by Roberta Kray
She was still standing there, basking in happiness, when she heard the sound of the key in the lock. It had to be Joel. She put the mug down and rushed through to the living room, smiling widely, but then stopped dead in her tracks when she realised he wasn’t alone. There were two uniformed officers with him. The smile froze on her lips. Joel had an odd expression on his face, his eyes anxious, his mouth twisted into a grimace.
‘Sadie,’ he said. ‘It’s the police. They want to talk to you.’
‘What?’
The older of the two men took out his ID and held it up. ‘Inspector Gerald Frayne.’ He gestured to his left. ‘And this is my colleague, PC John Turner.’
Sadie felt a wave of panic wash over her. ‘What’s happened? Is it Mum? Has something —’
‘No, it’s not your mum.’ Joel rushed forward and put his arm around her shoulder. ‘It’s not your mum. She’s okay. She’s fine.’
Relief flooded through her. She might not always see eye to eye with her mother, but the thought of… ‘Then what? What is it?’
‘It’s about Eddie,’ Joel said.
Sadie looked at him and then at the two officers. ‘Eddie?’
Inspector Frayne gave a nod. ‘We’ve got bad news, I’m afraid. Perhaps you’d like to sit down.’
‘Just tell me,’ she said. ‘Please.’
The inspector looked her straight in the eye. ‘I’m afraid Mr Wise was found dead in his flat in London.’
Sadie felt her knees go weak. ‘Dead?’ she murmured. He couldn’t be. It was impossible. The blood rushed from her face as the shock of it sank in. ‘But how… what… I don’t understand.’
Joel led her over to the sofa. ‘Come on, sit down. Sit here.’
Sadie sank on to the cushions, her head swimming. This was unreal, a bad dream. It couldn’t be happening. Joel sat down beside her and she automatically reached for his hand. Dead? How could Eddie be dead? She’d only seen him yesterday. The image of him sprang into her mind, him leaning against the wall, smiling at her. Don’t I even get a proper goodbye?
Inspector Frayne settled into the only armchair while the constable took a chair from the dining table and positioned it on the other side of the sofa. Sadie, as she gradually recovered her senses, was aware of the two men watching her carefully.
‘Perhaps some tea?’ the inspector suggested.
Joel glanced at Sadie and squeezed her hand. ‘I’ll do that, shall I? Will you be all right?’
She gave a nod.
There was a short silence while Joel left the room. Then Frayne said, ‘I’m sorry. It must be a dreadful shock for you.’
Sadie leaned forward, placing her hands on her thighs. Her hands curled into two fight fists. ‘I don’t understand,’ she said again. ‘What happened to him? Was it an accident?’
‘Mr Wise was murdered,’ Frayne replied softly.
Sadie felt the response like a blow to her chest. Her heart missed a beat and then began to race. ‘No,’ she said hoarsely, her mouth suddenly dry. ‘When? How? Jesus, why would anyone…’ Her voice trailed off into nothing. She swallowed hard. A lump the size of a marble had lodged in her throat.
‘We can go down to the station if you’d rather.’
‘No,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘Why would I…?’ She saw the inspector’s eyes dart towards the kitchen and instantly understood. ‘Oh, no, you can ask whatever you want in front of Joel.’ She stared at Frayne and a shudder ran through her. She had been in London. She had been with Eddie. Did they consider her a suspect? They couldn’t. It was mad, crazy. ‘When was he killed?’
The inspector didn’t reply directly. ‘We’ve been told that you went to see Mr Wise yesterday.’
‘Yes.’
‘Perhaps, if it’s not too hard for you, we could talk about that.’
Sadie wanted to scream that it was too hard for her, that she still hadn’t absorbed what she’d been told, that her head was still spinning. But she knew she didn’t have a choice. Their questions would have to be answered and she may as well get it over and done with. ‘I-I went to London, to Kellston, on Friday. I wanted to see Eddie to get our divorce papers signed.’
‘That’s a long way to go. Couldn’t you have posted them to him?’
‘I could have if I’d known where he was living.’ As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she wished she could take them back. Why hadn’t she just said that she’d wanted to make sure he signed, that he had a habit of putting things off? Now she was going to have to explain how she’d actually found him.
The inspector frowned. ‘So you travelled all the way to London without an address?’
Sadie shifted on the sofa, knowing that it sounded odd. Quickly she tried to justify her actions. ‘Well, I’d heard that he was in Kellston. He’s got friends there and I thought he wouldn’t be too hard to find.’
‘Really? Kellston’s a big place. You could spend a long time searching for someone.’
‘Eddie is… was… a creature of habit. He liked a drink. I figured I’d find him in one of the pubs.’
‘A long shot.’
‘Not that long,’ she said.
Frayne gave a thin smile. ‘Go on.’
Sadie lifted her shoulders in a shrug. ‘I booked into a guest house, a B&B called Oaklands. It’s just opposite Kellston station. And then I started looking. I went to a few local pubs but didn’t have any luck.’
At that moment Joel came back with a pot of tea, four mugs, milk and sugar on a tray. His arrival created a natural break in the conversation and while he organised the drinks, Sadie tried to fight her way through a fog of disbelief to invent a credible tale for the police. She didn’t want to mention Velma and she certainly didn’t want to mention Nathan Stone. The latter, she was sure, would not welcome a visit from the cops. And seeing as she hadn’t even mentioned him to Joel… Her heart was thumping in her chest. She didn’t like lying but what else could she do?
12
Sadie took a sip of tea and looked at the inspector. ‘I found out where he lived on the Saturday,’ she said, trying to keep her voice steady. ‘I bumped into an old mate of Eddie’s in a café on the high street.’
‘That was lucky,’ Frayne said dryly.
Sadie shrugged again. ‘Not really. Eddie knows… knew a lot of people.’
‘And what was this mate’s name?’
Sadie plucked a name from the air. ‘Dave,’ she said. ‘I don’t remember his surname. It’s been years since I last saw him. He told me Eddie was living on the Mansfield.’ She gave Joel a sideways glance, glad now that she hadn’t gone into any detail when she’d got home yesterday. The vague story that she’d given him pretty much tallied with this one. And he hadn’t asked any difficult questions. Joel was a trusting kind of guy, not the sort to probe.
‘Dave,’ the inspector repeated.
‘Yes.’ Sadie noticed the young officer scribbling in his notepad. Would the waitress remember her being in Connolly’s? It was doubtful. The place had been busy, chock full of customers. But even if she did, there was no way she could swear that Sadie hadn’t talked to anyone else.
‘So, this Dave gave you the address and then what did you do?’
Sadie thought there was a distinct scepticism to his tone, but carried on regardless. What choice did she have? ‘I went over there but there was no one in. I didn’t want to hang about and so I went back to the guest house.’
‘You didn’t try again later?’
‘No. It was Saturday and I didn’t think there was much chance of him getting back until late. When Eddie goes out he usually stays out.’ She paused and took another sip of tea. ‘I decided to wait and have another go first thing in the morning.’
‘And what time was that?’
Sadie reflected for a second, remembering Mrs Cuthbert’s comment about most people not coming down for breakfast before nine. ‘It must have been around twenty past eight when I left Oaklands so I probably got to the Mansfield about fifteen min
utes later. I wanted to go early, to catch him in case he went out again.’
‘And this time he was there?’
Sadie nodded. ‘Yes, he was there with his girlfriend.’
‘And how was that?’
Sadie stared at Inspector Frayne over the rim of her mug. ‘What do you mean?’
‘How did he react to you turning up out of the blue? Was he happy, angry, irritated, confused?’
‘I don’t know. Surprised, I guess, but not angry. He was all right about it.’
‘And what happened next?’
‘Kelly left and we sat down and talked.’
‘Talked or argued?’
Sadie felt alarm bells going off in her head. ‘Why would we argue? We’ve been separated for years. The divorce was just a formality.’ But already she knew that the police must have spoken to Eddie’s parents. They’d have told him about the bad blood between her and Eddie, about how he’d walked out on her and fleeced her in the process. Although she was sure they’d have put a different slant on it. ‘What’s going on here?’ she asked defensively. ‘Are you accusing me of something? Am I a suspect?’
‘Of course you’re not!’ Joel exclaimed. He looked at Frayne. ‘Tell her. Tell her she isn’t.’
Inspector Frayne skirted around the request. ‘This is a murder inquiry. I’m sorry but there are questions we have to ask.’ He shifted his gaze on to Sadie. ‘You may have been the last person to see Eddie Wise alive.’
Not the last, Sadie thought. That would have been the person who… ‘I didn’t kill him, if that’s what you’re thinking. We might have had our differences but they were in the past. I’d never have… I wouldn’t. I couldn’t.’
‘But the split was acrimonious.’
‘He walked out on me, if that’s what you’re saying. But the marriage was over anyway. We hadn’t been getting along for months. And it was all a long time ago, almost five years now. I didn’t hate him. I wasn’t even angry at him any more. He took some money but I didn’t want it back. I just wanted to get the divorce sorted and move on.’
Frayne’s eyes bored into her. ‘So you’re saying the conversation was an amicable one?’
‘Yes. I was only there for… I don’t know, it can’t have been more than twenty minutes. He signed the papers. I’ve got them right here.’ She jumped up off the sofa, went over to the table, picked them up and thrust them into the inspector’s hands. ‘I got what I wanted so why would I… There wouldn’t be a reason, would there?’ She sat back down on the sofa beside Joel. ‘He was fine when I left. I swear he was. He was absolutely fine.’
Frayne glanced down at the papers. ‘Do you mind if I hold on to these?’
Sadie was about to say that she needed them, that she had to send them to the solicitor, when she suddenly realised that none of that was necessary now. Eddie was dead. Legally, she was a widow. The reality of his murder, the horror, hit her again and she leaned forward and put her head in her hands. Bile rose into her throat. She had wanted to be free but not like this. She had never wanted it to end in this way.
‘Do we really have to do this now?’ Joel asked the inspector. ‘Couldn’t you come back later or tomorrow? It’s been a shock. It’s all too much.’
Sadie raised her head and rubbed at her face. ‘No, it’s all right. I’m okay. I’d rather get it over with.’ She nodded at Frayne. ‘What else do you want to know?’
Frayne kept his eyes on her, sharp brown eyes that held more than a hint of intelligence. ‘Where did the conversation take place between you and Eddie? Whereabouts in the flat?’
‘In the living room.’
‘And did you go anywhere else while you were there – to the bathroom perhaps, or the kitchen?’
Sadie shook her head. ‘No. Eddie went to the kitchen to make coffee but I didn’t go with him.’ She noticed the constable glance up from his scribbling and sensed that the question was an important one. ‘He was only gone a few minutes.’
‘And you definitely didn’t follow him, not even to the doorway?’
‘No, I stayed on the sofa. I didn’t move from there until I left.’
‘And that would have been at what time?’
Sadie frowned. ‘I can’t say exactly. It was probably around nine. I don’t think I was there for more than twenty minutes.’
‘Where you wearing gloves?’ Frayne asked.
The question surprised her. ‘What? No, no I wasn’t.’
‘We’ll need you to come down to the station at some point so we can take a set of prints. Do you remember what you touched while you were in the flat?’
Sadie racked her brains, trying to recreate the scene in her head. ‘The coffee table, I suppose. I’m not sure. I put the papers down on it. And the mug I drank from. And the front door; I opened that on the way out. Otherwise, I don’t… Oh yes, there was a pen too. I leant him a biro, one of those yellow Bic ones, and forgot to take it back it again.’ Had there been anything else? ‘I think that’s it, apart from the sofa and the cushions.’
Frayne sat back and crossed his legs. ‘What kind of a mood would you say Eddie was in? I mean, generally. Did he seem worried about anything?’
‘No. He was just… just Eddie. I think he had a bit of a hangover, but that was nothing unusual.’
‘Can you think of anyone who might have wanted to hurt him, anyone who held a grudge?’
‘No,’ she said again. ‘But like I told you, I haven’t seen him for years. I don’t know who he was hanging around with, what he was doing. I don’t know anything about his life now.’ No sooner had she said it than that icy shock ran through her again. There was no life now. Eddie was dead. He was gone for ever. Quickly she added, ‘Eddie had his faults but on the whole people liked him. He was an easy-going sort of person, probably too easy-going. Nothing ever bothered him. He wasn’t the type to go looking for trouble.’
‘And so you left the flat at about nine o’clock. What did you do then?’
‘I walked back to Oaklands, packed my things and told Mrs Cuthbert – she’s the woman who runs the guesthouse – that I was leaving. I suppose by then it was about ten to ten. I went straight to the station but I had to wait for a train to Liverpool Street. It was Sunday service so they weren’t that frequent. From there I caught a tube to Euston, changing at King’s Cross. Then I had another wait until I could get a train to Manchester. I took the one that left just after midday.’
‘And that got in at?’
‘Around two-forty. I caught the next train to Haverlea and then got a bus back here. I was home at about a quarter to four.’
‘Quite a journey. Do you still have your ticket from London?’
‘No, I had to hand it in at the station.’
‘Did you talk to anyone on the train?’
Sadie shook her head. ‘No, I don’t think so.’ It was then, suddenly, that she remembered Mona Farrell and the crazy conversation she’d had with her on the way to Kellston. Her heart gave a jolt. But she couldn’t have had anything to do with this. The girl had been odd, there was no denying it, but it had just been talk. She couldn’t have killed Eddie. She didn’t even know where he lived.
Frayne must have seen a change in her face because his gaze grew more intense. ‘Are you sure?’