Coffin’s Ghost

‘We’ve never heard from her. No one has.’

Henriette Duval had worked with Mary and Evelyn in the Serena Seddon for about eighteen months to earn her keep while doing an English language course at the University of the Second City. Then she had said her farewells and gone home to Versailles.

‘Oh, but that’s not so surprising.’

‘She said she would keep in touch. We liked her, everyone did, and she was marvellous at cleaning the kitchen, a real eye for dirt.’

‘People always say they will keep in touch; they hardly ever do. Doesn’t make her a candidate for being chopped up.’

Evelyn was quiet for a minute, then she said: ‘Thought I saw her in Drossers Lane Market. Tried to catch up with her but she disappeared.’

Mary shrugged. ‘A mistake, the girl just looked like Etta.’

‘Not many like Etta … red hair, tall and thin, skirts up to her thigh. No, I thought it was Etta.’ She added: ‘With a man, of course.’

‘Well … Etta …’ said Mary. ‘If it was Etta …’

‘She would be with a man.’

‘Still doesn’t make her a candidate for killing.’

‘You know the sort she went with: either villains or policemen. Both the type that might kill and cut up a girl.’

Mary wondered what Phoebe Astley would make of this comment, then realized she would raise an eyebrow and laugh, half accepting the judgement. It was true, the police did deal in violence.

Some truth in what Evelyn said then; violence was part of their life for the police. For some of them, not necessarily the worse, just the more vulnerable, perhaps because of something inside, it rubbed off on them.

‘Just because you saw Etta alive in Drossers Lane Market doesn’t mean she’s going to turn up dead on our doorstep.’

Evelyn looked unconvinced.

‘You can’t even be sure it was her.’

Evelyn looked even more unconvinced, and Mary remembered that you could never argue Evelyn out of anything: she just got more stubborn.

‘Have another cup of coffee,’ she said instead.

‘Swimming in it already.’ But Evelyn held out her cup. ‘Should I say anything about it when I am interviewed. I suppose we are being interviewed?’

Mary nodded. ‘Bound to be. Especially you, you found the bundles.’

‘I’ve already told them about that.’

The police noises about the house were becoming quieter; Mary sensed that they would be leaving. And others coming.

‘We’ve all answered a few questions. It’s just a beginning. We will have to go through it again, and perhaps again.’

‘Even if we don’t know anything?’

‘They have to be convinced of that.’

‘You seem to know a lot about it.’

Yes, thought Mary. I once went to bed with a policeman. In fact, quite often. It lasted about six months. I learnt a lot.

I learnt that you could lie to him, and get away with it, or thought you had, but somehow in the end, and sometimes not too much later, you found the truth came out.

Not that I ever had much to lie about, she added to herself. If I did it at all it was in self-protection because otherwise I would have gone up in smoke.

A uniformed sergeant appeared at the door. ‘Just off. Miss Arden. Anyway for the moment, but there is a constable on the door and the forensic team would like to come in, if that’s all right?’

Mary nodded assent.

‘Try saying no,’ growled Evelyn as he left.

‘You go home. If you are wanted, I’ll telephone you. Don’t go out to eat a quick curry with Peter though, just in case.’

Evelyn swung her shoulder bag on. ‘Wouldn’t dream of it. Peter doesn’t eat curry. But I’d like to get back. Miss Pinero has two new contacts who might be putting together a show: Freedom and Gilchrist, sound like a stand-up comedy team, don’t they? And they have this driver and handyman who aids and assists. All means business, which as you know has not been brisk lately. But you can always trust Miss Pinero to bring it in, I say.’ Having said this, at the door, she turned. ‘Look after yourself, and do ring me if there is anything I can do.’

‘Miriam and Ally will be quiet now, they like each other, you only quarrel like that with friends. I’m on their side, or I wouldn’t be here. But they don’t like to feel I am kind of a social doctor treating a disease, so in a way they feel better when I lose my temper. It puts us on a level.’ She added: ‘You have to be a bit tough sometimes, of course.’

‘Yes, sure,’ said Evelyn. With a wave, she was gone.

After the front door banged behind Evelyn, and she heard her speaking to the constable outside, Mary tidied up the coffee pot and cups, then went up the stairs to see Miriam and Ally.

She passed one of the other occupants on the way up. ‘Everything all right, Fanny?’

‘Fine, Mary. I’m just off to get my prescription from Dr Meener. The police girl said it was all right.’

‘You do that then.’

Fanny nodded towards the sitting room door. ‘They all right, then?’

‘I think so.’

‘Do they know who it is outside? Whose bits, I mean?’

Mary said. No, not as far as she knew.

‘I just wondered …’ Then Fanny stopped. Mary waited. ‘Just wondered if it was that foreign girl who helped here for a bit.’

Mary said in a careful way: ‘I think she went home.’

‘Only I saw her around in Poland Street.’

Poland Street was close, very close to Drossers Lane Market. In fact, Drossers Lane Market was virtually in Poland Street.

‘The other day … She did put it about a bit.’