by Emily Selby
But then, her conversation with Mr McBride that afternoon was purely about her own situation. He didn't even mention the stress of having to close the hotel down for a day. Katie was expecting him to complain a lot, but he didn't.
No, that definitely wasn't a usual weekend, and today wasn't a typical Monday morning. People weren't behaving normally.
'What else did she do that wasn't usual?' Katie asked.
'I can't remember anything else. But this morning, she popped in just before 7 am to shower and get changed after the night shift. She said she was planning to meet with you later on. You were going to do some origami.'
'Yes, we were,' Katie whispered. 'I had Monday off because they needed me on Friday, so I was going to pop in during my lunch break to talk to Mr McBride and then meet with Amanda,' Katie explained.
'Did you meet?' Angie asked.
'No. Sadly,' Katie replied and told Angie about the message.
'Are you okay, Angie? The kids are with their parents now?'
'Yes. Fortunately. I am sad, of course, but I need to work at the café tonight. Sunita relies on me.'
'Miriam is not back at work yet? I've heard her husband is doing a little better and with the carers coming to help every day she could have some time to herself and to work.'
'She's started coming in again,' Angie replied.
'Any news with your job being expanded?' Katie asked. The previous murder case shook up the lives not only of the owners of Une Tasse de Bonheur, but it also had a significant impact on the café itself. Sunita had retreated to baking, as her safe option, struggling to keep on top of the business side of things. They had cancelled serving evening meals, and Angie had been kept hanging with a promise of her job expanding to the front-of-the-house and management.
'Sunita has been telling me to wait. I hope that once Miriam is back, she will be more decisive.'
She should... Katie thought. Sunita was good at execution, but she required someone else to come up with the idea first. Miriam had been the real brains behind the operation, the ideas person. Even though they might have started as equals a few years earlier, it was slowly becoming clear that without Miriam’s guidance, Une Tasse ... was doomed to deteriorate.
'Will you be alright tonight?'
'Yes. I'm baby-sitting for one my regular mums. They are going out to a party and will be back late. They said I could stay in the spare room. The kids will keep me busy.'
'Good. But if you needed anything, even if it’s in the middle of the night, call me, okay?'
'I will. Thanks, Katie. I think I'll be fine. Sorry,' Angie said quickly. 'I've got to go, the police are at the door. The inspector said he would send someone to search through Amanda's things.'
Katie disconnected and dropped the phone on the table.
She had assumed a little too much initially. Not just that it was a suicide, but also that Amanda had behaved like her usual self. Obviously, the more she delved into the matter, the more obvious it became that her friend had not been quite herself lately.
Broken laptop and her work computer? Using a friend's Skype to call her mother. Appearing stressed and scared, maybe even restless. Keen to hide? Escape?
No, that definitely was not Amanda's usual behaviour. By default, she was a happy-go-lucky girl. Although she might have been hiding some deep secrets in private, she certainly didn’t display emotions openly.
Having said that, was her situation dire enough to drive her to suicide?
6
Once Julia, Katie’s ten-year-old daughter, was in bed, Katie took over the kitchen, laying the table for Jack's arrival with the takeaway Chinese dinner they’d ordered earlier. She'd offered to cook, but Jack insisted.
'I'll cook for you in return as soon as I have my own place,' he said every time she protested that he was buying food again, whether they were eating out, or having a takeaway dinner.
It was the case again tonight.
The doorbell rang the moment she closed the cupboard, putting away the last clean plate. She ran downstairs to let him in.
'How are you doing?' he asked, climbing the stairs.
'Holding it together,' she replied. 'I've got some relevant information to share,' she added promptly.
'Me, too,' he said putting the carrier bag on the table. 'Do you want to go first?'
Not sure how much he had collected from Angie, Katie took the opportunity and reported the results of her chat with her French friend.
'That's a lot of useful info,' Jack concluded, arranging the food on the table. 'Lemon chicken for you and chow mein for me. I didn't get any soft drinks, hoping for a cuppa.' He flashed her a smile.
'With pleasure,' she replied and flicked on the kettle. 'I'll let it brew while we eat, and you tell me what you've learned. Anything interesting in her flat?'
'No. Nothing indicating a build-up to the suicide, if this is what you mean. She hasn't registered with a local doctor yet, and we haven't found any trace of her previous medical history. Or,' he added after a few seconds' hesitation, 'any history at all, for that matter.'
Katie spooned some lemon chicken onto her plate. 'A woman with no history?' she asked.
'It looks that way,' Jack replied reaching for his dish.
'You must have found some documents, driving licence, bills...'
'Strangely enough, no. The flat and all the utility bills are in Angie's name. Amanda has been paying her rent in cash, no problems.'
'She's got a mobile phone though...' Katie said, for a split-second doubting that.
'She did. We're checking it now. Good to know about Amanda's mother, though. I've left a Skype message for her to call me. I'm going to try and get in touch with the local police in New Zealand as well, in case Amanda's mother doesn't check her messages too often.'
'Are you checking her phone and her laptop?'
'Well,' Jack said and put the fork down, frowning. 'We don't normally do this sort of thing in case of a suicide.'
'You are convinced, I see...' she said slowly, watching him.
'Well, on top of everything else I've said before, the gun has only her fingerprints on it and it appears as though she held it to her head.'
Katie gulped, pushing the gruesome image out of her mind.
'Have you found the owner of the gun? I thought it's not easy to get a gun licence in the UK.'
'Ha,' Jack replied, picking up the fork again. 'You're right. Our firearm licencing laws are very strict. But it is possible for individuals to have so called antique handguns in the possession, as part of a collection, which is, sort of the case here. I say "sort of" as the gun found by Amanda's body belongs to Mr Abercrombie and is part of his collection, for which he has a firearm certificate. But a few days ago he lent it to Mr McBride, even though he shouldn't have. To make things worse, the gun was loaded, which was illegal. We're investigating the details of it. They are both in trouble. I understand you think you saw the weapon in McBride's office. Do you think that anyone else could have?'
Katie considered the likelihood.
'Probably. Mr McBride doesn't like using his office, and since the increase in yoga retreats it doubles as storage for some of the equipment. We don't have enough room downstairs,' Katie explained. 'Why did he even have it there?'
Jack blew out a long breath. 'A really long, convoluted and irresponsible story, which I've summed up as two immature men wanting to impress each other.'
'What?'
'Your boss's political ambitions and desire to join certain societal circles, and Abercrombie's childish wish to impress McBride. Very irresponsible.'
'Stupid,' Katie hissed, overwhelmed by a wave of bitterness and anger. 'If the gun wasn't there, Amanda could have still been alive.'
'I know you're grieving after your friend, Katie, but I wouldn't be so certain. The gun was used because it was there. If it hadn't been there, it could have been anything. There are many ways of taking someone's life,' Jack added. 'But to go back to my initial question, the setup
means that anyone could have gone into McBride's office?'
Katie steadied herself. If she wanted justice for her dead friend, helping to solve the mystery was more likely to be effective than getting angry.
'Yes. The spare key is at reception,' she replied much calmer now. 'He tends to meet people in one of the meeting rooms downstairs, and he doesn't like running up and down the stairs.'
'Why is his office on the first floor then?'
'Because the only room on the ground floor suitable for office is used by his daughter.'
'Ah, the daughter,' Jack said looking away. 'She's away isn't she?'
'Yes,' Katie replied. 'She's overseas attending a friend's wedding. That's why "Operation Boiler" has been such a nuisance. Mr McBride has been distracted and difficult to get hold of. He literally dumped it all on us, the receptionists. Amanda, who has been running the day shift this week was the main person.'
'That's a lot of pressure and responsibility heaped on one person,' Jack observed.
'It is, but if you're implying this is what drove her to suicide, I disagree.'
Jack sat back, watching her carefully.
'You don't think it was a suicide, do you?'
Katie bit her lower lip. 'I am struggling to make sense of it. She might have been stressed and looked frightened, but why would she arrange to meet with me to show me some origami, and send me a reminder message if she was planning to kill herself? I gather she would have to plan it, to get the gun and then find the quietest time and room in the hotel to do the deed, why bother arranging to see me first?'
Jack nodded in silence.
'Has anyone else said anything about her planning to take her own life?' Katie asked.
'No. Mr McBride, who, indeed looks distracted and stressed, mentioned that Amanda had acting strangely during the past couple of days. He's put it down to the problems with the boiler and the fact that she was the person technically in charge of having it fixed. It looks as though he feels guilty about dumping it all onto her plate.'
'Did he mention the strange man who seemed to frighten Amanda?'
Jack rubbed his chin. 'Not that I can recall, but I think he mentioned something about stressed guests taking it out on his staff.'
'Yeah, this might have been that...' Katie said.
'But now I know about it, I'll ask him again tomorrow.'
'By the way, where was McBride when the shot was fired?
'He was in his office. He also thinks he heard a loud pop coming from the yard side of the hotel just before the ruckus downstairs.'
Katie pushed her plate aside. However yummy the lemon chicken was, she needed to leave room for the tea and dessert -the lemon drizzle cake she'd bake with Julia the day before.
'If he was upstairs, nobody would have seen him, I guess?' she asked, standing up. 'Fancy some cake? Julia and I made it.'
'Oh, you know I can't say no to a nice piece of cake, particularly if it’s home baked.'
Katie crossed to the counter.
'Nobody can confirm his whereabouts at the time of the shot?' Katie carried on, pulling the side plates from the cupboard.
'Katie!' A note of reproach crept into his voice. 'No, nobody can confirm that. It looks like the only people in the hotel at the time were you, the two repairmen, Mr McBride, and Amanda. But that's not a reason to suspect Mr McBride. You're treating the man like a suspect.'
'I am,' she replied. 'I admit, I'm biased. It's that silly story with Abercrombie's gun in his cabinet. And, I admit, the fact that he hasn't paid me.' She gave Jack a quick report from her earlier chat with Linda McKay. 'I just find it hard to believe. Can you look into the hotel's financial affairs?'
'I've got no grounds to do that,' Jack replied. 'So far everything points to a suicide. The note she had in her hand, with only her fingerprints on it, by the way, indicates some kind of personal difficulty, guilt.'
'What about the final sentence? "It was all his idea." Don't you consider this as someone pushing her to take her own life?'
'No. To me it sounds like poor judgment on Amanda's part and taking an action that led to guilt she couldn't live with. There might have been an element of poor mental health, but it's impossible to discover after her death and without medical records.'
Katie carried the plates and the teapot to the table. Jack moved the dishes aside to make room.
'Maybe her mum will be able to provide some useful information,' she said, blinking. Her eyes were getting moist again. 'It's unfair. A young life ended prematurely.'
'Any life ended prematurely is unfair,' Jack replied quietly, 'but I don't think we should treat every case as murder. Some people make the choice to end their own lives, however sad and devastating it is for those left behind who have to find a way to put it to rest and move on.'
'I understand,' Katie replied, shuffling back to the pantry. She needed a little cake to help calm her aching soul.
But she wasn't going to put it to rest and move on. Not until she ensured nobody helped Amanda to move to the other side.
7
Once Jack left, after a kiss and a cuddle, Katie rang Angie.
'Are you okay, Angie?'
'Yes, I am managing. The children are keeping me busy. I am glad I can stay here for the night. I have done some origami with them.'
'I don't know if I'll ever be able to try or even look at any origami without getting tearful again.' Katie rubbed her nose. Somehow it stopped tears gathering. Sometimes...
'It was hard, but I just thought of it as an homage,' Angie pronounced the last word in the French manner, without the "H." 'Like in memory of Amanda...'
'What a lovely idea,' Katie exclaimed. 'Maybe we should do something like that at the club meeting, next week.'
'It would be nice. Is there anyone in the club who can do origami?'
Katie ran through the mental list of the Paper Crafts Club members and their skills. 'You're probably the best of us.'
'I only know what I have learnt from Amanda. She organised a couple of workshops for the kids under my care. She was making a zoo for the birthday of the twins I am looking after,' Angie's voice broke.
'She liked children, didn't she?' Katie cut in, keen to keep the topic as light as possible. 'Jack told me they didn't find much in her bedroom.'
'That's right. She had a few basics. I thought she wore those hotel uniforms because she had to, but maybe it was because she didn't have anything suitable of her own. I wondered why she'd never spent any money on clothes or other girly things.'
'She didn't?' Katie cast her mind back, thinking to all the outfits she'd ever seen Amanda in. 'She wore a little makeup but not much. Did she have any hobbies besides origami?'
'Not that I know of. She spent a lot of time in the hotel. I always thought she was a bit of a workaholic. Without any family or friends.'
'Beside us,' Katie added, trying to ignore a lump growing in her throat. 'How sad, even we know so little about her.'
'Was she even from here?'
'What do you mean?'
'Her mum lives in New Zealand and she didn't have anyone close here in the UK,' Angie replied. 'I thought she was from over there.'
That was an interesting comment. Katie pondered over it for a few seconds.
'Her accent was definitely British,' Katie said slowly, going over her previous conversations with Amanda. 'Birmingham, I'd say. She never said anything to you about her hometown?'
'No.'
'How long have you known her?'
'Just since January.'
'How did you meet?'
'I put a note on the message board that I was looking for a roommate.'
'Are you still in that flat belonging to your family?'
'It is not my family,' Angie corrected. 'It is the family for which I was working as an au pair. But yes. It is their flat, and I am looking after it while they are away.'
'When you met Amanda, where was she living?'
'In the hotel. She was allowed to stay in the hotel in
itially when she got the job, but then, they told her to find a place to live.'
That made sense.
'Did she talk to anyone on the phone? Text? Have a social media account?' Katie carried on.
'She barely used her phone, to be honest. She would phone or text me if needed anything, but that was about it.'
A strange young woman... no social media accounts? Highly unusual. A woman without a past and with very limited present. And now, no future. So very sad.
'What did she use the laptop for?'
'Watching YouTube videos of origami...' Angie snorted. 'She spent a lot of time in the evenings making origami. She called it meditation.'
'I don't think I'll ever learn this thing...' Katie sighed, thinking back to all her failed attempts at paper folding.
'And who is going to help me then with the present?' Angie said, meekly.
'What present?'
'For the twins - Tim and Tonya. Their birthday is this Sunday.'
'Oh, I'm not sure if I can. I mean, I'd love to, but I can only do the simplest things. She was going to show me how to make a paper crane... I'll practice a little tonight.'
Katie ended the call, with a heavy heart. Losing a friend was one thing, but the awareness of the impact it had on other people made it even more difficult. She didn't want the twins to be disappointed. Surely, folding a paper crane wasn't all that difficult. Amanda had showed her some simple techniques and simple projects. She should really try.
Just before the bedtime, Katie sat at the kitchen table, propped her phone on a book and brought the folder of origami paper and the little crane Amanda had gifted to her last Saturday.
Tears filled her eyes, but she wiped them with the back of her hand. She took a deep breath and pushed the play button on the video.
'Let's see how to make you,' she whispered picking the paper crane from the table and shaking it gently.
Something moved inside the paper figurine.