The Silent Suspect

by Nell Pattison

  The house itself looked like it could do with some attention. Paint was peeling from the front wall of the red-brick terrace, and the wooden window frames were starting to rot. Most of the other houses in the row had been extended slightly, with a bay window added at the front, but this one didn’t look like it had had anything done to it for a long time. I could see a yellowing net curtain hanging in the front window, and the front doorstep had cracked right down the middle.

  I knocked, then realised Lukas wouldn’t be able to hear me. I doubted he’d had time or opportunity to install any sort of adaptations for himself, so I’d need to find another way of alerting him to my presence. Moving to the side, I pressed my face against the front window, wondering if I would be able to see anything through the ancient polyester on the other side of the glass.

  ‘Hello?’

  I jumped. Someone had opened the door, but it wasn’t Lukas.

  ‘Paul, hi. I came to see Lukas. Is he here?’ I shouldn’t have been surprised that Paul was there – after all, the house belonged to him, and had been his mother’s before he let Lukas use it. I’d hoped to have a conversation with Lukas alone, and Paul’s presence immediately put me on my guard.

  ‘Paige, isn’t it?’

  I nodded and Paul held the door open wide.

  ‘Why don’t you come in?’

  I hesitated for a moment, but I didn’t want to make a scene on the doorstep, so I followed him inside.

  The smell of damp hit me as we walked in. I knew the house had probably been lying empty for a few weeks, but the intensity of the smell suggested it had been neglected for a long time prior to Mrs Ilford’s death. I picked my way across the filthy carpet and into the room to the right.

  ‘Take a seat,’ Paul said cheerfully, pointing at an armchair in the corner. The leather was worn, but it was definitely a better choice than the sofa, whose upholstery had worn right through to the stuffing in a couple of patches.

  ‘Where’s Lukas?’ I asked.

  ‘He’s just popped out to get a couple of things,’ he told me. ‘He should be back soon, though. Do you want a cup of tea while you wait?’

  I had two choices – I could make my excuses and leave, and try to talk to Lukas another time, or I could suck it up and wait. I don’t know what pushed me towards the latter, but I was already there so I thought I could sit it out.

  While Paul busied himself in the kitchen, I stuck my head into the hallway and had a quick look around. There were only two rooms downstairs – the kitchen and the sitting room Paul had shown me into – so I assumed upstairs had two bedrooms and probably a very small bathroom. The carpet on the stairs was the same murky shade of dirt as the one in the hall, and I shuddered to think just what had been ground into it over the years.

  ‘Tea.’ Paul appeared from the kitchen, with a tray in his hands. I hoped the mugs hadn’t been here as long as the carpet, but the one he handed me looked relatively clean, so I risked it and took a drink.

  ‘How long did your mother live here?’ I asked him, stuck for conversation topics.

  ‘Most of her life,’ he replied. ‘I grew up in this house.’

  Maybe nostalgia kept him from changing anything, but that still didn’t excuse him allowing his mum to live in squalor.

  We drank our tea in an awkward silence; I was itching to say something about the state of the house, but I knew there was a chance I could get myself into trouble, so I kept my mouth shut. After finishing my tea, I put my mug on a low table by the side of my chair and stood up to have a look at the pictures on the wall. They all appeared to be of Scunthorpe in the 1950s, and I took a few minutes trying to identify the different locations.

  ‘Do you mind if I just use the toilet?’ I asked, pointing to the door and moving towards it. There was no way I actually wanted to use the facilities in a house that was in this state, but it would give me an excuse to poke around a little bit before Lukas got back. I wondered where he’d gone, because he was taking a while.

  Paul jumped up out of his seat and followed me into the hallway, where I already had my foot on the bottom stair.

  ‘No!’ he said sharply, making me jump. His eyes were narrowed and there was a tightness in his jaw that made me uncomfortable. ‘No, the bathroom isn’t upstairs,’ he continued, his voice now returned to a more even tone. ‘It’s an old house, used to just have an outside privy when it was built. The bathroom’s off the back of the kitchen.’

  I nodded and stepped back, skirting round him carefully and going into the kitchen. I could feel his eyes on me as I walked across the tatty lino to the door at the back. Pushing it closed behind me, I leant on it and pulled my phone out of my pocket. Something was telling me that wherever Lukas was, he wasn’t at the shops. I sent a text to Singh, telling him where I was and that I might need some help, fervently hoping he read it quickly.

  I waited in the bathroom for as long as I felt was decent, then flushed the creaking toilet and splashed some water in the sink, drying my hands on my clothes rather than touch anything else in there. When I stepped out, Paul was standing in the kitchen, rubbing his arms, obviously waiting for me.

  ‘Is Lukas back yet?’ I asked brightly, and Paul’s eyes narrowed slightly. I glanced past him, wondering if I could make a break for the door, but I wasn’t certain, and I didn’t want it to seem like I was in a hurry to get out of there.

  When Paul didn’t reply, I shrugged. ‘Maybe I should come back another time. I’m quite busy. I need to get to work.’

  ‘Why are you here?’ he asked, moving himself so he was positioned between me and the door.

  ‘I came to see Lukas,’ I said evenly.

  ‘Why? What did you need to talk to him about?’

  I opened my mouth to reply, then my eyes went to his hand. I hadn’t noticed what he was holding until then. It was my notebook, the one that had been stolen from my car on the night I was mugged.

  He saw where I was looking and brandished it at me.

  ‘Looking for this? It wasn’t hard to get hold of.’

  When I’d come here, I’d been certain that Paul Ilford had killed Nadia, either because she suspected him of killing his mother, or because she was threatening to expose him as the man behind the cuckooing gang operating in that area of Scunthorpe. But I had had no intention of confronting him – I had wanted to talk to Lukas, to find out how much of it he knew, how much Nadia had told him. Now I found myself in a situation I really didn’t want to be in, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to get out of it. Even if Singh had read my message, how quickly would he get here?

  ‘How did you get that?’ I asked him quietly, wondering if I could manage to pretend to be clueless about the whole thing. The look on his face told me he wasn’t buying it, however.

  A sneer pulled at the corner of his mouth. ‘I’ve got a few people who are willing to do little jobs for me. Breaking into a car isn’t much to any of them, but I had him take your keys from your pocket in case we needed to search your flat too. Of course, in the end he didn’t need them.’

  I gave a shudder at the idea of one of Paul’s unsavoury associates in my flat, particularly if Anna had been home, and was thankful that I’d taken my notebook with me that night and left it in my car.

  ‘I thought you’d be easier to scare off,’ he said with a glance at where the graze on my cheek was still healing.

  ‘That was you too?’ I asked in surprise. I had assumed from the size and shape of my attacker that it had been a patron of Roy’s gym.

  ‘You and that social worker were asking a few too many questions,’ he replied. ‘I couldn’t have you fucking everything up for me, not now that I’m getting properly established.’

  ‘You used your care business to find vulnerable victims, people who you knew wouldn’t say anything about strange people coming in and out of their house.’

  ‘And it worked,’ he said with a smug grin. ‘Nobody suspected a thing, until Mariusz Nowak got involved. I should never have pulled him i
n.’

  ‘Why Mariusz?’ I asked. If I could keep him talking, hopefully Singh would arrive, with back-up.

  Paul glared at me. ‘What does it matter?’

  ‘I’m trying to work out why you killed Nadia,’ I replied. ‘I think it started with your mother. The obituary said she passed away peacefully in her sleep, but Nadia didn’t think that was true, did she?’

  ‘Stupid woman,’ Paul spat, and there was rage in his voice. ‘She should have left well alone! She came to me a couple of weeks afterwards, when she finally plucked up the courage to say something. She’d noticed that there was a lot of my mother’s medication missing, that the packs and bottles had been much fuller when she was there the day before my mother died.’ He stepped back and flung my notebook down on the worktop. ‘That didn’t end up in your little book, did it?’ he jeered. ‘No, she stuck her nose in where it didn’t belong. She could have just ignored it, forgotten all about it.’ He looked up at me, his eyes blazing. ‘Mum did have a peaceful end, I made sure of that. Yes, I helped her along a little bit, but she was old and in pain. It was the kindest thing.’

  ‘Why did you do it?’ I asked, but I don’t think he heard me.

  ‘I liked Nadia, I actually fancied her. Was a bit pissed off when she went out with Lukas. I mean, what could he offer her compared to me?’ He held his hands out, as if to suggest the house we were in would impress anyone. I remembered the size and luxury of his own house, and was once again appalled that he’d been living like that while leaving his mother in these conditions.

  ‘So when she kept pushing you about how your mother died, is that when you lured Mariusz into your little gang?’

  Paul laughed, an unpleasant sound that echoed in the kitchen. ‘He didn’t need much luring. That kid was always going to be open to a bad influence.’

  ‘You thought you could use him to threaten Nadia. But even that didn’t work, did it?’

  Paul shook his head. ‘She was persistent. I even used her house for my business dealings for a couple of days, with Mariusz’s help, to show her what hell I could make her life. But she was a stubborn bitch. Told me she would give me one last chance to admit what I’d done before she went to the police.’

  ‘So you went round there when Lukas was out at the pub, and killed her,’ I said softly. ‘Then you set fire to the house to cover up what you’d done.’

  He gave me an incredulous look. ‘You think I set those fires? Why the hell would I do that? Every time I pick a new house to use as a base, I keep finding someone sets fire to it just after I move in. Some even before.’ He made a low noise in the back of his throat. ‘Never mind – it’ll work in my favour. When they find your body and Lukas’s in the remains of this house, they’ll assume it was the same person.’

  That was when I smelled the smoke. At the same time Paul swung a fist at my head.

  After

  Paul looked down at Nadia’s lifeless body, the cord he had used still held tightly in one fist. She had been one of his best workers, but she’d been unable to keep her nose out of things. He’d thought that she’d be easy to fool, and to control, because she was deaf. In fact, she’d been completely the opposite.

  When he’d picked her to be his mother’s carer, he’d already known what he was going to do. He needed the old hag out of the way, but he didn’t want anyone to spot what had happened, which was why he’d used one of his own carers but run it off the books. Nadia hadn’t minded. She’d thought she was just doing him a favour, and he’d offered her some extra cash, which he knew she was desperate for.

  She had actually thought that by talking to him, he’d see the error of his ways and turn himself in to the police. He shook his head as he thought about it. Killing her had been too easy. He’d just waited until her back was turned and slipped the cord round her neck. He was stronger than her – easy to overpower her.

  Should he try and get her body out of the house and hide it somewhere? If he did that, it might be a while until anyone realised she was dead. Lukas would come back from the pub, drunk of course, and find that she wasn’t there, but he might not report her missing until tomorrow, if he thought she’d gone out. He peered out of the front window and noticed an old man over the road sitting in his chair, looking out at the street. No, there was no way he’d be able to get her body out of the house without someone like that old bastard seeing him. She’d have to stay there.

  He went back into the living room and pulled a cloth from his pocket, using it to wipe down any surfaces he might have touched, including door handles. He’d slipped on a pair of gloves before killing her, and he kept them on until he was in the car. The front door closed quite loudly behind him, but he didn’t care. He just wanted to get away from there as quickly as possible. If anyone had seen him, he’d tell them he was dropping off Nadia’s new rota.

  As he drove away, he pictured the police coming to the office the next day to tell him one of his employees had died. He practised his best shocked and sad faces, then reminded himself to tell them just how drunk Lukas could get some nights. Yes, that should be enough to do it.

  Chapter 37

  Paul swung for me but I dodged his punch and he caught me on the shoulder, which sent us both sprawling onto the floor. I had no idea where he’d set the fire, but the smell of smoke was getting stronger, so I needed to find a way out of there as quickly as I could.

  My mind went back to something Paul had said: that they’d find Lukas’s body after the fire as well as mine. Was Lukas already dead, or was he still alive and somewhere in the house? My flight instincts were telling me to get out of the house, but if there was a possibility that Lukas was alive I had to try and find him.

  I scrambled forwards on my knees, but Paul was quicker than me. He grabbed one of my ankles and hauled me backwards, my jaw crunching as it hit the floor. I cried out, but a moment later his hand was across my mouth, cutting off my airway. Struggling against him, I tried to push him off me but he was stronger than he looked. The edges of my vision started to darken as I fought to breathe, so I let my body go limp. This tactic worked – Paul thought I’d passed out, and released the pressure on my face, allowing me to breathe again. As soon as I felt his weight lift from me, I made another dash for the kitchen door and into the hallway.

  Paul obviously expected me to go for the front door, but instead I raced up the stairs. Smoke was curling out from underneath the door of the living room, and I could already see it starting to fill the hallway. I pulled my top up to cover my nose and mouth as I ran up the stairs, tripping on a bit of loose carpet halfway up. Part of me expected to feel Paul’s hand on my ankle again, dragging me back down the stairs, but there was nothing. I picked myself up and hurried to the top, checking the two rooms for any sign of Lukas.

  The back bedroom was piled floor to ceiling with cardboard boxes, and a quick glance told me a person couldn’t fit in the spaces between them, so I went into the other bedroom. It was still furnished with Paul’s mum’s things, down to the open powder puff on the dressing table, and I felt a small shiver. Lukas was lying on the bed, tied up but conscious and alert. He stared at me, struggling against his bonds, as I came into the room.

  Paul’s set fire to the house, I signed quickly, before attempting to untie him. The knots were tight and it took me too long just to pick at them and work an end loose. I looked around the room for something I could use to cut the cords binding his hands, but there was nothing, and by the time I’d freed his hands I was coughing. When he had use of his hands I thought Lukas would help to untie his feet, but he just lay there staring at me.

  Paul killed her. He killed Nadia, he signed to me, looking dazed.

  I know, and he’s trying to kill us!

  Lukas just looked at me, as if he had no idea what I was talking about, and I wondered if he hadn’t even noticed the smell of smoke as it drifted through the house.

  Fire! I signed again, and this seemed to galvanise him into action. Between us we got the ropes off h
is ankles and rushed out onto the landing. I got to the top of the stairs and felt the panic in my chest reach up to my throat, nearly suffocating me. I could see now why Paul hadn’t bothered to follow me up there. The fire had spread out from the front room into the hallway, and the flames were licking at the carpet at least three steps up from the ground floor. We were trapped.

  Lukas pushed against me from behind and I stumbled, my foot slipping down off the top step. I fell to my knees and grabbed on to the banister rail to stop myself from falling down the full flight of stairs.

  Go back! I hastily signed to Lukas, and he looked past me at the fire. Pushing me out of the way, he looked like he was going to try and get down, but I knew there was no way he’d make it. I grabbed the back of his shirt and dragged him back onto the landing, then into the smaller bedroom, which was the furthest away from the fire.

  Help me move these boxes, I told him, pulling them away from the window.

  What are you trying to do?

  I pointed at the window. It’s our only way out of this house.

  He shook his head. We can’t jump. We’ll be killed.

  I shook my head at him in frustration. It’s only a few feet, we’ll be fine. I didn’t have time to argue with him, so I just ignored him and carried on lugging the boxes out of the way. They were heavy, so it would have been easier if he’d helped me, but the next time I looked round he’d disappeared. I was about to see where he’d gone, but the smoke was getting thicker and I could feel the heat of the fire coming up through the floor, and I knew I no longer had time to think about anything other than my own survival.

  A moment later, however, Lukas was back at my side, grabbing me by the arm. I tried to shake him off but he was persistent, forcing me to look at him.

  Police, he signed.

  Where?

  Outside. He pointed to the front bedroom, and I left the box I was trying to manoeuvre and dashed back through to the other room. Sure enough, there were blue flashing lights outside the window, and I saw a familiar figure standing next to a couple of uniformed officers, shouting orders and pointing at the house – it was Singh. He must have got my message. I felt a rush of emotion at the sight of him, knowing he had come to help me when I needed him most.