He jerked his head towards the back of his house.
“Parkway Comprehensive.”
“Is that the school Amber and Olive went to?”
“Hah!” His old eyes were amused.
“Gwen wouldn’t have stood for that. She sent them to the posh Convent where they learnt their times tables and didn’t learn the facts of life.”
“Why didn’t Amber have an abortion? Were they Catholics?” She thought again about Olive and foetuses being washed down the sink.
“They didn’t know she was pregnant, did they?
Thought it was puppy fat.” He cackled suddenly.
“Rushed her off to hospital with suspected appendicitis and out pops a bouncing baby boy. They got away with it, too. Best kept secret I’ve ever come across. Even the nuns didn’t know.”
“But you knew,” she prompted.
“The wife guessed,” he said owlishly.
“It was obvious something untoward had happened, and not appendicitis neither. Gwen was well-nigh hysterical the night it happened and my Jeannie put two and two together. Still, we know how to keep our mouths shut. No reason to make life harder for the kid. It wasn’t her fault.”
Roz did some rapid mental arithmetic. Amber was two years younger than Olive which would have made her twenty-six if she were still alive.
“Her son’s thirteen,” she said, ‘and due to inherit half a million pounds. I wonder why Mr. Crew can’t find him. There must be records of the adoption.”
“I heard they’d found traces.” The old man clicked his false teeth with disappointment.
“But, there, it was probably just rumour, Brown Australia,” he muttered with disgust, as if that explained everything.
“I ask you.”
Roz allowed this cryptic remark to pass unchallenged. Time enough to puzzle over it later without claiming ignorance yet again.
“Tell me about Olive,” she invited.
“Were you surprised that she did what she did?”
“I hardly knew the girl.” He sucked his teeth.
“And you don’t feel surprised when people you know get hacked to death, young lady, you feel bloody sick. It did for my Jeannie. She was never the same afterwards, died a couple of years later.”
“I’m sorry.”
He nodded, but it was clearly an old wound that had healed.
“Used to see the child come and go but she wasn’t a great talker. Shy, I suppose.”
“Because she was fat?”
He pursed his lips thoughtfully.
“Maybe. Jeannie said she was teased a lot, but I’ve known fat girls who’ve been the life and soul of the party. It was her nature, I think, to look on the black side. Never laughed much. No sense of humour. That sort doesn’t make friends easily.”
“And Amber did?”
“Oh, yes. She was very popular.” He glanced back down the passages of time.
“She was a pretty girl.”
“Was Olive jealous of her?”
“Jealous?” Mr. Hayes looked surprised.
“I’ve never thought about it. What shall I say? They always seemed very fond of each other.”
Roz shrugged her bewilderment.
“Then why did Olive kill her? And why mutilate the bodies? It’s very odd.”
He scowled suspiciously.
“I thought you were representing her. You should know if anyone does.”
“She won’t say.”
He stared out of the window.
“Well, then.”
Well then what?
“Do you know why?”
