able to prise the truth out of her, or gotten any closer to finding our
murderer, but I just wanted to get out of there.

“We’ll be leaving in a minute,” he assured
me, “Just as soon as I’ve confirmed what she said with someone that works
here.”

It took a few more precious minutes for us
to track a staff member down, followed by another wait as they looked for
Louise Allen’s file, couldn’t find it at first, and had to look somewhere else.
I thought about giving them Sergeant H’s number to get the details of his
filing system but it would have wasted valuable time.