‘We can sit in here, or in the kitchen.’ The woman indicated a closed door.
‘Whatever is convenient?’
‘Well the kitchen’s best as I’ve just hoovered and cleaned in the front room.’ Anna followed Mrs Murphy into a kitchen with green linoleum floor, pine tables and chairs, pine cabinets and a big white range cooker. The sink and draining boards looked new; everything was polished to within an inch of its life.
‘Thank you for seeing me, I know you were previously asked about the resident of the derelict house opposite.’
‘I wouldn’t call him a resident, he was a squatter, but not like the others we’ve had, hooligans drinking and playing loud music. We’ve all called the police out numerous times, they board up the place but they come back, well they did. We had an officer with a dog that used to patrol the neighbourhood; he sort of made sure the place was cleared.’
‘But you have stated that Henry Oates lived in the basement opposite your house?’
‘Yes, told them all about him, and he was no trouble, and he kept himself to himself.’
‘You apparently used him for odd jobs?’
‘Yes, my husband did, he helped put the gates up and sometimes washed the car.’
Anna went over all the previous questions, and Mrs Murphy answered them without adding anything new. She also said that she had never seen Oates with a car or any other kind of vehicle. She calculated that he had been squatting in the basement for over five years, possibly nearly six as the house had been empty for that long.
‘They moved out families, you know, and then do nothing. One by one they’ve been bought up, all three of them. At first it was just the house opposite. They’re still arguing over the protection order in the courts.’
‘Did you ever see Mr Oates with anyone, male or female?’
‘No.’
‘So he came and went, never entertained anyone, no friends?’
‘That’s right.’ Mrs Murphy then frowned, and ran her finger along the pine table top.
‘I was thinking about him since the other detective spoke to me, and my husband and I talked about it, and then he reminded me about one time. I’d forgotten about it.’
She pursed her lips.
‘It was a long time ago, not long after he moved in, and I know it was just before he helped with the gates, as they were delivered at the end of March 2007.’
Anna waited as Mrs Murphy still tapped the table with her finger.
‘I’ve always had trouble sleeping, I often get up to make a cup of tea, and I was standing with the cup in my hand just looking out into the street. It’s such a shame those houses standing empty, I mean it’s not right, and it had to be two-ish or even later in the night, and I saw him.’
‘With someone?’
‘No, no, I’ve said I never saw him with anyone, but it was just strange. Maybe it was the streetlights, but it was like seeing a ghost.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘He had like white, powdery white stuff over him. He was just walking down the road, then he went inside the house. It probably was just the way the lights made him look, I don’t know, but, like I said, it made him look sort of ghostly. It was even in his hair, on his face.’
‘Did you speak to him about it, ask what the white stuff was?’
‘No. I never had anything to do with him until – I’ve told you, about him giving my husband a hand putting up the gates in late March 2007. They weighed a ton, we didn’t think they’d be that heavy, and he was strong. It was hard lifting them up onto the hinges, and then he’d also helped mix up the cement for the posts, they had to dig down quite a way so the posts could hold the gates up.’
‘So the work went on for some time?’
‘Yes, they had to let the cement dry, it all took a few days.’
‘So during this time you must have got to know him quite well.’
‘I wouldn’t say that, he didn’t ever come inside the house and we never crossed the road to go into his basement. I did give him some sandwiches and cups of tea, bottles of water. He was stripped to his waist, digging, and he was paid in cash!’
Anna turned as a small white-haired man appeared at the kitchen door.
‘I thought I heard voices. I was having a nap upstairs.’
‘This is my husband. Ronald, this is Detective…’
Anna introduced herself, and he shook her hand.
‘She’s asking about Henry from over the road.’
‘Can either of you recall when he helped you with the gates or any time you saw him if he was wearing any neck jewellery?’
‘Don’t think so, do you, dear?’ Ronald said as he looked to his wife, who shook her head.
‘My eyesight’s much better than his, and my memory, for that matter.’
‘Would you both look at this photograph, please, and tell me if you ever saw Mr Oates wearing this.’
They both looked at the photograph of the crucifix, and neither could remember ever seeing Oates with anything like it.
‘There’s a lot of action going on over the road,’ Ronald remarked as he drew up a chair and sat between them.
‘I’ve been asking your wife about the time Mr Oates worked with you putting up the gates.’
‘Strong as an ox. I couldn’t have done it on my own, we paid for the paving stones to be laid by a company. I just reckoned I’d be able to put the gates up by myself. I’d sized it all up, made the order and they delivered them. Left them propped up by the wall, said it wasn’t their job to hang them.’
‘What did you make of Mr Oates?’
Mr Murphy shrugged, and said that apart from needing a bath, he was very helpful. He nodded at his wife.
‘She wouldn’t let him inside here, he was very scruffy, but then I’d also seen him all scrubbed up. He used to go swimming in the local baths. I often saw him with a rolled-up towel under his arm.’
‘Did you ever see him with a vehicle?’
‘No. You know, the other copper that came here asked a lot of questions about him, said it was connected to a murder enquiry, but we’ve not had any details, not seen it in the papers.’
‘Mr Oates has been charged with the murder of a woman called Justine Marks, and we are also making enquiries into two other cases that we believe he could be involved in.’
‘Bloody hell! Are they looking for bodies in the house opposite, like in the Fred West case?’ he exclaimed, looking at his wife in shock.
‘They are looking for evidence, yes; did you ever see him with anyone entering his basement or anyone visiting him?’
‘No, he was a real loner, though he’d always be friendly, wave over to me if I saw him. This is very worrying. I said having those houses empty was bound to create trouble.’
‘But they weren’t all empty when you used him to help you with the gates?’
‘No, the two either side got boarded up quite a while after, they had a bunch of squatters in the middle house that were causing problems and they were moved on, then the sitting tenants were moved out from the houses either side.’
Mrs Murphy was clearly becoming quite agitated and Anna asked if she could just confirm that Henry Oates was living in the basement in March 2007, and that it was before the other properties were boarded up. Both agreed. Next she asked again if they had ever seen Oates driving a car, or possibly a Jeep. They both were certain they had never seen him with any kind of vehicle.
Next Anna had them confirm that Oates had helped mix cement for the gate posts and Mr Murphy said that he was glad that he had helped him as he was very professional, knew exactly how much sand was required. Oates had explained to Mr Murphy the importance of getting the right consistency.
‘So do you think he was working on a building site then?’ Anna asked.
‘Might have been, and I’ll tell you why. I mentioned to him, when he was helping me with the gates, that he’d given my wife a bit of turn, that she’d seen him coming home looking like a ghost. He said to me that that was chalk dust, he said something about a bag dropping on him!’