A Beginner’s Guide to Murder

by Rosalind Stopps

  Daphne and I caught sight of Meg again and we moved further back into the shadows. The Shoe people followed. The chatter around us sank to a murmur.

  ‘Don’t forget,’ Daphne said into my ear, ‘it’s really important that he doesn’t know any of us are here, not while he has the girl. Best to keep back unless we absolutely have to jump in. Leave it to the experts.’

  I wasn’t reassured.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Clara said, ‘we know what we’re doing.’

  She touched her head. I guess she wanted to indicate that there was a lot going on in there. I looked at Greg and I could see that he was embarrassed. I looked at Daphne and I could tell she was thinking the same as I was: how did we manage to find such an unlikely pair of assassins? And did they really understand the situation? Did any of us? I decided then and there that I needed to step up, take more of the responsibility on my own shoulders.

  ‘You two,’ I said to the Shoe people, ‘stand at the back please. If we need you we’ll give a clear signal. A whistle. Daphne, let’s move over to the side.’

  Some of the homeless people had been chatting together in a huddle next to Meg, and as Daphne and I stood watching, one of them pulled away and came over to us. He was tall and black and old and handsome and for a moment I thought I might know him. From a school I had taught in, or maybe back home. The others watched him.

  ‘I’m Gordon,’ he said, ‘homeless at the moment, but not stupid. The lady over there seems very scared, but she’s asked us to keep away and we’ll do that. Now it seems to me that although she hasn’t seen you yet, you may be connected to her. And we don’t want to upset her by asking her but my friends and I, we can see that something is going on. So it seems that my friends and I might need to be aware of that something? Might we, perhaps, be in danger from that something? In short, ladies and gentleman, would anyone mind not mugging us off, as I believe the popular expression goes?’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘I’m sorry if we have brought trouble with us. I guess you were here first, and you deserve an explanation. Everything is happening rather quickly and I don’t know who to trust, who to tell. I feel I don’t know anything at all at the moment.’

  ‘That I can understand,’ Gordon said, ‘only it would be more than useful if we could at least know whether we should find somewhere else to be this evening. A few of us are quite vulnerable and may like to avoid any unpleasantness. Most of us, I suppose, apart from me. I’d be very happy if I could be of some kind of help, if that’s possible. I’m strong and I’m smart and I haven’t been in a fight for, oh, for ages.’

  I lost my words temporarily and I was grateful when Daphne answered for me. I could see that the Shoe people were impressed too. They stared at Gordon as if he had landed from another planet, which, to be fair, he almost had. Lewisham is not on the tourist route and American accents are not common. Nothing about Gordon was ordinary. He was gentle and calm and I trusted him straight away, no reservations. I could see that Daphne felt the same.

  ‘Thank you so much for your support,’ she said. ‘I’m not sure exactly what’s going to happen, and I’m not sure if we should move people away, what do you think, Grace?’

  I didn’t want to put anyone out, but I was very sure that I didn’t want one more thing on my conscience. It was full. I knew how dangerous toad might be. People who live on the streets had surely got enough bad stuff happening already. They didn’t need our crap too.

  ‘I hate to turn up here and ask you all to move,’ I said.

  Gordon looked thoughtful and I tried to work out how to explain.

  ‘The thing is,’ Daphne said, ‘there’s a man—’

  She was going to say more, but Clara suddenly popped up, as if she had been switched on.

  ‘I thank you for your kind offer,’ she said, ‘but we are able to deal with this ourselves. In house,’ she added for emphasis.

  Daphne looked at me and gave a tiny shrug. I think Gordon noticed.

  ‘Let’s do what I believe the young ones call, chill. Let’s chill,’ Gordon said.

  He looked at Clara and then at me and Daphne and I realised that he was trying to tell us something. Clara is a loose cannon, I’m sure that’s what he wanted to say.

  ‘Maybe we should have come alone,’ Daphne said quietly, so that only I could hear. ‘We might have been better off without them.’

  ‘It’ll be OK,’ I said. I wasn’t sure, but when she was next to me I really did think it might be.

  Meg had moved away from the group and I could no longer see her from where I was standing. There was a slight bend in the road that hid us from each other. Gordon drifted back to the edge of the small group of people and Daphne and I sat on the floor. It was cold, but I knew we both felt that we didn’t want to stand out, to make ourselves look like gracious ladies. I hadn’t realised there were so many local rough sleepers. I knew it was bad, I knew the numbers had increased, but there were so many. People from every walk of life and every age from teenagers to a man who might have been a hundred years old.

  The pretty but very thin, pale young woman sitting nearest to me grinned.

  ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘look at us if you like. We’re just like everyone else, aren’t we?’

  ‘Susannah,’ Gordon said, ‘don’t you start any of that nonsense. I don’t know much about these ladies, but I can follow my nose. And my nose tells me that these ladies are on the side of goodness and light, you hear me? So don’t torment them.’

  I would have said something, told him that it was fine, but Daphne grabbed my arm and pointed.

  ‘Look,’ she said, ‘it’s him.’

  I looked towards the road and I could see nothing, no big black car, no toad man. Maybe a car had stopped just out of sight, I wasn’t sure. The little crowd went quiet as if something had happened and I thought I heard a car engine. I strained to listen. I could hear some kind of scuffle and I thought I could hear a man shouting ‘Get in’. Clara had her hand in her pocket and I guessed that was where her gun was. I put my hand on her arm and I could feel her jump.

  There was a scream from the road, I don’t know whose, and we both scrambled to our feet. Daphne ran off before I could say don’t. It all happened so quickly that I’m not sure of the order of things but Daphne was gone for a moment and came back with Nina. Nina. Daphne was holding Nina’s arm and talking to her but Nina was distraught. She was sobbing and saying something over and over again and as they came nearer to me I realised what it was that she was saying.

  ‘Meggie, Meg, he’s got Meggie.’

  ‘He’s got Meg?’ I said, unable to believe it until Daphne nodded.

  Des was out of hiding and running towards the road, with Clara and Gordon right behind. Clara fished something out of her pocket and I might have heard a shot although it didn’t sound like I thought a shot would but there was so much shouting and slamming of car doors that I could have been mistaken. Greg stayed back and tied his shoelaces, I know that because I nearly tripped over him. I heard the sound of a car revving and roaring off and I hoped with all my heart that Meg was OK but Daphne and I had to concentrate on Nina.

  This is the moment when I feel I can tear him apart with my bare hands. Nina is sobbing. ‘It’s my fault,’ she says over and over. ‘It’s my fault.’

  Nina flails and tries to run but Daphne holds her.

  ‘It’s not your fault,’ Daphne says to Nina. ‘Meg will be OK, don’t worry.’

  She says it all in the same soothing tone, holding Nina tight and stroking her hair. Daphne looks over at me across the top of Nina’s head and I can tell she’s not feeling so positive. Of course she’s not. This is Meg, Meg whose jumpers are arranged by colour. I’m sure she won’t cope but there’s no point in me saying that. If you can’t say something nice, my grandmother used to say, then don’t say anything at all.

  I put my arm round the two of them. ‘Come on,’ I say, ‘we’re talking about Meg here. Meg is good in a crisis, she’s focused, she’ll
be just fine. We’re going to be laughing about this with her another day.’

  Daphne gives me a sceptical look and I shrug. Nina’s sobs quieten a little. Sometimes lies are right, I think. Sometimes the truth has to be bent.

  ‘Excuse me, ladies,’ says Gordon.

  I’ve forgotten he’s there. Nina flinches at the sound of his voice and Daphne murmurs into her ear.

  ‘Excuse me, but I’m sure you’re very concerned about your friend,’ Gordon says. ‘I am too. I got a glimpse of the gentleman involved, and I’m sure you’re right to be as worried as you are. He looks like a nasty piece of work. It’s just, I wondered, well, the thing is, I’d like to put myself at your disposal. You may have some small task that I could help with, or maybe you’d like a minder. I’m at your service, ma’ams.’

  Gordon sweeps to the floor in a dramatic bow. Nina even stops crying for a minute while she watches.

  ‘Yes please,’ she says. ‘Oh yes, will you help us, will you help us get Meggie back?’

  Daphne looks at me for a moment and I’m tired. I don’t know what to say. I think how nice it would be if someone else was the leader. If I could step down for a moment. All my life people have expected me to be the one who knows.

  ‘What about the police?’ I say. I was going to say more, explain why I think we might need their help now, now that he has Meg, but Nina’s reaction stopped me.

  ‘No,’ she says, and it’s more like a scream. ‘No, please no, don’t do that, he’ll kill her and he’ll kill Ronnie and he’ll get away with it.’ She is shaking, trembling so hard we can all see.

  ‘It’s OK,’ I say, ‘no police.’ We can’t, I think, we’ve got to keep trying on our own, she’s right, she knows him. I just wish I could feel more sure.

  Daphne sees that, I think. She smiles at me, and it’s a smile that says, take five, friend, I’ve got this covered. She’s amazing.

  ‘I think Nina is right, we’ll leave the police out of it for now. And I think it would be great to have you on board,’ she says to Gordon. ‘We’re going to need some help.’

  Clara tuts and paws the ground with her Doc Marten boot like a pony raring to go.

  ‘No offence, Clara,’ I say, and I was going to say something trite like, many hands make light work but she glares at me so I tail off. I probably shouldn’t have used her name, even though she said it wasn’t her real one. I just keep thinking, Meg, Meg, what are we going to do about Meg?

  ‘Sorry,’ I mouth at her.

  ‘Shall we all go back to Meg’s?’ Daphne says. ‘You need a rest, Nina. Meg will be home soon, we’ll think of something, and in the meantime I know she’d want us to look after you properly while we talk about what to do next.’

  I don’t have another idea. It seems like the best thing to do.

  ‘Also,’ Daphne says, sounding a lot calmer than I feel, ‘if she manages to escape by herself, she won’t know where we are, if we move around. Best to go there, and wait while we make a plan.’

  We decide to leave the car so that we can stick together, and we are an odd little bunch going back on the 484 bus. Daphne and I sit either side of Nina like prison guards, so pleased to have her back but so worried about Meg. It’s great that Nina has got away, but she’s shaking and shivering and talking to herself and I wonder whether she will ever get over this. Nobody says much. I think we’re all thinking the same thing: Meg, how can we get her back, what’s happening to her? Daphne has her arm round Nina and it seems the most natural thing in the world for me to reach up and hold the hand that’s resting on Nina’s shoulder.

  ‘Meg,’ Nina says, ‘he’s got Meg and it’s all my fault. I should have stayed there. I can’t believe I’ve done this to her.’

  Daphne and I look at each other.

  ‘Maybe if I go back, and I ask him to let her go.’

  ‘No,’ we say together.

  ‘That’s the worst idea,’ Daphne says. ‘Honestly, Meg would be furious. She wants you to be safe more than anything else.’

  ‘Don’t underestimate her,’ I say. ‘Old women can be very fierce.’

  I look at Daphne and I’m sure we’re both thinking the same thing. This is Meg we’re talking about, Meg. Meg who is still worrying what her husband would think, even though he’s dead. But Meg who loves Nina with a passion, I think. Meg who is stronger than she looks.

  ‘Do you really think so?’ Nina says.

  ‘Yes,’ Daphne and I say together. ‘Yes, she’ll be fine,’ I add.

  ‘About you, though,’ Daphne says. ‘Do you need to go to hospital? I think it would be best for you to see a doctor, make sure you’re OK.’

  ‘I’m fine,’ Nina says. ‘No doctors, not yet, they’d ask questions, wouldn’t they? I’ll go when Meg comes back. I’ll go with Meg.’

  Why didn’t I think of hospital? My brain is working very slowly, as though the gears are grinding down.

  Even when we pile into Meg’s house I can’t think straight. I keep thinking about the police, and about what Nina said about offering herself instead, and I wonder whether it would work if it was someone else who offered, me, for example.

  Daphne seems to know what to do. She gives Nina a job making tea, and I can see that’s the best idea. Nina says she will think about medical help again in the morning. She’s stubborn, that girl, our girl, reminds me again of Eleanor.

  ‘I want to wave to the aeroplane,’ Eleanor kept saying before I left for Britain, standing in the sunshine and pointing to the sky.

  ‘You can’t. They won’t let children in to the airport,’ I said.

  It was me really, of course. I thought that if I knew my little girl was going to be waving from the terminal I wouldn’t be able to get on. I’d sit there by the steps to the plane, refusing to get on like sheep refuse to get on the lorry to the slaughterhouse. It was hard enough to leave without that.

  Of course, she didn’t let it drop. My mum wrote to me and told me that Eleanor would stand in the garden for hours, waiting until a plane flew over, then she would jump up and down and shout to it until she was hoarse, waving her teddy bear and calling my name. It nearly killed me. Those first weeks when I was at the teacher training college and it was cold all the time with a chill that went through to my bones as if my skin wasn’t even there any more. All I could think of was her standing there in the sunshine, calling my name. I couldn’t give up, not when she was so resolute.

  I think of her as I watch Nina, four and a half thousand miles and a lifetime away but with the same courage. She’s found a piece of paper on the table and a pencil and she takes the drinks orders of the eight people we now are. Six inside, and Clara and Greg in the garden at the back. They want to help, but they’re keeping a low profile, that’s what they said, and at any other time that might have struck me as funny but nothing is funny now. Green tea, that’s what Gordon wants, and the rest are a mixture of ordinary tea and coffee. We could be at a family gathering somewhere. Somewhere where no one gets kidnapped and everyone is safe.

  Daphne and I look at each other and nod. We leave Des in charge of making the drinks and motion to Nina to come with us upstairs. She lies on Meg’s bed, touching the covers as though she might find something she has lost.

  ‘You could stay here and rest,’ Daphne says. ‘We can take it from here. And I want to be sure, when no one else is around, that you aren’t hurt anywhere. You can tell us.’

  ‘I’m OK. I’m young, I’ll mend. No doctors, and please, no police. All I want is to rescue Meg and Ronnie, then I’ll think about myself.’

  Daphne looks at me and there’s worry in her eyes, an exact reflection of my thoughts. I don’t think there’s anything we can do except stumble on and I can see that she agrees.

  ‘Try to have a rest, at least,’ I say but Nina jumps up off the bed.

  ‘Not yet,’ she says. ‘There will be time for that later.’ She gives each of us a quick, hard hug and heads off down the stairs.

  Everyone looks towards Daphne when
we go down.

  ‘OK,’ she says. ‘We have to pool our knowledge here. Let’s go through what we know, point by point. Get the new people up to speed.’

  She opens the door to the garden and beckons to Clara and Greg, who sidle in and stand next to the door as if they might leave at any moment.

  ‘Thanks, ma’am,’ says Gordon. ‘I hope that myself and my daughter here, Susannah, can help out in some way with your problems. In fact I’d like your problems to be our problems too. We don’t have money, that’s not something either of us can offer, but between us we’ve got damn well everything else, especially brains and brawn.’

  Clara tuts but Daphne ignores her and goes through all the details. I can see that she’s trying to spare Nina any embarrassment, because she’s very light on detail when it comes to the toad, and why we’re after him, what he’s done to Nina. I’m so proud when Nina speaks up.

  ‘Daphne is trying to give me an easy ride,’ she says, ‘but I think it’s important that everyone knows what he is, that man. If something isn’t named, it’s harder to rub it out. The truth of it is, he’s a pimp and a trafficker. He sold me like I was a piece of meat; no, worse than that. I’m only young, but I’m old enough to realise that what he did to me, well, I’ll be dealing with it for ever. My life is changed, maybe ruined. I think girls have died working for him, I’m sure of it. There’s one right now, she’s really ill, I don’t know, and I’m terrified at what he might do to Meg.’

  That girl is so brave, I think, so composed. There’s bruises on her arms, and she’s lost loads of weight but it’s her eyes that show the damage most. Her eyes are haunted, and they look like the eyes of a very old woman. A woman who has seen too much.

  Clara looks round the room carefully. ‘I know men like this,’ she says. ‘There are always men like this in every country. And the thing is, what they want is money. It’s the only thing. Money and power. And your friend, our friend, they can’t make money from her. Not by selling her, anyway. They can only make money by getting at what she has already, or what she has access to. So I think they’ll be in touch. I really do. And we need to be ready.’