The tent had gone. Jade could see from her bedroom. All gone. The body must have gone too. And the police. She changed out of her uniform. Megan was coming round. Megan had a Top 40 cassette and a karaoke machine that you could carry around. Not with a screen or anything but there was a mike and you could sing while the tape was on. They could work out a routine.
It’d be brilliant to be a pop star. Jade was going to be one. She was growing her hair. It was nearly down to the bottom of her shoulder blades. She and Megan wanted their hair to look the same. When it was really long they could do it in plaits sometimes or up on top. It would depend if they were doing a concert or a video or what. She was going to do mainly the dancing and Megan would sing.
There was a knock at the door and Jade ran down to let Megan in. She pulled open the door. There was the policeman again. She slammed it shut and ran upstairs, went in the bathroom.
Rat a tat tat.
‘Jade?’ Her mam called from the back room. ‘Jade?’
She heard Mam go down the hall and the rumble of voices. She was letting him in. She could hear them talking but not what they said.
‘Jade,’ Mam calling her, ‘come here.’
‘I’m on the toilet.’
‘Well, hurry up and get down here.’
Jade had a wee and washed her hands. She looked in the mirror. There was all specks of toothpaste on the mirror, if you closed your eyes nearly shut and looked it was like you had white spots growing on you.
‘Jade!’ Her mother’s shout made her jump. ‘Get down here, now.’
She came slowly downstairs, her mam scolding her. ‘It’s the police. He’s a nice man and he’s not going to eat you. Just wants to ask you a couple of questions, then he’ll be on his way.’
She steered Jade into the room.
‘Hello, Jade.’ He had a blue shirt on and a tie with Tweety Pie all over it. He was a bit fat. He looked like Megan’s dad without the tattoos.
‘Your mum says you’re a bit shy of the police?’
Jade gave her mam a sulky look.
‘There’s no need. We’re here to help. We have a motto. Do you know what a motto is, Jade?’
She thought it sounded like one of the Instants you got at the shop. She shook her head.
‘It’s a saying, like a promise. Our motto is to serve and protect. That’s our job and people like you can help us do that. Now, you know a man’s been hurt, been killed over on the allotments on Saturday?’
Jade found a scab on her knuckle that was nearly ready to pick. She pushed at it.
‘What I want to know is whether you saw anyone on Saturday morning, anyone going to the allotments or coming away, anyone near there?’
‘She’s not allowed down there,’ Mam said.
The policeman looked at Mam.
‘There’s been fires set and all sorts in the past. There’s lads messing by the railway line, sniffing glue and I don’t know what. All these perverts about it’s not safe.’
He nodded. ‘You don’t play down there?’
Jade shook her head.
‘But you might have seen something from your window or the yard. You could probably see quite a lot from upstairs.’
‘No, I didn’t see anyone. I was watching telly,’ said Jade. Lying. One of the sins. Jade imagined her soul, a big satin cushion, all white and shiny with a mark on now. A black mark. Like where Mam burnt the hole in the duvet but a sin would be more like a smudge, more splotchy. There was another mark for breaking her promise and going onto the allotments.
‘Thank you,’ the policeman stood up.
‘Can I go now?’
Mam nodded.
Jade ran up to her room. Everyone did wrong things. That’s why Jesus had come, that’s why they had confession to make it all right again. When you went to confession if you were truly, truly sorry your sins were wiped away. And your soul was made all clean again. Like Flash.
‘What did Matthew tell you about his family, Lesley?’ Janine was asking the questions.
‘Well, he hadn’t any. His parents had died in a car crash when he was at college; he was an only child. Why?’
‘We’ve spoken to Matthew’s parents today.’ Lesley looked stunned. ‘Oh, my god.’
‘Have you any idea why he would tell you they were dead?’
‘No, none.’
‘And they have a daughter, Matthew’s sister, married with children.’
‘I don’t know what to say, I don’t… Did they know about me?’
‘No. Matthew had been married before.’
‘No!’ she cried.
‘We’ve verified the records, Lesley. Matthew was married in 1979. They separated a year later.’
‘No!’ She sniffed hard, shielded her eyes with one hand.
‘Laura, she was called. He never told you?’ Lesley didn’t speak.
‘Emma said you’d not had an easy time. What did she mean?’
‘Nothing, just…’
Janine waited for her to fill the silence.
‘… sometimes, I get depressed.’
‘Yet you claim the marriage was a happy one? Did either of you have affairs?’
‘No.’ Lesley looked furious, appalled to be asked.
‘What time did you leave your house on Saturday?’ Richard took over.
‘About nine o’ clock. You know this.’
‘So, you arrived in town at what time?’
‘About twenty past.’
‘Where did you get the parking ticket?’
She frowned, apparently puzzled at their interest.
‘From the machine, in the car park.’
‘The ticket doesn’t correspond to the actual time of your arrival at the car park,’ he said, his eyes intent on her. ‘The ticket you gave us is for 9.22.’
‘That’s right.’
‘Where did you get it, Lesley?’ Janine said.
‘From the machine.’
‘What did you do with the clothes in the washing machine?’
Lesley shook her head, gave a hollow laugh as if to say this was ridiculous.
‘We’ll find them.’ Janine told her. ‘We can recover traceable fibres even from ashes.’ Janine pulled out a diary. ‘This is Matthew’s diary, last year. Turn to March 17th. You see the asterix there, the time eight o’clock. Do you know what that meant?’
Lesley shook her head.
‘St Patrick’s Day. Can you remember what your husband did that evening?’
‘No, probably something with school or the church.’
‘No, we’ve checked. June 7th, an asterix again, 8.30. September 6th, November 29th. And this year,’ she picked up a second book. ‘This coming Friday. Did your husband have plans for this Friday evening?’
‘Perhaps he didn’t want you to know?’
Janine studied Lesley. She was shaking slightly, her mouth closed tight with irritation or feat ‘We found condoms among Matthew’s things. Why would he need condoms?’
‘I’ve no idea.’
‘You can’t have children?’
‘Was Matthew having an affair?’
‘No,’ she insisted.
‘You’re sure?’
‘I’m sure.’ A spark of anger in her response echoed by the flickering in her dark eyes.
‘After all, he lied to you about his first wife.’
‘So what!’ she snapped.
‘Perhaps he lied to you about this too.’
‘I wouldn’t know then, would I?’ she shouted vehemently.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Paula wasn’t there. It was quarter past three and Dean sat on the bench and watched people parade by. Maybe she wouldn’t show? He could tell she was well pissed off but she’d kept asking to see him.
He hadn’t worked out what to say. Hadn’t worked anything out. Didn’t want to lose her but he didn’t know what would be worse; telling her the truth and losing her or lying and losing her anyway. Maybe go for something in-between. Like before.
She knew he had been in Hegley. He’d told her that not long after they first got together; three missing years not easy to hide. They had been for a meal, a busy Italian place on Deansgate. Lots of chatter and clatter, office party in the corner. Giant pepper mills that made Dean want to laugh, the size of them.