Local Gone Missing(56)

“Boss,” Caro hissed in her ear, “we’ve got Bram and Pauline to question as well. Don’t overdo it on your first day. You’ll make yourself ill.”

“I’m not. And I’m fine.”



* * *



—

    “Why didn’t you tell us straightaway?” Elise said as soon as Caro had done the formalities. No point in beating about the bush.

“I don’t know.” The man sitting opposite looked as though his life was on fire, his eyes darting round the room as if looking for an escape route. “Look, Charlie was fine. A bit drunk—well, a lot drunk, if you know what I mean—when I left him. And we thought he’d turn up. We didn’t want to get dragged into anything.”

“?‘We’?”

“Me and Dee.”

“So whose idea was it to keep quiet?”

The eyes went to his lawyer, who tapped her legal pad with her pen. Elise wondered if it was an agreed signal. One tap for “Shut up”? Two for “No comment”?

“I dunno. No one gets involved with the police if they can help it, do they?”

“I see. I understand Charlie Perry owed you money.”

“Well, me and every builder who worked on his house. I was renewing the pipework—the whole house needed doing—but he never paid the final bill. I chased it but he said he had a cash flow problem. Look, it happens in my business.”

“How much did he owe you?”

“Not that much.”

“Exactly?”

Liam Eastwood swallowed hard. “Four grand, give or take.”

Elise leaned back. “That’s quite a big sum for a one-man business. Did it cause you financial problems?”

Eastwood’s head went down. The lawyer’s pencil tapped twice. But perhaps he hadn’t heard it.

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “It’s not right, is it? It’s like he was robbing me. Screwing me over. We’ve got a bit behind with bills and might get chucked out of the house. Dee is trying to sort it out with the landlord.”

“You must have been very angry about being screwed over.”

Two taps.

“No comment,” he said sulkily. And the lawyer made a note on her pad.

“But look,” he suddenly added, “I might have had a word but I’d never have hurt him. He was an old man. Charlie was okay when I left him.”

“But why should we believe you?” Elise leaned farther forward. “You’ve already lied to us about that night, haven’t you? You said Charlie had been seen up by the workers’ caravans but you knew for a fact that he hadn’t. Because he was sitting beside you in your van.”

Eastwood’s feet started doing a soft shoe shuffle under the table. “I only said that after he was found dead because I thought one of them might’ve had something to do with it. There’s all sorts up there. Have you checked?”

“We’re talking to everyone, Mr. Eastwood. Did you talk to Charlie about the debt when he was in your van?”

Liam looked up wearily. “No. I couldn’t get a word of sense out of him. I got him out of the van and pointed him at the caravan. Then home. End of. Ask Dee.”

“We will. Did you go back to have that chat later?”

“What? No!”

“Where were you for the rest of the weekend?”

“I was working on Saturday and around the house. And Sunday? Er, football training with my boy and at home. That was the night of the fire, wasn’t it? I was up there. Look, I need to use the toilet.”



* * *



—

    The team was checking Liam Eastwood’s alibis while Caro and Atkins moved on to Dee.

When Elise slipped into a chair behind the one-way glass down the corridor, her cleaner was tensed up in her chair with her hands clasped in her lap. She watched as Caro shuffled her notes and DS Atkins set up the recording equipment, taking their time, letting the pressure build.

“Look,” Dee said eventually, “Liam told me he gave Charlie a lift last week. Before his body was found. I know we should have said something but he said Charlie was fine when he left him and we thought Charlie would show up. And he didn’t die until later, did he?”

“How do you know that?” Caro said, and stopped flicking through the paper trail.

“What? Well, it’s what people are saying. And Liam and I had other things to worry about at the time.”

“Yes, those ecstasy tablets,” Caro said.

Dee looked at her hands. “Liam had nothing to do with that. Ade’s family is trying to find someone else to blame. They don’t want it to be their son.”

“That matter is still under investigation.” Caro closed her down. “You know the Perrys well, don’t you?”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Dee muttered. “I clean for them once a week. Do a bit of ironing. But I clean for lots of people.”

“But you know all about their personal lives, don’t you? You told DI King that they talked openly about their problems in front of you and rowed frequently about their sex life. And that Mrs. Perry was having an affair with their gardener.”

“I was worried about Charlie,” Dee said quietly. “I thought the police should know that it wasn’t all hearts and flowers in the caravan.”