My Sister's Bones(30)

‘Ha! Over in Dover. That rhymes.’ My voice is jagged and I feel the words tensing against my teeth as I speak. ‘Over in Dover. That’s brilliant.’

I go to grab my glass to make a toast to Paul and the lorry drivers’ strike and the delights of Dover but I miss my target and warm liquid seeps underneath my arm.

‘Whoa, careful! Time to call a cab.’

I hear Paul’s voice through the clanking sound of a bell ringing somewhere on the edge of my consciousness. Then a hand clasps round my waist, a gust of cold air whips into my face and I am on the ground, shuffling on my belly towards the men. I feel blood in my mouth, congealing and thickening as I try to breathe. Then the sound of gunshot pummels the air. I put my head down, close my eyes and start to count, and when I open them I see his face.





14


Herne Bay Police Station

30.5 hours detained

‘Did you sleep well?’

I look up at Shaw as she waits for my reply. She looks refreshed. Her navy trouser suit has been replaced with a cream skirt and black polo neck jumper. She will have slept in her own bed, next to her husband. She will have eaten breakfast at her own table, showered in her own bathroom. She is a free woman. As I sit here in yesterday’s clothes, the smell of the police cell embedded in my hair and skin, my back aching from the hard mattress I spent the night on, I try to remember what being free feels like. It seems like I’ve been held here for ever.

‘What do you think?’ I shoot back. ‘It’s not exactly the Ritz, is it?’

Shaw smiles awkwardly then begins.

‘Can you tell me about the incident in Soho, Kate?’

I look up at Shaw again. She is reading from a new set of notes.

‘What incident in Soho?’

‘The Star cafe on Great Chapel Street?’

My body tenses. She knows.

‘What about it?’

‘You went there the day after the incident with Rachel Hadley, didn’t you?’

She looks at me unblinkingly, her face a mask.

‘Yes,’ I whisper and as she prepares to ask me more questions I see myself that evening, fresh out of hospital and pumped up with painkillers, walking and walking like a zombie through the streets of Soho.

‘Can you tell me what happened?’

‘I was going for a coffee.’

‘But you didn’t quite make it to the cafe, did you?’

I look down at the linoleum floor, remembering the big hole outside the Star that was blinking and groaning at me like some great sea monster.

‘What stopped you from going inside, Kate?’

‘I was looking at the hoardings.’

Shaw looks confused.

‘They’re extending Tottenham Court Road Tube station and digging up Soho left, right and centre. They’ve dug a great big hole outside the cafe.’

‘And the hoardings?’

‘The hoardings are meant to hide the hole, make the whole thing look more attractive. They show the timescale and blueprints for the new station.’

‘What made you look at them?’

‘I don’t know,’ I reply. ‘I think it was the mammoth bone that caught my eye.’

Shaw frowns.

‘It was a photograph,’ I tell her. ‘Of a mammoth bone they’d excavated the previous month. It was the developer’s way of saying that all this disruption was for a greater good. Look, we’re not just ripping up ancient streets and destroying Soho, we’re giving something back, something of historical interest. Here’s a mammoth bone.’

It is clear that Shaw has no idea what I’m going on about. I don’t think she’s ever even been to Soho.

‘I’m sorry,’ I say. ‘Things like that just make me angry.’

She nods her head and writes something down in her notebook.

‘So you were looking at these hoardings,’ she says. ‘And then what happened?’

I close my eyes and remember the sensation I felt that night. It was like the ground was moving beneath me and I was being pulled down. And then the noises started up. Screams. They were gentle at first but they grew louder and louder until I had to cover my ears with my hands. Then suddenly, bang, the explosion, everything flying up into the air: a head, a foot, an arm, a torso; raining down on me in a bloody twisted mess.

‘Kate,’ says Shaw, interrupting my memory. ‘What happened?’

‘I fell over. And, er, this girl tried to pull me up.’

‘Rosa Dunajski?’

How does she know her name?

‘Yes, I think so.’

‘She’s a waitress at the Star cafe?’

I nod my head.

‘She came out because you were making a bit of a disturbance, shouting at people to run for cover.’

‘No, that’s not true,’ I say, my voice shaking. ‘I just fell and this girl started fussing and grabbing at me.’

‘And then what did you do?’

‘I – I pushed her away.’

Shaw looks down at her notes and begins to read.

‘You pushed her so hard that she was knocked on to the ground, hitting her head on the pavement.’

‘I didn’t mean to – I explained all this later – she just gave me a shock, that’s all.’