Her ability to make him feel uncomfortable was uncanny. And it came so easily to her - all it took was a very slight change in
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the tone of her voice to insert a little sliver of ice behind her words. She had a pretty unnerving stare, too. But this time, she hadn’t even needed to look at him to let him know that his intrusion was unwelcome. There were subtle messages in every part of her body.
‘I was just wondering what it meant to you now, your old home town. Did going back there make you regret leaving it? Did it still feel like home? Did it bring back memories?’
‘Ben, have I ever told you that you ask too many questions?’
I’m a detective/ said Cooper lightly. ‘That’s what I’m supposed to do.’
Tine - if you were asking the right questions of the right people. But I’m not a suspect in any of your cases, of which you have plenty that you might usefully be thinking about. Perhaps we ought to talk about improving your focus some time.’
‘I’ll take that as a “yes”,’ said Cooper.
‘Ben, as far as you’re concerned, I’ve forgotten everything that I ever knew about my home town, and what happened to me there. OK?’
‘But you haven’t forgotten your sister/ said Cooper. ‘Oh, for God’s sake. Not that again.’
‘Well, you haven’t.’
‘Yes, I have/
‘Diane, I know you haven’t. Since you’ve been in Derbyshire, you’ve still been looking for her. You told me ‘
‘I don’t care what I told you. Just because I told you something, it doesn’t mean it’s true.’
‘Yeah, but this was true, Diane. You can’t pretend it wasn’t/
She turned her tired eyes to stare at him. ‘Ben, leave it alone/
Cooper hesitated momentarily. He felt like a nervous horse i lining up for the last, big fence at the Horse of the Year Show. Yet
he had something riding his back that wouldn’t let him shy away t from the fence, but spurred him on to go for it.
s ‘Diane/ he said, ‘what would you say if I could help you find
b out what happened to Angie?’
fi Cooper wondered how much longer he could meet Diane Fry’s
G stare. It seemed to go on for a long time, as the temperature in
the room dropped and the blood began to suffuse his cheeks. Fry
m opened her mouth once to speak, then closed it again. Cooper
hoped the waiting wouldn’t last too long. It would be better to
get it over with.
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In the end, Fry broke the stare and stood up without speaking. She walked across the office and looked out of the window, with an expression that suggested she was seeing anything except the back of the main stand of Edendale Football Club across the road. She was trying to hold herself steady, but Cooper could see that her hands shook where they rested on the window ledge. When she did speak, there was none of the anger that he had expected. Her voice was almost a whisper.
‘You’re talking to me about my sister again. I told you not to.’
Cooper nodded, his throat too dry and constricted to speak. But he realized that Fry couldn’t see him. He swallowed, and tried again.
‘Yes, Diane.’
‘So what is this? You think you could do a better job than me, even at finding my own sister?’
‘No. I just thought … Well, if I could help you, I would.’
Fry’s forehead sank gently against the window pane, and her eyes closed for a moment.
‘I can’t believe this.’
The door of the CID room opened and Gavin Murfin stepped in, carrying a paper bag which was already showing grease stains. He smiled when he saw Fry and Cooper.
‘Hey, Diane,’ he said, ‘I’ve got some results on that phone enquiry. Guess who Neil Granger was making calls to the night before he was killed?’
Fry didn’t even look at him. Her eyes stayed fixed on Cooper.
‘Gavin, take a tea break,’ she said.
Murfin’s eyebrows rose dramatically. ‘I’ve had a break already. I thought you’d want to know ‘
‘Just get out of here and don’t come back for ten minutes. OK, Gavin?’
Murfin looked at Cooper. He screwed up his face into a snooty school-marm look and wagged his head from side to side before backing out of the room.
Fry waited until she heard the door close and Murfin’s footsteps in the corridor. Then she turned away from the window to face Cooper. Her forehead was damp from the condensation on the glass and her face was pale, but at least there was a flash of anger now in her eyes, rising beyond the tiredness. Her voice rose almost to a shout.
