A Body in the Bookshop

by Helen Cox

  ‘Sorry if I brought that on,’ she said when he signalled he’d had enough. ‘Didn’t expect to meet someone in the same boat as me when it came to the law.’

  ‘How’d they get you?’ Alim asked, ignoring Evie’s apology.

  Evie looked around the room to check that everyone else had gone back about their business. Everyone had, save for the man in the next bed who was leaning in their direction, trying to overhear. She kept her voice low. ‘Well, I was under suspicion for murdering my ex-boyfriend.’

  Alim, following Evie’s lead on the volume, and perhaps to make it less painful when he spoke, whispered, ‘Did you do it?’

  Evie smirked in what she hoped was a sinister fashion. ‘Of course not, I’m innocent.’

  Alim smirked too, or at least tried to. There was a big welt on the left-hand side of his mouth that had partly immobilized his lips.

  ‘So the coppers attacked you, eh? Tried to get you to confess?’

  ‘Not exactly. I was kidnapped in the back of the car, which my kidnapper drove into the river.’ Evie tried not to dwell too long on the words coming out of her mouth. If she wasn’t careful she would feel it again; that almighty gush of the footwell filling with icy water. Her face smashing against something blunt and hard. The panicked thuds and moans of desperation from her captors in the front seat. The moments she had spent trying to hold her breath while Halloran broke the car window and pulled her to safety. ‘My kidnappers only drove the car into the river because the police backed them into a corner. If that inspector had known what he was doing, it never would have happened.’ Evie threw that last part in for good measure. She had to keep up the pretence that she blamed Halloran for what had happened to her face. For some reason, however, blaming him didn’t feel difficult. She frowned at the realisation. Did part of her blame Halloran for the person she saw in the mirror?

  ‘So this copper was a bloke?’ Alim said, regaining Evie’s attention.

  ‘Yeah. He did pull me out of the car though. Suppose that means I owe him my life.’

  Alim did what he could to shake his head. ‘You can’t trust them. Any of them. Was probably doing all he could to shock you into confessing.’

  ‘The thought crossed my mind, but I’m too smart for that . . . Wait, you said a copper did this to you too?’ Evie made her eyes a little wider at this juncture. The more surprised and oblivious she could come across, the better.

  ‘She was wearing a balaclava, yeah, so I didn’t see her face. But I recognized the Scottish accent. She beat me . . .’ Alim’s voice failed him but he swallowed hard and found it again. ‘She beat me with a hammer and was shouting at me about some burglary she was working. Telling me I better confess, or else.’

  ‘Crikey. Do you know her name? Sounds like someone to steer clear of.’

  ‘Banks, crossed paths with her a few times. She’s always fingering me. She’d have me for every burglary within five miles if she had her way.’

  ‘Banks . . .’ Evie said, letting her frown deepen for effect. ‘I think I know who you mean. She was there the day they pulled me out of the river.’

  ‘The way she went at me . . .’ said Alim, in a voice that suggested that his lower lip would have wobbled, if only it could.

  ‘I can see you took a good beating,’ Evie said, looking at his face and shuddering at the thought of that hammer meeting bone and flesh. ‘I’m sorry you had to go through this.’ Alim may not be an angel, but he didn’t deserve to be in this situation which, given how young he was, Evie suspected wasn’t entirely of his own making.

  Alim lowered his eyes. The conversation was going to come to a natural end here unless she found a way to prolong it, and she hadn’t quite yet achieved what she’d hoped for.

  ‘This Banks, have you reported her?’

  Alim gave a small nod. ‘The police say they are investigating it. Apparently they found her fingerprints on the hammer.’

  ‘The police told you that?’

  Alim’s mouth turned up at the corners. ‘We have an inside source.’

  Evie’s heart quickened. Somebody on the local force was leaking information to the Buruk family? And who knows who else. She needed to find out more about this but now probably wasn’t the time. If she pushed, he might guess her agenda. Best to keep him onside and see if she could weasel something out about that later.

  Evie sighed. ‘What a mess, I’m sorry. But on the bright side, this Banks woman probably will get caught out sooner or later. She’s clearly not very smart.’

  ‘How do you mean?’

  ‘Well, you’re a police officer, yeah? So you know how criminal investigations work. You go to the effort of disguising yourself and even put on gloves. You go round to the house of someone who you like for a burglary, you threaten them, beat them up enough to hospitalize them, then leave the assault weapon with your fingerprints all over it where anyone could find it.’

  ‘It was dropped on my bloody doorstep.’

  ‘What an idiot. I mean that’s a fine way to get yourself caught. Can’t even bully someone right.’

  Alim’s face was crinkling in thought. But then his stare wandered in the direction of the door and in an instant his eyes widened enough for Evie to read the fear in them. She followed his gaze and saw a woman stomping towards them in a black long-sleeved maxidress that left very little of her pasty flesh on show. Her brown frizzy hair clung to the sides of her jaw and she seemed to be sweating with the effort of moving. The few wrinkles around her eyes indicated that she was somewhere in her early forties. There was something about the woman’s squarer-than-average face that left Evie feeling uneasy .

  The woman’s stare darted between Evie and Alim and Evie frowned as she approached.

  ‘Who’s this?’ she asked, speaking to Alim and pointing at Evie.

  Evie’s shoulders clenched. She had hoped not to get so far as giving out her name. She had hoped to breeze in and out like a good fairy, plant the seeds of doubt over Charley’s guilt in Alim’s mind and never be seen or heard of again.

  ‘She’s just a patient at the hospital, Mum,’ said Alim.

  So this was Alim’s mother?

  Evie knew it was wrong to judge someone by their appearance but it wasn’t just the woman’s features that unnerved her. Her manner made it clear she was not a woman to be trifled with.

  Evie’s shoulders lowered at Alim’s deflection. She might yet get away with remaining anonymous.

  ‘A patient at the hospital?’ Mrs Buruk repeated. ‘Who you’ve been talking to, when you don’t even know her name?’

  ‘Just got talking, it’s boring in here, you know?’ Alim croaked.

  ‘And what have you been talking about?’ asked Alim’s mother. Her eyes were still fixed on her son. She was concentrating every ounce of energy on a hard stare that made Evie shudder and it wasn’t even directed at her.

  ‘Nothing,’ said Alim. ‘Just, you know. This and that. She was looking for a doctor and then we got talking about coppers.’

  ‘What about the coppers?’ The woman scowled at Evie.

  ‘I didn’t mean to disturb you at this difficult time,’ Evie said, conscious of the fact that if Alim said one more word he was likely to give away their whole conversation and, given his mother’s suspicious disposition, that wouldn’t end well for her. ‘Your son was just being kind and trying to help me find a doctor I was looking for, I’ll go now.’

  ‘Kind?’ The mother repeated, as though this was more suspicious than anything else.

  ‘Yes, so kind, thank you so much.’ Evie was speaking so fast that each word almost ran into the next. She began walking towards the door.

  ‘I’ll see you out,’ Alim’s mum said. Evie swallowed hard. Being followed by the mother of a known criminal wasn’t exactly a positive turn of events.

  She contemplated making a run for it but that would lik
ely cause more trouble. Best that she just tried to stand her ground as best she could and then get out of there as quick as possible. She was in a public place, after all. With witnesses. There was only so much this woman could do to her . . . right?

  The moment the pair were outside the room, the woman turned on Evie and backed her up against the nearest wall. ‘Listen to me,’ she said poking a finger into Evie’s right shoulder. ‘My son thinks he’s streetwise, thinks he’s clever. He hasn’t got a clue but I know. I know how the world works.’

  ‘So lovely to hear of a mother looking out for a son, not enough of that about these days.’ Evie wanted to believe she sounded casual but the fact that she half-stammered these words undermined any hope of acting breezy.

  ‘What were you really doing in there with my son?’

  ‘Really, I was just trying to find the doctor. About my scars, you see?’ Evie tilted her head at an angle that – she believed – made her scars look the most unseemly.

  ‘Who are you?’

  ‘Me?’ Evie said, with a nervous chuckle. ‘I’m . . . I’m nobody, really nobody worth bothering about at all.’

  ‘What’s your name?’ Mrs Buruk asked through gritted teeth.

  Evie couldn’t give her own name. It wasn’t just about the consequences for Charley if anyone found out she had been here, though the thought of that was bad enough.

  She was useless at handling high pressure situations. She had to be someone else, someone who could handle situations like this.

  ‘My name is Kitt,’ she heard herself say, and then her eyes widened. Oh God no . . . why had she said that name? Now Kitt could be in danger.

  ‘Kitt what?’ Evie didn’t think it was possible for the woman’s face to get any closer to hers but somehow she managed it.

  ‘Kitt . . . Schmartley,’ Evie said, deciding that she was probably going to hell for this. She couldn’t count how many times Kitt’s friendship had saved her and now, here she was, throwing her to the wolves.

  ‘Schmartley?’ Alim’s mum repeated.

  ‘Yes,’ Evie said, assuming Kitt’s strait-laced posture and pushing the woman back out of her way. ‘That’s right. And being a highly educated woman, I have looked up every possible regulation on assault and if you’re not careful I will press charges. Good day to you, madam.’

  Evie turned on her heel the way she imagined Kitt might in this situation and strutted down the corridor towards the nearest exit. Just before she pushed through a set of double doors, Evie heard Alim’s mother call: ‘You better watch yourself. I’ll be looking out for you, Kitt Schmartley!’

  Six

  Despite a somewhat calamitous end to the afternoon, Evie managed to remember her promise to visit Kitt at the library on her way home. She took the quickest route to Kitt’s place of work, through Rowntree Park and down to the river front, being sure to keep her eyes on the path as she neared the water.

  The river Ouse had once been one of Evie’s favourite things about living just outside the longest medieval town walls in England. Not any more. Looking at the river now gave her flashbacks to the moment her kidnappers’ car had splashed into it. At this time of year the river always flooded, swallowing certain sections of the city whole, and even catching the submerged steps up to Skeldergate Bridge in her peripheral vision was enough to make Evie shudder.

  She turned her back on the river completely and looked towards the front entrance of the Vale of York University Library. The exterior lights were a pure white, and shone upwards, illuminating the five-floor, mock-Tudor building in all its glory. Black beams stretched towards a gable roof. Above the doorway, the university motto was inscribed into a golden plaque in tall letters: The mind is its own universe. Evie had always rather liked this phrase and when it came to Kitt it was definitely a truism. There sometimes seemed no bounds to the things she held in that head of hers.

  Hopping up the steps and pushing through the solid oak doors, Evie was at once overcome by that familiar, dusty scent of aging books and began her usual route across the ocean of blue ceramic floor tiles, past the rows of computers and up the spiral staircase to Women’s Studies, the section that Kitt was responsible for. On reaching the second floor, though, she found that Kitt wasn’t behind her desk. This was odd. Evie scanned the rest of Kitt’s desk, looking for the ‘Back in 5 minutes’ sign the librarian always scribbled out if her duties, or her somewhat concerning tea habit, took her elsewhere. But there wasn’t one. Evie frowned. Her friend was always so keen on making sure the students knew help was close at hand. Evie walked along the end of the bookshelves, assuming she would catch sight of Kitt, refiling one of the volumes off the returns pile, or showing a student where a particular book was, but as it was so late there were only a few students milling about. The rest had gone home to Uber a McDonald’s to their house and watch the latest TV box set.

  Evie headed towards the second-floor office where she presumed her friend was making herself an emergency cup of Lady Grey while hoping that Michelle’s spies ­weren’t watching her take an unscheduled break. She was no more than six paces away from the door, however, when a sickening feeling settled in her stomach. She could hear something faintly unfurling under the doorway. It was Kitt’s voice, and from the tone of it she was in some distress.

  Evie swung open the door and was greeted with three faces wearing a variety of expressions.

  Two of the faces she recognized. Kitt was standing next to the table in the centre of the office. Her arms were folded but her face seemed to relax a little on seeing Evie walk through the door. Halloran stood to the right of Kitt in a dark grey suit. He was frowning and his lips were tight and thin. In his hands, Evie noticed a pencil hovering above a notebook, poised to take notes on whatever had been going on just before she opened the office door. Then there was the woman on the left, who Evie had never met. She too was dressed in a suit, though hers was brown. She was wearing a turquoise silk scarf around her neck, knotted like a tie. She was as tall as Halloran and had shoulder-length wavy hair, black as a starless night.

  All three of them were surrounded by piles of papers and books; the second-floor office wasn’t the most organized of environments.

  ‘S-sorry to interrupt,’ Evie said, though from the weak smile crossing Kitt’s lips, it seemed the librarian was glad she had. ‘It sounded as though Kitt was in trouble, or upset. That’s why I rushed in.’

  Kitt opened her mouth to speak but the unknown woman got there first.

  ‘Who are you?’ she asked. She seemed to be scrutinizing every cell in her body.

  ‘I’m . . . Evie. One of Kitt’s friends. That’s why I dashed in here. I thought there was something wrong.’

  ‘There is something wrong,’ Kitt said with a sigh. ‘Quite a few things actually. Superintendent Ricci here believes that I’ve been interfering with this bookshop burglary case. She’s accusing me of paying a hospital visit to somebody I’ve never even heard of.’

  Evie swallowed and hoped it didn’t sound like an audible gulp. For a moment she wasn’t able to breathe as her brain connected the ever more alarming dots.

  Alim’s mother must have put in a complaint and Halloran had been dragged down to the library immediately with a superior in tow to ensure Kitt didn’t do any more snooping around. Except, Kitt hadn’t done any snooping.

  ‘Please, Ms Hartley, don’t act the innocent,’ said Ricci. ‘I know all about your interference with the murder case in October.’

  ‘Strange,’ Kitt said, her tone bone dry, ‘I wouldn’t have expected a police officer to think that a civilian hunting down a wanted murderer was interference.’

  Halloran didn’t utter a word but Evie noticed his shoulders tighten. Though he and Kitt had only just started seeing each other Kitt had suggested Halloran was more than a little bit protective of her.

  ‘Regardless,’ said Ricci, folding her arms across her chest. ‘
It’s clear you’ve got a few ideas above your station along the way. Criminal investigative work is not your place, police business is not your business. It seems you need to be reminded of that. Your little charade this afternoon is going to cost us dearly in both paperwork and reputation on an already complicated case.’

  This was the moment, Evie thought, when she should explain that it was she who had been to the hospital, not Kitt. But when she opened her mouth something stopped her from making a full confession. It wasn’t just fear of the consequences – though Evie couldn’t deny that was a factor – it was more the fear that if she confessed now then she would be on Ricci’s radar just as much as Kitt and who knew how much more covert investigation it would take to get Charley off the hook? On top of that, Kitt was the curious type and for all Evie knew, even if she hadn’t been down to the hospital herself she could have been doing a little bit of investigative work on the sly. Best to see how this situation panned out before offering up incriminating information.

  ‘I’ve told you,’ Kitt said. ‘I haven’t been to the hospital this afternoon. I’ve been at work.’

  ‘And you haven’t taken any breaks?’ said Ricci. ‘The hospital is just a short taxi ride from here.’

  ‘Oh good grief,’ said Kitt. ‘No, I have not taken any breaks or taken a taxi to the hospital. If I had done that, I would have mentioned it when you asked me if I’d been to the hospital this afternoon.’

  Ricci glared at Halloran, glanced back at Kitt and then turned her attentions to Evie. ‘What about you? You say you’re friends with Ms Hartley?’

  Evie nodded. ‘Best friends.’

  ‘The same best friend that was arrested for murder a few weeks back?’

  ‘Wrongfully arrested,’ said Evie, without quite being able to look at Ricci directly.

  ‘And are you familiar with the Bootham Bar Books burglary case?’

  ‘Yes . . . I’ve heard about it.’ Evie chose her words with as much care as possible – above all else she couldn’t lie to a police officer. That would only lead to more trouble. That said, there was something about Ricci that put her on edge, that didn’t encourage a person to be forthcoming.