Too Good to Be True

3 The Neighbour

Outside there was a nip of frost in the air. The school was in the middle of the village just off the main street. Jimmy could hear the children’s voices as soon as he left the hotel, and he saw the children when he crossed the road. They were wrapped in coats and scarves and had made a slide in the ice. Perez thought he could see Sarah’s son playing with the other boys.

An older woman waddled into the yard and rang a hand bell to mark the start of the school day. Perez thought this might be Freda, the woman who’d lost her job to Anna Blackwell and was now back. For a while, at least. He would talk to the head teacher later, when school was over. It would be good to hear what she’d made of Anna.

He walked round the village making a map of the place in his head. He found the doctors’ surgery in a modern building close to the school. Three names were on the door. Thomas King’s was one of them.

The small estate where Anna had lived was right at the edge of the village, not far from Tom and Sarah’s house. Ten semi-detached homes formed a horseshoe round a patch of frosty grass. There were some swings and a slide. Anna had lived in number four. It had a neat garden, but Perez couldn’t see inside because the curtains were closed. He was standing there, wondering if there was a way to get inside, when an elderly man appeared at the front door of the next house.

‘Can I help you?’ He was small and wiry, with teeth that were too big for his mouth.

‘I just came to see where Anna lived,’ Jimmy said.

‘Did you know her?’

‘Not exactly. I’ve been asked to find out why she died.’

‘Are you a cop?’

‘Yes,’ Jimmy said. Because after all, that was the truth.

‘Poor young thing. The women in this village are all bitches. They go to church on a Sunday, but that didn’t stop them making the lass’s life a misery with their gossip and their lies.’

‘You don’t happen to have a key?’ Perez nodded towards the small, tidy house.

‘Aye. I was the one who found her body.’

‘Maybe you could tell me how that happened,’ Perez said.

‘I told the other police.’ For the first time the old man seemed suspicious about Jimmy’s role in the case.

‘I know. I’m just checking that nothing’s been missed.’

They sat in the neighbour’s tiny living room in front of an open fire. The man offered tea but Perez shook his head.

‘Did she own the house?’ Perez asked.

The man shook his head. ‘She rented it. One of the doctors bought it when it came on the market a few years ago. A kind of investment, I guess. A young couple had it for a few years and then Anna moved in with her kid.’

‘What was the name of the doctor?’ Perez asked, but he thought he already knew.

‘Tom King.’ Another thing Sarah had failed to tell him: that her husband had been Anna Blackwell’s landlord.

‘I’ve lived here for years,’ the man said. ‘I love the place. But the way they treated Anna made me feel sick. I’m not sure I can stay.’

‘How did you find her body?’

‘Anna’s daughter Lucy had been at a friend’s for the night, at a farm just up the hill. When the friend’s mother, Gail Kerr, dropped her home they couldn’t get Anna to open the door. I told them to wait here and I let myself in. Anna had given me a key when she first moved in. For emergencies, she said. Well, that was an emergency.’ He stared into the fire.

‘Where was Anna?’

‘Where the police found her, of course. I called them from the house. There should be a record of that.’ He looked at Perez. ‘You are a cop?’

‘Yes.’ Perez took out his ID card and the man nodded.

‘She was sitting in the living room,’ he said. ‘Slumped over the table next to an empty wine bottle and a glass.’

‘Just one glass?’

‘Aye.’

‘What about the pills? Was there a medicine bottle?’

‘Not that I saw. But I just wanted to call 999 and see if we could save her.’

‘Of course.’ Perez got to his feet. ‘Can you let me have that key?’

The man remained where he was for a moment. ‘I had to come back here and make up a story for the lassie, Anna’s little girl. I told her that her mother was ill. I didn’t have the heart to say that she was already dead.’

Then he went to get the key.