Streetwise (20 page)

DI Valerie Middleton gazed at the empty double bed with its rumpled sheet. They had removed the body of the girl half an hour ago, but her imprint still remained. How old had she been? Twenty-five, twenty-six perhaps. A pretty, fair-haired girl with nothing to live for. A quarter-full bottle of whisky sat on the bedside table alongside an empty bottle of anti-depressants.

Suicides always filled Valerie with an almost overwhelming sense of sadness. It was the loneliness of it that got to her most, those final moments that had been spent in a solitary determination to end it all. There was no note, no final scribbled words of explanation. What could be so bad, so unendurable that Lydia Hall had felt unable to go on? It had to be connected to the murder of Squires.

DS Higgs came back into the bedroom and glanced at the bed. ‘What do you reckon, guv? A guilty conscience or a broken heart?’

Valerie knew that she had to turn off her emotions and put on her professional head if she wanted to think clearly. ‘No sign of the gun, I take it?’

‘No, but she could have dumped it straight after, dropped it in a bin or somewhere. The boys have finished searching the flat. It isn’t here. In fact, there isn’t much here at all, not even a computer. We’ve bagged her phone, but that’s about the sum of it.’

Valerie wasn’t surprised that the search had been completed so quickly. Lydia Hall had possessed very little. The flat was sparsely furnished with only the bare essentials. The girl had made no attempt to prettify it, to put up pictures or add any feminine touches. There were no furry scatter cushions, no family photos, no ornaments or plants. It hadn’t been so much a home as a roof over her head.

‘Okay, I’ll sort out the bedroom. Tell the boys they can go.’

As Higgs left the room, Valerie walked over to the window. It was only by chance that they had found the body at all. With Butler back at the scene of the crime and no real leads other than the mutterings of a dying man, she had decided that they may as well follow up on Ava Gold’s story and see how much Lydia knew about the shooting.

The flat was a small one-bedroom conversion on the ground floor of a three-storey Victorian house on Barley Road. The building, situated at the far end of the road, was in the less desirable part without the nice view over the green. Higgs had rung the bell a couple of times, but there had been no response. Valerie wasn’t sure what had made her try the handle – nobody kept their homes unlocked in Kellston even if they were in – but the door had offered no resistance and had swung smoothly open.

Valerie frowned. Had she known even as she stepped inside? There had been no smell – it was too early for that – but there had been something about the silence, a kind of still brooding quality that hung in the air like a pall. She had called out the girl’s name. ‘Lydia? Lydia, it’s the police.’

They had gone into the chilly living room. Nothing. The bedroom was off to the right. She had hesitated before she’d turned the brass-coloured doorknob, a sense of unease washing over her. The curtains were closed, but a lamp was on beside the bed. And in the soft light she had seen the girl with her fair hair spread over the pillow like a fan. Not asleep. She was definitely not asleep.

Valerie had gone through the motions, feeling for a pulse even though she knew it was useless. The body was already cool. They had been too late, way too late to even have had a chance of saving her. The pathologist had estimated the time of death in the early hours of the morning, maybe one or two o’clock. They had no idea as yet how many pills she had taken, but mixed with the whisky they would have acted quickly.

Turning away from the window, she walked back over to the bed and with a gloved hand picked up the empty bottle and read the small print on the label. Amitriptyline. The prescription had been made out for a Karen Hall, not Lydia Hall. Sister? Mother? Or maybe just another name she had used. Valerie bagged the container, along with the bottle of whisky and the glass.

Higgs appeared again, her voice cool and brisk. ‘Ready, guv?’

‘Why do you think she left the front door open?’ Valerie asked. ‘What was the reason for that?’

‘Maybe she wanted someone to find her before it was too late.’

‘But no one was going to drop round at that time of night.’

‘Unless she made a call, told someone what she was planning on doing.’ Higgs paused and then added, ‘Or in case she changed her mind and called an ambulance. People do. And you wouldn’t want them wasting valuable time while they tried to get in.’

Valerie was aware that they would never know for certain. What had gone on in Lydia Hall’s mind would always remain a mystery. Someone, of course, would have come round eventually: her boss, a friend, even the police if she was reported as missing. Had she wanted to make it easy for them? Had she preferred her body to be discovered as soon as possible? Perhaps the truth was more mundane – that she had simply forgotten to lock the door behind her.

‘What are you thinking?’ Higgs asked. ‘You got doubts about the suicide?’

‘No, not really. There’s no sign of a struggle. I mean, it’s not impossible that she was murdered, but I don’t think so.’

‘So what next?’

Valerie gave a sigh. ‘We try and track down the family, if there is any, and break the bad news. Has Tash Reed gone home?’

‘Yeah, Annie ran her back. Said she’d stay with her until her friend got there.’

It had been unfortunate that Tash Reed had turned up when she had, shortly after they’d discovered the body. Finding the front door ajar, the girl had walked straight into the flat. Valerie remembered her expression as the two of them had come face to face in the living room, the eyes growing wide, the slow dawning of horror. Death was never easy to deal with, but when you stumbled on it unexpectedly…

Valerie straightened her shoulders and glanced over at Higgs. ‘Time for another visit to Market Square, I think.’

Ava, who had run most of the way back from the Mansfield, slipping and sliding on the ice, was now perched on the edge of one of the armchairs trying to get her breath back. It still hadn’t sunk in properly.
Lydia was dead. Lydia had committed suicide.
These were facts and yet she didn’t seem able to process them properly. She felt numb rather than emotional. It was as if the shock had paralysed the part of her brain that dealt with such terrible things.

Her gaze jumped between her flatmate and the two cops. Tash’s eyes were red with crying. Hannah was doing her best to comfort her, but it was an impossible task. Tash had started by blaming herself for not going round to Barley Road earlier in the morning and then, when she discovered that this would have made no difference, blamed herself instead for not staying up with Lydia last night.

‘I didn’t even hear her leave,’ Tash said. ‘She was going to sleep on the sofa, but she must have slipped out as soon as we went to bed.’

‘And what time was that?’ DS Higgs asked.

Tash opened her mouth, but only a thin mewling sound emerged.

‘About a quarter to twelve,’ said Hannah, taking over. ‘Yes, I’m pretty sure. Twelve at the latest.’

DI Middleton leaned forward, laying a hand lightly on Tash’s arm. ‘We understand that this is a difficult time, an awful time, and we’re really sorry to be asking all these questions, but it’s the only way we’re going to find out what happened.’

‘You know what happened, don’t you?’ said Hannah sharply. ‘She went home and then she —’

Tash visibly flinched, stopping her girlfriend in her tracks. Then she swallowed hard and stared at DI Middleton. ‘Why?’ she asked, in a small trembling voice. ‘Why did she do it?’

‘Perhaps if we could go over the events of the evening,’ said Middleton softly. ‘Lydia phoned you, yes? While you were out having a meal?’

‘She was hysterical,’ Hannah said.

‘Upset,’ Tash insisted, shifting a couple of inches away and glaring at her. ‘She wasn’t hysterical. Why are you saying that?’

‘She was more than just upset, Tash. You know she was. When we picked her up from the flat, she couldn’t stop crying.’

‘Well what do you expect when she’d just found out that… that someone she knew had been shot?’

Hannah glanced at the cops and gave a shrug. ‘It just seemed… I don’t know. I mean this was before the man had even died.’

‘You thought it was an overreaction?’ DS Higgs suggested. ‘Disproportionate?’

Hannah gave another shrug. She wasn’t going to deny it, but she wasn’t going to risk Tash’s wrath by agreeing out loud either.

‘Lydia was sensitive,’ Tash said. ‘Fragile. Things, they… they affected her differently to other people.’

‘And what time did you get the call?’ Middleton asked.

‘Nine-ish,’ Hannah said. ‘Yes, it was definitely about nine.’

Higgs scribbled in her notebook.

‘What about her family?’ Middleton asked. ‘Do you know where they are, how we might contact them?’

Tash, if she had heard the question, showed no indication of it. She covered her mouth with her fist and stared down at the floor.

‘I don’t know about any family,’ Hannah said. ‘To be honest, she was more Ava’s friend than ours.’

The two cops both stared at Ava. Finding herself the sudden focus of their attention, she shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Oh God, why had Hannah had to say that? She’d barely known Lydia. In fact, she’d only met her on three occasions: at Beast, on Friday when they’d gone to the Fox and last night when the poor girl had been falling apart. But she could hardly admit to that, not in Hannah’s presence at least. Tash had enough problems without her adding to them.

‘Sorry?’ Ava said, playing for time and pretending that her mind had been elsewhere. ‘What was that?’

‘Lydia’s family,’ said Higgs, her eyes boring into Ava. ‘She must have mentioned them to you.’

‘Oh, erm…’ Ava quickly thought back to the conversation she’d had with Tash that morning in the kitchen, trying to remember exactly what she’d said about Lydia and her past. ‘She didn’t talk about her family much. I know her mum died about nine months ago. I think that she was still… still trying to come to terms with it.’

‘And her father?’ Higgs asked.

Ava shook her head. ‘No, she never knew her father. She never mentioned any brothers or sisters either. She only moved here in July so I haven’t really known her that long.’

‘Do you know where she lived before?’

‘Glasgow,’ Ava said. ‘But I got the impression that she and her mother moved around a lot.’

‘Do you know what her mother was called, her Christian name?’

‘Sorry, I’ve got no idea.’

Higgs kept her eyes fixed firmly on Ava. If the sergeant’s stare was designed to intimidate, it worked. Ava had that icy, anxious feeling again. Although she had nothing to hide – other than the irrelevant matter of Tash’s infatuation with Lydia – she felt like the guilty party.
Stay calm.
Keep your head. Don’t let them see that you’re rattled.
Like her dad had said, they were only fishing, but she knew they were after something big.

‘And what about boyfriends?’ Higgs asked. Her gaze left Ava for a second and flicked over towards Tash and Hannah. ‘Or… er… partners? Was she seeing anyone?’

Ava gave a thin smile. ‘Are you trying to ask if she was a lesbian?’

‘Was she?’

‘No, I don’t think so. And if she did have a boyfriend, she never mentioned him to me.’

DI Middleton crossed her long slender legs and smoothed out her skirt. ‘And did she ever mention Jeremy Squires to you? I mean, before last night.’

‘No, not that I remember.’

‘So he wasn’t a particularly close friend or, if he was, she didn’t want people to know about it.’

Tash’s head jerked up suddenly. ‘What are you… what do you mean?’

But everyone knew what the inspector meant.

‘You suspect there might have been something going on between them,’ said Hannah, articulating a collective thought. ‘You think they might have been having an affair.’

Middleton gave a cool shake of her head. ‘All we’re doing at the moment is trying to establish her state of mind, to make some sense of why she’d choose to take her own life a few hours after Jeremy Squires and Danny Street were shot.’

Ava frowned. ‘But she didn’t even know that Squires was dead when she… when she did it.’ She sat back and folded her arms. ‘No, that doesn’t add up. If she was in love with him, then surely she’d want to stick around, make sure he was okay.’

‘Unless…’ Hannah said.

There was a short pregnant silence while the ‘unless’ settled over the room. Ava instantly knew what was being implied: people killed for love or because they had been rejected. Was it possible that Lydia had followed Squires to Belles and shot him in the back? It seemed unlikely, but not impossible. It was true that Lydia had been grief-stricken, but had that been a sign of a guilty conscience or simply the response of a girl who was already in a highly emotional state after losing her mother?

Suddenly, Tash realised what her girlfriend was suggesting. ‘No, no way! That’s ridiculous! How could you even…’ Tash glared at Hannah, her eyes brimming with anger and tears. Then she looked over at Valerie Middleton. ‘She wouldn’t. She
couldn’t
. Lydia was a gentle person. She was kind. She wouldn’t harm a fly.’

‘But you’ve got to admit, it was hardly a normal reaction,’ Hannah said.

Tash turned on her again. ‘And what would you know about
normal
!’

Ava winced. If Hannah had any sense she’d shut her mouth and keep it shut before she completely alienated Tash and blew their relationship right out of the water. But of course, Hannah couldn’t let it go.

‘I’m only saying. I’ve a right to say what I think, haven’t I?’

‘Not when you’re thinking those sorts of things.’

‘And since when did you become an expert on Lydia Hall? You hardly knew the girl.’

‘I knew her a damn sight better than you did!’

DS Higgs glanced slyly from one to the other, her lips slightly parted like a hungry predator sensing a good feed coming. Ava had disliked her the first time they’d met and her opinion hadn’t altered. She was always wary of cops – she’d seen too many of them as a kid – but this one made her more uncomfortable than most. There was something cold, almost reptilian about the woman. Before the exchange between Tash and Hannah got out of hand, and things were said that couldn’t be unsaid, Ava quickly tried to defuse the situation. ‘Come on. We’re all upset. Let’s not… Lydia wouldn’t have wanted this.’

‘
Some
of us are upset,’ Tash said, glancing pointedly at Hannah.

Hannah glared back at her. ‘Meaning?’

It must have been crystal clear to everyone, especially Hannah, that Tash’s feelings for Lydia ran deep. Normally, Ava wouldn’t have volunteered any information to the police – it went against the grain – but now she saw it as the only way to stop Tash from blurting out something she might later regret.

‘Guy Wilder might be able to help. He was friendly with Lydia.’

DS Higgs’s gaze slithered back to her. ‘Guy Wilder?’

‘Yes, you know, from the wine bar on the high street. He might be able to tell you more about the family. When she first moved here, she was trying to find people who might have known her mum and someone pointed her in Guy’s direction.’

‘And did he know her mother?’ Higgs asked.

‘No, I don’t think so. He’s too young. But like I said, they became friends. She might have mentioned something to him, something useful.’ Wilder, she was sure, wouldn’t appreciate her tip-off to the cops, but hopefully he’d never find out it was her.

‘How friendly?’ Higgs said.

‘Pardon me?’

Higgs scowled, suspecting that Ava knew exactly what she meant. ‘Did they go out together? Where they ever in a relationship?’

‘Oh, no, I don’t think so. Well, if they were, she never said.’

Ava could see DI Middleton’s brain ticking over at this new piece of information. She felt slightly bad about landing him in it, but they would probably have found out eventually. All she was doing was speeding up the process. Anyway, a man who sent a dead rat through the post didn’t deserve too much consideration.

The inspector raised her chin a little, her interest piqued. She was about to say something when a phone started ringing. It took Ava a few seconds to realise it was hers. ‘Sorry,’ she said as she reached around the chair to her coat pocket, pulled the mobile out and checked the screen. It was Chris Street. Typical of him to ring back when the cops were here.

Ava stood up and looked over at DI Middleton. ‘Sorry,’ she said again. ‘I won’t be long, but I have to take this.’ She went into the kitchen, closed the door behind her, pressed the button and lifted the phone to her ear. ‘Finally,’ she said, skipping the niceties. ‘Where have you been? I’ve been trying to call since this morning.’

‘Nice to talk to you too. What’s the problem?’

‘The problem is…’ And Ava embarked on a fast somewhat garbled account of everything that had happened since she’d talked to him last. She kept her voice low, sure that DS Higgs was straining her ears to try and hear what was being said. Every now and again he’d say, ‘Slow down, slow down,’ but eventually she got to the end. There was a long pause after she’d finished as though he was still trying to digest it all.

‘So what are you saying? That this girl Lydia killed Squires?’

‘No. I don’t know. Maybe. No one seems to know anything for sure.’ Her fingers gripped the phone more tightly and there was a slight tremor to her voice that she couldn’t control. ‘But the police have latched on to Squires repeating the name Ava at the hospital. They think I had something to do with the shooting.’

‘He can’t have been talking about you.’

‘Try telling that to the cops. I mean, put yourself in their shoes: I work for you, Danny was with Squires at Belles, and Squires kept saying my name after he was shot. They’re hardly going to write it off as coincidence. And I was in on my own last night so I don’t even have an alibi.’

‘Shit,’ he said. ‘That does look bad.’

‘You see?’

‘You can’t even get a date on a Saturday night?’

Ava scowled down the phone. ‘Oh, I’m glad you think it’s so damn funny.’

‘Hey, I’m only trying to lighten the mood. You need to stop stressing. If Old Bill had you in the frame you’d be down the nick by now. They’re just going through the motions. Look, do you want me to come over?’

Ava hesitated, but then made up her mind. ‘No, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Not with the law here. And I don’t have a clue how long they’ll be. Just have a word with Danny and see if he can shed any light on it, will you? Maybe Squires mentioned another Ava to him or… Jesus, I don’t know. Just try and find out anything you can. I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah? I’ll pick you up at the usual time.’

They said their goodbyes and Ava hung up. The events of the past twenty-four hours were starting to catch up with her. Things had been happening at such a pace that she hadn’t really had time to absorb them, but now she found herself thinking of Lydia and the stark cold truth of her death. Could she have done more, done anything, to stop her from killing herself? The horror of it all was slowly sinking in.

Ava had to gird herself before going back into the living room. When she did, she was relieved to see that the two officers were on their feet and preparing to leave. Tash was still sitting on the sofa, her face pale and drawn. Hannah was preparing to show the officers out. But just as she thought the ordeal was over – at least for now – DI Middleton turned, fixed her in her sights and said, ‘Just one last thing.’

‘Yes?’

‘I was wondering why Lydia didn’t call you last night. Why did she call Tash instead?’

Ava drew in a breath. It was the second occasion that she had faced the question. The first time, when Hannah had asked, she had come up with a glib response about her mobile being on recharge, but that wouldn’t do for the cops. When they checked Lydia’s phone, if they hadn’t already done so, they’d see that she hadn’t even tried to ring her. Instantly Ava saw how bad this could look. They might come to the conclusion that she hadn’t been called because she was involved in some way, because she already knew about the shooting, because… But Ava didn’t have time to run through all the dire possibilities. The inspector was still waiting for a reply.