Last Rites (3 page)

Sarah Goode panted as she looked around the room. Stone walls all the way round, with a door at one end, cell-like, just twenty-foot square with no windows, no view out, a dirt floor scratching her feet.

She looked up to the ceiling and then winced, shielding her eyes. The lights there were like car headlights, bright halogen on full beam, searing into her retinas.

She tried to stretch her legs, but they hurt, all cramped up. She knew she had to keep moving, had to get her muscles working again. She limped to the walls and thumped them, but the sound came back as a dead thud. They were solid, sound-proof, old Pennine stone.

Sarah felt her way round the length of the room, using the wall as support, looking for a weak spot, maybe a loose stone, until she got to the door, wooden and old, the edges uneven and dry. It was bolted on the other side; she had heard it slide back whenever he came into the room. She knew it was a man from his hacking coughs and his deep throaty laugh when he taunted her, when he had kept her in the box.

She looked over to the corner of the room. The box was still there, one end open, from where she had crawled not long before. She turned away from it swiftly and looked up at the lights again, shielding her eyes. Would they stay on all the time? She leapt at them, tried to break one just to reduce the glare, but they were too high. She hurt herself instead when she landed, the dirt cutting into the soles of her feet.

Sarah sat down and put her face in her hands, gripped her hair with her fingers. Why was she there? What had she done? Why her?

She started to pull at her hair, wanting to scream, but then she looked up, startled. She could hear the buzz of speakers. Sarah shielded her eyes to see past the lights, and then she saw them, dark shapes behind the brightness. She sat still, waiting for whatever was going to come out of them. Then the sound came out at high volume, so loud that she had to cover her ears. It was the sound of a heartbeat, fast and anxious, a relentless thump-thump, the noise pulsing around the walls.

Sarah clamped her hands tighter over her ears and screamed, tried to drown it out, but the sound still made it through, making her own heart race to keep up.

She looked back to the box. Maybe it would be quieter in there.

She turned away. She couldn't go back in there, she knew that. Her life had once been normal, but those days in the box meant that it would never be the same again.

Laura McGanity swung her bag onto her desk and sat down with a slump. She leaned back and closed her eyes for a few seconds.

‘I'm not sure I can cope with another day of this,’ she said, almost to herself.

Pete Dawson grinned at her. ‘Turning on tape machines and filling out forms not exciting enough for you?’ he said.

Laura looked at him, took in his crew cut, and the scar over his eye that was a remnant of his last jaunt with the Support Unit in the Saturday night van.

‘Don't be offended, Pete, but you don't look the agony aunt type,’ she said.

Pete laughed. He had been Laura's sidekick for most of her time in Blackley. He was an old-style detective, a head-cracker who had not yet accepted the committee style of police politics, and Laura liked him for that. Pete had learned one thing in his police career: criminals are ruthless and devious, and don't feel much remorse for those they hurt on the way. So Pete liked to let them know what he thought. Sometimes it was just a quiet
word on a dark street, although it came with a snarl. Mostly it was just about being relentless, so that the criminals knew that if he became an enemy it was time to change their turf.

‘This was your choice,’ he said. ‘Regular hours.’

She rubbed her eyes. ‘It's not just that, though.’

‘If you want to have a moan,’ he said, ‘you've got around ten minutes, because the cells are full, and if we're ever going to see daylight today we need to get the first one out of the way.’

Laura shook her head. ‘I'm not talking about it,’ she said, and then she turned her head quickly when she heard laughter further along the corridor. It was the murder squad, assembled for the Luke Howarth murder, all chasing down Sarah Goode.

‘It's not just Bobby's custody case, though, is it?’ he asked. ‘Or Jack?’

‘What do you mean?’

Pete pointed towards the door. ‘I thought maybe you'd grown tired of me, but it seems like you just want in on the big case.’

Laura didn't answer straight away. It was more than being out of the loop, she was about to say. It
was
about Jack, and Bobby, and home, and Geoff and the custody case, and missing London. But she didn't say that. Instead, she exhaled and forced out a smile. ‘You've got me, Pete. Maybe we should get into interview quickly if you're in this kind of detecting form.’

‘You don't want to be with them,’ he replied. ‘The creases are too sharp in their trousers.’

‘Is that how you judge people?’

‘It's just one way.’

Laura sighed. ‘C'mon then, what have we got first?’

Pete tossed over the papers. ‘A fight in The Trafalgar. Someone almost lost an eye.’

‘Is this a joke?’

‘It's barely a case,’ Pete replied. ‘We've got the right man, but no one is making statements, not even the victim.’

‘Let me guess,’ said Laura, smiling now. ‘An argument over a woman, and the victim is married?’

‘And you said I was the great detective,’ Pete replied, standing. ‘C'mon, let's turn the tapes and see what we get.’

I sat in my car and pondered the view.

I had made a few calls around some contacts to get the address, and so I was outside Sarah Goode's house in Blackley, the scene of the crime, in the middle of a long terrace halfway up a steep hill. Or down it, depending on your outlook on life. It seemed like nothing out of the ordinary. The street was long and straight, its lines broken only by the roads that crisscrossed it, so that driving down became a game of dare, a dicey rat-run for those trying to avoid the town-centre jams. The houses were in traditional glazed red brick, with the doorframes picked out in painted white stone, no gardens, the front doors straight onto the street, and the slope so pronounced that it took only a tilt of my head to make the street look like fallen dominoes.

I looked along the street, trying to gauge the neighbourhood. I felt my car windows vibrate from R&B
played too loudly on bad speakers, and a car filled with young Pakistani men drove past slowly, all of them staring at me. Their community had grown in the sixties, when the cotton mills needed night-shift workers and the newly prosperous white working class didn't want to do them. The Asians worked at night, the whites during the day. When the mills closed down, both communities had found themselves jobless.

A group of women watched me from further up the street, as the wind pushed their silk pants against their legs and made their headscarves flap around their faces. I took some pictures. Maybe there was something here. How Sarah came to be a killer, an analysis of small-town murder. Truman Capote for the industrial north. I could follow the investigation, something in the bank for after Bobby's custody case, a story better than the ones I churned out most days.

Sarah's house looked still. There were wicker blinds in each window, all down, so nothing about the house gave away its secret. I decided to leave the neighbours for a while. There'd been a flurry of interest just after the body was discovered, and not all journalists were courteous. There's no story in a slammed door.

I checked my watch as I pondered where I should go next, and then I saw something, some movement in my peripheral vision. I stepped out of my car and moved closer. Sarah's house looked the same as before, deserted and cold, the blinds still closed.

Then I saw it again, in the front-room window, just a finger on the blinds. Somebody was watching me.

Inspector Lucas looked at the floor as he was led through the ward. There were the usual smells, antiseptic and illness, but it was the hopelessness that made him look away. The ward was a series of rooms, each containing four beds, the occupants old and disinterested, just staring into space. He was on the dark side of fifty. How long was there until this?

He noticed that the nurse had stopped walking and was gesturing towards one of the rooms. The occupants were all women, with no empty beds, but he guessed which one was Abigail from the freshness of the bandages. He followed the nurse into the room. No one looked at him as he went in. He saw that Abigail was sleeping.

‘How is she?’ he asked.

‘The cuts on her legs have been stitched, and the burns are not too bad,’ the nurse replied, her voice low. ‘Superficial mainly. But she's in shock, and we're worried about her sight.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Some of whatever it was that exploded hit her in the
eyes. Her right eye is just sore, but she might lose her sight in her left.’

Rod didn't want to tell the nurse that it had been pieces of Abigail's cat that struck her in the eye.

‘I'll just wait,’ he said.

‘It might be a while,’ she said. ‘I don't want you asking her questions before she's ready.’

‘I won't,’ he said, and nodded that he understood. The nurse looked unsure at first, but when he gave her a reassuring smile, she relented and left him in the room.

Rod pulled up a chair next to her and sat down. Abigail wasn't like he expected. He knew her age, sixty-eight, and so he had expected grey hair and pale skin, but Abigail was different to that. Her frizzy hair was long and dyed black, her silver roots showing through, and it was back-combed, spread in a tangled mess over the pillow. Her fingers were covered in rings, and her nails were long and painted purple. Despite the plaster over her eye, Rod could tell that both eyes were ringed by bruises. Abigail's legs were out of the bedcovers, bandages over her wounds.

He looked closer at her hands. There were grazes on them, but something else drew his attention. It was one of her rings, the one on her right hand, third finger. A screaming face, silver on black, set into a silver band. He had seen it before, he was sure of it, but he couldn't remember where.

‘Abigail,’ he whispered, just to check whether she was awake. There was no response. ‘Abigail,’ he said once more. Still nothing.

He settled back in the chair. Sometimes the art of being a good copper was patience.

I knocked on the door of Sarah's house. The women at the top of the road looked at me again and then chattered to each other. I waited, but there was no response from inside.

I knocked again, more insistent this time. Then I heard a noise, and when the door opened I flashed a smile. It had no effect.

I was facing a dark-haired woman in her early twenties, in jeans and a loose T-shirt. Her hair was short, elfin-style, tucked just behind her ears so that it showed off her face, pretty and porcelain pale, with high cheekbones and bright hazel eyes.

‘Yes?’ she said curtly.

My mind raced through what I knew about Sarah's story. Luke's body had been discovered by her lodger, a young student. There was a pause as I grasped for her name, but it came to me just as she was about to slam the door.

‘Katie Gray?’ I asked.

She didn't answer at first, but then asked, ‘Who wants to know?’ Her voice was cautious.

I smiled again, tried to disarm her. ‘My name is Jack Garrett and I'm a reporter.’

‘I guessed that.’

‘I'm interested in Sarah Goode,’ I continued.

‘I guessed that too,’ she snapped, but I put my hand in the way as she went to close the door.

‘Sarah's parents contacted me. They want me to write about her.’

She paused at that.

‘I understand she used to live here,’ I continued, trying to engage her.

‘She still does,’ she replied, but her tone was less hostile than before.

‘Her parents just want to find her,’ I said. ‘They want to help her, make sure she's all right.’ My voice was soft and low, my hand still on the door.

‘Have you got any ID?’ she asked.

I reached into my pocket and found a business card. I passed it over and waited, but how could she refuse once I had produced identification?

She looked at the card, then at me, and then at the card again.

‘Okay, Mr Garrett, you'd better come in,’ she said, and then turned and went into the house.

I followed her into the hallway, narrow and dark, the light coming from a small window above the front door. Katie led me into the room at the back of the house, a chill-out room, with saggy old sofas and family photographs on the wall, but I glanced into the room at the front as I went past the doorway. It was more formal, with better furniture and an old black fireplace, the light dim behind the wicker blinds.

Katie turned around. ‘Do you want a drink? Coffee? Tea?’

I chose coffee, it would keep me in the house for at least fifteen minutes, and Katie disappeared into the kitchen, a long and thin extension with views into a concrete yard.

‘How long have you been living here?’ I asked her, as
one of the pictures on the wall caught my eye. It looked like a family tree, framed, the branches spreading out, but it was the symbol at the top that drew my attention. It was unusual, like a screaming face, with hollow eyes and open mouth.

‘I thought you were here to talk about Sarah,’ Katie shouted from the kitchen.

‘I am, but you're part of the story.’

Katie returned with two coffees. ‘No, I'm not,’ she said, and handed me one of the cups.

I sat down, and I felt my knees rise up as I sank into a broken old couch.

‘You found Luke. That makes you part of it,’ I countered.

She sat down on a chair opposite and thought for a moment. She pulled her legs onto the cushion and took a drink, watching me over the top of the cup. ‘So what do you want to know?’

‘The story,’ I replied.

Katie drank her coffee for a while, and then said, ‘If you've read the papers you'll know most of it. Sarah's a teacher. She couldn't pay for the house without a lodger. She put a notice on the college notice-board. I saw it and got in touch.’

I nodded and smiled, played at being the interested journalist: sympathetic glances; faked empathy. I noticed that her body language was less defensive, and that her voice was quieter now. ‘I presume I'm talking to Katie Gray,’ I said, more as a comment than a question.

Katie paused, and then smiled properly for the first time, her eyes twinkling.

‘You have read the papers,’ she said.

‘It's my job,’ I replied, and then asked, ‘What do you study?’

‘History,’ she said, and blew into her coffee as she watched me, the cup cradled in both hands. She looked younger now, more vulnerable. ‘So if you've seen the papers, you already know the story,’ she said. ‘You must want something more.’

‘Sarah's parents just want me to find her,’ I said, shrugging. ‘They are convinced she had nothing to do with her boyfriend's death, but the only way to prove it is to get Sarah to come home.’

Katie nodded as she listened.

‘I know how Luke died,’ I continued, ‘and I can guess what the police think, but I need to know more.’

She put her cup down on the floor and leaned forward. I thought I saw something in her eyes. Sadness? Loneliness?

‘Where have you been so far?’ she asked.

‘I've started here.’

‘Where else are you going to look?’

I looked at her carefully when she said that. Katie seemed interested in my movements and I wondered why.

‘Wherever the facts take me,’ I replied cautiously.

‘How are Sarah's parents?’ Katie asked.

‘How well do you know them?’

‘Not much at all really. I'm just the lodger.’

I thought back to the meeting in Sam's office. ‘Somewhere between frantic and sad,’ I said.

Katie looked back and ran her fingers through her
hair. She smiled at me and then asked, ‘What do you need to know?’

‘Just tell me about Sarah,’ I said simply.

Katie watched me for a few seconds and I felt myself shuffle in my seat. I looked away, tried to take in the room. The walls looked sparkling clean. No cobwebs around the light-fittings, and the tabletop gleamed so that the scuffs and scratches seemed to catch the light and shine it back. Katie still lived in the house. Maybe the house had been cleaned to wipe out the memories of what had happened there.

‘She was fun,’ Katie started, making me look back, her voice low, so I had to lean in to catch what she was saying. ‘She wasn't like a teacher. She was more fun than that. Her parents live close by, but she wanted her own place. She moved in, but she bought the house at the top of the boom and so needed me to help with the mortgage, and that's it.’ Katie smiled wistfully. ‘We got on. We went out together, met some men together, just normal stuff. She started seeing Luke, and the rest, well, you know how it ended.’

‘Who was Luke?’

‘He was a personal trainer at the Pendle Gym. I reckon Sarah was different to most of the women he met. He could have had anyone at the gym. You know, he had the body, the smile, but Sarah was cooler than that. She was a bit prim and proper on the outside, and I think he liked that.’

‘And on the inside?’

Katie laughed, blushing slightly. ‘I used to hear them in the night. She wasn't always so reserved.’

‘So Sarah liked him,’ I said.

‘Oh, it was more than that,’ she replied, grinning now. ‘He was handsome, six foot and muscular.’ She traced the top of her cup with her finger. ‘She was falling in love.’

‘Was he?’

Katie sat back and thought for a few moments, more solemn now. ‘I really don't know,’ she said. ‘You know what men like him are like.’

‘You mean he was seeing other women?’

‘Don't men like Luke always see other women?’

Would it make her grab a knife and stab him, I thought to myself, as Katie twirled her fringe with her finger, watching me as I jotted down her quote?

‘So what do you think happened?’ I asked.

Katie watched me, almost studied me. ‘Why do you think my opinion matters?’

‘Because you knew both of them. The police didn't, and they've got an opinion.’

‘Have they?’

She was teasing me, trying to make me uncomfortable.

‘My guess is that the police think she killed him,’ I said.

She shrugged, her eyes never leaving mine. ‘They're the experts,’ she said.

That surprised me. It seemed like Katie agreed with the police hints, that Sarah was Luke's killer.

Katie glanced at her watch and put her cup down. ‘Have you got many more questions?’ she queried. ‘I've got to go somewhere.’

‘Lectures?’

She nodded.

‘Can we talk again?’ I asked.

Katie waved my business card at me. ‘I've got your number. I'll call you.’

I went to stand, but she leaned forward and grabbed my hand. Her fingers were warm and soft, her grip gentle, almost a caress.

‘Thank you,’ she said.

‘For what?’ I asked, surprised.

‘Just for being nice. It seems like people avoid me now.’

I nodded and smiled, felt my cheeks flush. ‘That's okay,’ I said, and dropped her hand. I turned to go. I thought she was going to show me out, but she stayed in her seat, tapping my business card against her cheek.

‘Another time then,’ I said. I felt awkward but I didn't know why.

When Katie didn't answer, I let myself out. I looked back at the house and wondered at how much I had learned in there. And then I felt my cheeks. They were hot, and my fingers trembled slightly.