Dead To Me

11

SPEEDY CABS OPERATED out of a railway arch close to the canal in Ardwick. Either side were a welding outfit and a pallets store. Janet wondered if the curved roof caused a headache for the pallets firm, space they paid for and couldn’t use, not ideally suited to the square shape of the stock.

Rachel was there already having a fag by the railings. ‘Kevin came through?’ She sounded surprised.

Janet shook her head. ‘’Fraid not. Cell-phone provider.’

Rachel dropped her cig and ground it out. They crossed the cobbled street to the front of the archway, went in through a steel door that led in turn to the dispatcher’s office and a small rest area where a couple of drivers were having lunch. The telly in the corner was showing a rerun of the latest Manchester derby.

‘Ladies,’ said the dispatcher.

Janet and Rachel showed their warrant cards.

‘Kasim will be back any minute,’ he said. Then ‘Yes!’ to the screen as a shot bounced off the crossbar. ‘Up the Blues,’ he said, sniffing out their affiliation. A city of two teams. Sporting rivalry passed down from one generation to the next.

Rachel shrugged. ‘Whatever.’

Disappointed, he looked at Janet. ‘Me neither,’ she said. Ade used to follow Oldham Athletic, a suicide mission if ever there was one; went to a few matches when he was younger. Janet never fancied it.

They heard a car trundle over the cobbles and a cab pulled up in front of the office.

‘Kasim,’ the man confirmed.

‘Thanks, we’ll talk outside,’ Janet said. More privacy there.

Kasim was curious, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. He had done that thing with his eyebrows, Janet noticed, lines cut through. Looked as though his hand slipped shaving. She didn’t get it. I’m getting old, she thought. The taxi drivers look younger every day.

‘She the girl that was murdered?’ Kasim asked them when they told him what they were there for.

‘That’s right,’ Janet said. ‘You picked her up, when?’

‘Just after one.’

‘Where from?’

‘Shudehill, near the Printworks,’ he said.

‘Where did you drop her?’

‘Fairland Avenue.’

‘She was on her own?’ Janet said.

‘Yeah.’

‘Dispatch says she’s a regular fare?’

He shrugged. ‘We’re reliable. People stick with you if they know you’re gonna turn up.’

‘Did she say anything?’

‘No, just, maybe the weather?’ Like he was guessing. Janet didn’t want guesses.

‘Can you remember what she was wearing?’ Rachel said.

He exhaled noisily, indicating that was a really hard task. ‘To be honest’ – he shook his head – ‘don’t even notice what the girlfriend’s wearing half the time.’

‘Anything about the trip, about the girl? How was she?’ said Janet.

‘Quiet,’ he ventured.

An unmemorable passenger had turned out to be front-page news, but Kasim had no juicy story to dine off. He could barely remember the fare.

‘What time did you drop her?’ Janet said.

He considered, rubbing his chin with one hand. ‘Maybe quarter past one, no later.’

‘She make or receive any calls?’ Rachel said.

‘A couple. I think her phone went.’

‘And what was she saying?’

‘Sorry. You zone out, you know? Eye on the road, the traffic. Nothing sticks.’ He gave a shrug.

If Kasim’s timing was accurate, and he wouldn’t be far out, given the relatively short distance of the journey, then the calls between Sean and Lisa and Denise and Lisa would have taken place while she was on the way home.

There wasn’t much more they could learn from Kasim, but he had given them a last sighting.

‘We know she was still alive at quarter past one and that she was dead by half three. That’s a pretty tight window,’ said Janet once they were back at the station, eating sandwiches from the deli. Janet was ravenous, had gone for a double-decker BLT and a flapjack.

Rachel didn’t answer. Janet turned to look at her. She was staring into space, miles away. Dolly daydream now, thought Janet. Wonder what she has to daydream about?

Suddenly Rachel said, ‘Why get a cab? Any number of buses go up that way, and she was opposite the bus station. She’s on the dole. Why get a cab?’

Janet swallowed her mouthful. ‘Lazy, feckless, spending her benefits on taxis. Only cost her four or five quid, anyway.’

‘Buy twenty fags for that,’ Rachel said, scowling, seemingly crushed that she couldn’t make sense of it.

She remained preoccupied over lunch, the cab business obviously bugging her. But Janet didn’t know that there was anything in it. Some folk had weird ways of budgeting. They saw it all the time: people with no carpets or curtains and a TV the size of a small car.

Gill had left instructions for Andy and Janet to co-ordinate reports for a case update and pull everyone in for early evening. Janet felt the familiar trip of her heart when she joined Andy in the meeting room.

‘Made a start,’ he said. ‘Further forensics’ – he pointed to a pile of printouts – ‘witness statements, Sean Broughton and’ – he indicated another pile – ‘Denise Finn.’

‘Fine.’ Janet nodded to the piles. ‘Rachel’s typing up the info from the personal advisor and I’ve adjusted the timeline. Cabbie set her down at quarter past one.’

‘You want to start collating and I’ll get Rachel?’ He gave her a quick smile. The way he looked at her sometimes, she wondered if he could tell the old attraction hadn’t gone away completely, could sense that she occasionally daydreamed about him. Like a lovesick teenager. Way back in training, that’s when Janet first met Andy, had a fling – until she came to her senses and married Ade. The men were physically very different, Ade stouter, shorter; Andy leaner, taller. Andy had quick, bright eyes. These days there was an energy about Andy quite unlike Ade. It was as if Ade’s batteries had worn down somewhere along the way and he couldn’t be bothered to recharge them. Not that Andy was hyper or anything, but he was engaged, sharp, keen. It was a bonus, having him there in the syndicate – one she kept to herself – enjoying the chance to work with him, have the occasional flirtatious thought. Harmless, she told herself.

Janet sat at the desk, pulling reports from each pile into sets for the team. The arguments between her and Ade seemed to erupt with increasing frequency. Any exchange about the house or the cars or the girls suddenly exploding into a blame game over who was supposed to be sorting what out. Her overtime was unpredictable, her hours out of the house often longer than his, and Ade flung this back at her every chance he got. In the middle of their most recent row, he’d accused her of preferring being at work to being at home. ‘I’m sick of living like a single parent,’ he said. ‘I do the lot and I get no thanks for it.’ Trying to make her feel guilty – and succeeding, though she would not let it show, would not give him the satisfaction. And even after the rows were over, the atmosphere lingered. Ade could man the barricades for days, his bitter silence like a chemical weapon. Janet always crumbled first, said sorry. Which allowed him to do likewise… till next time.

She must have sighed out loud as Andy came back in because he said, ‘Problem?’

‘No, nothing.’

‘If you need me to have a word with Rachel…’ he volunteered. As sergeant, he had a different relationship to the DCs, could make use of his rank. Either to admonish or advise.

‘No, that’s fine, thanks.’

He was still watching her and Janet felt her skin glow warm, hated that she was blushing. He seemed to be thinking, hesitant. ‘You really all right?’ He sounded genuinely concerned.

She had a sudden urge to confide in him. Bad idea. Instead, she generalized: ‘Oh, you know, kids, work – sometimes there’s just not enough hours in the day.’ She should be happy, counting her blessings: great job, kids safe, roof over her head, food on the table. Ade there to man the lifeboats, even if he wasn’t a red-hot rocking Romeo any more (was he ever?) But the shine had gone. Some days felt like a grind.

‘And we pick one up right in time for Christmas.’

‘Oh, we’ll have cracked it by then,’ Janet joked.

She had all that to do as well: Christmas presents. Most of it she’d do online, spend more than she intended because it was so easy to push a button. Taisie wanted money, but Janet baulked at that. Seemed so empty. Compromise maybe: half money, half gift. Inline skates? And what to get Ade? Nothing he needed. Some book? Janet groaned inwardly. She could suggest a weekend away – treat themselves. Mum’d watch the girls. A place with a spa and nice woodland walks, up in the Lakes maybe. It all sounded great, but the prospect of forty-eight hours alone together without demands and distractions, without work and domestic chores… She’d go mad.

How did it come to this? she thought sadly. What do I do? Let it drift on until… what? The kids leave home and we go our separate ways? Her stomach turned cold at the thought.

‘Can’t find Rachel,’ Andy said.

‘Did you try outside? She’s probably having a fag. I’ll see.’ She set off. Elise, what did Elise want? Apart from an iPad, which was more than a few quid too far.