‘Not everyone who confesses is guilty. Anyway, thanks for talking to me. I realise it’s hard to look back so far in time.’
The blonde perm shook decisively. ‘It’s as if it was yesterday. I tell you, Mr Devlin, I remember Carole better than the first feller I married.’
He grinned. ‘You were very close with her?’
‘She fascinated me,’ said Shirley Titchard simply. ‘All the people I’d ever known before were ordinary, not glamorous like Carole’s folk. My dad had a newsagent’s just off Aigburth Road, my mum helped behind the counter and we lived over the shop. Carole’s father was a celebrity, his name kept appearing in the press and on TV. Her mother was a formidable lady, just as clever as Guy, and strong-minded with it. I met them a couple of times when they came to the shop to see how she was settling in. They lived in a mansion opposite the Park.’
‘Did you feel they looked down on you?’
‘No, they weren’t snobs, quite the opposite. Guy was crazy about Carole but he would never have sent her to a private school. She went to the same place as me and give her credit, she was always one of us, as often in trouble as anyone else. More often, if the truth be told.’
‘You both left school at the same time?’
‘That’s right. For me, it was the obvious thing to do. I wanted to make my own way in the world and besides, I never passed an exam in my life. Carole was different, she was much brighter than me, even if she often didn’t show it. The teachers said she was lazy and I suppose they were right. When I found a job at Benny Frederick’s, Carole decided she would do the same. I remember our headmistress trying to talk her out of it, saying how disappointed her parents would be. Carole put her right on that score. “All my dad wants is for me to be happy,” she said — and she was right. Even though her mother was livid, he didn’t make a fuss at all. She could twist him round her little finger.’
‘You enjoyed the work?’
‘Took to it like a duck to water. I’d been brought up in a shop, and although I didn’t want to stay at the beck and call of my mum and dad, I thought Benny’s was great. Carole did too. She was crazy about the atmosphere and loved spotting the big names who used to come and go. Liverpool in the sixties was the place to be, Mr Devlin. So much kept happening.’
‘Benny was a good boss?’
‘Lovely feller, one of the few really sweet men I’ve ever met and I’ve met a lot of men in my time. He was always decent to me.’
‘You knew he was gay?’
‘I had eyes,’ she said drily. ‘He was always so pally with the young lads who used to hang around his shop. Though he had to be careful. Gay sex was a crime in those days, you know. And anyway, he wasn’t above taking a fancy to us girls, as well.’
‘Is that so?’
‘He used to flirt with me all the time, though we never took it any further. But every now and then he’d introduce us to a woman visitor and say she was his girlfriend. He’s always had an eye for a pretty face and a neat bum, has Benny, boy or girl, it’s never seemed to matter to him. And he certainly took a shine to Carole once she arrived.’
‘And how did she take to him?’
‘Oh, she played up to him. She loved being in that shop, having the chance to meet the local celebrities.’
‘Was that how she met Ray Brill?’
Her face darkened. ‘Yes, as a matter of fact it was. But what you won’t know is that I met him first. I’d already come across Ian, the quiet one, he was an old pal of Benny’s and often called at the shop. A nice enough lad, but not really my type. The minute I saw Ray, I fell for him. I thought he made James Dean seem like the boy next door. He was good-looking, successful, and he seemed to fancy me.’
As Harry tried to regroup his thoughts, a ragged cheer came up from the shop. ‘The favourite’s won,’ she said with a grim smile.
‘Look, I didn’t know this. You say you started going out with Ray Brill yourself?’
Shirley Titchard folded her arms, as if challenging him to disbelieve her. ‘I knew he had other girls, but that didn’t bother me. Ray had appeared on Top of The Pops and Ready, Steady, Go! He was a star and I was happy just to be with him.’
‘Until you found out that he was seeing Carole?’
Pursing her lips at the recollection, she said, ‘Yes, it hurt me badly, though I should have realised what would happen. I was so much in love with him that of course I wanted him to meet my best friend. I introduced them one night at the Cavern. I was so sodding naive in those days. Carole was the prettiest girl in the place and she knew it. Ray took a shine to her from the first and I was glad, because I wanted the two of them to like each other. And they did, worse luck, they did. Ray started coming to the shop and I was flattered. I didn’t twig that he was keener to see Carole than me.’
‘How did you find out?’
‘One of the other girls who worked at Benny’s told me she’d seen the two of them kissing and cuddling down in Mathew Street the previous evening. She was a spiteful cow and I didn’t want to believe her, but she was so jubilant I knew she was sure of her facts — and in my heart of hearts, I realised it made sense. I’d been off sick the previous day with a stomach bug. Ray and Carole had had the chance to get together and knowing them both as I did, I couldn’t imagine either of them resisting temptation. They were well suited, that pair — they took their pleasures whenever they could.’
‘What did you do about it?’
‘I confronted her. I couldn’t face Ray, he was too special to me. And besides, I knew he would deny it. He was like that, he would swear black was white rather than admit being in the wrong. Carole was secretive, always had been, but she was no fool. I knew that if I forced the issue, she’d tell me the truth.’
‘And did she?’
‘Yes, I can still picture the scene now. I spoke to her after work and she said straight away that she realised she’d done something very wrong, but she’d not been able to help herself. Apparently, Ray had called in the previous day, when I’d been down with the bug. He and Ian had a gig at the Cavern and he’d asked her to go with him. She said she’d done it simply to keep him company, but even I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that. One thing had led to another and they’d finished up in bed together.’
‘And how did you take that?’
Her strong features yielded a glimmer of an ironic smile. ‘Oh, I wanted to scream and scratch her eyes out, but I never did any such thing. Carole could always charm the birds off the trees. She said she thought she was in love with him, but she swore she would give him up if I said she must. I didn’t say a word, just went home and wept all night. Ray didn’t call me and I stayed in all weekend. When I went back to work on the Monday, I knew Ray wouldn’t phone me again. There was no point in fighting fate. I let her have him. We didn’t talk about it: she could always read my mind, she knew I’d lost all hope. So she got her own way — as usual.’
‘You must have hated her,’ said Harry softly.
She shrugged. ‘Perhaps I did, deep down. The pair of them had betrayed me — but there was nothing I could do, so I accepted it. Carole wasn’t a fool, she didn’t rub it in. She was kind to me in many ways. I sulked for a while but before long I began telling myself there were plenty more fish in the sea.’
‘And did Carole talk about her relationship with Ray?’
‘She did her best to make me think life with him was no bed of roses. He was sex mad, though she wasn’t exactly prim and proper herself. But soon she was saying he certainly wasn’t the love of her life. I wondered if she was trying to make me feel better about it all, but I guess the great romance was cooling off. If she hadn’t been murdered, I doubt they would have stayed together much longer.’
‘What about the day she died? She came to see you in the shop, didn’t she?’
She closed her eyes. ‘Yes, it was the last time I saw her. Ray came in and the two of them had a blazing row, then he headed off to London with Ian. She’d worked herself up into a state but then she had a private chat with Benny and that seemed to calm her down.’
‘What did they talk about?’
‘No idea. You’d have to ask Benny, he was always good with Carole. As I say, he liked her a lot.’
‘And how did you feel when you heard the news about her death?’
