Shrugging off her momentary unease, Ella continued briskly on her way, telling herself she had been an idiot to worry. Just because someone else happened to be walking along the street at the same time as her was no reason for her to be jittery. She had done nothing wrong. In any case, whoever had been walking behind her probably hadn’t even noticed her. But as she pushed the buggy round the corner at the end of her street, she heard the footsteps again, quite distinctly. They didn’t seem to be getting any closer, yet when she looked round, no one was there. Doing her best to reassure herself that she was worrying needlessly, she kept going, regretting her decision to go out at a time when the streets were likely to be deserted.
With the small shop on the next corner in sight and an occasional car speeding past along the well-lit street, Ella relaxed. Up ahead she saw an old woman shuffling out of the shop clutching a couple of carrier bags, another woman went in, and a man passed her on the other side of the road. No one was going to confront her in full view of so many people. All she had to do was fill the bottom of the buggy with much needed cigarettes and booze, and get back home without being challenged.
She did her shopping quickly, avoiding meeting anyone’s eye, but when she did glance up, no one was paying her any attention. Leaving the shop, she made her way as quickly as she could back along the main road. Turning into her own dark street she hesitated but the pavements were empty and there was no sound of footsteps. All the same, she walked as swiftly as she could and reached home without any further interference. She hurried back inside, this time struggling to negotiate the buggy up the steps. Eventually she abandoned her attempt to wiggle it over the doorstep, instead lifting the baby and all her shopping out into the hall, before yanking the empty buggy inside. Shoving everything back into the buggy without bothering to do up the straps, she pushed it into her front room.
It was just as well she lived on the ground floor or it would have been impossible to take everything upstairs in one go, and if she left her shopping behind in the hall some arsehole was bound to nick it. She had learned from experience not to leave anything unattended in the common area of the house where she rented a dingy apartment. One day she was going to tart her place up. She wouldn’t know where to begin, but she had seen a paint and wallpaper shop in York, and intended to go in there and ask. She was definitely going to do it, before the baby was old enough to crawl around and get her fingers in everything, but Ella hadn’t yet had the time, or the energy, to start on her home improvements; plus she needed to save up money to buy paint and brushes. Jessica had not been to see her for a couple of days, and she was running low on cash. Before she had finished stashing her purchases out of sight in the kitchen cupboards, the baby began to cry, its tiny mewling building to a crescendo. It was hard to believe that such a puny creature could make so much noise.
‘Oh fucking hell,’ Ella grumbled. ‘Can’t I get a moment’s peace?’
The noise was impossible to ignore and the baby wasn’t going to let up. Ella warmed a bottle of milk, went into the living room, and put her cigarette down. It was only half smoked so she stubbed it out, leaving the unsmoked half for later. She had only just got settled feeding the baby when the doorbell rang.
‘Oh fucking hell, what now? You’ll have to wait,’ she yelled at the window, ‘I’m feeding my baby.’
The doorbell rang again, sounding somehow insistent this time. Ella thought she knew who was calling.
‘All right, all right, hang on, I’m coming!’
Still holding the baby, she went to open the door.
‘How are you?’ Ella asked, leading the way into the small living room.
‘Can I hold the baby?’ Jessica replied without even pausing to acknowledge Ella’s greeting.
‘Of course, of course. Come on in,’ Ella said, ‘and hello to you too,’ she added under her breath. ‘And how are you today, Ella? It’s nice to see you, Ella.’
Short of slamming the door in Jessica’s face, there was nothing else she could do.
‘Do you want something to drink? I’ve got some coke.’
‘Have you been smoking?’ Jessica asked, frowning and screwing up her nose.
‘Me? Oh no,’ Ella answered. ‘I told you I don’t smoke. Someone was here, er – fixing the oven, and he lit up. Of course I asked him to put it out straight away. You don’t smoke around babies, I said. Everyone knows that. Well, obviously he didn’t know,’ she concluded lamely.
Hoping Jessica would not find it odd that a man would smoke while fixing an oven, Ella avoided glancing at the half-smoked cigarette lying on a dirty saucer beside her armchair. It was lucky she didn’t wear lipstick. That would have been a dead giveaway. As soon as Jessica turned her attention to the baby, Ella reached down and slid the makeshift ashtray under her chair. With a silent sigh of relief, she leaned back in her chair. Jessica was not looking at anything but the little girl lying contentedly in her arms. An elephant could have been sitting on the sofa without her noticing.
‘So,’ Ella said, ‘how have you been?’
‘Terrible,’ Jessica admitted. ‘This is just awful. I miss her so much. It’s like a constant ache in my guts.’
‘I can’t begin to imagine how horrible it must be, but I’m sure it’ll all get sorted and she’ll be back with you soon.’
‘I hope so,’ Jessica muttered.
‘I hope so too,’ Ella echoed dutifully. ‘What about your husband?’ Ella asked, screwing up her eyes and watching Jessica closely.
If Jason returned, he might not agree to Jessica parting with so much money.
‘What about him?’
‘Have you heard from him yet?’
Jessica shook her head carelessly. ‘He can snuff it for all I care,’ she replied. Raising her eyes to meet Ella’s, she added solemnly, ‘Maybe he’s already dead.’
Ella smiled nervously at her visitor, wishing she would go away.
20
Having dropped Ian back at the police station, Geraldine went to her next call.
‘Is this about Daisy?’ Jessica asked as she opened the door. ‘Have you found her?’
She was trembling, and Geraldine thought she looked agitated rather than hopeful.
‘No, it’s not about Daisy. But I do need to talk to you and I’m afraid this can’t wait. Can we go inside and sit down?’
‘Why? What’s this about? What’s happened? Have you found Jason?’
‘Let’s go and sit down.’
Jessica nodded and led Geraldine to a small sitting room where they sat down on large soft armchairs. A few clothes were strewn around the room, some of them jumbled together in a plastic laundry basket.
‘I’m afraid I have some bad news about your father,’ Geraldine said.
Jessica looked surprised. ‘My father? I thought you were supposed to be looking for Daisy.’ She shivered. ‘So, what’s this about? What’s happened to my father? Because I’m more concerned about my baby than my father’s troubles. If he wasn’t so hotheaded, people might –’
Geraldine interrupted her. There was no easy way to tell Jessica what had happened, and Geraldine had no words to soften the truth. ‘I’m afraid your father’s dead.’
Jessica looked at her as though she did not understand what Geraldine had said.
‘I’m very sorry,’ Geraldine added.
Jessica continued to stare at her. ‘Dead?’ she repeated at last. ‘Are you talking about my father?’
Briefly, Geraldine explained that David Armstrong had gone out the previous evening and failed to return. After Anne had called the police, her husband’s body had been discovered outside the house. Geraldine was pleased Jessica was sitting down when she heard the news. Her face twisted with anguish and she began to tremble again.
‘I don’t understand,’ she whispered. ‘What’s going on? What happened to my father? Why are you here? I mean, w
hy are the police involved? What happened?’
‘We’re investigating the cause of your father’s death,’ Geraldine explained, speaking as gently as she could.
Jessica burst into noisy tears. As she did so, she dropped her head in her hands so that her face was hidden. Geraldine was a little frustrated by Anne and Jessica’s tendency to hide their responses from view. She could often tell a lot from the expressions on people’s faces.
‘I’m so sorry you have to deal with this at the moment,’ Geraldine said. ‘I know it’s a difficult time for you, but you have a right to know.’
‘Where’s Jason?’ Jessica mumbled. ‘Why isn’t he here? What’s happened to him?’ She raised a tearful face to Geraldine. ‘And where’s my mother?’
Geraldine hesitated. ‘She was too upset to tell you herself. The doctor’s given her something to calm her down and I’m sure she’ll call you as soon as she wakes up.’
Jessica looked up, her cheeks wet with tears. ‘I ought to go round there and be with her.’
Geraldine nodded. ‘She might be asleep, but I’m sure she’ll appreciate seeing you when she wakes up.’
‘How’s she going to manage?’ Jessica asked, echoing her mother’s words. ‘My father did everything for her. She relied on him completely. We all did. He was always there for us.’
‘Jessica, I know this must be very difficult for you, but I’d like to ask you a few questions.’
‘Yes, yes, of course.’ Jessica sat up and blew her nose, seeming to pull herself together. ‘Even this is better than worrying about Daisy,’ she murmured, almost to herself. ‘I mean, I loved my father,’ she added quickly. ‘He’s – that is, he was my father. He was a good father. He was good to me. But Daisy’s my baby and I don’t know what’s happened…’
Geraldine interrupted quickly before Jessica could break down again.
‘Did your father have any enemies?’
Jessica laughed harshly. ‘Just about everyone he knew,’ she replied. ‘I mean, not me and Jason of course, we loved him; Daisy did too…’
‘Who do you mean by “everyone”?’
Jessica shook her head. ‘I mean, he had this knack for making people turn against him. That was the kind of man he was. He was – oh, I don’t know – opinionated and full of himself, and he never listened to anyone else. He just bulldozed his way through life without paying attention to what other people wanted…’ She broke off, perhaps afraid she had said too much. ‘He loved us, his family, and he would have done anything for us. It was just everyone else. And he had political enemies.’
‘Who were they?’
‘I don’t know. But there was stuff about him online, people complaining about his policies, and mum told me he was always being heckled at meetings. You’ll have to ask her. But good luck getting any sense out of her.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Just that she’ll be a mess right now. I ought to go and see her.’
‘We’re doing everything we can to investigate the circumstances of your father’s death –’ Geraldine began when Jessica interrupted her.
‘Never mind that. Where’s Daisy? What’s happening? What are you doing about her? She’s only six months old, for fuck’s sake, and she’s been missing for nearly a week! Someone’s taken her. Babies don’t just disappear. Someone must have her. We have to find her. Someone must be taking care of her. She can’t be… and where’s Jason? He’s taken her, hasn’t he?’
‘Do you believe Jason would take your daughter without telling you?’
Jessica shook her head. ‘I don’t know, I don’t know.’ She glared at Geraldine. ‘I mean, you think you know another person and then it turns out you didn’t know them at all. I don’t even know where he is.’
‘Did you and Jason have an argument? Could he have taken Daisy from you because he was angry with you? We need to know the truth, Jessica.’
‘No, no. He can’t have taken her away. He wouldn’t do that to me. He loves me.’
‘Jessica,’ Geraldine said quietly, ‘we’re doing everything we can to find your missing daughter. In the meantime, your father has been murdered, and your husband has disappeared. Are you ready to answer a few questions about Jason? I need you to be calm now. Was there any bad feeling between your husband and your father?’
For a moment Geraldine thought Jessica was going to break down in tears again. Instead, she braced her shoulders and looked at Geraldine directly but when she spoke, her voice shook so much she was barely coherent.
‘Listen, my father was a grown man who was stupid enough to put a lot of people’s backs up. It’s no secret he and Jason didn’t get on too well, but there were a hell of a lot of other people who hated and despised him at least as much as we did, and it was only because he asked for it. So if he went and got himself killed, it shouldn’t surprise anyone if I seem more upset about Daisy than about my father.’ Her eyes hardened. ‘If you ask me, my father got what he deserved. And a lot of people will say the same, because the truth is he was a selfish bully.’ Her face crumpled in distress again and her eyes filled with tears. ‘Daisy’s just a baby. She’s done nothing wrong. Why are we talking about my father? Please, do your job, and find my daughter.’
Geraldine assured her the police were doing everything they could to try and trace the baby, but Jessica just dropped her head in her hands again, weeping noisily. It was understandable that she was in a state about Daisy’s disappearance, but Geraldine wondered if she had let slip more than she had intended, in ranting against her father.
‘I think Jessica knows more than she’s letting on,’ she said when she returned to the police station.
‘Surely this suggests a motive for Jason’s disappearance?’ Ariadne replied. ‘If he lost his temper with his father-in-law, and killed him, perhaps without meaning to, it’s quite likely he would have done a runner. And he might have taken his baby with him, afraid he might not see her again otherwise. Perhaps Jessica knows all about it and has arranged to meet him as soon as she can. They might have planned his disappearance together, and that’s why you think she’s hiding something.’
‘The times don’t add up,’ Geraldine pointed out. ‘Jason and Daisy both disappeared on Saturday, but David wasn’t killed until Tuesday.’
The detective chief inspector nodded. ‘All the same, we need to keep an eye on Jessica,’ she said. ‘I agree, there’s something here that doesn’t add up. It can’t be coincidence that Jason’s run off with the baby just around the time when David was killed. And you said Jessica wasn’t too upset on hearing her father was murdered.’
‘She was more concerned about Daisy, but that’s probably understandable, given she didn’t seem to have got on too well with her father.’
‘Are you suggesting Jessica killed him? And she and Jason are in on this together?’ Ian asked.
For a moment no one answered.
‘Let’s find out what’s in David’s will,’ Eileen barked.
They were all feeling the pressure of a murder investigation on top of a missing baby in one family. David’s position as a local dignitary made it more likely the media would seize hold of the story straight away, before the police even had time to investigate his murder.
21
Jessica was visibly annoyed when Geraldine returned to her house. She was reluctant to answer more questions and agreed to sit down with her only after Geraldine insisted.
‘I need to be with my mother,’ Jessica said. ‘We’ve just lost my father and we still don’t know where Daisy is. Don’t you realise I’m here all on my own? Do you think it’s easy being in the house by myself? I don’t have time for this.’
‘I’m afraid “this” is a murder investigation,’ Geraldine replied, ‘and we need to speak to everyone who was close to the victim.’
‘We weren’t that close,’ Jessica muttered. ‘I really do
n’t have time to talk to you. I have to go and be with my mother.’
‘So let’s do this now, while we’re both here,’ Geraldine continued, ignoring the interruption. ‘Otherwise we’re going to have to ask you to come along to the police station to speak to us, and that will waste even more of your time.’
Pursing her lips, Jessica sat down, and Geraldine pressed on. She was slightly taken aback at the change in Jessica. No longer anxious and unsure of herself, she seemed quite assertive, almost aggressive in her attitude. But grief and worry could alter people’s behaviour and no doubt Jessica had not been sleeping well since the baby had vanished. Her irascibility could be down to lack of sleep.
‘Where were you on Saturday evening?’
‘If you think you can pin this on me, you’re going to end up wasting a lot of time. Yes, my father and I didn’t always get on too well, but you’ve got no proof I laid a finger on him. Anyway, I expect I’ve got an alibi. When was he killed? Well? Go on, tell me when it was and I’ll prove it couldn’t have been me.’
Experience had taught Geraldine that unforced confessions were not uncommon, so she sat back and listened, but Jessica said nothing that might incriminate herself, or her husband.
‘Were you aware of any bad feeling between David and anyone he knew?’
Jessica scowled. ‘I told you, my father was one of those people who fall out with everyone. I don’t think he meant to. I don’t know that he even appreciated the effect he had on other people. He wasn’t deliberately nasty, nothing like that, but he was –’ she hesitated. ‘He always thought he knew best.’
Geraldine watched Jessica carefully as she put her next question.
‘You asked me when your father was killed?’
Jessica nodded, her expression solemn.
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