by Peter Boon
Five things you can see.
The sofa. My beloved book collection: I’ve got three separate complete Agatha Christie collections, so I cheated and counted them three times. I needed one more… my reflection in the TV screen; the image of the amateur, the school librarian poncing about, thinking he’s Poirot. That didn’t work.
Four things you can touch.
My books again. I immediately went to my bookcase, knowing that handling my treasured Christie collections always made me feel better. I picked out four of my favourite titles one by one and studied the covers. I noticed the vintage artwork on one and spotted a familiar egg-shaped head: the school librarian poncing about, thinking he’s Poirot.
Three things you can hear.
I fell back on the sofa and closed my eyes. Patrick and I lived in a terraced house on Chalk Gap road, the main road on the way out of the village. Like most of Chalk Gap, it was a relatively quiet area, so I was listening for 30 seconds hearing no noise outside. But I heard noise from inside; I could hear Noah talking to Fiona in the kitchen.
‘Now we know it’s definitely murder, it’s important to get a list of suspects.’
I opened the door to see an array of stationery: flip-chart paper, marker pens and post-it notes, the latter two in every colour imaginable. They must have raided Patrick’s marking desk. Noah was crouched over the table, excitedly scribbling things down, while Fiona watched him.
‘Noah, what do you mean, now you know it’s definitely murder?’
He stopped writing and looked straight at me, unfazed. ‘Oh, hi Edward. I heard your conversation with DI Appleby; we know the brakes were cut, and it’s confirmed as murder now. So I set up our interview room.’
‘Don’t look at me,’ Fiona said instantly. ‘Though there’s no harm in us speculating, is there?’
‘You don’t know what he’s like. He won’t let this go now,’ I replied. ‘And didn’t you think this was ridiculous five minutes ago?’
‘Oh yes, I did,’ she said with a smile. ‘And I still do. Which means this could be the biggest story of my career. It was already earth-shattering enough with the coming out, but now he was killed for it? Sign me up.’
I gave her the sharpest look I could muster and turned to Noah. ‘And you. Listening in to my conversations behind my back, that’s the respect we have for each other?’
He was still oblivious, despite my guilt trip. ‘It wasn’t behind your back, I’ve just told you.’
‘Noah, I closed the door. I didn’t want you to hear.’
‘So I just listened harder,’ he said, as he beamed.
‘You obviously didn’t listen to the end of the conversation,’ I snapped back. My anxiety seemed to have turned into misplaced anger at Noah, and I regretted it later. But I continued, ‘DI Appleby reminded me we are amateurs, Noah. He thinks they’ll solve it with DNA and CCTV, anyway.’
‘Oh, that’s boring,’ he said, unfazed.
‘Yes, where’s the fun in that?’ Fiona added. ‘I was quite looking forward to my first murder investigation.’
‘And I’ve done all this work on the suspects now,’ Noah said, standing aside to show off his handiwork with the flip-chart paper and post-it notes. ‘Ta-dah!’
I stared at it, collecting my thoughts. It was difficult to stay angry when Noah was around. Fiona could see my resolve cracking.
‘It won’t hurt to have a look at what he’s done, will it?’ she said, coaxing me.
I took in Noah’s giant, swirly red writing on the sheet in front of me. He’d written ‘Kieron Juniper: suspects’ in the middle of the paper, with various lines off leading to large post-it notes, each of which contained a suspect name and a couple of points about them.
Ellie Marsden. Kieron’s GF (ex-GF?) and obvious suspect. Obvious motive & opportunity (where did she go?)
Ricky Roberts. Motive: dislikes Kieron / jealousy? Could be homophobic? Other motives we don’t know?
Jackie Luton. Didn’t want scandal of Kieron coming out.
Danny Higgins. Kieron’s best friend. Knew his secret already? Need to confirm. Other motive?
Chloe Stone. Told Ellie, so knew already? Need to confirm. Didn’t like being caught out rumour spreading? Losing spotlight to Kieron?
Beaumont Albright. Night ruined by Kieron’s secret. Other motives?
Fiona Turtle. Wanted a major news story. Created her own?
Other players / WAGs?
My first reaction was to laugh out loud at Fiona’s inclusion when she was right there in the room with him, but luckily, she was laughing too.
‘I told him to include everyone he thought of, no exceptions,’ she said. ‘Obviously I didn’t cut his brakes, but keep me on there for now, it’s hilarious.’
I glanced at the mind map again and had a nervous thought about what Kat would think if she popped over again and saw it. ‘Let’s take Beaumont off, though, shall we? I don’t think he met Kieron before yesterday and his motive is a bit tenuous.’
I reached over to remove his name, but Fiona put her hand over mine and stopped me. ‘Every name on there is a bit tenuous apart from Ellie, until we get more information. I think we should keep him on for now. That boy’s so quiet: he definitely has something to hide.’
‘It’s turned out to be surprising suspects before,’ Noah said in a matter-of-fact way.
‘Okay, fine,’ I conceded. ‘It’s not like we’re going to investigate anyway, let’s leave it for the police. But Noah, will you do me a favour and keep that post-it in your pocket? He’s Kat’s family and I don’t want to upset her if she calls round.’
He looked at me without blinking as he took the note away. ‘Yes, no problem. But of course we’re investigating, silly. Don’t worry, you’ll come round soon enough.’
‘What is wrong with you?’ Fiona asked in a raised voice, abruptly and suddenly. We stared at each other for a second. I took in the sight of her bright yellow, thick-rimmed retro glasses. Did she have a pair in every colour to match each outfit?
‘Nothing’s wrong with me,’ I replied, before overcoming my anxiety to add, ‘and that’s a little rude of you to say, actually.’
She grinned broadly. Part of me was enjoying our back of forth, and I think part of her was too. ‘Cry me a river, Edward. I’ve heard all about this anxiety stuff and I don’t care for it, to be honest. Some two-bit copper calls you an amateur and you go crying away?’
‘But, he’s right, I am,’ I started, but didn’t get any further.
She adjusted her glasses, took her seat back at the table and spoke calmly, slowly and politely. ‘Yes, he’s right, you’re an amateur. But an amateur who’s solved three cases now, while DI Appleby is riding your coattails, pretending to the press that he did it all. He’s embarrassed, Edward. And he doesn’t want you poking your nose in ‘cos he’s worried we’ll all find out you’re better at his job than he is.’
I fell back in my chair and examined this whirlwind of a woman in front of me. She spoke a lot of sense. I supposed it would be fun to do some work with her; her capacity as a journalist would allow for her to do some unofficial digging around behind the scenes. And I felt drawn to her. But then I remembered Noah’s inclusion of her on the suspect list. I tried to dismiss the thought, and I didn’t think it held much weight, but it was a possibility still. I couldn’t allow myself to become close to her if she was the killer. Not this time.
‘You’re right,’ I said back, in as neutral a tone as I could manage. ‘But I’ll do my own thing. There’s no harm in you looking into things with Noah, seeing as he’s working alongside you, anyway.’
I saw the disappointment on her face as she glanced away from me. I noticed something in her expression I hadn’t previously seen behind her tough exterior... what was it? Vulnerability?
I had little chance to think about it as I heard the front door go, before I heard Patrick’s voice calling through. ‘Edward, are you in? We need to speak to you.’
Becky’s voice soon
followed his. ‘You’ll never believe who we saw on our walk this morning. Wait ‘til you hear what we have to say.’
14
Patrick and Becky had fallen into couple territory quickly over the last few months, so usually spent their Saturday morning going for walks in our beautiful surroundings. Sometimes it would be the seafront, sometimes a trip to Brighton, or often a walk round many parts of the incredible South Downs which surrounded us.
This morning, no doubt thanks to Becky’s nosiness, they’d stayed quite close to home and walked from the village over to Beachy Head. The main area of cliffs near where the incident had happened was still cordoned off (of course it was now a crime scene), but they’d got as far as they could before retreating over the road to The Beachy Head pub for a bite to eat. As they were leaving an hour later, they heard a voice from the corner of the pub.
‘I couldn’t believe that Chloe Stone was calling my name!’ Becky said with excitement, star-struck once again.
Fiona looked surprised, sitting up suddenly. ‘What? His best mate was murdered last night, possibly over a secret they let out, and they’re off out having a pleasant lunch with a scenic view?’
‘No, no, it wasn’t like that at all,’ Becky said, of course coming straight to her heroine’s defence. ‘They’d done the same thing as us actually, had a walk to see where it happened. Chloe thought it would help Danny. She’s so thoughtful.’
Fiona’s response was to roll her eyes.
‘You should have seen him, buddy,’ Patrick said as he took a seat at the table. ‘He looked awful. He’s in such a bad way.’
‘It still makes little sense why they were out, right near the crime scene where all the press are going to be,’ Fiona said again. She seemed to be firmly against the couple and their intentions.
‘Actually, the press were hounding them outside their house, which is why they got out for a bit,’ Becky argued.
‘Fiona, didn’t you say you went there yourself before you met me this morning?’ Noah asked. Fiona went red and put her head down.
‘You can never account for what people do when they’re grieving,’ I pointed out. It seemed like Chloe had her own intentions, likely linked to maximum publicity. But we were with Danny last night and I could see that his grief was real.
‘You’ll be able to see for yourself this evening when we meet them. I can’t wait!’ Becky announced with glee.
‘What do you mean?’ I asked.
‘Chloe and Danny are going for a drink in Brighton to raise a glass to Kieron, and she told us to join them and bring who we want. Chloe’s mate Troy knows somewhere just off St James’s Street where the press won’t find them.’
St James’s street was known as the popular LGBT area of Brighton, with its many gay bars, pubs and clubs. My brother and Dylan sometimes went out there, but not regularly (‘we’re not scene queens,’ Dylan always says). It felt tasteless for Chloe and Danny to be going there to commemorate Kieron, not 24 hours after his murder; a murder that was potentially because he was gay.
Patrick could tell what I was thinking. ‘I know, I’ve told Chloe it doesn’t seem right.’
‘Don’t be silly! If Chloe Stone has given us the honour of an invitation to pay tribute, that’s what we’ll do. All of us. Edward, invite Alfie and Dylan. I’m sure they’ll be up for coming. And Kat too. Fiona, you in?’
Never one to miss an exclusive, I knew her answer. ‘Yes, I’ll tag along. If Edward doesn’t mind.’
‘Of course not, that will be lovely,’ I said, without stopping to think. She winked at me.
‘Yes, you’ll have to represent the Observer, seeing as I’m not allowed to go until I’m 18,’ Noah said with a sad expression on his face.
‘Don’t worry, Noah, I’ve got lots of digging for you to do. That will keep you busy.’ Noah’s eyes lit up at Fiona’s suggestion. I was impressed with how quickly she’d got a handle on him.
‘Perfect, we have a plan!’ Becky clapped her hands together in excitement. ‘We’ll meet at the Chalk Inn about 7 o’clock. I’ll book a minibus to take us to Brighton. Who have we got? Me and Patrick, Alfie and Dylan, Edward and Fiona. So, that’s six for the minibus, seven if Kat comes. And we’ll meet Chloe and Danny there.’
Patrick and I exchanged a smile at the way she included Danny and Chloe in our group of friends. Though I wasn’t sure why she listed everyone in pairs as if me and Fiona were a couple. I wondered if Fiona had noticed it, too.
‘Oh, one more thing, Edward,’ Patrick said to me as Becky engaged Fiona in some inane chat about what they would wear. ‘This coming out note definitely exists.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Kieron apparently confided in Danny and sent it to him. I haven’t seen it but he has it on his phone.’
Appleby had warned me to leave the investigation to him, and his words about me being an ‘amateur’ had stung. But, if I had the guts to, I had a chance to investigate further. I didn’t have to wait for a forensics department to finish analysing the phone. I could find out that evening.
15
‘Well Noah might not be over 18, but I certainly am.’
The first mistake I made that evening was allowing us to meet at the pub, where Mum had got wind of the Brighton night out and tagged along, taking Kat’s place on the minibus, when she sent her apologies. I should have realised; there was no way Mum would miss a night out on the town with celebrities following the dramatic murder of one of their number.
The women chatted at the back of the minibus while I was sitting with Patrick, Alfie and Dylan. I wondered if there would be any awkwardness between Fiona and Alfie, because of her being his first and only girlfriend, but she greeted him like an old friend. I was actually looking forward to visiting the gay scene with my brother and his partner, although I wished for better circumstances.
‘That conversation with my mum was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,’ Dylan was saying.
We were discussing Kieron’s decision to stay in the closet and his forced public coming out. Dylan himself had kept his sexuality hidden to his strict catholic mother, only telling her when he met Alfie last year. She had accepted him with open arms, of course, but I could see that the experience had still had a great impact on Dylan.
‘Of course, it seems silly now that I didn’t tell her for so long,’ he said. ‘But I was one of the lucky ones. Believe it or not, there are still some people who aren’t accepting. I can’t even imagine being as well known as Kieron Juniper and having to come out.’
‘This is what I was saying earlier,’ Patrick said. ‘No one even knows how the football world would react, as there’s pretty much no precedent for it. Certainly not in English premiership football.’
‘I think it would be alright, though,’ Alfie said. ‘Most of the blokes in the pub are football fans and they don’t bat an eyelid at me being gay. I don’t think they care as long as I’m serving their pints.’
‘Just any of them dare to treat you any different and see what happens to them,’ Mum shouted from the back of the minibus whilst still talking to Becky and Fiona. She somehow could be part of one conversation while not missing a single word of any other in her vicinity.
‘Yeah, but imagine you were the top goal scorer for their team and you missed a goal, which cost them the game. Or worse, the goal scorer for the opposite team, who scored the deciding goal against you, which was offside. Some people in football crowds get lost in the excitement and sometimes civilised behaviour goes out of the window; they’ll use any insult that comes into their heads before they’ve thought about it.’
‘That’s right, don’t Brighton sometimes get homophobic chants from away fans?’ my brother asked.
‘Sadly, yes,’ Patrick continued. ‘Three Chelsea fans were kicked out of the Amex stadium on New Year’s Day for homophobic and racist abuse. Thankfully, these kinds of people are the minority, but it’s still an enormous problem.’
I thought of Beaumont Albright wi
th his entire career ahead of him and hoped that being a black player wouldn’t find him facing racism. I knew Kat was worried about that.
‘But as despicable as racism is, there are lots of players of different races who all stick together to fight it. There are no openly gay players. Whoever put his head above the parapet might feel like he’s on his own.’
‘I think that definitely happened to Kieron,’ I said. ‘He described it to me and Patrick as the biggest dilemma of his life. It looks like he was on the verge of coming out soon anyway when Ellie outed him.’
‘You don’t really think someone plotted his murder to stop him from coming out?’ Dylan said. ‘It just seems so far-fetched.’
‘Not at all.’ I’d thought about this. ‘You only need one murderer; it only takes one person evil enough or desperate enough to have the idea and carry it out. Whoever did this obviously had a lot to lose.’
‘And whoever it is, this is going to be the biggest scandal in football in a long time. It’s a miracle the media doesn’t know it’s murder yet, or about Kieron’s coming out,’ Patrick said before pausing. ‘Or maybe not a miracle. From what we saw last night, I think Jackie Luton and the club will do anything to stop his coming out leaking.’
‘Anything?’ I wondered out loud. We hadn’t given Kieron’s agent or the club management much thought as suspects yet, but they were definitely worth considering. I hoped that Appleby’s investigation would pick them up. Not that I would probably even get to hear about it.
Just then, I heard a buzz from my phone and looked to find a message from Kat.
Hi Ed, sorry again I couldn’t make it. Went round to see Bev and Beaumont. We’re really worried about him. Last night hit him hard. He’s not sure this is the career for him. And neither are we, wish I could say more but I can’t atm. Hope they find the killer – keep me posted xxx
I didn’t know Beaumont well, but he’d always come across as a quiet, reserved young man who just loved playing sports. He’d been the shining star of all the various school sports teams as long as I could remember, taking us to many national football finals. For this to happen to one of his role models was heart-breaking. I also wondered what Kat’s ‘wish I could say more’ might be.