‘So I’ve heard.’
He doesn’t ask her to suggest names.
* * *
Claire Somerville’s house is a detached property with a large front garden. Clearly, she did well out of the divorce. As Cody and Webley walk up the driveway, they notice a woman in the neighbouring garden. She looks of retirement age and is on her knees tending to her flower border. When she sees the detectives, she stops what she is doing, gets to her feet and comes to the fence.
‘You’re wasting your time here,’ she says.
Cody smiles at her. ‘Oh? Why would that be?’
‘I don’t think they’re your sort of people.’
Cody has no idea what she’s talking about.
‘And I’m not either,’ she says. ‘So you needn’t waste your breath. I really don’t know why you bother. Do you ever have any success?’
‘Now and again,’ Cody answers, unsure as to what he’s answering.
‘You do surprise me. I thought people were more savvy these days. I’d bet you ten pounds you have no luck here, but then you’re probably not allowed to gamble, are you?’
‘Gambling’s okay. It’s the drunken orgies that get me into trouble.’
The woman studies him intently, and for a moment Cody thinks he’s let his mouth get him into trouble again. But then the woman suddenly jabs a gloved hand into his shoulder and issues a raucous bark of laughter.
‘Ha! I like you. You’re different from the others. I’ve got half a mind to sign up if they’re all like you.’
‘Like me?’
‘Yes.’ She lowers her voice to a whisper. ‘The other JWs.’
‘The what?’
‘Jehovah’s Witnesses. Your lot are usually stuffy bible bashers. They need to recruit a few more like you.’
‘Thanks,’ Cody says. ‘We’re trying to move with the times.’ He jerks a thumb in Webley’s direction. ‘My associate here has learned hundreds of dirty jokes just to be more down to earth.’
‘Really? They let you do that now?’
‘Yes,’ says Webley. ‘I’ve got a great one about an idiotic police sergeant.’
The woman giggles. ‘I don’t mind the occasional blue joke.’
‘Maybe next time,’ Cody says hastily. ‘Peace be with you.’
‘And you,’ says the woman before returning to her plants.
The detectives approach the house and ring the doorbell. Then they knock. Then they ring again. The woman next door continues her gardening, one eye on the besuited duo.
When they are on the verge of giving up, the door suddenly opens and a figure appears. A redhead, certainly, but not the stunner that Leah had described. This redhead has a luxuriant beard and a beer-gut. Tufts of rust-coloured curls protrude from beneath his baseball cap. Under his open plaid shirt, a T-shirt advertising a beer called ‘Badger’s Bite’ is stretched tightly across his belly. In one hand he is clutching a huge wedge of pepperoni pizza. As he peers at his visitors through large-framed spectacles he breathes heavily, as though out of breath because of having to heft his out-of-shape body to the door.
A fine figure of a man, thinks Cody.
‘Sorry,’ says the man. ‘I was in the middle of a game on my Playstation. What can I do for you?’
‘Hi,’ says Cody, flashing his ID. ‘We’re from Merseyside Police. We’re looking for Claire Somerville. Does she live here?’
‘Yeah, but she’s not here right now. Can I take a message?’ He bites a huge mouthful from his pizza and chews noisily, strings of molten cheese trailing into his beard.
‘Possibly. Can I ask who you are?’
‘I’m her brother,’ he says, jettisoning crumbs of dough in Cody’s direction. ‘Bobby. I’m looking after her house and cat while she’s gone. I do it whenever she goes off somewhere, but I don’t mind. Her house is much nicer than mine.’ As he says this, he realises the neighbour is watching them. He salutes her with his pizza slice. ‘Hello, Mrs Irlam!’
Mrs Irlam waves her trowel at him. ‘Hello, Bobby. You should take a copy of the Watchtower from these two. They’re hilarious.’
Bobby brings his woolly eyebrows together in puzzlement.
‘Long story,’ says Cody. ‘Do you know where your sister is?’
‘Actually, you only just missed her. She’s gone up to Harrogate. Her best friend’s just found out she’s got terminal cancer, so Claire’s gone to stay with her for a couple of days.’
‘Did she go alone?’
‘How do you mean?’
To Cody, it seems a perfectly straightforward question. ‘I mean, is she travelling alone or with someone else?’
‘Like who?’
