Angie. Normally, they might have ribbed him or given him a friendly wink about having a girlfriend. But even they sensed that there was something not quite right about Angie.
‘Do you read books a lot?’ she said, when he took her the tonic water and crisps.
‘Quite a bit. They’re relaxation. Especially since I’ve lived on my own. I don’t want to end up watching telly every night, like a vegetable.’
‘It helps to keep the brain active, right? The imagination.’
‘Yes, I think so.
She put the book back on the table. Cooper noticed that she had lost his page.
‘It seems a funny thing to be doing in a pub, though,’ she said. ‘Antisocial.’
‘I don’t do it all the time. Only when I want to be left alone for a while.’
She laughed. ‘And now I’ve come along and interrupted your relaxation. That’s not very fair, is it?’
She gazed at him, as if expecting him to take some deeper meaning from her words. Cooper sighed. He was going to have to take a course in communication skills. Everything was going straight over his head these days.
‘The world isn’t fair,’ he said. ‘We just have to hope it’s unfair in our favour occasionally.’
‘Is that the best we can hope for?’
‘I’m afraid so.’
‘It hardly seems worth bothering.’
‘But there are other things in life, apart from fairness. So think about the things that you can get hold of.’
337
‘Like what?’
‘Love?’
‘You what?’ said Angle.
‘Well, maybe,’
‘You’re crazy, do you know that? Love!’
‘It was only a suggestion. Think about it.’
‘I can’t believe you, Ben Cooper. Are you for real? I’ve never met anybody so naive.’
‘You know, it’s funny/ said Cooper. ‘But you sound just like somebody else I know.’
Angie laughed again. ‘Right. And what have you decided, Ben?’
Cooper thought about Diane Fry. She’d been the bane of his life for months. Yet she’d tried to help him, even when he could see she was having difficulties dealing with the Renshaws. Could he lay the extra stress on her about her sister? In a way, this was keeping her together and focused; while she had hope, she could cope. Angie wanted him to take her hope away.
‘I can’t do it,’ he said.
‘You can’t? Of course you can.’
‘I can’t,’ he said. ‘I can’t take Diane’s hope away.’
1 heard you were her friend.’
‘Yes, you said.’
Angie looked disappointed in him. If that was the way she felt, she should join the queue.
‘Well, what sort of friend are you? You know it would be the best thing for her, to forget all about me.’
Cooper felt himself weakening. ‘Diane wouldn’t listen to me, anyway. Not without any proof.’
‘Of course,’ said Angie. ‘I thought you would say that. And that’s why I came.’
She reached inside her coat and pulled out an envelope, which she handed to Cooper.
‘What’s this?’
‘Open it and see.’
There was nothing written on the outside of the envelope. Cooper glanced around uncomfortably. A police officer being handed a plain brown envelope in a pub wouldn’t look too good. But the customers of the Hanging Gate had lost interest in him and Angie. Some football highlights were being shown on the TV screen.
He opened the flap of the envelope and slid out the contents.
338
‘How did you get these?’
‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘Yes, it does matter/ said Cooper angrily. ‘How did you get them?’
‘Let’s just say I have the right sort of contacts.’
‘Criminal contacts, obviously.’
‘You stick to your friends, and I’ll stick to mine.’
He was holding a death certificate. It recorded the death in Chapeltown, Sheffield, of Angela Jane Fry, aged thirty. It was dated just over a year ago.
