Fireflies (5 page)

     Rebecca took quite
a shine to the fit looking young man. He was hot. He had the kind of cheeky smile you’d forgive anything of. Big hands too, short fair hair and the kind soft blue eyes that really made an impact. A most worthwhile addition to the team in more ways than one and the thought occurred to her that a woman could allow herself a little diversion on her journey to the heart of the one she really wanted. Jeff was still giving off the vibe that he wasn’t ready for another relationship yet and Rebecca thought that Jonathan would look very nice inside her whilst she waited. She had no qualms about sleeping with someone just for sex whilst being in love with someone else. This was the twenty-first century after all.   

     ‘You’ll be reporting to DC Wright here
, Jonathan’ said Jeff. ‘He’ll tell you what he needs you to do. And you join us at a frenetic time with a major investigation just started. Think you can handle it?’

     ‘I’ll do more than my best, sir’ said
Jonathan, confidently.

    
Ollie Wright wondered if Barton or Stockton or any of the others noticed that Jonathan Freeman hadn’t shaken his hand in what appeared to be a deliberate act of avoiding him. Ollie tried offering his hand but Freeman took no notice and didn’t even make any kind of eye contact with him. It was as if he was pretending that Ollie wasn’t there and there were no other black men in the room. He didn’t want to jump to conclusions but what was that all about?       

FIREFLIES FOUR

Alan Travers shared a house in the Timperley area of Sale in south Manchester with his fiancée and their two kids. Jeff and Rebecca sat with Travers at his kitchen table. His fiancée and the kids who were both under five, were in the living room.

‘Lucy just can’t get over it’ said Alan. ‘She’s been in a right state. I think we’ll postpone the wedding. It just wouldn’t feel right to go ahead under the circumstances’.

‘How long had you known James Clifton?’ asked Rebecca who’d already taken in Alan’s physical appearance. He was one of those men who’d begun to lose his hair fairly early and compensated by having it cropped all over so it looked tidy. It made him look a bit like Ross Kemp and he was tall and broad shouldered like him too.

Alan rubbed the stubble on his face. ‘We grew up together in Preston’ he said softly. He could feel that lump in his throat. ‘He was my closest friend. I’ve got two sisters and he was like the brother I never had. I’m absolutely devastated. We had a great night on the stag do. We were going to fly out to Barcelona or Prague but one or two of them couldn’t afford it so we kept local which was fine, like I said, we had a great night. Different girls came and went and all I can remember is that James was there one minute and gone the next’.

‘That’s what all your friends say too, Alan’.

‘Yes, because that’s what happened. We all knew James could be a bit of a one with the ladies. God knows he was a good looking bastard and didn’t have to try very hard if he was on the pull. But whenever we do all get together we have an agreement that what happens on the night stays on the night if you get my meaning’.

‘So you all played away?’ Rebecca questioned.

Alan looked round at the door to the room where his fiancée was with the kids. ‘No and I don’t want you to get that impression. I just meant it’s what we’d always agreed but it didn’t mean we all took advantage of it’.

‘I see’ said Rebecca who had no patience with male attitudes to infidelity. ‘Thank you for clarifying that’.

‘So, what do you do for a living, Alan?’ asked Jeff.

‘I’m a photographer’ Alan explained. ‘I run my own business from my office upstairs. I’m not doing too badly considering’.

‘What was he like?’ asked Jeff.

‘Who? James?’

‘Yes’.

‘Well like I said he was my closest friend which is why he’s godfather to our two kids and why I’d asked him to be my best man’.

‘Alan, do you know of any reason why anyone would want to kill James?’ asked Jeff.

‘No! The idea of it … like I say he wasn’t perfect but none of us are’.

‘How do you mean he wasn’t perfect?’ asked Jeff. ‘We’re just trying to build up an accurate picture of James Clifton to see if it might trigger off something positive in the investigation’.

‘No, I do see that, I really do’ said Alan who then looked down and stared at his folded hands resting on the table. ‘Look, all I can say is that James wasn’t entirely reliable when it came to relationships with women. We all thought he’d finally found the right one in Sophie. We thought she had what it took to satisfy him and stop him from wandering. But it wasn’t long before he was back to his old tricks and cheating on her’.

‘And this was Sophie Cooper?’ Jeff asked as the name bounced round his mind again like a ball hitting every wall in a closed room. Why did that name mean something to him? ‘How did Sophie react to that?’

‘I don’t … I don’t want to say anything bad because I like Sophie. She’s a great girl in many respects and I think … well that’s it really’.

‘But?’

‘Well she’s very needy, very insecure’ said Alan. ‘There were several times when we all got together and she threw a tantrum followed by tears because she thought he was talking to other people all the time and ignoring her’.

‘And was he?’ asked Rebecca.

‘No, he wasn’t’ said Alan. ‘He was just chatting to everyone like we were all chatting to each other in that kind of social situation. He was just being normal but Sophie wanted him just to talk to her even when he was with all his mates. She’s neurotic and she can be very, very moody. She can walk into a happy occasion and suck all the joy out of it straight away. I’ve seen her do it many times’.

‘You just described her as a great girl’.

‘Well she is but she has this side to her that really pissed the rest of us off’ said Alan. ‘And I’m not just talking about the boys. The girls get as pissed off with her as the boys do. She had to have two hundred percent of James’ attention all the time and if she thought that she wasn’t getting it then there were these flare ups. She threw a pint of beer over him one night in the pub for no other reason than she wanted to go home as soon as they’d got there. James reasoned that they should at least have one drink but she said that he should want to go home just because she wanted to and that he shouldn’t argue with her. So she started the tears and he had no patience with that so he ignored her. That’s when she threw the beer over him. He had to do exactly what she wanted or there was hell to pay. They both worked shifts and if they had a common day off he would have to do what she’d arranged with no argument or else there’d be a tantrum. If she texted him and he didn’t reply straight away then she’d ring him and accuse him of ignoring her. The fact that he might be in the middle of a live TV broadcast made no difference to her. He had to drop everything, including his work, if she snapped her fingers. Unreasonable isn’t the word’.

‘And yet they were planning to get married?’ Rebecca questioned.

‘Well’ said Alan who rubbed the back of his neck. ‘There’s a thing. He wanted to break off the engagement and split from Sophie altogether. He just hadn’t worked out how or when to break it to her. Because she’s so emotionally irrational he didn’t know how she’d react. No doubt if he … if James had still been alive he’d have got the third degree from her about what might or might not have happened on the stag night. I wish to God he was here to get that shit from her now’.

‘Did they have what you’d call a volatile relationship then?’ asked Rebecca.

‘Only because she was so neurotic’.

‘So you lay the fault entirely at her door?’

‘Yes, I do’ said Alan who didn’t like the look he was getting from Rebecca. It was the look of every woman who believes that whenever a relationship has problems it has to be all the man’s fault and anybody who says otherwise is a misogynistic pig. ‘And if you knew her you’d think so too. 

‘But you say he was unfaithful to her?’

‘Look he wasn’t a serial adulterer’ said Alan. ‘It happened a couple of times, that’s all and it was never more than a one night stand’.

‘Oh well that makes it alright then’.

Alan swung on her. ‘Look, I’ve just lost my best friend in horrific circumstances and how dare you sit here in my house and look down on him! Now change your attitude or get out!’

‘Alan, let’s calm down, shall we?’ said Jeff with his hand in the air in a placatory gesture. ‘We’re not going to get anywhere by losing our rag’.

‘Don’t address your speech at me’ said Alan. ‘Give the reprimand to your friend here. James wasn’t a bad man despite what she’s trying to say’.

‘I’m not trying to say anything that would upset you, Alan’ said Rebecca who wasn’t sure whether she meant that or not. ‘And I’m sorry if I caused you any offence’.

‘Well I’m not interested in your apology because you shouldn’t have said what you did in the first place. He’s barely cold and you’re pulling him apart. You’re despicable. No wonder people are losing confidence in the police’.

‘Well that went well’ said Jeff as they got back into the car.

‘That James Clifton sounds like he was a right bastard’ said Rebecca as she fastened her seat-belt. Jeff was driving. ‘Men like him think nothing of being unfaithful’.

‘You were unprofessional, Rebecca’.

‘Oh I was waiting for that’.

‘You stamped all over that man’s grief, Becky’ said Jeff, turning on the ignition. ‘You tried to tarnish the memory of his best friend who hasn’t been dead five minutes’.

‘Yes, well, he said all that’.

‘Excuse me?’

‘Sorry’ said Rebecca. ‘I shouldn’t have used that tone of voice to you’.

‘And the last time I looked infidelity was not a crime punishable by genital mutilation and murder’ said Jeff as he indicated and pulled out into the road.

‘Perhaps it should be’ said Rebecca. ‘I can think of many women who’d think so’.

‘Well then they’d be wrong, DS Stockton’.

‘I thought you had respect for women, sir?’

‘And what have I said that’s made you doubt that?’

‘Well your opinion of James Clifton. I just thought you’d judge him more harshly’.

‘Becky, I’m not going to condemn him just because he’s a man who didn’t keep it in his trousers which is what you seem to want to do’ said Jeff. ‘And in any case, Sophie Cooper sounds like she’s a nightmare to live with’.

‘Oh of course it must be the woman’s fault’.

‘Well you’re quite prepared to throw all the blame on James Clifton. Rebecca, in all objectivity it doesn’t sound to me like Sophie Cooper behaved much like a woman. More like a spoilt little girl who couldn’t stand not to get her own way’.

‘He probably drove her to be that way’.

‘Rebecca, that statement doesn’t make any professional or even personal sense at all. What’s got into you?’

‘The question supposes that the problem is entirely with me like it is with Sophie Cooper according to Alan Travers’.

Jeff took a deep breath. ‘Okay, so what have I done?’

Becky looked at Jeff and felt such an outpouring of feelings that she just couldn’t bring herself to have this conversation with him now. This was all such a flaming mess. She just wished he’d react in some way to all the signals she gave off. Any kind of reaction would be good. At least she’d know then that he’d noticed.  

‘You haven’t done anything’ she said.

‘You’ve got a funny way of showing it’.

‘Look, I’ll shake myself out of the bad mood I’ve been in, Jeff’ said Rebecca. ‘I had a row with my sister yesterday and then another one with my mother this morning because she took my sister’s side like she always does. It just pissed me off but I’ll get over it’.

‘You were okay until Alan Travers started being critical of Sophie Cooper’.

‘Well maybe I’d just like to hear her side of things’ said Rebecca. ‘I’ve been on the receiving end of men who treat women badly and then wonder why they get upset’.

‘Men feel pain too, Becky’.

‘Yes, I know Jeff but men are far more likely to be unfaithful than women’.

‘I think that depends on the man and the woman’.

‘Well men are hopeless about admitting to what they’ve done. That’s why I went to Sophie Cooper’s defence because she was being got at by Alan Travers’.

‘Because he knows her and you don’t’ said Jeff.

‘Can’t you give me a day off from being perfect?’

Jeff laughed. ‘Well, alright. But don’t take a week’s leave on it’. 

An awkward silence fell on them that lasted for the rest of the journey back to the station leaving Jeff totally unconvinced that Becky had told him anything like the whole truth. 

‘Look’ said Jeff before Rebecca got out of the car. ‘Are we good, Becky?’

‘Yeah, yeah we’re good, Jeff’.

‘I hope so, Becky. I really do. You’re a good friend and a valued friend. I’d hate to lose that’.

Sharon Bellfield was trying to figure out where the hell she was. She could hear her phone ringing somewhere. Why had she changed the ring tone to that irritatingly banal Ellie
Goulding piece of crap going burn, burn, fucking burn all the time? She reached out from underneath the darkness and realised she was in a bed. It wasn’t her bed. So whose was it? She had to go into a semi fight with the duvet to get the thing from being wrapped round her like a fucking python. She opened a bleary eye and reached out for where she could see her phone vibrating on the bedside table but her hand fell short. A bedside table? That was a bit domestic for the men she liked to go with. Rough and ready types who showed a girl a good time was what she was partial to and they tended to have a bed in the bedroom and not much else.