Towers of Silence

Chapter Five

The room was stuffy. I turned the heater off. I filed the notes I’d made from the phone call and returned to work at the screen. After another hour I felt as though cement was seeping into the muscles that run from my neck to my shoulder. It’s always been a weak spot. Driving aggravates it too. And no matter how clear I am about the need for good posture at the computer; wrists relaxed, and level with the keyboard, one foot ahead of the other, knees lower than hips, back comfortably supported, when it comes to real life I end up hunched over the keyboard, head thrust towards the screen, neck horizontal, legs tangled, shoulders high with concentration, back rigid like some myopic emu.

I stood and swung my arms a bit, managed to bash the paper shade on the light. Cellars have low ceilings. I swung my head about more gently but nearly dislocated it when there was a sudden loud knocking from upstairs.

Through the spy hole I made out a distorted version of a face I knew. Close cropped grey hair, slate coloured eyes, generous mouth. I flung open the door.

“Stuart, you’re back.”

Observant, aren’t I?

He grinned. “Last night.” Stepped forward to hug me. Then stood back.

“I thought if you hadn’t had lunch…”

I rounded my eyes. Cheeky sod. Lunch was a euphemism. Oh, sure, there’d be something to eat but eating would be the hors d’œuvre or maybe the afters. I glanced at my watch.

“All over by three,” he said. He had children himself and was well-versed in the school run.

“I’ll turn things off.”

He waited in the car while I closed up. I felt like a kid playing truant. As I climbed in the passenger seat I recognised the thrill of excitement and the lurch of uncertainty that accompanied teenage dates. I hadn’t been going out with Stuart very long – just a couple of months. My friend Diane had introduced us; she had decided we would be a good match and engineered it so we met at Stuart’s cafe bar without telling me first. It was my first relationship for longer than I care to remember and I felt as though I was entering unfamiliar territory where the ground might shift under my feet at any moment.

I snapped my seat belt shut, turned and smiled at him. He leant closer and kissed me very, very softly. He ran the tip of his tongue along the edge of my top lip. My stomach rippled and my breasts tingled. The ache in my shoulder seemed completely irrelevant. I was starving. Mmmm. Love in the afternoon.

In between sorting laundry and refereeing the children who were in squabbling mode I rang and collected my answer phone messages. Patrick Dowley had rung, he gave a phone number. I wrote it down.

“You pig, you evil smelly pig.”

“Get off me! Sa-a-al,” Tom roared for help.

I marched into the lounge where the pair of them were glowering at each other. “He turned it over,” Maddie said pointing at the telly. “I was watching it.”

“I didn’t. She hit me.”

“I didn’t.”

“Leave the telly alone,” I told Tom, “and you don’t hit people,” I said to Maddie. “If there’s a problem, get me. And if there’s any more messing about, it goes off.” Maddie pulled a smirky ‘see’ face at Tom.

“Maddie,” I scolded her. “I need to make some phone calls for work and I can’t do it if you two are screaming and shouting.”

“It’s finished now anyway,” she said.

“Would you like a video then?”

They finally agreed on Winnie The Pooh and I went back to the phone and returned the Johnstones’ call.

It was Connie who answered.

“I’ve had a look at the file you left and a chance to think about it. I’m afraid I still agree with the official version of events, going on the evidence available. And if I did do any work for you I’d want that to be understood.”

“Oh,” she said cautiously.

“Mr Dowley suggested I could try and establish more about your mother’s movements during the Thursday. Try to fill in some of the gaps in the police account. There’s quite a lot of time unaccounted for when no one knows where she was, is that right?”

“Yes, nothing after lunchtime. After she left the community centre. The police asked her neighbours if they’d seen her and I think that’s all. I don’t think they spoke to anyone else.”

There was no reason to. Suicide isn’t a crime. And once it was clearly a suicide then there would be no need for the police to look any further.

“They wouldn’t have,” I said. “But if further information about those missing hours is what you want then I can take the case on that basis but only on that basis. You may want to discuss it with the family?”

“No, we all agree. We talked about it last night after we’d seen you. Patrick told us what he’d said.”

“And you’d be happy with that?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. I have a basic contract which I use and we’ll need to agree on an initial number of hours and fee. And I should make it clear that I can’t guarantee I’ll find any information. All I can do is look and use my professional skills to try and find out where she was, how she got to town and so on but I might not get anywhere. There’s always that risk. I’ll explore all the leads I can but at the end of the day you might not know any more.”

“Yeah, but we’ll have tried and anything would help,” she said flatly.

We agreed that I would call the following evening, when they would all be at home.

Connie and Patrick had a house on one of the streets tucked away behind Wilmslow Road in Rusholme – the famous curry mile. That December evening the place was awash with neon, fragrant with the mouth-watering smell of pungent spices, crammed with traffic and already busy with the first wave of customers, some of them big groups obviously out for the work’s Christmas party; it was the fake antlers and pointy red hats with white trim that gave it away. It would get busier still when the pubs emptied later and the streets would be thronging with revellers after that final part of the night-out ritual – the curry that followed the last drink. After the clubs there would be another influx of people ravenous for Rogan Josh, Chicken Korma and King Prawn Madras.

In amongst the curry houses were the other Asian shops, windows shimmering with saris in vibrant shades: coral, emerald, vermilion and royal blue; displays of glittering gold and silver jewellery, travel shops and banks, video and music outlets, sweet houses with windows piled high with pastel coloured treats like sculptures in coconut, sugar and dough, grocers with tables full of coriander, ladies fingers and sweet potatoes, mangoes and passion fruits.

At each restaurant, a man stood in the doorway, enticing customers in, giving them the low-down on the superiority of the chef, the awards the place had won, the specials on the menu. Smiling, beckoning, talking up the food. Competition was fierce but there always seemed enough customers to go around.

Maddie loved coming here for a curry, enchanted by everything from the glittering lights and the after dinner cachou sweets to the pretty multicoloured rice and the elephant shaped cocktail stirrer in the drinks. She liked the food too.

I found the house but there was no parking space nearby. I drove a little until I found a gap on an adjoining street. The terraced houses were quite large, many had the signs of multiple occupancy – a row of bells, several wheelie bins, neglected gardens, grubby windows with torn or badly hung curtains. In among these were smarter lets where the landlords had kept up the maintenance and a neat plaque advertised the management company and then there were the private family houses not adapted into flats or bedsits, looking settled and usually well looked after.

Connie Johnstone’s home was one of these. The windows weren’t new uPVC but had recently been painted, and a winter window box with conifers, pansies and heathers provided a splash of colour at the bay window.

Patrick let me in. I left my coat on the pegs in the hallway and then went on through to the back room with him. They were all there. Martina and Roland sat on a large russet-coloured sofa opposite the television, Connie at a beech dining table in the first part of the room. I could smell coffee and a sweeter smell – fabric conditioner from a blanket drying on a rack by the radiator. The walls were painted pale terracotta with cream above the picture rail and on the ceiling. Thick curtains in a darker terracotta covered the window at the rear. Pale wood shelves beside the television held large church candles, a large piece of driftwood, some pebbles. A painting hung opposite the door, blocks of cream, gold and apricot, abstract but it made me think of buildings on a hillside. There was an air of tension in the atmosphere and I wondered whether I had interrupted a family row.

I put the folder down along with my own file and took a chair next to Connie.

“You can go do your homework,” she said to the other two. “We’ll call you if we need you.” They seemed glad to escape and the atmosphere certainly lightened once they’d gone.

Over the next hour I worked through all the known facts about Miriam Johnstone: her friends, routines, contacts, the places she visited, where she shopped and worshipped, her doctor, hairdresser and dentist. Connie gave me her mother’s address and phone book and her small appointments diary. I confirmed that the photo of Miriam was dated correctly and that she hadn’t changed her appearance substantially since it was taken. I would need to make copies of it to show to people.

I wrote down a potted history of her life and made a sketch of the known and close family tree; it was quite a small family. Miriam had no brothers or sisters though there were cousins still in Jamaica. She was fifty years old when she died. Mr Johnstone had left them while Miriam was carrying Roland.

Miriam had stopped working at St Mary’s after her last time in psychiatric hospital, two years previously. She led a frugal life. Connie could help out with unforseen expenses. Martina had a Saturday job at British Home Stores. Martina and Roland had moved in with Connie and Patrick the night of their mother’s death.

“It was awful,” Connie closed her eyes at the memory.

I asked them to tell me about their last visit to Miriam.

“There was nothing out of the ordinary,” said Patrick.

“She was fine,” said Connie. “She’d made a big meal and we cleared the plates. We all watched Coronation Street with her and then we left.”

“What did you talk about?”

“Just stuff,” she said, “someone she knew, their son was auditioning for a part in Coronation Street, so she was full of that.”

“And her feet,” Patrick said.

Connie smiled. “In-growing toe nails. She would moan about them but she loved her fancy shoes. She hated flat shoes, anything wide and sensible, reminded her of working at the hospital, she always wanted to look smart and she had a pair of shoes for every outfit.”

“Anything else, any news, any worries?”

“Nothing,” she sighed and ran both hands over the rows in her hair, “we’ve gone over it so many times.”

I nodded. “Martina and Roland would have seen her the next day?”

“Yes, before school. Martina’s at sixth form college and Roland’s doing GCSEs. They both left around eight o’ clock.”

“And she was okay then?”

“Yes.”

“No upset, no signs of anxiety?”

Connie shook her head.

“Would she try to hide it from them?”

“Well, yes. If she was a bit down then yes she would. But if it was worse then she wouldn’t have the strength to do that. But she was managing it all fine. It had been two years since her last bad spell and she hadn’t needed tablets for the last six months.”

I made more notes. “So, we know she went to the community centre that morning.”

“Her craft club.”

“Tell me about that.”

“She loved it. They had a project, it was aimed at people who maybe needed a little support, people like Ma or people who were on their own. It was quite a mix, some unemployed, some pensioners. The worker there, Eddie, he’s built it up, got them some Lottery funding so they can do more things. He spoke at the service for her.”

“He was as shocked as we were,” Patrick said.

“Yes, talk to him. He’ll tell you she was perfectly all right.”

“Right. And she left there about midday?”

“Yes.”

“That was the last anyone saw of her?”

Connie nodded. One hand tightened over the other.

I gave them the contract and we agreed I’d do two days work and then prepare a report.

“Before I go, could I have a word with Martina and Roland?”

Connie went to fetch them and Patrick nodded at the mass of papers on the table. “Where will you start?”

“The obvious places, talk to people at the craft club, her neighbours, contact friends and people on the list and in her book. No one at the funeral said they’d seen her?”

“No, we weren’t going round asking people but I think they’d have said, don’t you?”

“We might want to try an advert in the paper; that can sometimes bring people forward.”

“Like Crimestoppers?”

“Yes,” I smiled, “without the crime.”

Martina and Roland came in and hovered by the table.

“I won’t keep you long, your sister’s told me all she can. Is there anything either of you’ve thought of, anything that might be useful for me to know?”

Roland shook his head, blinked at me, looked away, sad.

“No,” said Martina.

“What about the Thursday morning, you both saw her before school?”

They both nodded.

“And she seemed fine then?”

“Yeah,” Martina said, “she was.”

“That day or the days before, was there anything unusual, anything a bit off key?”

Roland shook his head.

“There wasn’t anything like that,” said Martina.

I turned back to Connie. “Your father left. Has there been any contact since?”

I knew he wasn’t on the list they’d given me.

Her face hardened, Patrick stiffened. Roland actually looked shocked as though I’d said something obscene. His eyes widened with alarm and his face blanched. Then he blinked and blanked his expression. I’d obviously put my foot right in it.

“He made her ill,” Connie said, “leaving when he did, leaving like that. We don’t talk about him.”

“And you don’t know where he is?”

“No.”

That was that then. Mr Johnstone was taboo. But their reaction was so hostile I wondered whether there was any more to it? Had he just abandoned them – or was there anything else?

“Okay. Thank you.” I began to gather my notes. Roland ducked out of the room followed by his sister.

Patrick and Connie saw me out. It was freezing, black ice glinted dangerously on the pavement. I walked as briskly as I dared to the car. I couldn’t guess whether I’d find anything or not but I’d do my best. Would anyone remember seeing Miriam? It’s easy to get lost in the city if you want to. Easy to move unnoticed through the crowds. Though I hadn’t said so to the Johnstones I would go there first, put myself at the scene where Miriam died. I’d try to figure out how she got there, imagine the final stages of her bleak journey, the last steps she took before her fall to oblivion. It wasn’t an attractive prospect and I might not learn anything from it but it was part of the job and I wouldn’t be behaving professionally if I only did the easy bits. Being thorough, checking and rechecking, attention to details – it’s often the mundane that brings illumination rather than the dramatic. Some trails start at the beginning and others begin at the end