“Did you tell all this to Winsley?” Cage asked.
Embers scoffed. “He never asked me what actually happened. He just told me what I had to say and handed me the money. Easiest hundred I ever made.” She grinned again.
“And he arrived about lunch time on that Saturday and didn’t leave till late Sunday?” Cage checked.
Embers nodded again vigorously. “Just like I told the Old Bill back then. Cross my heart!”
She made a cross on her flat chest, slopping a little of her drink onto her kaftan as she did so. Her accent was deteriorating the longer she spoke.
“But why didn’t he give you as the alibi up front?” Cage asked, more to himself than to her.
It was something that Adie had found suspicious as well.
“Oh, that’s easy. I wasn’t quite eighteen at the time Mickey took up with me. And his parents, especially his mum, blamed him and his philandering for the breakup of his marriage. He had his own money from a trust fund, but sometimes he had to top it up by asking his mum for more. You know how those rich toffs are.
“Anyway, his mum was real mad at him for taking his son away from his wife. She said she wouldn’t give him another penny until he got his life in order. So he told his mum he was staying away from women and partying. When the Old Bill pulled him in that first time, he didn’t want to admit what he’d been up to with me. But after he left the Old Bill he knew he was in trouble, so he had to come clean.”
As she’d told her tale, Ruby’s accent had deteriorated to the point where she was speaking with an accent very similar to their cabbie’s.
Adie had no doubt she was telling the truth. Although a little bit tipsy, she was clearly recounting the events of a special weekend she remembered long after it was over.
“Did he ever say anything about his wife going missing?” Cage asked.
The woman shook her head thoughtfully. “Not that I can recall. He stopped coming around after he came clean about me to the Old Bill. I thought it was because his mum made him. Awful when a bloke has apron strings attached like that. But except to complain about his ex to me that weekend, he never said nothing about her that I remember.”
“Did he seem different after that weekend, as if he had less problems?” Cage pressed.
The old lady screwed up her face, thinking hard. “You know, now I think about it… He said she was always on at him about not letting her see her boy. Then she stopped bugging him and he was relieved. Maybe he said something like that. Or maybe I added that after I knew she was gone. I couldn’t swear to any of that on a Bible. It’s just too long ago… I have trouble remembering what I had for breakfast some days. But my time with Mickey… that I remember. Everybody deserves a prince in their life just once, even one tied to his mum’s apron strings. I love, love, loved my time with Mickey.”
Her voice, by the end, had a faraway quality to it that made Adie’s heart ache despite herself. What must it be like to have your teenage dream come true, and then to lose it again. Would she have sometimes wondered if ‘Mickey’ had been real at all and not just a fantasy she’d made up to fill her loneliest hours? Maybe those tickets to the see the Locomotive had been her way to remind herself it had all been real.
Adie shook herself out of her melancholy thoughts. They reminded her too much of her own situation with Cage. Even now, there were some mornings she woke up, sure that the big man sharing her life was simply a dream. On those mornings she’d feel the dread that always followed the realization he was real, but that he was not a permanent fixture in her life. No more than Fredrickson had been a permanent part of Embers’ life.
Another sharp shake of her head to dislodge the sadness and she was back on track.
Did this extra bit of information change anything? Fredrickson was being bugged by his ex and then the bugging stopped. He either found a way to get rid of her, or he just thought he’d won, and she’d given up. But if he’d paid someone to get rid of his problem, surely he’d have had his alibi well and truly in place before the cops came on the scene. And probably an alibi that wouldn’t get him in strife with his mother.
Cage rose, took Adie’s drink from her hands and place both glasses on the table next to the old lady. He then took Ruby’s hand, holding it between both of his.
“Thank you for your honesty. You’ve been very helpful. Adie, do you have any other questions?”
He turned to Adie as an afterthought, probably remembering that this was actually supposed to be her mystery to solve.
“No, no. We have all the answers we need. Thank you, Miss Embers,” Adie rushed to say.
The old lady beamed happily. “Glad to be of help. It wasn’t right what Mickey did to his wife. Taking her son from her, I mean. But nobody’s perfect, are they? He was always good to me.”
“Thank you again for your time and your refreshments,” Cage said, ushering Adie towards the door.
Adie couldn’t get away from there fast enough.
Chapter 5
By the time they were down on the street again Cage had called up their cab and they were able to step into it immediately. The whole visit had taken less than half an hour. It felt like a lot
