“Did you ever see Margaret wearing things like this?”
“Funnily enough, no. They were all folded ever so neatly as well. She used to wear more cheap sexy T-shirts and short skirts — you know, anything to show off what she was stacking.”
“What about jewelry?”
Anna saw the way Emerald darted a quick glance at her dressing table and the jewelry boxes.
“No, nothing in the suitcase. It looks like she had to have kept some other gear somewhere. I know she used stations. But when they closed all the left luggage places ’cause of bloody terrorist scares she left it with me or dossed down at various hostels.”
“There were no shoes?”
“No.”
“What about a nightdress?”
“Oh yeah, hang on... And there was a dressing gown. I use them — they’re in the bathroom.”
Anna followed Emerald into the hall and to the small bathroom. Hanging on the door was a terry dressing gown and a pink nylon nightdress.
“Was she wearing these when you last saw her? When the man came to fix the blinds?”
“No, they was in the suitcase. I washed them ’cause she wasn’t always that clean.”
Anna asked if Emerald knew the foster parents’ address for Margaret’s children, but she didn’t.
“Is that it, then?”
“How much money was in the suitcase, Emerald?”
The woman’s jaw dropped and then clamped shut. “You got a friggin’ nerve! There was no money, I told you. I’ve shown you everythin’ I kept, and the rest I bloody tossed. Now just clear on out of it. I’m through with you.”
“Why are you getting so angry?”
“You are accusin’ me of nickin’ cash, and I told you I never found none, like I never found no red notebook, neither.”
“Really? So you saw it, did you?”
“Jesus Christ! She showed it me, all right?”
“No, it’s not all right, Emerald. If you did find it and also found some cash, how much did you find?”
Emerald walked back into the kitchen. Anna waited a beat before she followed and saw Emerald shaking her packet of cigarettes, which was empty. She hurled it at the pedal bin.
“Please will you just tell me the truth. I can’t do anything about it, because her suitcase was here in your flat. I just need to know if Margaret had money.”
Emerald picked up a cigarette stub from the ashtray and puffed it alight. “She was quite flush, okay?”
“What do you mean?”
Emerald sat on one of the breakfast stools. “’Cause I let her stay, she gave me a few quid.”
“Was that unusual?”
Emerald sighed, smoking virtually right down to the tip of the cigarette. “Yeah.”
Anna watched her run the tap over the cigarette stub. She was surprised to see the woman close to tears.
“I knew she was dead — right? — so I took it. It’s all gone on stuff for the flat and the kids. I mean, I’d had the friggin’ suitcase, but I never opened it, not till I knew what had happened to her.”
“How much was in there?”
“It was a few hundred...” She had tears spilling down her cheeks as she choked out, “All right, it was about a grand, in mostly ten- and twenty-pound notes.” She was still lying, because it had been two thousand pounds, but she was too scared to admit the amount.
“Thank you for that information, Emerald. As I said to you, I just needed you to be honest with me.”
“Will I get booked?”
“I shouldn’t think so. But it won’t really be me who decides,” Anna walked to the front door. “It’s all about us trying to find out who killed your friend. We believe Margaret might have been blackmailing someone, and that is the reason why she had so much money.”
“Shit. I’m sorry, but I swear on my kids’ lives, I dunno nothing about anything like that.”
Anna passed her card over, saying that if Emerald should think of anything else that might be of help, she was to contact Anna on her direct line. Emerald’s hand was on the front door, ready to open it, as Anna said there was one more thing that bothered her. Emerald slapped the door with the flat of her hand. “Bloody hell, now what?”
“It’s just you said Maggie left her suitcase with you and that you had no contact with her apart from the one phone call, and you mentioned she left a message.”
“Right, yeah. It was her, wantin’ to stay.”
“You have stated that was the last time you had anything to do with her, that you never saw her again, and then you found out she was dead.”
“Right. I read about it in the papers.”
“If what you have told us is the truth, the last time Maggie stayed with you is when the blinds were repaired. That was a long time ago, so you kept her suitcase here for many months.”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t believe you. If it had contained clothes and money, why didn’t she come back for it? Unless you did see her again after that phone call, which you maintain was the last time you spoke to her.”
Emerald kicked at the front door, swearing, and Anna stepped well back.
“You think I don’t fuckin’ feel about it, ’cause I do! I mean, she was a right pain in the arse, but I can’t be blamed for what happened to her. It’s got nothin’ to do with me, and I was about the only friend she bloody had, so that’s why I’ve said nuffink.”
“Nothing about what, exactly?”
Emerald sighed, leaning her back against the front door. “I was just coming back from work, and she turned up. She wanted to stay and said she could give me a few quid. She didn’t want to go into a hostel, as people were nicking stuff off her.”
“When was this?”
“Maybe two months before she was murdered. She had her case with her, and she’d been drinking, so there was no way I’d let her in with the kids. It was a Saturday, like today, and they were at home.”
Anna said nothing, waiting as Emerald gave another long, shuddering sigh.
“I told her she could leave her case with me, but that was it. She got a bit stroppy but then handed it to me.”
“How did she look?”
“Same as always. Well, not exactly. She didn’t look like she’d been workin’, know what I mean? And she’d had her hair bleached. Anyway, she said she’d be back for it in a couple of days. She also said — and this got me pissed off — that it was locked and she’d know if I’d opened it. Bloody nerve, I thought, considering how much I’d done for her.”
“Was she carrying anything else?”
“She had a big holdall bag. Never left that with me. She walked off and...” Emerald paused. “She turned and gave me a wave and was smiling. To be honest, I did feel bad, but then I shut the door. I put her case into the box room, and I swear on me kids’ lives I never opened it. Well, I knew she had some hard-nut friends, like. Remember I told you they duffed up a geezer that tipped her out of his truck, so I left it alone. I even waited after she died in case someone or other contacted me about it. When nothin’ happened, I pried the lock off it and said nuffink to nobody about it.”
“Thank you, Emerald.”
Anna added the new details from Emerald to the incident board and wrote that a priority should be tracing the foster parents of Margaret Potts’s children. She then went to ask Mike if it was possible for her to leave before lunch, as she had a prior commitment.
“Not like you, Travis,” he said, sounding surprised by her request. He also pointed out that she had not worked weekends for some time.
“It’s quite important,” she persevered, “and it’s not as if we’re inundated.”
“Tell me something I don’t know. Okay, permission granted. Family thing, is it?”
“Yes,” she lied.
Anna drove up to see Ken, arriving early Saturday night. He was on duty until eleven but had left a key with his neighbor. He would have to work Sunday but said he would try and swing it that they had at least part of the day together. She was tired out after the long drive and had gone to bed, waking when he got in beside her. He kissed her and then flopped back onto his pillow.