‘That’s it dearie. You can’t miss it when that happens as the whole room goes darker. I like to watch telly with the lights down see. They let the neighbours use the car park so long as they get their cars out before nine in the morning, she’s very strict on that is Mrs. Collins. When they started leaving their cars there all day she had a few cars clamped and after that they didn’t do it anymore. It’s mostly the people who live on Purwell Lane who use the car park but occasionally people from the flats might use it if all the parking spaces are full up there.’
‘How can you be sure it was around ten?’
‘Oh, it was a bit earlier than that. I remember looking at the clock, it was just five to ten.’
‘Are you sure you can be that accurate?’
‘Oh yes dear,’ Emily said pointing to a little alarm clock on a table next to her chair. ‘It’s Japanese and very good. I check it against the clock on the telly and it doesn’t lose much time.’
‘Did you hear anything?’
‘No dear, sorry but the old hearing isn’t what it used to be and so I use those things when I listen to the telly,’ she said pointing to a set of headphones, ‘and so I don’t wake up any of the old dears of course.’
He glanced over at the laptop. It was a very expensive make.
‘Is that yours?’
‘Oh yes, I wouldn’t know what to do without my laptop. My son works and lives in London and he comes up to see me most weekends but every evening we have a little video chat on Skype, the grandkids too, it’s lovely. My son got it for me a year or so ago and since then I’ve learnt so much, I’m doing a course on Javascript at the moment.’
‘Javascript?’
‘It’s a sort of programming language dear. I’m hoping to start writing my own programmes soon,’ she said excitedly.
Mac was impressed.
‘When I first told you about Natasha being abducted from outside the home you were surprised but there was something else wasn’t there? If you know anything or have any suspicions, no matter how slight, you must tell me.’
Emily considered this for a moment and then nodded her head.
‘I think that you might want to speak to Sylvia.’
‘Why?’
‘She showed…oh how can I put it? She showed an interest in some of the college girls, especially Natasha I think.’
‘But I thought she only does nights?’ Mac asked.
‘She does nights at the weekend and three days a week as well, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. My window is the only one that looks out into the shortcut that the girls use and a couple of times I caught her looking out at them as they walked by and she had such an expression of, I don’t know, longing is the best way I can put it. I can only think that she was attracted to them in some way.’
Mac raised his eyebrows. This was not what he’d expected at all.
‘How do you know that she was especially attracted to Natasha?’
‘I caught her once as she came out of my room and she was checking some photos on her phone. They were all of Natasha. I really don’t like telling you this because Sylvia’s such a nice person. You don’t really think she could have anything to do with Natasha’s disappearance, do you?’
‘I don’t know Emily but we’ll need to find out why she was so interested. Before I go can you confirm it was just the one shadow you saw?’
‘Yes I could see the shape quite clearly, there was just the one person.’
‘Did you see a shadow going back the other way say ten to fifteen minutes afterwards?’
‘I’m sorry Mr. Maguire, but once the news had started I’m sure I wouldn’t have noticed.’
Mac thanked her and asked her to contact the police if she had any more information.
He sought out Mrs. Collins.
‘Is Sylvia still around?’ he asked.
‘I’m afraid that you’ve just missed her, she’s gone home.’
‘I’ll need her address and phone number then.’
‘You don’t think she’s got anything to do with Natasha’s disappearance, do you?’ Mrs. Collins said with apparent concern.
‘Mrs. Collins, I’m afraid I can’t say anything at the moment but I do need that information as soon as possible.’
Three minutes later she gave him a slip of paper.
‘Please, Mr. Maguire, go easy on her. She’s very fragile.’
As Mrs. Collins didn’t seek to explain further he gave her his thanks and left.
Sylvia lived no more than five minutes walk away from the home. Even so Mac made straight for the car.
‘She’s really something that Emily, isn’t she?’ Tommy said with a smile.
‘God, I wish I had her marbles. It took me quite a while to learn my way around a computer and after a year she’s learning advanced computer programming. Believe me she’s as sharp as they come.’
‘Okay let’s talk to this Sylvia and find out why she was so interested in Natasha.’
Chapter Seven
Sylvia lived in the ground floor half of a council maisonette just a few streets away from the retirement home. The paint on the front door was peeling and it had a neglected look about it.
‘Tommy, I think you might like to have a little look around while I talk to Sylvia. Say you need the loo or something,’ Mac suggested.
‘Good idea,’ Tommy replied.
Mac rapped on the door and it eventually opened a few inches. A surprised looking Sylvia peeked out of the narrow gap.
‘I was just going to bed,’ she said, her voice quivering with nervousness.
From her face alone Mac knew she had something to hide.
‘Mind if we come in?’ Mac asked.
Sylvia hesitated and then reluctantly held the door open for them.
She led them down the maisonette’s single corridor into a small, dingy living room that hadn’t been decorated for years. He sat next to her on a dilapidated sofa. Tommy stood behind him.
‘Do you live alone?’ Mac asked.
‘Yes, my husband, he…he left me six years ago. I’ve lived alone since then.’
‘When I spoke to you earlier you said that you knew nothing about Natasha and that you and she had never met. I’d just like to be sure that I heard you right.’
‘Everything I said was true. I’ve never met the girl or said a word to her.’
‘But you have seen her, haven’t you?’ Mac persevered.
‘Yes, I’ve seen her around, you see everyone on the estate sooner or later.’
‘So you’ve just seen her around, is that it?’
Sylvia nodded. She started to fidget nervously again. She was hiding something and not making a particularly good job of it. Tommy asked to be excused and Sylvia gave him the directions to the toilet.
‘Sylvia, do you have a phone with a camera on it?’
Sylvia kept glancing towards the door that Tommy had just walked out of.
‘Yes, doesn’t everyone?’
At that point they both heard a door open in the corridor outside.
‘What’s he doing out there? That’s not the toilet door,’ she exclaimed.
Sylvia jumped up and ran out of the room.
He followed her down the corridor and into a bedroom. Tommy was staring at a mass of photos that nearly covered one wall.
Sylvia started shouting at them.
‘Get out! Get out! You shouldn’t be in here. This is my life, my life!’
She was on the verge of becoming hysterical so Mac held her and tried to calm her down. As he did this he glanced over her shoulder at the wall of photographs. Almost all of them were of Natasha. He walked her back to the living room and sat beside her on the sofa while Tommy got her a glass of water. He gave her the time she needed to calm down.
‘I wasn’t doing anything wrong, was I, in taking those photos?’ she asked in a low voice.
‘It depends. Why did you take them? Were you attracted to her?’ he asked gently.
‘I was, I was attr
acted to her and now she’s gone too. I feel like killing myself, there’s no goodness in this world, no goodness at all.’
‘What do you mean she’s gone too?’ he asked, stressing the word ‘too’.
Sylvia got up without saying a word and led them to another room at the end of the corridor. She opened the door but wouldn’t go inside. Mac went in and looked around the room. It was a young girl’s bedroom but it was all wrong, it was too tidy. Everything was laid out too exactly, the dress on the bed, the hair brushes on the small dressing table, the shoes in a neat row along the wall. The posters of pop stars were yellowing around the edges and there was a musty smell that told him that this room hadn’t been occupied for some time. He sighed.
It wasn’t a bedroom, it was a shrine.
He picked up a framed photo that stood next to the hair brushes. It showed a younger Sylvia, a Sylvia who was alive, with a girl who was around eleven years old. The young girl had black hair and features not unlike Natasha’s. He went out into the hallway. Sylvia was leaning against the wall. She looked as if she needed its support.
‘When did you lose your daughter, Sylvia?’ he asked as gently as he could.
‘Just over seven years ago now. She was walking home from school, keeping on the pavement like I always told her to do and a driver ran her over. He was in a van and he lost control, it mounted the pavement and it killed her. She was with three friends and not one of them had a scratch, can you believe that? They only gave him a slap on the wrist, he smiled when they sentenced him while I’m still…’
She couldn’t finish the sentence.
‘Is that why you were interested in Natasha? Was it because she looked a little like your daughter?’
‘I wasn’t doing anything wrong, was I? Believe me I wouldn’t have hurt a hair on that girl’s head. My Sally would have been around Natasha’s age now, going to college and having boyfriends and all that. I just used to pretend a bit that Natasha was my Sally all grown up, just for a while, just to ease the pain a bit. I’d look at the photos and pretend we were having conversations. Crazy, isn’t it? But now Natasha’s gone too and I feel like I’ve brought it on her somehow, I’ve brought my bad luck down on her. It’s like…oh God, it’s like I’m losing my Sally all over again.’
Sylvia broke down into huge convulsive sobs and started sliding down the wall. She would have fallen to the floor if Tommy hadn’t caught her. They did their best to console her but she was beyond any consolation.
Tommy picked her up and carried her to the sofa.
‘Tommy, call the home and ask for Mrs. Collins. Get her to call a doctor and see if Sylvia has a friend or someone who can come and sit with her.’
Tommy did as he was asked.
‘Mrs. Collins says the doctor’s on his way and she’s called Margaret who should be around in a few minutes.’
She never stopped crying the whole time they were there. It was more than crying though, Mac thought. It was despair and she gave herself over to it totally, her body convulsing with each sob.
Margaret arrived five minutes later and looked at Mac and Tommy as if they were children who’d done something very naughty indeed. Nevertheless Mac was immensely grateful when she took over. As he made his way out into the fresh air and daylight he felt like he’d just emerged from of a black cave full of utter hopelessness.
‘Christ, Mac! The things some people have to live with,’ Tommy said.
He looked quite shaken too.
Mac couldn’t say anything at that moment, a dark shiver ran down his spine. Sylvia’s plight reminded him that he’d suffered his own bereavement. In his darkest moments he always consoled himself that, although he knew that the pain would never go away, it might at least lessen with time. Sylvia’s hadn’t and that scared him. He and Tommy walked back towards the car in silence.
‘We’ll need to go back to the home,’ Mac said before getting in the car. ‘I’ve got a few more questions I’d like to ask’.
He pressed the button of the entry phone again and Mrs. Collins let them in. She led them into a small office and shut the door behind her.
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ Mac asked.
‘I’m sorry, I couldn’t. I promised Sylvia I wouldn’t repeat her story to anyone. She was afraid of people being overly nice to her and she said that it would just keep reminding her of her loss. How is she?’
‘Very upset. We left her with Margaret. Tell me about Sylvia.’
‘She started working here a couple of years or so after her daughter died. She told me all about herself before I gave her the job, she’s a very honest person. In the years since she’s been here she’s proved to be a good worker and, unlike some I’ve had, very caring to our guests. It’s just so unfair that so much misery should be heaped on one person, to lose a daughter and a husband like that.’
‘Her husband? She said he’d left her.’
‘He did, in a way. He committed suicide Mr. Maguire. He loved his daughter so much he just couldn’t stand living without her, especially when the person responsible got such a light sentence. Sylvia said the man who killed her daughter left the dock smiling and that’s what she sees in her worse nightmares.’
‘I wish there was something I could do to help her,’ Mac said.
‘I feel like that too but what can you do? I’ve tried to support her as best I can and I thought that she was doing so well recently,’ she said with a sigh.
‘She thinks it’s her fault Natasha’s gone, that she’s given Natasha her bad luck.’
‘Poor woman. I’ll drop around and see her on my way home.’
‘I’d like another word with Emily before I go, if that’s okay?’ Mac asked.
Mrs. Collins led them once more to Emily’s room. She was busy on her laptop, inputting strings of symbols that made no sense to Mac.
‘Oh, it’s you again Mr. Maguire. Twice in one day, people will start talking about us,’ she said with a twinkle in her eye.
He couldn’t help smiling too.
‘Emily, there was just one more question I wanted to ask. The shadow that you saw on the blind, is there any way that you could tell if they were a man or a woman or if they were wearing a hat? Anything at all really.’
She screwed up her face as she thought.
‘I don’t think they were wearing a hat as I could see the head quite clearly, apart from that…’ she shrugged her shoulders.
‘Thanks, Emily just thought I’d ask while I was here,’ he said as he stood up.
As he went towards the door he looked back and saw her deep in thought.
‘What is it Emily?’ he asked.
‘There was something I’ve just remembered, it’s probably not important though.’
‘Please tell us anyway.’
‘Well, I think that the shadow had something below its right hand unless it was a trick of the light. It looked like a stick with a rectangle below it. I’m afraid that’s all I could make out.’
‘Are you sure it was the right hand?’
‘Of course Mr. Maguire, I’m not quite gaga yet. It was on the same side as my left hand as I looked at the window and so, if the shadow was coming towards me it must be the shadow’s right hand.’
He was impressed again.
‘Emily you’re as bright as a pin, how come you ended up in here?’
‘It was my Alfie. He started forgetting small things and then big things and I just couldn’t manage him anymore. So we sold the house and we both moved in here. I lost him two years ago but we were quite happy here so when he went I didn’t want to move. It’s like a bit of Alfie’s still hanging around if you know what I mean.’
‘Believe me Emily I do. Thank you.’
‘Just one more thing, Mr.Maguire. I wasn’t sure if I was seeing things, perhaps my eyes aren’t so good these days but I think that the stick turned into two sticks just before the shadow disappeared.’
‘Into two you say? Thanks Emily, you’ve been a real help.’
Outside the home Mac stood still. Tommy waited patiently, not wanting to break Mac’s train of thought.
‘I think I know how our man got Natasha out without being seen,’ Mac eventually said.
‘Really?’ Tommy said with some surprise.
‘Yes, Emily’s just given us the answer.’
Tommy tried to rewind the interview in his head but came up with nothing.
‘What did she say then?’
‘The one stick turning into two. How tall was Natasha?’
‘Five feet five if I remember right,’ Tommy replied.
‘So not very tall then. Yes, I’d bet that she was taken out of here in a suitcase.’
‘A suitcase? How can you be so sure?’
‘They do suitcases in all sizes and I’ve seen some truly massive ones on the luggage carousel at the airport. All our man needed to do was have it by him, unzipped. After knocking Natasha down and stunning her, he tapes up her hands and feet and simply rolls her into the case, legs and neck bent. He zips her up and rolls her away. If anyone had seen our man all they’d have seen was someone wheeling a heavy suitcase to a car. Nothing suspicious about that, is there?’
‘Let me think for a minute,’ Tommy said.
Mac allowed him slightly more. He knew Tommy had it when a big grin spread across his face.
‘I get it now, one stick then the two. Most suitcases with wheels have a handle with two metal rods that you use to pull the case along. If he had a case with four wheels then the case was probably side on when Emily saw the shadow first, so just one stick, but then the man must have turned to go into the entry and Emily was now seeing the case at an angle so she now saw two sticks.’
‘Well done,’ Mac said with sincerity. ‘I knew you’d get it.’
‘It’s really clever isn’t it though? Stun her with a punch, tape her up and then roll her into a suitcase. It wouldn’t take more than a few seconds, would it?’
Mac scowled.
‘Yes, all very simple and very effective which is why it’s making me think some very uncomfortable thoughts.’
‘What do you mean?’ Tommy asked.
The Blackness (The Mac Maguire detective mysteries Book 4) Page 7