‘Well?’ says DCI Varma.
‘Well, what?’ says Elizabeth. ‘You didn’t ask us a question?’
‘I did,’ says DCI Varma.
‘No, you stated something you’d been told,’ says Elizabeth.
DCI Varma nods. ‘Can you confirm my statement?’
‘We thought it might be Chris and Donna,’ says Joyce. ‘Often when there are murders, Chris and Donna investigate them. They know us.’
‘Lucky them,’ says DCI Varma.
‘Chris is on firearms training,’ says Ibrahim. ‘But perhaps the two of you will do. Perhaps we shall all form a fine friendship.’
DCI Varma looks at her ginger sidekick, then back at Ibrahim. ‘No, sir, we will not be doing that.’
‘That’s what Chris and Donna said at first,’ says Joyce. ‘Would you like to come to mine for some cake? I made some brownies, but they’re a bit dense –’
‘We’re the police,’ says DCI Varma. ‘Not your carers. I just need information, and I thought this would be the quickest place to get it. So I don’t need you to be charming, I need you to be quick.’
‘Holly Lewis, forty-five years old, from Lewes,’ says Elizabeth. ‘She was at Coopers Chase to have dinner with some of the residents.’
‘The four of you?’ This is the ginger sidekick.
‘Oh, you speak,’ says Elizabeth. ‘Yes, the four of us.’
‘What did you talk about?’ DCI Varma asks.
‘Goodness, this and –’ says Elizabeth.
‘That,’ says Joyce.
‘Nothing that could explain what just happened?’ DCI Varma asks.
Ron approves very strongly of not talking to police officers. Though he does wonder, given the unusual events of this evening, whether they might need to chat to Chris and Donna at some point? And this makes him think about Chris Hudson with a gun, and he lets out an involuntary laugh.
‘This is funny to you, sir?’ the ginger sidekick asks. ‘You fancy a laugh in the back of the police van?’
‘Oh, mate,’ says Ron, ‘I’ve been beaten up in police vans by better coppers than you.’
DCI Varma turns to the ginger boy wonder, then gestures towards the four of them. ‘It’s one in the morning: we’ve got to go straight back to the station and start the investigation. I’m tired, and a woman has just died, so I can’t do all this, I’m sorry. What was she doing here, and what do you all know about her that I don’t? In short sentences.’
‘DCI Varma,’ says Elizabeth, ‘I’m afraid we are clueless. It was a social visit.’
Ron really should take Kendrick to the swings or something tomorrow, but he knows now that there will be a Thursday Murder Club meeting. Because, wherever that storage facility might be, Elizabeth will want to find it before DCI Varma and Ed Sheeran here. Somewhere in there is three hundred and fifty million quid on a bit of paper, and almost certainly the answer to who killed Holly, and where Nick Silver might be right now.
‘I’m told you were very brave,’ says DCI Varma to Elizabeth. ‘You tried to pull Holly out of the car?’
‘Far too late,’ says Elizabeth. ‘Adrenaline. Forgotten I had any.’
‘I don’t suppose,’ says DCI Varma, ‘that you came across Holly’s phone? Probably the most useful thing we could find right now. Given how little we know.’
‘They melt,’ says Elizabeth. ‘I’m sure everything you’ll need will be on her home computers.’
That’ll take a while for this duo to wade through. Meanwhile, Elizabeth will be making merry with Holly’s SIM card.
Ron sees Joyce take her phone out of her bag and give the smallest of starts. The ginger sidekick spots it too.
‘Anything you want to share with us, madam?’
Joyce puts her phone back in her bag and shakes her head.
They have walked far enough away for the car to be out of sight, a few wisps of smoke above Ruskin Court, the low hum of a police generator and a metallic tang in the air the only remains of the night’s horror. Ron sees Pauline walking towards him, with a sleepy-looking Kendrick holding her hand. He hugs them both.
‘He couldn’t sleep,’ says Pauline.
‘After the noise,’ says Kendrick. ‘Hello, everyone, do you remember me?’
It is agreed that everyone remembers Kendrick, and that pleases him.
‘What was the noise?’ Kendrick asks. ‘Pauline didn’t know.’
‘A bomb from the war,’ says Ron. He looks at the police officers, and at least they have the good grace to nod.
‘Sometimes they go off years later,’ says DCI Varma.
‘So the police had to come?’
‘Just to make sure everyone’s okay,’ says Joyce.
‘And was everyone okay?’ says Kendrick.
‘Everyone was just fine,’ says Joyce. ‘But Alan didn’t like the noise.’
‘Dogs don’t like loud noises,’ Pauline tells Kendrick.
‘Me either,’ Kendrick tells her.
‘Shall we get you back home?’ says Ron. ‘Maybe have a hot chocolate?’
‘Umm, a hot chocolate at one o’clock in the morning?’ says Kendrick. ‘Are we allowed to?’
DCI Varma realizes that this question has been directed at her, and nods her assent.
‘We shall see you in the morning, Ron,’ says Elizabeth. ‘Bright and early.’
Of course they will, thinks Ron. He holds Kendrick’s other hand, and he and Pauline walk him back to the flat, away from the gang.
So Kendrick was scared by the loud noise? That’s new. Suzi still hasn’t resurfaced. Jason’s going to take Kendrick back on Sunday. Why can’t Suzi come and get him herself?
Kendrick tugs at his hand. ‘Have you ever been in a war, Grandad?’
‘Miners’ strike 1974,’ says Ron.
Kendrick nods. ‘Why did the miners strike though?’
Ron feels his chest fill. ‘Let me tell you a few things about late-stage capitalism, Kenny.’
‘Yessss!’ says Kendrick.
SATURDAY
22
You’d be forgiven for thinking that all is well with the world.
The sun is shining and the birds are singing as Ron and Bogdan sit in floral garden chairs on the patio of one of the most prolific Ecstasy dealers in British criminal history.
‘And are you single?’ asks Davey Noakes as his butler brings out three bottles of beer on a tray. Ron can’t help but notice that there is also a gun on the tray.
‘Me?’ asks Ron. ‘No, I’m sorry. And I’m straight.’
‘No one’s really straight,’ says Davey. ‘Not deep down.’
‘I think I might be,’ says Ron, and gives an apologetic shrug.
‘Probably best for you,’ says Davey. ‘Saves you a lot of trouble in the long run. I’d ask you out, you’d feel you had to say yes –’
‘Or you’d kill me,’ says Ron, looking at the gun, taking a beer and nodding his thanks to the butler.
‘Or I’d kill you,’ says Davey, handing a bottle to Bogdan.
‘Cheers,’ says Bogdan.
‘I’d play with you for a couple of weeks,’ says Davey. ‘Then I’d get bored, and I’d blame you, and I’d probably get someone to run you down in a car. Not kill you but give you something to remember me by. They say dating’s changed, but some things stay the same.’
‘I’m not single either,’ says Bogdan.
‘I know that, you big prince,’ says Davey, taking his bottle and the gun from the tray. The butler retreats. ‘You go out with that police officer, don’t you? Opposites attract, eh? You told her who you’re visiting today?’
‘I said I had business with Ron,’ says Bogdan. ‘I don’t have to tell her everything, I’m my own man.’