Death of a Mermaid

by Lesley Thomson

  ‘Yours truly has been cut out.’ Freddy sounded strangely sanguine. ‘It goes to the boys. Andy was embarrassed, Ricky not so much, I’d imagine. Stick with my baby bro, he’s rich.’ As if gifted with a sense of drama, the cockatiel did a fly-past, swooping low and landing back on the shelf.

  ‘That’s total shit.’

  ‘What did you expect?’ Freddy put the hamster down and whistled at the cockatiel. He flapped over and teetered on her arm as she steered him into his cage. Freddy looked thoroughly at home.

  ‘I’d assumed, if I thought about it at all, you’d each get a third.’ Reenie had dubbed her a cradle-snatcher, although Toni was only five years older than Ricky. But she hadn’t been a vindictive woman.

  ‘When I started seeing Ricky your mum asked if I was in touch with you. I said we’d texted. No point lying, Reenie would have known.’ A multicoloured fish darted around an ornamental starfish. Toni wondered if Freddy remembered that she’d given her the boat with the princess and the prince.

  ‘What did Mum say?’ Freddie asked.

  ‘She started on about the ironing or some such. It’s a shame you didn’t make it to your dad’s funeral.’

  ‘A shame? It was a bit more than that. Dad forbade me to return. If I’d shown up, my brothers would have killed me.’

  ‘No way.’ The Powers might not stretch to murder, but things would have got ugly.

  ‘You saw Ricky yesterday. I’m the devil.’

  ‘He came on strong. I’m sorry.’ Toni snatched at the vestiges of their friendship.

  ‘Don’t apologise for my brother.’

  In the silence the fish tank bubbled.

  ‘How did you know I was here? Andy said he wouldn’t tell Ricky.’ Freddy spoke first.

  ‘Andy texted. Coming back here. It must be painful.’

  ‘Less painful than spending my savings at the Premier Inn. Andy’s offered me work. Without asking Ricky, so if you tell him, prepare for a fit.’ Freddy bared her teeth. ‘The pet hotel and the fish round. No doubt he feels guilty; very Andy: he won’t go against the will but can’t bear that I’m done out.’ Freddy cuddled the hamster. ‘He told me about Karen.’

  ‘It’s shocking. Who would do that to her?’ Toni was relieved not to have to break it to Freddy.

  ‘Andy said it was her son.’ Freddy tapped the hamster’s nose.

  Toni pulled a face. ‘The lad’s dead too, we can’t ask him.’

  ‘That is awful.’ Freddy let go of the hamster, grabbing it before it headed off her lap. ‘They were both murdered?’

  Tension between the once best friends eased. Murder was safer conversational ground.

  ‘No, Daniel smashed his car – Karen’s car – into a barrier on the beach the same night and nearly took his girlfriend with him. He worked at Power’s – maybe Andy said?’ Freddy gave a slight nod. ‘Ricky’s devastated; Danny was something of a protégé, he was developing him into a skipper.’ Toni didn’t admit how it had annoyed her that Ricky had treated Danny like a son. Guilt, perhaps, for her drawing a line at them having children.

  ‘Karen Munday made your life a misery. Did it piss you off, my brother putting himself out for her son?’ Freddy always hit the spot.

  ‘I wished her dead a few times at Our Lady,’ Toni agreed. ‘I used to wind Mags up saying that, remember? She was worried God would lose patience with me.’ If Toni felt guilt, it was for that. Mags had stuck by her when Toni took the piss out of her faith. ‘My dad used to say that my mum’s side of the family bore grudges so, when it came to Karen, I supposed I was a chip off that block. But seeing her dead, if I could have one wish granted, it would be to see her driving her fish van. It’s one of the most upsetting murders I’ve seen, which is saying a lot. Not gruesome. Calculated, nasty. Personal.’

  ‘If it was her boy, he must have hated her,’ Freddy mused.

  ‘Ricky says Daniel couldn’t stand the sight of blood. Karen was strangled, which would figure.’

  ‘Mags wanted us both to go to confession, to be proper Catholics. Remember when we pretended to go in and slipped out the back?’ Freddy frowned, as if the memory was bad. ‘We were only fooling ourselves.’

  ‘A sin shared is a sin doubled.’ Toni snorted at their old joke. A rat-thing was gnawing at a bar in its cage. The name tag said ‘Roddy’. ‘Bless her, Mags hasn’t given up on me as a lost cause.’

  They went quiet, perhaps both considering that Mags had given up on Freddy.

  ‘Terrible if Daniel did kill Karen,’ Freddy said. The rat stopped working at his cage and glared at her.

  ‘It’s not definite Daniel’s the perp. There’s no compelling motive.’ Toni stuck a finger into the rat’s cage and clacked her tongue.

  Don’t!’ Freddy shouted. ‘Roddy’s care sheet says he bites if you haven’t introduced yourself.’

  ‘I’ll pass, thanks.’ Toni snatched away her hand. ‘Daniel was a teenager. All it might have taken was Karen telling him to tidy his bedroom to send him ape.’ Here she was, chatting with Freddy Power as if nothing had happened since they were Mermaids. It felt good.

  ‘I can’t get my head around it,’ Freddy said as she left the room.

  ‘Andy’s theory that Daniel caught her doing it with a bloke doesn’t stack up. There’s no evidence, nothing in Karen’s phone records or emails. We’re asking her neighbours and customers.’

  ‘Why does Andy think there was a man?’ Freddy returned with a box of ‘tasty mix’ for rodents. She tipped some into a dish decorated with nibbling creatures and placed it in Roddy’s cage. From the speed with which Roddy scuttled over, he didn’t need formalities to crack on with supper.

  ‘Karen was a catch, he reckoned. Your brothers put everything in fishing terms.’ Toni shot a look at Freddy. ‘The clothes in her wardrobe have to be worth about ten grand and she didn’t get that kind of dosh from a fish round.’ Watching Roddy reminded Toni she hadn’t eaten. She felt in her pocket. ‘Want half a Snickers?’

  ‘No, thanks,’ Freddy said, so sharply that Toni expected her to ask if she’d paid for the chocolate. ‘Finding your mum in bed with a stranger, or with anyone, would be horrible. Could it be Andy? I never asked, why did he employ her?’

  ‘Andy is Mr Family Man. Did he say he’s married to Kirsty Baxter from school?

  ‘I’d never heard of her.’

  ‘She was a friend of Amy’s – nice girl. Still is. She could handle your mum, which is more than I did!’ Toni risked a jibe at the all-wonderful Reenie Power. ‘Kirsty has the same birthday as Mags. Younger, obviously. Proves astrology’s nonsense; they’re not a bit alike. Mags is passionate about the church; Kirsty is passionate about Strictly.’

  ‘How’re things with Ricky?’ Freddy didn’t need to expand. Ricky was the subject that, so far, they had avoided.

  ‘The third person in our relationship is Teresa-Mary.’ Seeing Freddy’s quizzical expression, ‘His trawler. He’s out fishing most nights.’

  ‘Is that OK with you?’

  ‘If he did a nine to five, we’d have broken up by now. Keeps it fresh.’ Her moaning about her boyfriends and Freddy sorting her out, now it really was like the old days.

  ‘Could Ricky have been with Karen?’ Freddy never had minced words, but Toni hadn’t expected her to suggest her own brother for murder. Freddy must be very annoyed that Toni hadn’t told her she was with Ricky. Toni felt hurt. Freddy had never been petty. ‘If he and Daniel were close, might Daniel have gone nuts when he found them? It happens. When Andy got pneumonia and Mum sat up nights with him, Ricky smashed up a dinner set because she wasn’t there for him.’

  ‘He was a kid. I nicked money out of my dad’s wallet to buy him a birthday present,’ Toni snapped. ‘That scenario puts Ricky in the frame as much as Daniel.’

  The goodwill between them evaporated.

  ‘Maybe you’re the wrong person to head this case,’ Freddy said. ‘Ricky’s my brother, but I’m willing to accept he’s not perfect.’

  ‘So am
I. But that doesn’t make him a murderer. What does he have to gain? He’s lost a crew member.’ Toni balled up the Snickers wrapper and tossed it in the fire. They watched as it burnt blue and green, like the lava lamps. ‘If Ricky murdered Karen, don’t you think he’d work out it wasn’t in his interest? Don’t answer that.’

  ‘Fishermen go on about how poor they are, but it’s a decent living.’ Freddy seemed to be out to needle Toni. ‘Sounds like Daniel’s not your only suspect.’

  ‘It’s too early to close off possibilities.’ Toni wished she hadn’t come. Mags had known to keep away. The past was the past. The Mermaids were finished. ‘Andy was at home with his wife. Ricky was fishing.’ Why had she said that?

  ‘Not great alibis.’ Freddy scattered a pinch of fish food into the tank. ‘From his wife. And why wasn’t Daniel on the boat with him?’

  ‘Day off, or he threw a sickie.’ Toni offered an olive branch. ‘Listen, I’ll talk to Rick about you, make him see—’

  ‘Don’t bother. After the funeral, I’m gone. I don’t need his charity. Or you pleading for me. Long ago I learnt that if you don’t rely on others, they can’t let you down.’ Freddy was expressionless. In their Mermaid days that meant she was upset and keeping it in.

  ‘Jesus, Freddy.’ Toni lost it. ‘If we’re talking about friends, where have you been over the last twenty years? Is the odd text your idea of a Merma— of friendship? While you were living your new life, Ricky and Andy slaved their guts out, and I mean slaved. Fred Power worked them like mules; he paid a pittance. Then he dropped dead. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a happy ending. At last the boys got to run the place. All I’m saying is so what if Andy does feel guilty about the will? He’s a decent bloke and loyal to his sister, so don’t diss him for reaching out—’ She stopped. Freddy had gone red. She was no longer blank; Toni had said too much.

  ‘Ci biedni chłopcy,’ Dolly screeched.

  ‘It’s Polish.’ Freddy was trying not to laugh. The rabbit ventured out from under the television and gave a few hops towards the kitchen. Damn thing knew where to find the lettuce.

  The aquarium gurgled. Fish whisked and darted around the prince and princess in the boat. Roddy had left off grinding at the bars of his cage and was preening himself. Freddy petted the hamster on her lap. Domestic bliss in another life.

  ‘I miss the Mermaids,’ Toni heard herself whisper.

  ‘Me too,’ Freddy said. ‘Karen never got over being chucked out.’

  ‘Yes,’ Toni said. ‘Mags went a bit over the top, perhaps. She was sticking up for me.’

  ‘Brad belonged to Karen.’

  ‘Who’s Brad?’

  ‘This is Brad.’ Freddy lifted the hamster and gave it a kiss. ‘Karen brought him to stay at Sunnyside.’

  ‘You’re kidding. Why?’ Toni sat up. Was Karen planning a holiday with a mystery man? Seeing Freddy’s face, ‘No, I mean, obviously, this is a nice place for animals, but why did Karen need Brad to stay anywhere? She didn’t go anywhere.’

  ‘Maybe she wanted Brad to have a break?’ Freddy looked dumbfounded that a hamster wouldn’t want to stay in the animal hotel. At another time this might have been funny.

  The silence was broken by a mournful sound. The foghorn. Bad weather was forecast. Not a night to be at sea. Ricky had fished in worse conditions. Ricky. Although Toni didn’t owe Freddy an explanation, she offered it anyway.

  ‘I bumped into Ricky on Piccadilly Circus. He’d come up to see the sights, he said.’ She laughed heartily at the memory. ‘Madame Tussaud’s, the Science Museum and finally the lights. He was sitting on the steps at Eros.’

  ‘That doesn’t sound like Ricky.’ Freddy looked puzzled. ‘Although he did like books on how things work. But the waxworks?’

  ‘He said you and Andy went with your mum, but he was too young.’ Toni took a breath. ‘I think Ricky often felt left out around you and Andy. You were very close.’

  ‘He was younger.’ It was difficult to work out whether Freddy was reminding Toni of her and Ricky’s age difference. Toni remembered that the Power family had a tough reputation.

  ‘So, well, a drink in a pub segued into a burger and chips, and then, crazy, since I was a couple of years shy of forty, we went on to a club. We ended up at my flat.’

  Freddy was silent, and Toni ploughed on.

  ‘I know I should have told you, especially when I moved back here. To be fair, a fisherman could hardly work in London. When the DI job came up in Sussex and with no openings in the Met, I returned. I bought one of those new apartments on the Quay.’

  ‘That bit I knew. You didn’t mention shagging my baby brother.’ Freddy was still cross.

  Toni was fed up of feeling guilty. ‘I should have done. But you were getting on with your life, and none of what happened to you was Ricky’s fault.’

  ‘Have you seen Mags?’ Freddy changed the subject and dribbled Brad back into his cage.

  ‘What? Yes. Mags nursed Reenie; she was brilliant.’ Toni hadn’t meant to rub it in. Her mobile rang. Malcolm.

  ‘Guv. It’s Daisy Webb, they’ve found a blood clot on her brain. She’s in a coma.’

  13

  MAGS

  Mags had prayed that Freddy would not reply to her text. It was hardly a prayer God could answer. He forgave a sin, but didn’t reward the sinner.

  … while a man or woman loves sin, if there be any such, he is in pain that surpasses all pains…

  Tuesday morning. Cold and dull. Mags was at her sitting room window, staring out. Through a gap between the new houses she saw a snatch of the river. Yellow-grey, sluggish. It mirrored her mood.

  She went over and touched her statue of Mary. Keep it safe. Her intention is in Mary. She recalled the words in her diary. Reenie’s wishes were her sons’ command. Silently, Mags crossed herself.

  Ever since Mags heard that Freddy had arrived in Newhaven, she had been a bundle of nerves. Freddy had come, but she’d been too late to see her mother. Mags’s mother had told her – many times – if you do a thing, do it properly. Mags had done this far from properly.

  She could not answer Freddy’s text. She would not meet her.

  Sin upon sin.

  Unbidden, Mags’s mind drifted to an evening long ago. A memory that until now she’d battened down with the rest.

  They were going to Sammy’s nightclub in Newhaven.Toni’s dad was in hospital, but she’d sneaked out of the house. She needed some fun, she said. Mags had agreed to high heels and a make-up session with Toni. Freddy wore the leather jacket she’d bought in Brighton. They’d jostled in front of Freddy’s parents’ full-length mirror, checking their hair and executing dance moves.

  A boy Toni knew got them into the club without ID. They’d had a last ‘titivate’, as Toni called it, in the loos. The man Toni fancied – called Steve – was on the decks. He’d played Aerosmith’s ‘I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing’ for Toni. She’d given it everything, miming the song to him, writhing and coiling under the glitter ball. Decor the Mermaids had declared totally naff but Mags thought magical.

  Mags danced with Freddy, pouting as if to a Top of the Pops camera, fingers admonishing, palms gliding from faces, hips and shoulders jerking in sync. Then everyone gave them the floor, egging them on. Mags took off. The lights, the sound, the heat dissolved her senses. She danced for Freddy.

  It was 1998, before mobile phones were common and a while before they had cameras – no one was filming. But an ambitious cub reporter from the Brighton Evening Argus – never off the clock and dreaming of a front-page story – had taken shots of them. Planning a story of underage drinkers, she couldn’t have guessed her snaps would illustrate the paper’s headline story the next day:

  Teen’s joy turns to heartbreak.

  Karen Munday had broken them up. She’d marched onto the floor and made for Toni. Freddy and Mags had closed ranks.

  Karen had yelled in Toni’s ear. Mags couldn’t catch it, but she saw the effect on Toni. She stopped stock-still, her h
ands reaching for the glitter ball. In the strobing lights, Toni was spectral. It hadn’t been hard to lip-read Karen:

  ‘Your. Dad. Is. Dead.’

  ‘Shut up, Karen.’ Freddy was squaring up to Karen.

  ‘Her dad’s dead. And she’s dancing with you two lezzies.’

  The word scalded Mags as if Karen had dropped liquid metal on her chest.

  The music stopped. Lights went up. Everyone drifted from the floor, leaving the four girls beneath the slowly revolving glitter ball.

  Footsteps clacked on the parquet. Sister Bernie and a uniformed police officer, his helmet under his arm. Sister Bernie had her arm around Toni. She led her away. Sister Agnes had told everyone to return home to their parents. Funny thing to say, Mags thought. You didn’t go home to your parents. You just went home. Despite everything, Mags’s lingering image was of the nuns in the nightclub.

  It turned out that Karen was telling the truth. Toni’s dad was dead. He’d been murdered. Toni was driven off in a police car like a criminal. The lezzie bit was wrong, though. Mags knew it was a sin to love a woman. Like that. You might not know a sin until you had committed it and your life was ruined.

  Leaving the statue of Mary, Mags got her coat. Outside, rain clouds formed. Grabbing her bag and keys, she stepped out on to the landing. The lift was there, but Mags was trying to get her Fitbit steps.

  And now Karen Munday had been murdered. It was mad. As mad as the fact that Freddy was in Newhaven.

  14

  TONI

  ‘It was a man; the way he walked wasn’t ladylike. At that hour an’ all, no decent girl would be out by herself.’ Mrs Haskins puckered her lips in disapproval.

  ‘Can you remember what time this was?’ Malcolm was scribbling in his pad. Toni gave him credit for patience. She’d boxed off the elderly woman as a ghastly succubus who fed off the weird and twisted problems of others. They had interrupted Mrs Haskins slavering over a reality show that involved someone having custard poured over their head. Toni doubted Mrs H had much to offer them; she’d be after a speaking part in their case.