Afraid (26 page)

‘What do you mean?’ Shirley drew her head back and frowned at this. ‘There is no me and him. We’re just friends. I
swear
,’ she insisted when Jones gave her a disbelieving look. Then, blushing, she added, ‘Okay, I’ll admit that I do find Jeff attractive. But he’s never shown the slightest interest in me, so if that’s why Andrea’s doing this she needs to be told that it’s not true before this goes any further.’

Jones admired her loyalty, but it was wasted on a weasel like Jeff Benson and he said, ‘I actually feel sorry for you. I can see you’ve totally fallen for whatever line he’s been spinning you. But, believe me, when Skye’s body turns up and you see him for what he really is you’ll thank God we got him out of here before he started on you. And I guarantee he
would
have done, ’cos blokes like him can’t help themselves.’

‘No.’ Shirley shook her head. ‘He’s a good man.’

Jones sighed, then shrugged in a gesture of defeat. He had tried, but if she was determined to blindly support the man there was nothing more to be said.

After the police had gone and she was able to get back into the flat, Shirley sat on her armchair and gazed around numbly. They had turned the place upside down and waltzed off not only with Jeff’s mobile phone and Skye’s laptop, but hers too. And God only knew what else they had taken – or what possible use they thought any of it was going to be to the case. But she wasn’t so much bothered about the loss of physical possessions as about the invasion of her privacy. She felt completely and utterly violated to know that those uniformed strangers had pawed through every single thing she owned, and she doubted that she would ever feel secure again in her once cosy home.

As her gaze came to rest on the couch, where Jeff had been sitting when the police arrived, she was saddened all over again at the memory of the defeated look on his face as he was hauled out. He was already depressed, and she hoped that he had been allocated a duty solicitor who would make sure he was seen by a doctor because she was scared that he might do something stupid if he became overwhelmed by it all.

An almighty crash suddenly shattered the silence. Shirley screamed when a brick flew in through the window and bounced across the floor, missing her feet by mere inches.

‘Get out while you still can!’ A rough voice followed the brick. ‘We don’t want your sort round here!’

Shaking violently, Shirley snatched up the house phone and dialled 999.

18

‘You’re a fool,’ Shirley’s cousin Mel chided as she handed a glass of neat brandy to her a short time later. ‘You should have stayed out of it.’

Shirley swallowed a large mouthful and grimaced when it scorched her throat. The police had advised her not to stay at the flat tonight, so after giving her statement and waiting for the glazier to board up the smashed window she’d phoned Mel and asked if she could stay here. But she was already starting to regret her decision, because it was obvious that Mel, just like the rest of them, had already mentally tried and convicted Jeff.

‘He didn’t do it,’ Shirley murmured, sick and tired of hitting brick walls at every turn in her battle to prove his innocence. ‘His wife is just punishing him because she thinks he’s having an affair with me.’

‘And is she right?’ Mel raised an eyebrow and gave Shirley a questioning look as she sat down beside her.

‘
No
.’ Shirley sighed wearily. ‘We’re just friends. But if my own family don’t even believe me, what chance have I got with everyone else?’

‘I do believe you,’ Mel said, the cynical expression on her face belying her words. ‘But you’ve got to admit it looks bad, hon. You said it yourself, he’s been arrested loads of times.’

‘And never been charged,’ Shirley reminded her defensively.

‘Mmmm,’ Mel murmured. She didn’t know the man personally but she doubted whether the police would have arrested him for murder if they didn’t have firm evidence.

Shirley took another sip of her drink and flopped her head back against the cushions. ‘You should have seen him when they took him away, Mel. He was like a lamb to the slaughter – no fight left in him whatsoever. I felt so helpless.’

‘I know you don’t want to hear this,’ Mel said gently. ‘But have you considered that he might have decided there was no point resisting, because he knew he’d been caught?’

‘No.’ Shirley shook her head adamantly. ‘I’ve been with him a lot these last few weeks, and I’ve seen what this is doing to him. He hasn’t done anything. I’d know if he had.’

Aware that she was getting nowhere, Mel shrugged, and said, ‘Well, you know your own mind, so I’m not going to beat on about it. But there’s nothing you can do for him now, so you need to forget him and start thinking about yourself.’

‘You mean turn my back on him?’ Shirley gave her an anguished look. ‘I can’t do that. He needs me.’

‘And
you
need to be safe,’ Mel stated firmly. ‘No one can get at him now he’s locked up, but you don’t have that same protection. I mean, look what happened tonight: you’re not even safe in your own home. And I guarantee that won’t be the end of it.’ She gave Shirley an imploring look when she saw the resistance in her eyes, and said, ‘Please, Shirl – I’m worried about you. You’re burying your head in the sand, but this isn’t going to go away. Everyone thinks he’s guilty, and if they see you standing by him that’ll make
you
guilty in their eyes, too. You have to take that seriously, because it might not just be a brick through your window next time.’

Shirley squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn’t dispute what Mel had said, because her cousin was dead right. This was a dangerous situation and her neighbours had made it clear that they thought she was involved in Skye’s disappearance. And if the people who had known her for years thought her capable of shielding a supposed child-murderer, God only knew what everyone would think when they got wind of this latest development. Her workmates, for example: they had already stopped talking to her, but they would make her work life a living hell over this.

Mel watched as the grim thoughts flashed through Shirley’s eyes. She hadn’t wanted to upset her and would support her in any way that she could, but it had needed to be said. Shirley obviously cared deeply about Jeff Benson, and truly believed that he was innocent. But her obstinate loyalty would be the rope that hanged her if he were found guilty, and she would have to deal with the fallout for the rest of her life.

Even more depressed now than when she had first arrived, Shirley finished her drink and put the glass down on the coffee table.

‘Thanks for letting me stay, but I think I need to be on my own for a bit,’ she said quietly as she pushed herself forward on her seat. ‘You don’t mind if I go to bed, do you?’

‘Course not,’ Mel assured her. Then, guessing that her cousin might have a problem getting to sleep with all this playing on her mind, she said, ‘There’s a pack of Nytol in the bathroom cabinet if you need it.’

Shirley nodded and leaned over to kiss her on the cheek before making her way up to bed.

In a holding cell at the police station just then, Jeff felt as if his head was about to explode as he struggled to come to terms with what the duty solicitor Malcolm Fitch had told him.

It seemed that the police were not only planning on charging him with murdering Skye and disposing of her remains, despite having no body to substantiate the claim; they were also looking into adding an extra charge of attempted murder, since Andrea had apparently decided to tell them that
he
had been trying to stab
her
that night, and that she’d been forced to wrestle the knife from him and stab him in self-defence.

‘Don’t worry too much about that one,’ Fitch had said. ‘Her statement is pretty damning on the face of it, but I’m planning to discredit it on the grounds of mental incapacity,
and
the fact that she has completely changed her version of events since making the initial statement.’

If that had been intended to give Jeff hope, the man had squashed it flat when he’d gone on to say: ‘If that was all they had on you, I’m confident we’d get an acquittal; but I’m afraid your wife’s testimony is only a small part of the main case. Now that they think you’ve been systematically abusing your daughter, they’re going to hammer you any which way they can. Which means dredging up not only your record of arrests for domestic violence, but also anything that has ever been logged regarding Skye’s well-being. Teachers who have expressed concerns about her; friends she confided in; hospital staff who have ever treated her; social workers; the foster-parents; the staff from the children’s home she was placed in – they’ll all be called to the stand.’

‘But I haven’t done anything,’ Jeff had insisted for what felt like the millionth time. ‘Andrea’s lying through her teeth; and they haven’t even got a body, so how can they charge me with Skye’s murder? It’s crazy.’

‘The CPS obviously believe that the circumstantial evidence is strong enough to secure a conviction,’ Fitch had told him, going on to warn: ‘And they’ll undoubtedly cite your affair with Shirley Dawson as a motive for you wanting Andrea dead, so you should prepare yourself for the probability that she’ll be called to appear as a witness for the prosecution.’

Jeff had tried to tell the man that he had not been having an affair with Shirley. But Fitch clearly hadn’t believed him – about that,
or
about Andrea’s outrageous claims that he’d been abusing Skye. And that was worrying, because if his own brief thought he was lying what chance did he stand with a judge and jury?

The guilt he’d already been feeling about having involved Shirley in this mess had intensified a thousandfold since that conversation, and he was cursing himself for ignoring his instincts and taking her up on her offer of a place to stay when he got evicted. If he’d only gone and found himself a bridge to sleep under none of this would be happening, because Andrea wouldn’t have jumped to the conclusion that he’d been seeing Shirley behind her back and started this malicious campaign.

It almost made him wish that he
had
gone for it with Shirley, because at least then he’d have had one good memory to hold onto as he rotted his life away in prison. She was the only one who believed in him, and he would never be able to thank her enough for being there in his darkest hour. But she had to start thinking about herself now, and if she was called as a witness he prayed that she would have the sense to distance herself from him and say whatever she had to say in order to deflect the fingers of suspicion that were already being pointed in her direction – even if she incriminated him further in the process.

Drawn from his thoughts by the sound of the grille in the door being scraped back, Jeff pushed Shirley out of his mind and glanced up at the eyes that were peering in at him. They had placed him on suicide watch and had been checking on him every fifteen minutes, so even if he had been able to sleep they would have made damn sure that he didn’t.

‘Don’t worry, I haven’t tried to top myself,’ he assured the officer quietly. Then, ‘Any chance of a drink yet?’

‘Does this look like a fucking cocktail bar?’ the man behind the eyes retorted sarcastically.

‘I only meant tea or water,’ Jeff said evenly, refusing to be drawn because he suspected that they were dying for him to kick off so they’d have an excuse to beat the shit out of him. ‘I haven’t had anything in hours, and my throat’s sore.’

‘That how your daughter felt before you did for her, was it?’ the copper hissed. ‘Make her suffer before you cut her up and scattered her all over the countryside, did you? And you’ve got a nerve to whinge about a sore throat? You wanna think yourself lucky there’s a fuckin’ camera in there, you lowlife piece of shit, or you’d find out how much of a fuck we give about your throat!’

Jeff didn’t bother replying to this. What was the point? So much for innocent until proved guilty: it was a done deal as far as this lot were concerned. But if the cops were being harsh, it was nothing compared with the treatment he could expect in prison. Classified as a nonce and a child-murderer, he’d be made to suffer in ways that he didn’t even want to think about. And not just by the screws but by his fellow cons, too.

He lowered his head and rested his forehead on his knees as the weight of the world threatened to crush his shoulders. The solicitor had told him not to give up hope, that there was still a possibility of Skye turning up in time to blow her mother’s claims to pieces. But it wasn’t going to happen. She’d been missing for too long and, even if she had been hiding out at a mate’s place the whole time, Jeff knew that she must have seen the news reports appealing for information and would have found a way to let him know that she was okay.

Already more or less resigned to the fact that he was never going to see Skye again, Jeff vowed that, even if a miracle occurred and he was found not guilty, this was the end of the line for him and Andrea. He would never forgive her for this.
Never
.

19

Skye crept down the stairs and tiptoed across the kitchen to retrieve the chicken pieces from last night’s dinner that she’d stashed beneath the rubbish in the bin.

It was a fortnight since Chloe had arrived and Bernie had been banished to live outside, and she had been sneaking out to see him whenever she got the chance. It was bad enough that the poor thing was chained to the concrete washing-line post in the middle of the scrapyard section of the garden, without him starving to death as well. But that was what would happen if Skye didn’t give him the scraps she saved, because Tom seemed to have forgotten about him now that he was no longer in the house, and often didn’t feed him.

She had just taken the key out of the back of the clock and was about to slide it into the lock when she felt a tap on her shoulder. Terrified that Tom had discovered her secret and had only pretended to leave for work this morning so that he could lie in wait and catch her red-handed, she turned around, her face scarlet with guilt.

‘You idiot!’ she gasped when she saw that it was Chloe and not Tom. ‘What are you sneaking up on me like that for? You nearly gave me a heart attack.’