Lipstick and Lies (55 page)

I remember
ed
how Morag had been when she was trying to conceive Henry.
Words like
obsessed
and
neurotic
sprang to mind.
Morag had spent months carting
around
a handbag stuffed with ovulations kits, pregnancy tests, charts and graphs, not to mention every kind of multi-vitamin under the sun.
Wherever Morag went, so did the test kits.
Seeing all the scattered packets
gave me a feeling of déjà vu.

I walked over to the playpen and popped Eddie inside
.
Henry
immediately ceased grizzling and stretched out a little hand.
My son squealed with delight and began blowing bubbles.
I left the boys to it and pulled out a chair at the table.
Now was a
good
time to tell Morag that plans for another baby might need to be suspended
.
Certainly for the
foreseeable future.

‘I think,’ I cleared my throat nervously, ‘that a negative pregnancy test mig
ht be a blessing in disguise.’

‘What do you
mean?’ Morag straightened up.

‘There have been some devel
opments since I last saw you.’

‘I only saw you yesterday.
What developments?’

‘Police developments.’

Morag blanched.
‘Is it to do with that ruddy pen
sioner I nearly knocked over?’

‘And some,’ I nodded.

‘You mean there’s more to tell?’
S
he stood up and went to the kettle.
Picking it up
,
she moved over to the tap and blasted water in
side
.

‘Unfortunately,’ I sighed, ‘it is possible that
shit
might
soon
be hitting the fan.’

‘Specify shit,’ said Morag
, flipping
the kettle lid down and flick
ing
the switch.

And so, over coffee, I brought her up to date.
From Stevie’s dazed phone call begging for help, to ringing
Charlotte
, to visiting the police station and being grilled by PC
s
Thomson and Smith, to updating Jamie with a doctored version of events.

‘And later, when Jamie and I were talking about
his
work, he happened to mention Selina
hasn’t been
herself.
Apparently she’s been very distracted and snappy
.
Ethan
said it was
pressure of work.
However, Jamie noted
Selina’s
concentration was shot to pieces when a
neighbour
,’ I rolled my eyes meaningfully, ‘rang Selina on her mobile.
Jamie said that from her reaction you’d have thought someth
ing truly awful had happened.’

‘And did Jamie ask Selina what had made her re
act that way?’ Morag prompted.

‘Yes.
Apparently the neighbour wanted Selina
to look in on him and pick up a delivery
.
Do you think that’s
a
truthful explanation?’ I fiddled
nervously
with my cup.

‘Christ,’ said Morag nearly spilling her coffee all over the table
.
‘O
f course not!
That interfering busybody clearly rang her to give her a Neighbourhood Watch update.
No doubt Selina is now in possession of my wigs
.
Forensics
might be
analys
ing
them this very moment.
Looking for our
DNA
.
And – oh my God!
’
Morag clutched her mouth.
‘Selina
probably now
has
my
car
registration number!’
She
stood up and began pacing around the kitchen
.
‘T
his is catastrophic news Cass.
Selina
used to be a police officer.
She’s going to have her own connections
,
isn’t she!
Why, she’s probably already fed my car registration details into a police computer somewhere.
She could turn up on my doorstep any minute now!
Demand to know what the hell I was doing snooping around her apartment
block
!
What if sh
e goes to the police herself?’

‘Um, yes,
the thought had occurred to me.
’
I took another sip of coffee.
‘That’s why it
m
-
i
-
g
-
h
-
t
not be a good idea t
o have another baby just yet.’

Morag narrowed her eyes.
‘I’m not sitting here waiting for t
he Old Bill to come knocking.’

‘But maybe they won’t.
Well, hopefully not anyway.
Selina had plenty of time to
get the police involved following that
pensioner’s
tittle-tattle
.
In which case, how come th
e
coppers didn’t ask
about
my
movements
yesterday
?
O
r whether I knew somebody called Morag Harding?
They had plenty of
opportunity to ask
those questions
whil
e Charlotte and I were
at the police station
.
As you say, Selina has connections.
But so does Jamie.
He’s been in touch with his old Superintendent
whose influence will
speed things up.
Charlotte
texted me late last night to say th
e police have checked out Stevie’s house and car
.
If Selina is so innocent in all this, why hasn’t she been pulling her own strings
to have our guts for garters?’

‘True,’ Morag considered.
‘Do you still
have a key to Stevie’s house?’

‘Yep
.
’
I held up my key ring and gave it a little shake.
‘Ever since I had to
let in
decorators
after
Charlotte
took a spray can to
Stevie’s walls
and generally wrecked the place
.’

‘Ah yes.
Wasn’t that revenge for
Stevie
dumping
Charlotte
for a wel
l preserved marine biologist?’

‘That’s right
.
’
I drained my coffee.

‘You know,’ Morag
frowned,
‘o
ne way o
r
another, your ex has led
Charlotte
a merry dance.’

‘I know.’

‘And she’s forgiven him
time and time again.’

‘She has,’ I agreed
.

‘You don’t think that this time Stevie pushed
Charlotte
too far.
And she knows more than she’s lettin
g on?’

I looked at Morag and let out a sigh.
‘I agree she could have a motive – and the police made inference of such when they were talking to us.
But then they also implied the same with me
.
They
asked me outright if I had an axe to grind with Stevie because of the unpleasant text messages he supposedly sent me.
So,’ I shook my head, ‘no.
No I don’t think
Charlotte
knows where Stevie is or has had anything to do with his disappearance.
She was absolutely distraught when I told her he’d rung me begging fo
r help.’

‘She could be a good actress,’ Morag
didn’t look convinced
.

‘Yes,’ I acknowledged, ‘she could.
The police also made sarky comments about that
too
.
Said it was amazing how
often
relatives
of missing people went on national television appealing for witnesses, sobbing their hearts out,
when all the time they’d hidden
Uncle Tom’s
body under the patio.’

Morag shuddered.
‘Those two plods so
und like a right ball of fun.’

‘Believe me,’ I pushed my c
offee cup away, ‘they weren’t.

‘Well I suggest,’ said Morag draining her own coffee, ‘that if
the police
have finished doing their
stuff
, we nip over to Stevie’s place and do ours.
Let’s s
ee if we can’t perhaps find something of Selina’s to link her in some way to Stevie.
If nothing else we could then ring u
p Jamie’s old Super–’

‘Harry,’ I interrupted.

‘Harry, and tell him that his
former
colleague
is
having an affair with the missing person and should, at the very least, be questioned ab
out when she last saw Stevie.’

‘
Sounds like a plan,’ I nodded.

‘Well I can’t think of anything else to do
in the present circumstances.’

I stood up.
‘Come on then.
’
I rummaged in my big holdall and dug out my mobile.
‘In the meantime, I’ll let Nell know we’re on our way over.
As she’s only a few houses down from Stevie’s place, we’ll leave my car on her
drive.’

‘Let me just clear up.
’ Morag began shifting cups
from
the table to the dishwasher.
‘And anyway,’ she turned back to the table and scooped up
t
he test kits, ‘I’m not going in your car.
It’s a tip.
’
She dumped all the little packets in her own enormous baby holdall.
‘
So go and get Eddie’s car seat
,
because we’
re going
in mine.’
Morag slung the holdall over her shoulder and then picked Henry
up
from the playpen.

‘Oh for goodness sake,’ I sighed.
‘A bit of dirt never
hurt.’

‘Dirt is dirt Cass,’ Morag arched an eyebrow,
‘but your car is pure filth.’

‘I’d have thought you’d have been well at home in it then,’ I quipped
.
‘Joanie did tell me where you were last night.
I don’t need to be Einstein to work out what you were
doing.’

Morag smirked and led the way out of the house.

‘So let me get this straight,’ said Nell as we stood in her hallway.
‘You want to leave Henry and Eddie here and go f
or a snoop in Stevie’s house.’

‘Clever girl Nellie-Wellie,’ said Morag
as she bent down
to pat Rocket’s head.
The red setter stood at Nell’s heels,
optimistically
wagging her tail
in hope of walkies
.
‘And I’ll leave my car on your drive if you don’t mind.
Don’t want to draw attention
, as such, to
Stevie’s house.’

‘You couldn’t draw any more attention
to Stevie’s place
if you tried,’ Nell huffed.
‘
There was quite a bit of activity
over there
last night.
Three plods visited.
Two went inside and one stood outside
, as if guarding the place
.
They were obviously giving the
house
the once over.
Fortunately Dylan didn’t see anything
.
H
e was in bed and asleep, otherwise he’d have
been asking what was going on.’

‘Thank God for that,’ I said with feeling.
The last thing I wanted was Dylan asking the twins at school why their dad’s house had been visited by the law.

‘
Well
bring the boys
through.
’
Nell shut the front door.
‘They can go in Rosie’s playpen.
Would you both like a
coffee
before you go super sleuthing
?’