“Jack Grimley.”
“You knew Jack Grimley?”
“Best mates. Well, am I right?”
“I don’t know where you got your information from,” Annie said,
“but we’ve taken an interest in the case, yes.”
“More than anyone could say at the time.”
“I wasn’t here then.”
He eyed her scornfully. “Aye, I can see that for myself.”
Annie laughed. “Mr. . . . ?”
“Kilbride.”
“Mr. Kilbride, much as I’d love to sit and chat with you, I have to get back to work. Is there anything you want to tell me?”
He scratched the comma of beard under his lower lip. “Just that what happened to Jack, like, it never sat well with me.”
“Did the police talk to you at the time?”
“Oh, aye. They talked to all his mates. Can I get you another drink?”
Annie had about a third of a pint left. She wasn’t having any more.
“No, thanks,” she said. “I’ll stick with this.”
“Suit yourself.”
“You were saying. About Jack Grimley.”
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“I was the one saw him with that there woman, standing by the railings near the Captain Cook statue.”
“And you’re sure it was a woman?”
“Oh, aye. I could tell the difference.” He smiled. “Still can. She might have been a skinny wee thing, but she was a lass, all right. Dark horse, our Jack. Not like him.”
“What do you mean?”
“Jack was the serious type when it came to women. Couldn’t look at one he fancied without falling in love with her. We used to tease him something cruel, and he’d go red as a beet.”
“But he’d never mentioned this girl?”
“No. Not to me. Not to any of us. And he would have done.”
“But she was new. He’d only just met her. They were getting to know each other.”
“Oh, she was new, all right. She’d been in here once, a few days before, with a young lad. I recognized her. Not so much the face as the way she moved. And there she was, back again, outside with Jack.”
“But she didn’t come in the second time?”
“No. She must have been waiting for him outside.”
“And you’re sure he never mentioned anything about a new girlfriend, someone he’d met, or talked to?”
“No.”
“Did you ever see her again?”
“No. Nor Jack.”
“I’m sorry about your friend,” Annie said.
“Aye. The police said he must have fallen off the cliff, but Jack was too careful to do owt like that. He grew up here, knew the place like the back of his hand.”
“I was just down on the beach,” Annie said. “Do you think a fall would have killed him? There’s not many rocks down there.”
“It’s hard enough if you fall all that way,” said Kilbride, “but there’s some has got away with a broken leg or two.”
“There was a theory that he might have jumped.”
“That’s even more ridiculous. Jack had everything to live for. He was a simple bloke who liked the simple pleasures. Believed in a good job well done. He’d have made a fine husband and father one day if F R I E N D O F T H E D E V I L
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he’d had the chance.” He shook his head. “No, there was no way Jack’d have done away with himself.”
“So what do you think happened?”
“She killed him, pure and simple.”
