‘Right, and you’ll be in denial, appalled at the idea.’
‘Do you think it’ll make the papers?’ Gemma’s hyperactive imagination was ahead of Jo’s.
‘The absent mother? Could do. In any case, the affair will be all round the office, and none of your doing. All you did was act responsibly.’
Gemma’s big eyes locked with Jo’s. ‘Tell me, wise one. Can it go wrong?’
‘I can’t see how. It may not unfold exactly as we think, but whatever happens they’ll walk into a hotbed of scandal when they get back. He’ll find it impossible to promote her.’
‘Or sack me?’
‘Or sack you.’
‘So will you come with me?’
Jo played the question over.
‘Where?’
‘To Fiona’s house, of course. Doing this alone will spook me out.’
A volley of no’s exploded in Jo’s head. She’d had her brush with the police and it hadn’t turned out nicely. ‘Couldn’t you take someone from work? It would look so much better if you did.’
‘Why?’
‘When you go to the police station they’ll be sure to ask who we are. If I say I’m your friend it won’t sound half so official as if I’m another Kleentext employee.’
‘Does that matter?’
‘It does to the police. They could think you’re wasting their time.’
Gemma heaved a huge sigh. ‘Ain’t that the truth and no mistake. But sweetie, I don’t know who else to ask. Like I said to you the other day, I’m not the flavour of the month here.’
Jo had some sympathy, but nothing would induce her to cross swords with DCI Mallin again.
Now Gemma gave a self-pitying sniff and her eyelashes moistened. ‘Please?’
A compromise was wanted here. ‘Tell you what,’ Jo said. ‘Why don’t I come with you for company, but stay out of sight so it will look as if you’re acting all alone for the good of the firm?’
‘Cool.’
Jo seemed to have got it right.
‘Babe,’ Gemma said. ‘I’m going to pay you the supreme compliment. You’re better than a line of coke.’
Fiona lived in Emsworth, a coastal resort, small, red-brick, and with an unfortunate history. Once noted for the excellence of the local oysters, said to excel those of Whitstable and Colchester, the town supplied some for a civic banquet in Winchester in 1902. Within days a number of the guests became ill with typhoid and died, among them the Dean of Winchester Cathedral. You don’t kill a dean without repercussions. In the enquiry it was alleged and later admitted that all of Emsworth’s sewage was pumped into the harbour beside the oysterbeds. Mischief makers suggested that the oysters owed their unrivalled size and flavour to their food source. The Worshipful Company of Fishmongers imposed a national ban. Cause and effect was never established beyond doubt, but Emsworth oysters became notorious and the industry collapsed overnight. These days the town was better known for its large colony of swans. Fiona had a terraced house facing across the Mill Pond, a less than adequate name for a ten-acre sheet of water that took a half hour to walk round. Here a hundred or more swans were ever-present, along with mallard ducks, coots, and gulls. Jo drove the Panda up the narrow road between the water’s edge and the houses.
‘Here we go, then,’ Gemma said.
‘Here you go,’ Jo said. ‘I’m sitting here. Remember?’
She stopped some way short of the house and watched Gemma step up to the front door and try the bell. No one came, but of course it would have surprised them both if Fiona had appeared. Gemma tried a couple more times and bent down and peered through the letterbox. Then she turned towards the car and flapped her hand to let Jo know she was getting no response.
‘Idiot,’ Jo said between gritted teeth. If anyone was watching they’d know for sure that the two of them were in this together. She looked the other way at a group of swans.
Gemma stepped around the dividing hedge and tried next door. An upstairs window opened and a shaven-headed man in a white vest leaned out.
In the car, Jo pulled down the sun visor.
The man seemed to be a caring neighbour and a typical male as well, all brass and swagger. He came downstairs and out to the front and tried Fiona’s doorbell himself. He stepped onto the small front lawn and looked through the living room window. A short consultation followed. The man went back inside his own house and returned with a mobile. The plan was racing ahead. This was clearly phase two: Call the police.
Jo slid so far down in her seat that her head was below the steering wheel.
Presently the passenger door opened and Gemma looked in. ‘Trying out a new position?’ She was on a high again. The neighbour’s show of cooperation had pumped up her adrenalin. ‘Take it from me, it wouldn’t be comfortable in the driver’s seat. I’d say it was damn near impossible.’
‘I’m trying to stay out of sight.’
‘And succeeding. For a moment I thought you’d gone AWOL. He’s a hunk to die for, that neighbour. Did you check those pecs? He’s called Francisco and he works nights as a bouncer in Portsmouth. What a waste. Hasn’t seen anything of her or the child for a week and said we should definitely report it. He saved me the trouble of calling the police.’
‘You don’t have to relay all this to me,’ Jo said. ‘You can tell me later. I’m supposed to be invisible, okay?’
‘Lighten up, poppet. He’s back in his house putting on a shirt. Funny, he didn’t mind me seeing his tattoos, but he gets dressed for the rozzers.’
‘They’re definitely coming, are they?’
‘Relax. They won’t be here for ten minutes.’
Jo wasn’t waiting for that. ‘Look, Gem, I think this might work better if I get out and take a walk along the path. I’ll come back after they’ve gone.’
‘Be like that.’
‘We agreed I keep a low profile.’
‘Sure thing, kiddo.’
‘You don’t sound nervous any more.’
‘It’s turned out rather well. Francisco could be the find of the week. The last time I set eyes on a hunk of manhood like that, he was tossing a caber. Well, I think it was a caber.’ She rolled her eyes and laughed.
‘Hold on a mo. You’re forgetting what this is all about. You’re supposed to be worried about Fiona and the little boy, right?’
Jo got out of the car and started a brisk walk along the bank, intent on putting distance between herself and Gemma. She’d lost all confidence. No way would that daft creature play her part convincingly with the police. Still, she reminded herself, that was down to Gemma. This was her show. The overriding need at this stage was not to be a part of it.
Annoyingly a flotilla of swans and ducks swam beside her, keeping up. She had missed a trick here. Anyone patrolling the Mill Pond had a duty to toss in pieces of bread or, preferably, seed. She was ignoring them and they weren’t giving up.
Ahead was the sailing club. Soon she would disappear from view behind the clubhouse, safe from waterfowl and nosy parkers. She risked a glance back. The find of the week had put on a red shirt and was striking a pose in the middle of the road, arms folded, legs astride, like the genie of the lamp. Gemma was sitting on his garden wall swinging her legs, anything but anxious about Fiona and her son.
People, Jo thought. The ones who are most fun are the least reliable.
The walk brought her past the club to the southern extreme of the Mill Pond where the road became the top of a harbour wall. She would head back on the side opposite the house, where she could safely watch any developments while seeming to admire the scenery.
She now had a view of the sea, the marshy inlet between the islands of Thorney and Hayling. Here, through the narrow Emsworth Channel, waves of invaders had come in times past. It wasn’t beyond imagination to picture a Viking ship approaching on the high tide.
The sea wall curved and she faced inland, with the town as a backdrop. To her right were mud flats with boats beached by the low tide. Across the Mill Pond she didn’t ye
t have a sight of Fiona’s house. She quickened her pace and crossed the little bridge to the quay where another sailing club, the Emsworth Slipper, occupied the former mill. The road turned past a tea room and a malt house and emerged as Bridgefoot Path. Across the water she could see everything.
A police car had arrived and stopped just ahead of her Panda. It wasn’t flashing its emergency light. This was evidently just a routine enquiry. Two men in uniform were in conversation with Gemma and the hunk of manhood, Francisco. Presently one returned to the patrol car and took something bulky from the boot. It proved to be an enforcer, the miniature battering ram used to gain entry. They swung it only once. The door sprang open and the police went inside.
On her side of the water, Jo found a bench and sat down to watch. From this distance no one could connect her with what was going on. Gemma was still outside, chatting with her new friend Francisco. Jo expected the police would soon emerge and confirm that Fiona and her son were not inside, an anticlimax everyone ought to welcome.
Activities on this side of the Mill Pond went on regardless of what was happening across the water. Two teenage boys were fishing near the malt house. To Jo’s right, a mother and toddler were throwing bread to the swans and finding that the gulls swooped in and took most of it.
The police emerged from Fiona’s door. One was using his personal radio. The other said something to Gemma. There was no apparent excitement about what they’d found inside. Some time was spent making the door secure again and then they got in their car and drove off.
Jo got up and resumed her walk towards the little bridge at the top end. In under ten minutes she was across and back to where she’d left her car. Francisco had gone back inside his house and Gemma was waving to her, incapable of keeping a low profile.
‘Hi, poppet. Mission accomplished. No rotting bodies inside, I’m glad to report. They’re going to check with her ex and see if the boy is with him. They listened to the answerphone and picked up my messages, so our master plan worked beautifully.’
‘Let’s be off, then.’
‘No hurry. If we stick around I’m thinking Francisco might offer us a cuppa. The phone inside his house started ringing, so he left me here.’
‘Gemma, I’m not supposed to be here.’
‘Doesn’t matter any more, does it? The fuzz have gone. He’s not just muscle. He’s got personality in buckets. I don’t know what aftershave he uses, but it’s turned me into a tart.’
‘Look, I only agreed to do this if you kept me out of it.’
Gemma folded her arms. ‘What is it with you, Jo? Are you on their most wanted list?’
‘I found the dead woman on Selsey beach. Remember? They made me feel like a suspect. It was horrible.’
‘Chill. I keep telling you, they’ve done their job and gone. Francisco won’t blab when I tell him you’re my best friend.’
Jo let out a sharp, angry breath. ‘You don’t get it, do you? The whole point is that you’re not supposed to have brought a friend. Listen, I’m out of here. It’s up to you if you want a lift.’ She turned and walked towards the car. This was no empty gesture. When she started the motor she would be off.
Behind her, Gemma shouted, ‘I fancy the guy. Since when has that been a crime? I’m not a fucking nun, you know.’
And that’s an oxymoron if ever I heard one, Jo thought. She didn’t turn her head. She unlocked, got inside and then realised there was a hitch. The car was facing south and the way home was north. A three-point turn in that narrow road was an invitation to reverse into the Mill Pond. Instead of making a speedy getaway she would have to pass Gemma and find a turning point at the end where the sailing club was.
So be it, she thought. She switched on and moved off.
Gemma was in the middle of the road, waving her arms like ground crew showing a jumbo where to taxi. No way could the car get past without running her over.
Jo braked.
Gemma came to the side and jerked open the door. ‘All right, I’ve reconsidered. Give me a lift and I’ll take my vows. Promise.’
Jo gave a rasping sigh. At this minute the humour didn’t appeal.
Gemma got in and they drove on. But they hadn’t gone thirty yards when she said, ‘Bloody hell. Stop the car.’
‘For Christ’s sake.’ Jo glanced in the mirror, fully expecting to see Francisco outside his house again. He was not. ‘What’s up now?’
‘In the water.’ Something was definitely amiss. There was urgency, if not panic, in the voice.
Jo braked and turned her head to see. Not a duck was swimming there. The only thing worthy of comment was what she took to be a clump of seaweed close to the surface, its reddish-brown tentacles shifting gently with the water’s slight movement.
‘I’ve got to check.’ Gemma flung open the door and ran to the edge.
‘Check what?’ Jo switched off the engine and joined her.
From the bank she saw what had shocked Gemma. They weren’t looking at seaweed. The tentacles were fronds of reddish hair. Just visible at a lower level in the murky water was the rest of the corpse, face-down and dressed in a black top and jeans.
SEVEN
‘ Is that Fiona? ’ Jo asked, thinking as she spoke that it was not the brightest question considering that the body was face-down. But when your legs are shaking and your last meal wants to make a comeback, you’re not best placed to offer an intelligent remark.
‘She’s got red hair,’ Gemma said.
‘I can see that.’
‘I mean Fiona’s a redhead.’
‘That does narrow it down.’
‘This is where she lives and she hasn’t been seen for nearly a week.’
‘Not much doubt, then. Dreadful.’
‘Gets me right here-in the gizzard.’
Jo happened to know that a gizzard isn’t part of the human anatomy, but she let it pass. In her unique fashion Gemma was paying respect. She let a few seconds go by before raising the next obvious question. ‘What happened, do you think?’
‘Accident?’
‘Must have been.’ She was quick in her response, too quick to carry conviction. Faced with a shock like this the normal impulse is to look for the least upsetting explanation.
Gemma said in support, ‘It’s a risk she took, living so close to the water.’
‘I guess.’
Neither of them spoke while they continued to gaze down at the figure submerged in front of them. Both must have sensed that there was more to this than Fiona’s choice of where to live.
When Gemma broke the silence she was clearly making a bigger effort to convince herself. ‘I feel sure it was an accident.’ Nodding as if someone else had spoken and she agreed, she put her imagination to work again. ‘She could have had a few too many, stepped outside for some fresh air and fallen in. Or she may have come home in the dark and missed her footing. Hit her head and knocked herself out. So easy to see how it could happen.’
Jo said nothing.
‘I feel such a cow,’ Gemma added. ‘All the mean things I’ve been saying about her. Jo, what are we going to do?’
This was the moment to make one thing clear. ‘Not so much of the “we.”’
‘What?’
‘I’m staying out of this.’
Gemma turned to look at her. ‘How do you mean?’
‘I found one body already. That’s enough to be going on with.’
‘But if I report it, what are they going to think?’ Gemma said in a panicky voice. ‘Suppose they get the idea someone pushed her in? I’ve got a clear motive. She’s known to me. She was a threat to my job.’
‘That’s a fact.’
As if she’d won the point, Gemma said, ‘But you haven’t even met her. You can call the police and they’ll accept it for what it is, a chance discovery.’
Jo wasn’t swallowing that. ‘What-and tell them I was here all the time when they checked the house? Tell them I left my work and drove you here? Does that sound like a chance d
iscovery? To the police it’s going to smell like a set-up. I’m sorry, but I’m not doing it, Gem. After going through Saturday’s line-up, I’ve done more than my share of public duty.’
‘Line-up?’
‘The ID parade.’
Gemma frowned. ‘You didn’t say anything about an ID parade.’
‘Didn’t I? I was trying to forget, standing in front of strange blokes and being expected to pick one of them out.’
‘What for?’
‘The murder of the woman at Selsey. I’m supposed to be a witness. They think I could have seen the killer when I was walking along the beach.’
‘And did you? Did you spot him?’
‘Of course not. Look, this isn’t helping us now. We’ve found a body. I don’t want to report it and neither do you.’
Their presence on the bank and facing the water was starting to attract the swans. Some were swimming across from the opposite side expecting to be fed.
‘We can’t leave her here,’ Gemma said. ‘How would you like that if it was you?’
‘I wouldn’t know anything about it. I’d be dead.’ Jo took a deep breath and made an effort to sound calm. ‘I think we should get back in the car and drive off. Someone else is going to find her soon. People are always walking round this place. I’m surprised she wasn’t found already.’
‘You don’t know how long she’s been in the water.’
‘Agreed.’
‘It could have happened this afternoon.’
‘Even more reason why we don’t want anything to do with it.’
Then Gemma came up with her most stupid suggestion yet. ‘I could tell Francisco and ask him to call the police and leave us out of it.’
‘That’s dumb. You don’t even know him that well.’
‘He’s really helpful.’
‘Have you thought why? He could have done it.’
‘Francisco?’ Gemma pulled an appalled expression.
‘He’s the neighbour. He was on the spot. We don’t know if he had a relationship with her, or if he wanted one and was given the elbow.’
‘You’re making this up.’
Rich, coming from the queen of make-believe.
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