Verbatim

by Andrew Hill

  “Most of the time I sleep fine.”

  “But not all of the time.”

  “I sometimes have disturbing dreams but it’s nothing to worry about, they’re just dreams.”

  Grant didn’t seem too happy to talk about this and Carol realised it so she didn’t push it. Soon they had finished breakfast and decided to plan the day. Half an hour or so later the two stepped out from their hotel into the Paris weather which today was a little duller than it had been, in fact it was the dullest day of their holiday so far and when I say dullest I’m not just referring to the atmospheric conditions. However, by lunchtime Grant was back to his normal self, the dream completely forgotten both by him and his companion.

  Well into the afternoon the sun had begun to shine. Carol and Grant were sitting on a park bench close to the centre of Paris. The scene was not unlike their first meeting on the park bench in Oxford and they both sat as they did on that day listening to the birdsong and appreciating the floral display and fountain. It must have been a full twenty minutes with Carol resting her head on Grant’s chest and Grant with his arm around her, neither of them saying a word. The silence was broken by Grant, “Do you know why I really wanted to come to Paris?”

  “To be in a romantic city with the one you love.”

  “Is that why you agreed to come?”

  Carol just smiled at him and said nothing. After a moment she said, “So why did you want to come to Paris?”

  He looked down at her and said quietly, “For precisely the reason you said.”

  Carol immediately realised the significance of what Grant was saying which left her a little lost for words. There was silence that was ended only by a couple of noisy children as they passed by with their parents. Grant spoke again: “There’s always been something missing from my life, at least from my adult life. I’ve had girlfriends from time to time but I never felt as though any of them would be right for me as a lifelong partner and I always had the impression from them that they felt the same about me,” Grant faltered a little in his speech but valiantly continued, “but things are different with you.” He could go on no longer but left it at that. It was as though he didn’t quite have the courage to ask the question that he so longed to ask. Carol knew perfectly well what Grant was trying to say but wanted to leave it to him to say it without prompting from her and Grant was quite right Carol felt things between them were different. Sometimes she felt as much about Grant as ever she felt about Rob. A few more minutes past with the only sound being the ambient sound of Paris then Grant said, “Will you marry me?”

  That question took Carol by surprise and yet it was not surprising. Let’s just say that it came rather sooner than Carol was expecting, she looked up at Grant and smiled. Grant looked down at her and smiled.

  “I’ll need a little time to think about that and get accustomed to the idea.” She said. Carol looked down at the third finger of her left hand where she was still wearing the engagement and wedding rings given to her all those years ago by the man she loved, and the man who she thought could never be replaced and, perhaps until now had never even thought about replacing. The two rings had never been removed, not once since the day she put them on for the first time, it had never occurred to her to do so, and to take them off now would be a great wrench but take them off she would have to do if she marries Grant, wouldn’t she?

  * * *

  Marrying Grant would be the biggest mistake of her life and I for one sincerely hope that, for whatever reason, no matter what it may be, she never goes through with and will abandon him. I want to be able to leap into her world and tell her but that I cannot do.

  For the next few minutes Carol’s mind was in turmoil, before her there was a mental picture of Rob saying those precise words to her so long ago. Has the time come for her to finally move on.

  Several hours later they were back in their hotel. Grant was in the lobby glancing through tourist leaflets looking for places to visit while Carol was alone in their room. Her mind’s eye carrying her back to her wedding to Rob, then to Josh’s birth, then back to Rob proposing to her, then to various happy times they’d had before that woman murdered him, for murder it surely was, of that she was certain.

  Grant returned from the lobby and found Carol sitting on the bed.

  “I’ve got some leaflets for some places we can go tomorrow,” he said before realising that Carol had been crying. He asked what was the matter and the answer he received was not the one he wanted to hear.

  “Although Rob has been dead for a long time I still feel as though I am married to him. I cannot go forward until I know the truth about his death; is the real truth that the woman who killed him meant to? I don’t know if she had a motive of hatred or whatever it might have been or whether she was simply a deranged woman but until I know these things I cannot have closure and until I have closure I can’t remarry.”

  Those are the best words I’ve heard from Carol but if she finds out the truth what effect will that have upon her; she has, when all’s said and done, bedded down with her husband’s murderer, albeit innocently so.

  Grant was more than just a little disappointed at Carol’s response.

  The hotel had suddenly lost its romance, in fact the entirety of Paris had suddenly lost its romance, despite that, Grant wasn’t entirely surprised, they hadn’t known each other for very long in the grand scheme of things and perhaps marriage is something that ought not to be rushed into. Proposing marriage was not something which Grant had ever done before and he wondered if he had done the right thing. Nevertheless, it was the way he felt about her so he asked for her hand in marriage as a way of letting her know his true feelings. Even so, he was upset about it and it slightly dampened the rest of the Parisian holiday. While this dampening took the shine off, it did not by any means spoil it and the two soon found themselves on the tourist trail once more and Paris, too, slowly began to regain its romantic significance.

  Carol’s mind at times seemed as though it was not with them in the French capital because she had resolved to reopen the case of Rob’s death not in any official sense of course as it had never really been closed, any reopening would be in her own mind, but reopen it she must if she is to have any peace, and before she enters into a permanent relationship with another man.

  This was all beginning to have an effect on Grant, he of course knew nothing about being the one who had killed Rob except for these strange dreams that disturb him some nights. The worrying thing for Grant is that the dreams are becoming more frequent and they are exactly the same. Over a period of time if this continues he will begin to realise perhaps that this isn’t so much a dream as a memory of what he actually did but he has not reached that point yet. The most worrying thing is that the man he kills in his dream looks like Rob and it all takes place at the precise location where Rob was run over.

  The rest of their holiday passed and the couple had now ventured to the Gare du Nord for the return journey to London.

  Their arrival at St Pancras station seemed rather a let down after Paris. Of course Paris has its own dull areas like any city including London but you don’t notice them, the unfamiliarity makes up for it. Although the transition from the old St Pancras station to the new one had its merits, Carol has never quite thought that it fully worked. As for London itself, I have no doubt that Parisians consider the English capital to be highly romantic. After living in London for so many years Carol was happy to know that she was only passing through and would soon be back at her home in Didcot Road, Oxford, and once there she would have to consider her plan of campaign to find out the truth about Rob’s death.

  7

  Their first holiday together was over. Grant was now back at the department store driving his van around Oxford, as usual doing his utmost to avoid the road around the corner from Carol’s former home that is such an important part his recurring nightmare.

  Carol
walked up the steps into the main police station in the centre of Oxford. She hasn’t been in a police station for a great many years, not since Rob’s death to be precise. At that time it never occurred to her all these years later she would be re-entering that same police station in order to see if the case can be reopened.

  After explaining everything to a civilian dressed in a police uniform at the reception desk, Carol was invited into a nearby office where a young detective sergeant came to speak to her. He couldn’t have been any older than Josh, in fact there was something rather familiar about this young man but she couldn’t quite place him. The detective sergeant was the first to speak, “I used to be in the same class at school as your Josh, I recognised you as soon as I saw you.”

  Carol replied with, “I thought you were familiar, so you decided to join the police, do you like it?”

  Detective Sergeant Harris said that he didn’t like it most of the time. There was a little preliminary chat between the two about what became of Josh before the door opened and a young constable came in carrying a file which she gave to the detective sergeant who opened it and started to look through. He thought for a moment and then spoke, “This was never resolved which technically means the case is still open but we need permission from the superintendent to continue the investigation. I don’t want to seem too negative but there’s very little to go on after all this time. Witnesses are likely to be very unreliable.”

  “What about DNA?”

  “Nothing was found at the time that would have contained the driver’s DNA, except for the car itself and in all probability that car has long since found its way to the scrapheap, even if it hasn’t the possibility of finding DNA anywhere on it now would be extremely remote.”

  The interview between Harris and Carol did not last very much longer as it became more and more clear to her that the police felt they had more important things to deal with than a killing which they considered likely to have been an accident anyway and that occurred such a long time ago. Carol decided to go home and forget about the police unless they contacted her. Detective Sergeant Harris said that he would raise the matter with the superintendent but he didn’t hold out very much hope of him agreeing and even if agreement was forthcoming there was little chance of any fresh evidence coming to light. Perhaps a visit to a private investigator might help but then an idea came to her, she would try tracing the car but first she would have to trace the owner.

  Walking straight into a strange building that you’ve never been in before, surrounded by staff and public, and asking to speak to someone for some reason totally disconnected with the business conducted in the building is something Carol has written about many times in her Genevieve Mysteries. Genevieve, being fictional, can do anything that Carol wants her to do and shows fear only if Carol deems it necessary in telling the story. Today, however, Carol was about to do it herself. It’s much easier to do it vicariously through a fictional character. Carol has now become a private investigator just as her famous creation.

  Do you remember the name of Susan Jeffers? Carol had always remembered it she also remembered Mrs Jeffers car registration number Y872 PBW but couldn’t remember the address though remembered the village not far outside of Oxford where the car’s owner lived but did she still live there? Carol wondered how she could find this out, it occurred to her she may still work at the same bank branch which is why she has made her way to Oxford city centre to find the owner of the car which had been used to kill Rob.

  A short time later Carol was entering the bank and looked around to see if she could find anyone there who might be Susan Jeffers. The two had met but only once and it was a long time ago. No one was remotely familiar to Carol’s eyes. In common with other modern banks there was a member of staff in the banking hall to greet the public coming in, Carol was approached by a young Asian man probably in his early twenties.

  “Can I help you?” The young man asked.

  “I’m looking for someone called Susan Jeffers,” said Carol.

  “Perhaps if you can tell me what we can do for you, I can help.”

  Carol briefly explained to the young man that she was not here on banking business but it was an important personal matter. She went on to ask, “Does she still work here?”

  The young man said that he’s not allowed to give out the names of staff members. Carol did not want to go into any detail with the young man and said that she knew she used to work here a long time ago and that it was vitally important that they meet.

  It seemed clear to Carol that she must still work there because if she didn’t there would be no need for the young man to stall, he could just say no she doesn’t work here anymore or simply no one by that name works here.

  Carol didn’t want to push her luck or cause any suspicion so she thanked him and left. But she had raised suspicion in the mind of the young man, he watched her as she left the building and he also noticed that she hung around but Carol saw him so decided to make herself scarce. There was a time, Carol thought, when if you walked into a bank and asked to speak to someone then they would probably be found but these days with security being so tight doing simple things was frequently made very difficult with every path blocked. Sadly that is the way things are now and even more sadly it is the way they must be. Carol walked around the block to see if there was a rear entrance to the bank, it didn’t seem as though there was but she figured there must be more than one way out if only for safety purposes. Unable to find an alternative exit she decided to come back at around the time the staff would be most likely to be leaving work. However, when that time came there didn’t seem to be anyone leaving the bank who could possibly have been Susan Jeffers unless she’d changed a great deal. The young Asian man left the bank and saw Carol waiting outside. It was obvious that he recognised her he didn’t speak to her nor she to him but he spoke to another young man who had also just left the bank. Carol thought it was most likely that she was the subject of their conversation and wondered if Susan Jeffers had been warned of the strange woman asking to speak to her.

  An alternative way of contacting Mrs Jeffers needed to be found and the most obvious one is to take a look at the BT phone website but the search revealed nothing; no great surprise as so many people these days are ex-directory. A less secret means was needed so the following day Carol went to the very car park where the car had been stolen. It took quite a bit of emotional courage to do this as in the past she had always tried to avoid going anywhere near it but under the circumstances she felt it had to be done. As she waited, the dark clouds surrounded what sun there was which was soon completely hidden; drizzle began to fall as it had done on that terrible day. She waited by the corner of the road and looked at everyone as they entered the car park. The bank closed its doors at five, by five-fifteen there had been no sign of her. Nevertheless, Carol hung on convinced that she did still work their because the young assistant the previous day hadn’t actually said otherwise.

  Carol was getting damper and damper and was about to call it a day when a woman under an umbrella appeared around the corner. Even at a distance of around 100 yards it was clear that she was not a young woman. The closer she came the clearer her age became. As the woman was reaching the car park she lowered her umbrella. Late forties would put her now well into her sixties which this woman plainly was. Although Carol couldn’t be sure, she was determined to approach her and ask, if it wasn’t her then so be it. The woman walked up to the entrance to the car park right past Carol paying no attention to her.

  Carol spoke, “Excuse me.”

  The woman stopped and turned to see who was speaking but said nothing just stood there looking stressed as well she might, it had not been a good day at the office. With some degree of trepidation Carol risked all and asked her straight out, “Are you Susan Jeffers?”

  The woman didn’t answer but it was clear from her demeanour she was the one Carol was searching for and n
ow she looked even more stressed. Carol continued, “Many years ago a car was stolen from this car park,” there’s no need for me to repeat what you already know. Carol ended with, “I’m trying to find the former owner of that car.”

  This had obviously taken the woman by surprise, suddenly being asked about an incident that she’d almost forgotten, no that’s not true she had not forgotten, it frequently came to mind; a young man being brutally run down by her car was not something she would forget easily. After a moment’s hesitation she spoke, “You must be Verity Green.” Carol confirmed she was and the woman then confirmed she was the one being sought.

  “Can you tell me what happened to that car eventually?”

  “I don’t see how knowing that will help you but the car was eventually returned to me by the police. I never wanted to drive the thing again and I sold it. It was to some man who lives on the other side of Oxford. I can’t remember his name or precisely where he lived. I imagine by now it’s long been scrapped like the case itself. Did the police ever discover who the driver was?”

  Carol explained to Susan that she was trying to find something which might have the driver’s DNA on it and asked her if she still owned anything that was in the car that the driver might have handled. Susan said there was nothing she could think of, there were one or two things in the boot but that was locked and when I eventually opened it nothing seemed to have been disturbed. She ended with, “I’m sorry I don’t think I can help you.” After a brief silence between them Susan walked slowly up to Carol and spoke:

  “Was it you who came to the bank yesterday asking after me?”

  “Yes, it was.”

  “If I think of anything I’ll let you know.” With that Mrs Jeffers turned and walked calmly away watched by Carol who saw her get into her current car and drive off out of the exit at the far end of the car park.

  Carol just stood there in the rain getting wetter, the rain didn’t seem to matter.