The Silent Suspect

by Nell Pattison

  ‘I know, it surprised me that she’d stoop that low too, but you know what they say about a woman scorned. Lukas and Nadia got together after the two of them had split up, so I can’t see that Nadia deserved any of it, but you never know how people feel in these situations. I reckon Paul had an idea it was Caroline, too, but he couldn’t prove it either.’

  This caught my attention; Paul hadn’t mentioned anything about suspecting one of his other employees, and I wondered why he’d left that part out of his story. I was about to respond when the woman checked her watch and grimaced.

  ‘I’ve got to go. Don’t get much time between jobs these days.’ She gave me a nod, along with a searching look, probably realising she’d just opened up to me without knowing who I was, then left.

  Glancing up, I could see Sasha standing by her car watching me, so I hurried out to join her, my mind reeling. No wonder Caroline didn’t want to talk to us. If her attempts to get revenge on Nadia at work hadn’t been successful, how far would she have been willing to go to try again?

  Chapter 24

  ‘Absolutely not,’ Forest snapped. ‘This isn’t an episode of Midsomer Murders. We’re not sitting around twiddling our thumbs in the hopes that some interfering amateurs will come along and solve our cases for us.’

  She glared at me, and I knew she was wishing she’d seen the back of me the last time I interpreted for a police investigation. Our appointment hadn’t gone as well as I’d hoped, and Forest had not been pleased with Sasha asking for information regarding the evidence against Lukas. Sasha had tried offering her the things we’d found out about Lukas being in debt to Roy, and about Nadia being accused of theft, but that just seemed to make Forest even angrier.

  Sasha refused to be cowed by the DI, however, and she stood her ground.

  Lukas is innocent, and if he ends up in prison for the rest of his life that will be on you. We’re bringing you some information about him that might be useful, and it’s up to you what you do with it. If you choose to ignore it, that’s your choice, but I won’t stand by and watch one of my clients be convicted of a crime he didn’t commit.

  ‘Admirable,’ Forest replied drily. ‘If I decide we need your help, I will ask for it, Ms Thomas. For now, I’ll respectfully ask that you leave my office.’

  I could see that Sasha wanted to argue, but I could have told her it was futile; I’d had arguments with DI Forest in the past, and I knew it wasn’t worth it, even when you were convinced you were the one in the right.

  Forest was standing by the door, holding it open expectantly. Sasha looked at me but I gave her a quick shake of my head, so we both stood to leave. On our way out I caught a glimpse of Singh coming down the corridor and our eyes met for a brief moment, but Sasha and I were ushered out before I got a chance to say anything to him.

  Once we were in the car park, Sasha leant against the side of my car and frowned at me.

  That was a waste of time. Why are they so reluctant to listen to us? You’d have thought they’d want to avoid sending an innocent man to prison.

  I think they do, I replied, but I think they don’t feel that we know what we’re talking about. And you can understand their point of view – Lukas is in court today, so they must have built up plenty of evidence against him.

  It’s not right, Sasha snapped. I don’t believe they can prove he did it.

  I don’t know any more than you do, I told her, holding my hands up. I think the only way we’re going to get them to look into it further is if Lukas actually makes a statement and tells them who he thinks is responsible, and why.

  Sasha let out a hollow laugh. Do you think that’s likely? You saw him the last time we visited. How am I going to get him to make a statement now? It would be easier if he’d told me exactly what had happened, but we don’t even know which parts are true. Did he and Nadia have a row, or not? Did he go out to the pub when he said he did? What about the time he came home? How did he get the bruises? She made a frustrated noise in her throat.

  I know, I signed, putting my hand on her shoulder. We’ll work something out. Right now we need to think about where we go from here, now we know that Forest has no interest in talking to us.

  I was about to continue when my phone rang. Pulling it out, I frowned and turned to look at the police station behind me. Singh’s name had flashed up on the screen; why was he calling me from inside the station?

  ‘Hello?’

  ‘Hi,’ he said, his voice low. ‘I can’t talk for long. Can you meet me in about half an hour?’ He named a coffee shop about five minutes’ walk from the police station.

  ‘Sure. What do you want to talk about?’ I asked, but by the time I’d finished the question he’d hung up. I was puzzled, but told Sasha what Singh had asked.

  I have a client meeting in an hour and a half, she reminded me. I can’t cancel it – I’m catching up from last week. What do you think he wants?

  I don’t know, I replied. From what he’d said when I last saw him, and Forest’s reaction today, I was worried he’d tell us we were wasting our time, or even worse, to back off.

  If it’s another telling-off from his boss, I’ll be pissed off, she warned me, and I nodded my agreement. A nervous sensation churned in the pit of my stomach; I liked Rav a lot and I didn’t want to find myself in a position where I’d lost his respect. Having said that, I also didn’t think I could sit back while a man I believed was innocent was sent to jail.

  It was nearly forty minutes later when Singh met us in the coffee shop. Sasha had been getting ready to leave, and she wasted no time in telling him that she couldn’t be late for her next appointment. He looked a little put out, and I wondered if maybe he wasn’t here to have a go at us.

  When he looked at me, he did a double take, and his hand automatically went out to touch my face. His fingers brushed my jaw as he took a look at the large graze on my cheek, and I felt a small shiver at the gentleness of his touch. His hand was warm, and I found myself holding my breath until he slowly pulled away.

  ‘What the hell happened?’ he asked.

  ‘It’s nothing,’ I said, shaking my head. ‘I fell.’

  ‘You fell,’ he repeated, his tone sceptical. ‘Paige, tell me the truth.’

  ‘That is the truth. I had a bit too much to drink and I stumbled, crashed into a wall.’

  He looked at me for a moment and I felt uncomfortable.

  ‘That’s what happened,’ I added, and instantly regretted it. The more I insisted it was true, the less honest I sounded. I knew Anna would kill me if she found out I hadn’t reported the attack to the police, but there was still a part of me that felt it was my own fault for digging too far into the case.

  Singh glanced at Sasha, then looked back at me, pulling me aside and lowering his voice.

  ‘Look, if this was something to do with Max, I can help you report it and make sure he doesn’t hurt you again.’

  The idea of Max laying a finger on me was so ridiculous that I couldn’t help but laugh, which made Singh look even more confused.

  ‘I promise, it wasn’t Max. In fact …’ I wondered if I should tell him, but I’d already started speaking, so it seemed as good a time as any. ‘Max and I broke up.’

  ‘Oh. Well. Okay. I’m sorry.’ Singh didn’t seem to know what to say. He almost looked stunned, and I could see him trying to process it. Was he pleased? Or did I only recognise that emotion in his eyes because that’s what I wanted to see?

  Remembering why we were there, I turned back to Sasha, who was getting impatient. Singh got the hint and sat down with us, though I noticed his eyes kept straying back to my face.

  ‘I won’t keep you long, but this is important,’ he told us, a look on his face that suggested what he was going to say was quite difficult for him. ‘I’ve had a look back at the evidence we’ve compiled against Lukas, and I’m wondering if there’s something in what you’ve been saying, Paige.’

  I raised my eyebrows in surprise as I interpreted his words f
or Sasha.

  ‘We’ve interviewed him twice since his arrest,’ Singh continued, ‘and he’s still refused to cooperate. He hasn’t given us any details about that night, and hasn’t told us anything that suggests he’s innocent.’

  I knew they had to employ a different interpreter for those interviews because I was a witness, but it still stung a little.

  ‘So do you have enough evidence, or not?’ I asked.

  Singh shook his head. ‘In my opinion, no.’

  Sasha and I looked at each other in shock.

  You believe he didn’t kill Nadia? she asked.

  ‘He might have done,’ Singh said quickly. ‘I’m not saying that I agree with you that he’s innocent. I do think there’s a chance he’ll be released, at least until we can find further evidence.’

  ‘Why are you telling us this?’ I asked.

  ‘Because I think you might be right. I’m going to put together a case to ask Forest to let me look into this a bit further. His refusal to cooperate with us may or may not be a sign of his guilt. It might be that there’s something else going on, and he did kill Nadia but doesn’t want us to find out about another crime,’ he warned us, looking between me and Sasha. I didn’t know what he meant, but it echoed something Mariusz had said to us. Was there something else going on that Sasha and I didn’t know about?

  ‘And if I find something that points in that direction, I’ll follow it,’ Singh continued. ‘My job is to find out what really happened, whether that’s exonerating this man or not.’

  Sasha nodded enthusiastically. That’s all we can ask.

  ‘Is that why you asked us to meet you here?’ I asked.

  He nodded. ‘I don’t know what Forest is going to make of this. It might be something I have to do on my own time. But if you tell me what you know, if Lukas has said anything else to you, then it could help.’

  Biting her lip, Sasha shook her head. This is what’s so frustrating. He won’t tell us anything. I know there’s no way he could have killed Nadia, but I don’t have any evidence I can show you. We’ve talked to a few people, so we can give you an idea of where to look, but that’s all.

  ‘Okay. Paige, I’ve read your statement from the night of the fire, but is there anything else you haven’t put in?’

  I shrugged. ‘I included how Lukas looked and behaved, but I knew I wasn’t meant to speculate on what that meant so it doesn’t include my opinions. But that’s all.’

  It took another fifteen minutes for Sasha and me to go through what we’d discussed, including my impressions of Lukas on the night Nadia had died, and the conversations I’d had with Jill Adams and Eric. We also told Singh about the accusations of theft, and the suggestion that Caroline had fabricated the whole thing. When I added this last detail, Sasha gave me a strange look – I hadn’t had time to tell her about it before we went to see Forest.

  ‘I’ll have a look at the statement Jill Adams gave us the first time, and go back to speak to her, as well as Eric. I’m not sure how we missed him when we went door-to-door. If Jill lied to us the first time it could have very serious consequences, both for her and for Lukas.’

  ‘I don’t think you’ll consider her to be a reliable witness,’ I replied. I knew how Singh operated; I’d worked with him during two past murder investigations, and when you spent that much time with another professional you began to understand how they worked.

  ‘Fair enough, I’ll see what I think,’ he said, giving me a look that told me not to get ahead of myself. I got it – he was the professional detective; I was the interpreter. Still, I was confident he’d agree with me.

  ‘Okay, this has been really useful, thank you,’ he told us once we’d finished telling him everything we knew, or thought we knew. ‘For now, I think it’s a good idea if you stop trying to convince DI Forest of Lukas Nowak’s innocence and leave the police work to us. If you carry on, you risk jeopardising our case, which could be worse for him in the long run.’ There was a warning note in his voice, and I wondered if Forest actually knew he was here with us. Was this just an attempt to get us to back off, by making us think they were looking further into it? I couldn’t see Singh doing that to us, although I wouldn’t have put it past DI Forest.

  As we were leaving, Singh pulled me aside again.

  ‘I mean it, Paige. If you want to talk about what happened,’ he said, looking pointedly at my grazed cheek, ‘then give me a call.’

  I knew it didn’t make any sense to keep it from him, especially now he was going to be looking further into other potential suspects and motives, but I still didn’t tell him. For a start, I had no idea who had attacked me the previous night, or who might have sent them. It might not even have anything to do with Lukas, though it seemed that it was connected to him somehow. And if I was honest, I was embarrassed, because it was my own actions that brought it on myself.

  ‘Are you okay?’ he added. ‘With the thing with Max, I mean?’ He looked a bit shy as he asked, and I smiled.

  ‘I’m okay,’ I said with a nod. ‘It’s strange, but I think I’m okay.’

  He nodded and smiled, then turned to leave. A moment later, he glanced back at me, then looked embarrassed when he realised I’d noticed.

  Chapter 25

  Sasha’s meeting was with one of her deaf clients and she told me she wouldn’t need me, so after we’d seen Singh we went our separate ways. On my way home, I found myself sitting in traffic for ages due to roadworks on Brigg Road. It gave me time to think, although that wasn’t necessarily a positive thing at the moment.

  I hadn’t checked my phone much all day, not really wanting to hear from Anna, who would be checking up that I’d made the police report. I was also trying very hard not to think about Max and our chance encounter in the Deaf club yesterday. Unless I was going to start socialising in completely different places, it was inevitable that I was going to bump into him sooner or later, but I hadn’t expected it to be so soon. I had hoped we both would have had a chance to get used to the situation, to our change in circumstances, before we had to face each other again.

  The more I thought about Max, the more anxious I felt. I couldn’t stop second-guessing myself, wondering if I’d done the right thing. The change was still too new for me to be happy with it, and I knew I was in danger of going back on what I’d said, just to find some stability again. I took a deep breath and reminded myself that even positive change could be very uncomfortable to begin with, and that I just needed to ride it out.

  As I crawled through the traffic queue, I drove level with a side road, and made a split-second decision to turn off. I could find a short cut and avoid the worst of the traffic. It took me on a winding route, but it was better than sitting still for ages. One side street I turned down was parked up with cars on both sides, so there was only room for one vehicle to pass between them at a time. Seeing a car at the other end of the road, I pulled in when I saw a gap, to let them pass. As I waited for the road to be clear again, I glanced at one of the houses to my left, where I could see a lot of activity.

  The house was set back a little from the pavement, with a messy front garden surrounded by a rotting wooden fence. Several people were hanging around outside the house, and I could see they were mostly teenagers, with a couple of young adults. Two of the lads were sitting on bikes, and another was on the ground, his back against the front wall. In his hand, his phone blared loud music. I assumed it was some sort of party, but then as I watched the front door opened and a man in his thirties stuck his head out and spoke to one of the lads on bikes. The boy nodded, took something from the man and slipped it into his pocket, then set off on his bike. I watched him leave, zipping down the pavement, weaving around a lamp-post then disappearing round the corner. The others at the front of the house hadn’t moved from their positions.

  It seemed a little strange, but I didn’t really think anything of it until the teenager who was sitting on the ground stood up, brushing down his tracksuit bottoms and taking a cigarette
off the boy next to him. It was Mariusz. What was he doing hanging around outside a house in a dodgy area of Scunthorpe during the day? Shouldn’t he be at school? He might have taken some time off, considering what had happened to his dad and stepmum, but this probably wasn’t how his school thought he was spending his time.

  The other bike had now been handed over to one of the young adults, who was riding it round the front yard of the house, standing up on the pedals and yelling something at a woman who was walking past. She kept her head down and scurried past as quickly as she could, and for a moment I thought the man on the bike was going to follow her, but he obviously thought better of it and carried on doing his laps.

  I glanced at the houses on either side, and the twitch of a curtain caught my eye in the house nearest to me. An elderly Asian woman in a colourful dress was watching the gang from her window – because they did appear to be a gang of some sort.

  The lad who had cycled off was back, one of his mates giving him a fist bump as he skidded into the front yard. A playful shove from the youth on the other bike soon turned into a bit of posturing, and before I knew it a fight had broken out. Within seconds, the front door had been pulled open and the same man appeared. He marched in between the two throwing punches at each other and forcibly separated them, snarling something at them as he did so. They fell back, glowering at each other, but they obviously didn’t dare argue with the older man.

  By now I’d parked up at the side of the road, interested to see what happened next. Would I be able to get Mariusz on his own to ask him what it was he wanted to say when he came to visit Sasha the other day? With everything that had gone on with Roy, the man who’d attacked me, and my break-up with Max I’d almost forgotten about Mariusz. Would he even talk to me in front of his friends?

  A man was walking up the other side of the road, glancing over at the house occasionally, until he crossed in front of my car and went up the path. His clothes were filthy, his hair straggly and unwashed, and I was glad I couldn’t smell him as he went past. Rubbing his hands together nervously, he approached the front door, watched the whole time by the group out the front. A moment later, he disappeared inside the house. None of the gang moved until, about ninety seconds later, the door opened again and the man was ejected into the street. A couple of the teenagers heckled him, and he looked like he was going to go for them, but his emaciated frame would have been no match for their youth and he shied away, ducking back out onto the path and scuttling away up the street.