Deadly Friends Read Free Page B

on.
    After a moment I asked: ‘What did he say, Janet?’
    ‘He said … that everybody knew I was a slag. It isn’t true. I’m not. Then he went.’
    We sat in silence for a minute. Maggie made several notes. PC Kent bit her lip and fidgeted with the cuffs of her blouse. I said: ‘And then you had to pick up the pieces and get ready for little Dilly coming as if nothing had happened. And play the best mum in the world for the next three days while all this was churning away inside you.’
    ‘Mmm.’
    ‘And everybody around you was enjoying themselves,’ Maggie added.
    ‘Yes.’
    I pointed at a disposable cup and held four fingers up to PC Kent. I was convinced that Maggie had deliberately not told me her first name. She asked how I liked my coffee. When she’d gone Janet said: ‘I wasn’t going to report it. I’m trying to win custody of Dilly again and I thought that this might go against me. ThenI thought: No! It’s my body. He’s not getting away with it.’
    ‘I admire your guts, Janet,’ I told her, ‘and we’ll do everything we can to nail him, but I can’t guarantee that we’ll succeed. You’d better give us a description.’
    He was about twenty-eight, liked to dress smartly in a three-piece suit, with close-cropped hair, no earrings or tattoos and stockily built. He answered to Darryl and drank occasionally in the Tap and Spile, leaning on the bar, chatting to the staff. If he lived locally we’d find him.
    ‘You obviously haven’t been back to the pub,’ I suggested as WPC Kent came in with four cups in a purpose-designed tray.
    ‘No. I’ve had Dilly with me until tonight.’
    ‘Will you?’
    ‘I don’t think so, but I need the money.’
    ‘Right. Can you describe the knife?’
    ‘It was one of my kitchen knives. On Christmas Day Dilly came in from the garden carrying it. “Look what Dilly found, Mummy,” she said. I nearly fainted.’
    ‘Jesus!’ I sighed. I leant back in my easy chair and glanced round the room. There was a pile of chunky plastic toys in one corner with a little slide, kiddies for the use of. The place was starting to look grubby. That’s the trouble with pastels.
    I said: ‘I’ll leave you with Maggie and she’ll ask you all the personal stuff we need to know. Meanwhile I’ll see what I can find about Darryl. We might need youto point him out to us, if we go looking for him. Will that be OK?’
    ‘Through the week,’ Janet replied. ‘I can get away anytime through the week. I have Dilly at weekends.’
    ‘Fair enough. If we need more information would you prefer it if Maggie or PC Kent called to see you, or is it all right if I call? It’s just that sometimes they’re not available.’
    ‘I don’t mind who calls, if it helps catch him.’
    ‘Right. Thanks. You’re a brave lady, Janet, and you’re doing the right thing. I’ll say goodnight, and Maggie will take you home when you’ve finished.’
    She thanked me, and I wandered off to set the wheels in motion. Except that I was the wheels, and I didn’t have much motion in me. The happy gang were leaving the canteen in various states of jollity and I zig-zagged against the flow, shaking the occasional extended hand and returning seasonal compliments. Sparky and Nigel weren’t among them.
    I leant on the bell push at the front desk and the duty sergeant came steaming out of the office with murder on his mind. He unclenched his fists when he saw me. Unfortunately, Darryl the Rapist didn’t ring any bells in his memory. He just pursed his lips and shook his head. I half turned to leave, then said: ‘Oh, one more thing, Arthur. WPC Kent helped with the interview. She seems very competent. What’s her first name?’
    The big sergeant, built like a mausoleum, looked over his left shoulder and then his right. When he wassure we were alone he leant conspiratorially across the front counter. I put my ear close to his face.
    ‘Roger Bannister,’ he whispered.
    It had started already.
    Tomorrow