A Long Shadow, page 8
“Fingerprints?” asked Shadow, without much hope.
“Only his,” was the reply.
“What do you think, sir?” asked his sergeant.
Shadow sighed. “I think we can forget the idea that Fay’s death was a mistake.”
*
The Ouse Cruise Company were based next to Lendal Bridge. They offered a selection of self-drive small motorboats and rowing boats for tourists to hire, as well as running two large cruisers that went up and down the Ouse. One cruiser, the Guy Fawkes, chugged steadily away in the direction of Bishopthorpe. Sitting on the top deck, behind a party of noisy, excited schoolchildren were Shadow and Jimmy.
They were eating ice creams that Shadow had insisted on buying to cheer Jimmy up. He had a feeling his sergeant was sulking. Jimmy had wanted to question Eric Morrison, following the comments he’d made the previous evening about getting rid of all the city’s homeless people. Jimmy also thought, as a brother with a younger sister, that Oliver should be informed that Emma had been found without any further delay. However, Shadow had insisted they needed to wait for confirmation from the dental records. He also didn’t want to postpone the hastily arranged meeting they were now on their way to.
“I still don’t know why you wouldn’t let me drive us there, Chief,” grumbled Jimmy, who didn’t appear to be enjoying his ice cream very much.
“On a race day? The traffic will be terrible! This way we’ll be there in ten minutes,” replied Shadow confidently. He didn’t mention his hatred of driving or being driven. “Maybe we should have brought those pictures you found last night, they might have helped to jog the old girl’s memory.”
“It’s okay, sir, I photographed them with my mobile before I put them back.” He held up the screen on his phone.
Shadow squinted at it and shook his head. “Really, Sergeant, she’s ninety. She’ll never be able to see that.”
*
St Monica’s Nursing Home had once been part of the Archbishop of York’s sprawling estate and stood in the shadow of his palace. The well-manicured lawns stretched down to the river. The Guy Fawkes moored there briefly, letting any passengers who wanted to visit the palace off, before turning and heading back into the city.
Jimmy had phoned ahead, and Miss Geraldine Hall was waiting for them on the patio, sitting in a rattan chair under a large parasol. She was dressed in a pink and white striped linen dress, her grey hair was tightly curled, and she raised her large sunglasses on to her head as the two men approached. Shadow made the introductions and thanked her for seeing them.
“Not at all, Chief Inspector, thanks to you I shall be the envy of all the other residents. A visit from two members of the CID certainly trumps any of their grandchildren or even great-grandchildren. Now, do take a seat, gentlemen.”
Shadow and Jimmy sat on the long, wooden bench that had been placed opposite her. She watched them with piercing blue eyes, making Shadow feel like they were a couple of naughty schoolboys. He shifted a little uncomfortably. It was another unusually hot day and the sun was dazzling him. It occurred to Shadow that anyone who didn’t know better would think Miss Hall was the one conducting the investigation.
“We wanted to ask you about some events that happened approximately thirty-two years ago, when you were headmistress at York Ladies’ College.”
Miss Hall smiled and nodded encouragingly, as Shadow continued.
“Do you remember a young teacher named Ruth Brooke?”
“I have a picture on my phone if that would help?” offered Jimmy.
“Oh no thank you, Sergeant, that won’t be necessary. I may sometimes struggle to recall where I left my reading glasses, but I remember all my girls and colleagues perfectly. Every single one of them. Miss Brooke came to us as a res grad as we used to say, a resident graduate. We took in two or three each year. New graduates, who were considering a career in teaching, would stay with us for a year and get a feel for the profession. They lived in and would assist the teaching staff and help run activities for the boarders at weekends or evenings. Sometimes they would supervise prep, that sort of thing. Ruth, I believe, was originally from Kent, but she gained a first at York, in English, and decided to stay on in the city. She was quiet, but well-liked by the staff and popular among the girls. Unfortunately, she suffered a sort of breakdown at the end of the summer term and left under a rather dark cloud.”
“Was that the same summer term that Emma Harrison disappeared?” asked Shadow, gently.
The old lady’s smile faded, and she appeared lost in her thoughts for a moment. Jimmy and Shadow glanced at each other, but then she spoke again with a sigh.
“Ah the wonderful Emma, such a waste. Nothing was ever quite the same after we lost her. As a teacher, I always tried very hard not to have favourites, but Emma was simply outstanding. An excellent scholar, musician, athlete and such a lovely sunny nature.”
“Emma was the star pupil, not Susie?” asked Jimmy, in surprise.
Shadow frowned at him. He hated witnesses to be interrupted when they were in mid flow.
“Susie Slater? Emma’s friend? Well she was gifted too, of course, and did very well in that singing competition on the television. I suppose many would call her a star. However, what you must remember, Sergeant, is the stars are always above us in the sky, but we don’t see them when we are dazzled by the sun. Emma was the sun. It’s as simple as that.”
“Was Ruth Brooke involved in the disappearance of Emma?” asked Jimmy. Shadow thought he might have to strangle him.
“I suppose you could say that. I know she blamed herself and I believe that may have led to her breakdown. Emma and Susie were out training on the river. They had a county rowing competition coming up, I seem to recall. Located as we were in the city centre, the college didn’t have its own boat shed of course, so we used St John’s—no doubt it was seen as a chance by our girls for a little flirtation with their boys.” She chuckled and Shadow and Jimmy smiled politely. “Emma and Susie were both very sensible and trustworthy, but still they needed supervision, and that is what Ruth was meant to be doing. Now to this day, I don’t know exactly what happened. I suspect a young man may have been involved, but for whatever reason, when Emma fell in the river, Ruth was not there. She never gave a proper explanation of where she was, and she left us shortly afterwards.
“A few weeks later, I heard she had been admitted to some sort of institution back in Kent. Unfortunately, the college never really recovered from Emma’s disappearance. Nor did it help that at the same time, some of the boys’ schools in the city started to admit girls. You see, Chief Inspector, fathers will quite happily send their daughters to their son’s school, but not the other way around. Within three years of Emma disappearing, we closed our doors for the last time.” She leaned back in her chair with a heavy sigh. All of a sudden, she looked very tired.
Shadow stood up and thanked the headmistress for her help, as Jimmy typed as quickly as he could in his notebook. They walked back to wait for the next city cruiser in silence. Shadow was mulling over what the old lady had told them. His thoughts were disturbed when Jimmy’s phone suddenly bleeped. Jimmy retrieved it from his pocket and checked the screen.
“Only a text to confirm Kayleigh and Ryan were in custody all night. Kayleigh will have to serve the rest of her sentence, for breaking the terms of her release, but Ryan was released half an hour ago. I thought you’d want to rule them out, Chief.”
Shadow nodded and was considering praising his sergeant for showing initiative, when there was another annoying bleep.
“What now?” he asked in irritation.
“It’s a text from Sophie. She’s checked the dental records and the body in Museum Gardens is definitely Emma.”
“Has Sophie got Norman and Ruth too?” asked Shadow.
Jimmy tapped at his phone and a few seconds later, it bleeped in response. “She’s got Norman; Donaldson has got Ruth.”
“Oh well, you win some, you lose some,” sighed Shadow.
*
When they returned to the city, Shadow finally allowed Jimmy to go and bring Eric Morrison in for questioning. Meanwhile, now he had confirmation the body was definitely Emma, he could put off his visit to Oliver Harrison no longer. Her parents were both dead, so Oliver was the next of kin. As Shadow entered the wine shop, he found it was full of Dutch tourists enthusiastically enjoying the free samples, but a helpful young man directed him up a narrow staircase to where Oliver was in his office. When Shadow found him, he was sitting at his desk staring intently at his computer screen. Shadow knocked quietly on the already open door. Oliver stood up as soon as he saw him and stretched out his hand.
“Ah, Chief Inspector, come in, come in. Do have a seat. I’ve just been reading on the local news website that two more homeless people were found dead this morning. It’s terrible, simply terrible!”
Shadow entered the office and sat in the comfortable leather chair in front of the desk, annoyed to hear the press was already reporting, no doubt inaccurately. “Unfortunately, yes and with more bottles of the same brand of vodka you sell here.”
Oliver quickly held up his hands in protest. “I can promise you, Inspector, we haven’t sold any since your last visit. In fact, I even asked Anthony to take the bottles we still had off the shelves, just to be safe. I’ve learned my lesson when it comes to that kind of thing.”
“Please, Mr Harrison, that’s not why I’m here.” Shadow paused and took a breath. No matter how many times he did this, it never got any easier. “I came because we have found the body of your sister.”
Oliver stared at him blankly for a second. Then he began blinking very quickly.
“Emma? Where?”
“In Museum Gardens, under the old boathouse.”
To Shadow’s horror, the bottom lip of the man opposite him began to quiver and tears started spilling down his face. Embarrassed, Shadow rummaged through his coat pockets before fishing out a slightly grubby white handkerchief, as Oliver’s sobs echoed round the room. At the same time, Oliver produced a silk Paisley handkerchief from his top jacket pocket and began to dab his eyes furiously. Shadow glanced around the room while he waited for Oliver to compose himself.
On the walls were several small watercolours of vineyards and a large, low wooden bookcase was crammed with leather-bound wine reference books. In one corner was a pile of magazines called Corkscrew, next to another pile of the charity newspapers Byron sold. On the desk, next to some sheets of cream writing paper, were three framed photos. One of what Shadow assumed was Oliver as a little boy with his smiling parents and sister on a beach. Another showed his parents again, older and no longer smiling. The third was a black-and-white signed publicity shot of Susie from her days as a pop star.
“Forgive me, Chief Inspector.” Oliver took several deep breaths as he tried to calm himself. “This is quite a shock. I simply can’t comprehend. She fell in the river. How could she have been under the boathouse all these years?”
“I understand, Mr Harrison. Investigations are still ongoing, but am I correct in saying that nobody actually saw Emma fall in the river?”
“Yes, that’s right. Susie heard a splash, Emma was nowhere to be seen and well, obviously Susie put two and two together and panicked. She was in the water herself by the time I got there.”
“You were there?” Shadow asked in surprise. There had been no mention of Oliver being present in the notes he’d read.
“Yes, I’d taken a year out before going to uni. My girlfriend at the time was working as an au pair in Amsterdam. I went to visit her for a while until I ran out of cash. Then I came home and got a summer job. The plan was to go back and travel round Europe, but well, with what happened…” He paused and blew his nose again before continuing. “I was selling ice creams from one of the carts by the entrance gates of Museum Gardens. I was just setting up and I knew the girls were down on the river, so when I heard Susie screaming, I dashed over as quickly as I could. When I arrived, Susie had already jumped in. I had to grab on to her oar and pull her out. Bless her, she wanted to keep looking for Em, but I could see she was struggling in the current. I’m sorry if I sound dim, Inspector, this is a lot to take in, but are you saying Em was killed? Her death wasn’t an accident?”
“That’s what we are investigating? Do you know why Emma didn’t go into the boathouse to get changed at the same time as Susie?”
Oliver dabbed at his eyes and shook his head. “I think Em planned to meet up with Luke after training and I suppose Susie didn’t want to play gooseberry, so she went in and changed alone.”
“So, Luke was there as well?” Shadow was puzzled. There had been no witness statement on file from Luke either.
“Yes, but not until about ten minutes after me. We were frantic by then. He was too of course, when we told him what had happened.”
“Luke and Emma were in a relationship at the time?”
Oliver’s face broke into a smile. “Oh, they were mad about each other. Love’s young dream! Had been for years. I used to tease Em about it. They even planned to go to the same uni. She wanted to study history and I think he was going to read English. Susie and I were the scientists, but as it turned out none of us made it to university. After Em disappeared, Mum and Dad needed me to help out here and Luke went completely off the rails. He started getting into drugs; he just totally lost it.”
“And Susie went on to become rich and famous.”
“Yes, that was weird. I can remember Susie talking about auditioning for the show with Emma. Not that Em would have done it—it wasn’t her thing at all—but Susie really went for it and won. You know, Inspector, even with all the success and fame, Susie never gave up on Luke. She always came home to see how he was doing. She used to say she owed it to Emma to look after him.”
“And the two of them got together?”
“Yes, well with Luke’s dad being her manager, they saw a lot of each other. To be honest, I think Luke was pretty dazzled by the new glamorous Susie and her exciting new lifestyle. I have to admit I was a bit jealous. I’d always had a soft spot for Susie, used to hope the two of us, well you know…” He paused to wipe his eyes again and took a deep breath. “Look, Inspector, do you know when I’ll be able to arrange a burial? I promised my mother, before she died, that if we ever found Emma, I’d have her buried in the same plot as her and Dad.”
“I’ll let you know as soon as I can, Mr Harrison.” Shadow stood and shook Oliver’s hand. As he turned to go, he stopped. “By the way, do you remember Ruth Brooke being down by the river the day Emma disappeared?”
Oliver frowned and thought for a moment. “Do you mean the teacher? Yes, she turned up a few minutes after me, looking very flustered. I don’t recall her being much use—she just seemed to get into a flap. Why do you ask?”
“She was one of the bodies we found this morning.”
Oliver raised his handkerchief to his mouth and shook his head sadly. “How strange. What on earth was she doing sleeping on the streets of York?”
“That’s something else we need to investigate,” Shadow replied.
*
Shadow’s next stop on the Shambles was Mandy Morrison’s Angelique Boutique. He took a deep breath before he pushed open the door. It wasn’t a visit he was looking forward to. As he stepped inside, he was almost overwhelmed by a strong smell of perfume and dazzled by the glass chandeliers reflecting light on to the many mirrors around the room. The boutique was about as far from the shop’s origins, as a medieval butcher’s as it was possible to get. Rows of outfits and dresses, all covered in clear plastic, ran along the walls and a large glass table was in the centre. It was covered with carefully arranged handbags, jewellery and white roses in glass bottles.
Two assistants, who looked like mini Mandys with their stiff hair and heavy make-up, turned with expectant smiles when they saw him. The smiles faded when he loudly announced, “Chief Inspector Shadow to see Mrs Morrison.”
One of the mini Mandys disappeared behind a red velvet curtain in the corner. The next thing Shadow heard was Mandy, in a loud and more refined voice than usual, saying, “Do excuse me a moment, Mrs Sherwin, while I leave you in Cheryl’s capable hands.” She appeared through the curtain scowling, sent the other mini Mandy scurrying away and marched over to Shadow.
“Well you’ve got a cheek coming here when I’m working, after that Chinese lad of yours carted poor Eric away,” she hissed.
“Sergeant Chang and I are investigating three unexplained deaths, Mrs Morrison.”
“And whose fault is that? Yours, Chief Inspector Shadow. If you had locked those vagrants up like we asked you to, they’d be safe and sound in a police cell, not dead on the street. Now you’re trying to blame my Eric.”
“Your husband was heard saying the homeless were vermin that should be exterminated.”
“I thought we had freedom of speech in this country.”
Shadow paused and held his tongue. He could see this conversation turning into an argument he would no doubt lose. Instead he changed tack. “I also wanted to ask you about the vodka you bought from Oliver Harrison earlier this year.”
“What? Not that again. The fashion show was ages ago.” Mandy’s expression showed that she thought the policeman was quite mad.
“But you did buy some Holy Cow vodka?”
“Yes, one hundred little bottles for a fashion show. What’s it got to do with you?”
“Did you hand them all out at the fashion show?”
“No, we gave away about thirty.”
Shadow was a little surprised. Had she overestimated how many people would attend the fashion show?
“So, what did you do with the other seventy?”
Mandy folded her arms defensively. “I tried to sell them back to Oliver, but the cheeky sod wouldn’t take them. I don’t know who he thinks he is. He’s only got that business because he took it over from his poor father and mother.”
