Death of a Mermaid

by Lesley Thomson

A bang. Another bang. Freddy stayed still. She traced the sound. It was Andy’s office. She hadn’t shut the door properly. It was hitting the outside wall of the descaling room. Freddy waited. Would it bring Ricky out of cover?

  She let it bang ten more times, then risked Ricky seeing her. For every step, she was hurled back by a fierce gust. The door was closed. The banging came from the containers. Something had blown loose in the gale.

  When she reached the corner of the prefab, Ricky’s Mazda had gone.

  The humming of the wind froze her blood. It was too harsh, too frenetic, to be a Mermaids’ song. It came from hell. In a lull between gusts, from the scrub on the other side of the railway line, Freddy heard a herring gull’s answering lament.

  A clang.

  Another bang. Not the wind. Walk away from a problem and the answer presents itself. The illegally caught fish were stored in the containers. Ricky had moved his car so she’d assume he had gone. Any minute he would come down one of the alleyways between the containers.

  Toni had said a police officer ran towards danger, not away from it. Freddy slipped along the gap between the first line of containers. Deep in shadow, the dark was substantial. She groped and snatched at it. She stumbled against a metal wall. The sound was dull, but it seemed to Freddy that the vibration rang on and on. It gave her away. She hived off a side alley and waited. The gap was too tight to crouch.

  ‘Freddy.’ A bright light.

  ‘Who’s that?’ Freddy shielded her eyes too late. The light burnt onto her retina, rendering her blind.

  ‘It’s OK, it’s me.’ Her brother gripped her arm. ‘What the hell are you doing?’

  46

  MAGS

  Mags had only surprise and the fish hook on her side. Her ankles bound, she lunged at him and slammed the hook into his body. She aimed for his crotch, the pain would give her more time, but she’d underestimated how fear messes with your brain and, flailing, she shoved it in his stomach. She felt the yielding of flesh, so much easier than the metal of the container. She pulled out the hook. The barb ripped his flesh. ‘God forgive me,’ Mags said as she went for a second try. Her head was a jangle of voices. Have… mercy… O lord… Christ have mercy… my most grievous fault, pray for me… Oh God, to whom every heart is open, every desire known…

  She shoved past him and, rolling and pushing, plunged down a corridor of shipping containers.

  Mags knew where she was.

  The wind was raging. It was what she’d heard from her metal prison. Now she caught his groaning. Soon he would recover enough to come after her. She slipped and kicked against one of the containers.

  Clang.

  The sound would give her away. Moving like a worm, pushing and curling her back, Mags rolled into a gap between containers. At the end, her way was stopped by a high fence. The old fence had been chain-link, and possible to climb. Beyond, Mags saw the top of the lighthouse. She smelled the sea. She reached her arms through the bars. More of her was free.

  It was pitch black behind her. He would have a torch so had only to look along each of the gaps between the containers, working his way down the alley, until he found her. He knew she couldn’t get far. Mags lay flat so that, even with his torch, he might miss her.

  She was freezing. Her teeth chattered with mortal fear. Her body was toxic with the adrenalin that had flooded her veins over the last days. Her face was hard up against one of the bars, her neck cricked. Mags tried to ease backwards and grazed her nose on the side of a strut. A hysterically silly injury. The stinging made her reel. Her mind began to work. The edge of the strut was sharp. Like a knife. Mags shifted onto an elbow and thrust her hands into the gap between the struts. It flayed her skin but determination was an anaesthetic. She ran the plastic cable up and down the strut. In seconds, it snapped. Mags was euphoric. It took only slightly more time to free her ankles.

  Mags scrambled up. The stiffness was excruciating. She staggered. She could remain where she was. Lying flat, looking up at the stars. It felt good. Not that good. Mags had no choice. She would run for it.

  That was her mistake.

  47

  FREDDY

  When Andy had found her at the fishery in the small hours of the morning, Freddy had gabbled an excuse about wanting to see the boats come in, and arriving too early. She could tell from his face he didn’t believe her, but nevertheless he’d given her a lift back to their mum’s, even coming in and helping to feed the pets. By the time he left, she was pretty sure she’d won back his trust. Now, as she prepared to go out on the morning fish round, she risked losing it by sharing her suspicions that Ricky had tried to run her down after she left the pub in Tarring Neville.

  ‘Freddy, you’re off beam, mate. This is Ricky you’re talking about,’ Andy said. He’d come in early and helped her with the pre-orders. Ricky was down at the harbour sorting his boat. Stashing his illegal haul.

  ‘It does seem mad.’ Freddy couldn’t reconcile the toddler who’d joyfully romped in his bouncer suspended from a doorway with a cold-blooded killer who could murder his sister. Fred had changed Ricky’s nappies. She’d dandled him on her lap, rocking him to sleep to The Little Mermaid. ‘It makes no sense to me either. Ricky’s car was there when I left here the other night. The bonnet was warm. He’d been in it. I’m sure he heard our conversation.’ Freddy took a breath. ‘And I think he was there the night you found me.’ She hesitated. She should tell Andy she believed Ricky was dealing in black fish. That he stowed it in one of the disused shipping containers and sold it on. She was selling it. Andy was having trouble believing Ricky had tried to kill her. One thing at a time.

  ‘Ricky could have been earwigging, that I can get, he thinks I cut him out of stuff. I have to make snap decisions and he’s often incommunicado on that boat.’ Andy shook his head. ‘But seriously, our baby bro? I saw that dent – I keep meaning to ask him about it. It’s weird he hasn’t whinged – he must have noticed it.’ He laughed. ‘If I rest a finger on his precious motor, Ricky goes mental.’

  ‘He won’t want to draw it to your attention.’ Freddy mechanically assembled the fish on the ice. Once, she’d have loved the fish round. But, sickened over Mags and now sure the round was the cog in a fishing scam, it was a terrible chore. ‘Ricky wants me dead.’ The words made her heart stop. Her brother wanted her dead.

  ‘Steady on! OK, he’s upset about you leaving us with Dad. That you thought yourself a cut above. I’ve said, you were young. You wanted more. Truth is, I didn’t get it. It was like you dumped us.’ Andy scuffed his shoes about on the concrete. Freddy noticed the blocked heel that compensated for his limp. Not obvious unless you were looking. ‘Thing is, you know Ricky was close to him. He didn’t see half what you and I did. Then you sent that solicitor’s letter.’

  ‘I thought we’d got past that.’ She made the decision to trust Andy. ‘Thing is, Sarah sent those letters without asking me. I had no idea. If you report her, it will destroy her career. She did it for me. She – she’s my partner.’ Standing outside the fishery, the salty smell of the sea on the wind her life, Freddy felt herself flush. ‘She was. We’ve split up.’

  The air was cold. The sky bright blue as if from a holiday brochure. In the crisp sunlight, the rusting containers gleamed off-white. A crane on a building site in the centre of Newhaven swung a load of bricks slowly round.

  At last Andy spoke. ‘Wow. That must have been a shock, her doing that.’ He believed her. ‘All the same, it’s one hell of a thing that Ricky would run you down.’ He had made no comment that her partner was a woman.

  ‘He always had a temper.’ Freddy had a vision of Ricky smashing a bottle against the fish tank when he was five. Thankfully, it was plastic.

  ‘He’s not a murderer.’

  ‘You said that about Daniel Tyler, yet he killed Karen,’ Freddy reminded him.

  ‘That’s different.’ Andy said. ‘And I didn’t say that. It was Ricky who thought the kid was a saint.’

  ‘I swear it
was deliberate. It wasn’t a drunk driver. The car drove straight at me, then had no trouble turning. He wasn’t pissed.’

  ‘I can’t take it on. What with Mum.’ Andy looked close to tears. ‘Ricky’s been a pain lately. Angry, loses it for no reason. I wondered if he and Toni had issues.’

  Toni hadn’t said anything, but maybe she wouldn’t tell Freddy. This made her sad. Toni had once told her everything. Toni had said she should tell the boys. ‘Andy, about me leaving.’

  ‘Let’s not go there. It’s done and dusted.’ He pinched his eyes.

  ‘Dad made me promise to say nothing. I had to swear on the Bible. He said he’d hurt you if I did.’

  ‘So, don’t.’ Andy grabbed a length of towel from a roll on the shelf above the fish van counter and blew his nose.

  ‘I didn’t just up and go like he said. I told him I was in love with a woman. He went mad. I thought he’d kill me. He got me by the hair. Mum couldn’t stop him. When he ran upstairs, I hoped it was over. But he came back with a few of my things shoved in a bag. He told me I was a freak, a disgrace. Horrible things. He had no daughter. He told me to leave Newhaven and never tell you or Ricky why.’

  ‘He kicked you out because you were gay? No way.’ Andy’s reaction was exactly what Toni had said it would be.

  ‘He said it wasn’t even a half-life. I would burn in hell. That man, David Bromyard, who claims to be his friend, said he’d told Fred Power that was cruel. For what it was worth. He tried to make me say who the woman was that I was in love with. I wouldn’t.’

  ‘Bromyard was his friend. Stupid git.’ Andy curled a lip. ‘Then again, Dad could fool people.’

  They stopped talking as a delivery driver walked past. He greeted them with the tip of his baseball cap and tossed a lighted cigarette into a puddle of meltwater.

  ‘It wasn’t a reason to leave for good. I didn’t need you protecting me. I can stand on my own two feet.’

  ‘I couldn’t risk him hurting you.’

  ‘He did anyway, but you weren’t there. We could have got the police involved. I said that enough times to Mum. She wouldn’t have it. Jesus, if he hadn’t dropped dead, I swear I’d have killed that bastard with my bare hands.’ For a moment Andy looked like he meant it.

  ‘I had to go,’ Freddy said. Andy didn’t care about who she slept with. He was angry with her for abandoning him. ‘I should have found a way to get in touch. These days, with mobile phones...’

  ‘We had phones then.’

  ‘You didn’t.’

  ‘I did, actually. To show off to Kirsty. It can’t all have been because you were with Mags.’ Andy began tearing the square of towel into strips. ‘What about Mum? Was she there? Did she know?’

  ‘Mags?’ Freddy went cold. ‘How did you know?’

  ‘Obvious. It had to be one of your Mermaids. It wasn’t Toni, so who else?’

  ‘Yes, it was Mags.’ Freddy couldn’t look at him as tears threatened. Andy’s response brought it properly home. ‘Please don’t say anything to her. She’d be upset that you know. She’s moved on.’

  ‘Chance would be a fine thing. If she’s not walking on this flipping pilgrimage like you said, it seems she’s vanished.’ Andy went quiet. ‘It’s all gone to shit, hasn’t it, sis?’

  ‘Yes.’ Although it was her that had alerted Toni in the first place, Freddy couldn’t let herself believe that Mags was dead. She clung to a sliver of hope.

  ‘You said Mum was there.’ Andy looked like he was thinking what Freddy was thinking. To keep the peace, Reenie Power had hung Freddy out to dry. Her mum had been there and she had done nothing. She had not changed her will.

  ‘Tell Ricky, then he’ll stop being Mr Nasty,’ Andy said.

  ‘It won’t change things. I don’t think he tried to knock me down because of that.’ Freddy couldn’t tell Andy about the black fish. When she’d gone into Andy’s office that morning, the green file with the list of pre-orders was no longer behind Ricky’s computer. She needed to bring Andy proof.

  ‘He would totally get it. He’s open-minded,’ Andy protested. ‘You know what? This whole thing has got out of hand. I’ve got a suggestion. Two suggestions. Let’s go to Mass, all of us. We’ll light a candle for Mum together. And later – now don’t shoot me down until you’ve heard me out – you and me help Ricky crew the trawler, and we’ll all go fishing. The Power dynasty riding the waves, yeah? Please, Freds.’ His eyes glittered with excitement.

  ‘Ricky would never agree.’ Freddy reeled at the idea.

  ‘You said you have the marine qualifications. So have I. I’m the boss. Ricky will agree.’

  ‘Okay. I’ll come to Mass.’ The church was the only place she would find Mags. Alive or…

  ‘One thing, Freddy.’ Arms folded, his face rigid, expressionless. ‘Mags shouldn’t have turned you down. Keeping that secret, it’s a sin.’

  In his clumsy way, Andy had stuck up for her. Toni had been sure that Andy wouldn’t care about her being gay. But Freddy knew that, while the solicitor’s letter had been a blip, Andy would never forgive her for leaving. She gave a sigh as she reached the ring-road and made for Bishopstone, one of the outlying villages, where, thankfully, there were no pre-orders so she wouldn’t be knowingly illegally trading fish.

  She would never forgive herself. Her love for Mags had destroyed lives. Yet guilty though she felt, Freddy knew it had been right.

  48

  TONI

  ‘You can’t see her.’ Josie Webb stopped Toni and Malcolm by the nurses’ station, where they were squirting foam cleanser onto their hands from a wall dispenser.

  ‘Josie, we’ll have to ask you to lower your voice,’ a nurse said. He turned to Toni and Malcolm. ‘You have five minutes.’

  ‘Tell them to go. Leave us alone.’ Mrs Webb’s voice was louder. ‘You have your killer. That little bugger murdered his mother and he’s made my little girl a paraplegic. The only reason I wish he’d lived is so I could strangle him.’

  ‘Have you told Daisy?’ Toni was horrified. She’d assumed Daisy was turning a corner back to full recovery.

  ‘Yes.’ Josie swayed as if on a boat. Toni caught her by the shoulders and held her. Josie sobbed into her neck. ‘She blames me.’

  Toni stroked Josie’s hair.

  ‘She says I fooled her. Everyone knew, and I let her think it was a bang on the head.’ Josie was trembling. ‘We were holding off until Daisy was strong enough. I’m sorry, you’ve had a wasted journey. She’s won’t talk, not even to Annette, her favourite nurse.’

  ‘Daisy’s lashing out – mums are always the first in line.’

  Toni had shouted at her mum. Why didn’t you stop him killing Dad?

  ‘I must be strong for Daisy.’ Josie pulled away and brushed her sleeves, trying to reclaim her brisk efficiency. Toni recalled Josie’s dignified eloquence to camera: ‘If you have information about this incident, please tell the police. No one should go through the pain that we are suffering.’ It was pure gold.

  ‘Mum, let them in,’ a feeble voice called from the room. ‘I asked them here.’

  Toni the detective snapped back into action.

  ‘We got a message that you remembered something Daniel said in the car?’ Swiping up a bundle of wool stuck with a crochet needle, Toni slid into the bedside chair.

  ‘It’s like a wall with Danny on the other side.’ Daisy shut her eyes. Tears oozed from under the lids. Toni reminded herself that Daniel Munday had been Daisy’s boyfriend. Or was Daisy crying for herself?

  ‘What was Danny saying?’ Malcolm used ‘Danny’ to reignite the familiar for Daisy. Malcolm had a knack with young people; he had one at home.

  Josie Webb began pacing the room, out of Daisy’s eyeline. Her life, like Daisy’s, had been bombed to smithereens.

  ‘He said about a man being there, that he never guessed,’ Daisy said.

  ‘He never guessed he was there?’

  ‘He never guessed what was happening.’

  ‘
Do you mean Danny discovered his mum had a boyfriend?’ Toni dimly saw that the ball of wool was a crocheted exotic fruit.

  ‘I don’t know, he was shouting. I got scared.’

  ‘The man was shouting?’ The man Mo Munday said her sister was seeing in secret. Daniel had recognised him. That narrowed the field.

  ‘Dan.’

  ‘He had no right to scare you.’ Josie stopped by the bed.

  ‘Do you mean Dan was shouting in the car? While he was driving?’ Toni said. Something was off key.

  ‘“He called me his friend.”’

  ‘Your friend?’ Toni echoed.

  Daisy rounded on Toni. ‘No! It’s what Danny said to me about the man. “He called me his friend.” He was stupid, I said so. Blokes like that, they don’t have friends.’

  ‘Did you see this man?’ Ricky was Daniel’s friend. Toni dreaded Daisy’s answer. Mags is walking on a pilgrimage. Ricky had used the same phrase as in the text Freddy had got from Mags’s phone.

  ‘He said he’d kill me if I said I’d seen him at the house.’

  Heads snapped around.

  ‘You were at Daniel’s house?’ Toni scrunched the wool fruit. ‘Was Karen – Daniel’s mum – was she alive when you were there?’

  ‘Dan didn’t kill her, if that’s what you’re saying. That man will have done it.’

  ‘Wait, was the man here?’ Toni caught up with Daisy.

  ‘I just said,’ Daisy said.

  ‘Darling, tell the police. You can trust them,’ Josie whispered.

  Toni had seen no need to put an officer outside the room. She shot a look at Malcolm. He nodded and was out of the door. CCTV, description of every bloody visitor, find this man.

  ‘I can’t trust any of you.’ Feeble, Daisy pawed at her mother’s hands, clinging onto them as if she might slide off the bed. She pushed out the words between sobs. ‘He’s got a fish. On his wrist. On the inside. If I tell you, he said I’d end up like Karen.’

  ‘With me!’ Toni yelled to Malcolm, who was at the nurses’ station. Without waiting for the lift, she crashed through doors to the stairs.