Her husband works away a lot and when we were flat-hunting, we thought it would be nice if we could find somewhere close.’
‘Very convenient,’ Vera said, wondering what it was about this woman she disliked so much.
‘Yes.’ Emma turned briefly then led them out onto a flagged patio where four wooden chairs stood around a table. The garden was small, surrounded by a high wall. Blackbirds were calling somewhere in the ivy.
Emma continued talking. ‘This is my flatmate, Louise. Lou, it’s the police.’
Louise seemed still to be wearing pyjamas. Her feet were bare, her hair unbrushed. She nodded to them, played with the croissant flakes on her plate.
‘I’ll just put on some more coffee,’ Emma said.
Vera sat down heavily. ‘Not for us, pet. This isn’t a social call. We’ve not much time. We just wanted to talk about Lily.’
‘Of course.’
‘How long have the three of you been living together?’
‘Well, we met up in the first year. Same hall of residence, though we were all doing different stuff. Lily was into English, Louise did languages and I’m a medic. That’s why the three of us are still here when most of our friends have left. Our courses last longer than the standard three years and Lily was doing a PGCE. We shared a kitchen then, got on OK, decided to move in together.’
‘How could you afford to live in a road like this, like?’ Emphasizing the accent, playing the dumb cop. It never hurt if they underestimated you.
‘Well, it was down to my dad, actually. He thought he might as well buy somewhere. Thought it would be a decent investment. We’d pay enough rent to cover the mortgage. I mean, it’s still not cheap, but when you look at some of the places other students live… My parents are great. They give me an allowance.’
‘But Lily didn’t come from that sort of background, did she? How did she keep up with the rent?’
Emma shrugged. ‘She never said. I think her dad was made redundant at the end of her first year and gave her something to start her off. She didn’t pay as much as us, because her room is a bit smaller. And she worked on Saturdays and in the holidays.’
‘Tell me about her. Living together that long, you must have known her as well as anyone.’
For the first time Emma seemed lost for words. It was Louise who answered.
‘Nobody knew her very well.’
‘But three lasses together. You must have confided in each other.’
‘Not really. Not Lily.’
‘There’d have been nights out in town, a few drinks. She’d let down her hair then.’
‘I don’t think Lily ever let go in that way, Inspector. She was very controlled, very focused. Ambitious, I suppose. Something to do with the background she came from. She worked much harder than the rest of us.’
‘Was she ever ill?’
‘Nothing serious. A cold, throat infection. Just like the rest of us.’
‘You never worried that she might be depressed? Keeping herself so isolated.’
‘No. I don’t think she was that isolated. She just didn’t include us in the rest of her life.’
‘Where were you both last night?’
Louise answered. ‘It was my birthday. We went out for a meal. A whole gang of us.’
‘What about Lily?’ Vera asked. ‘Were you expecting her to be there too?’
‘I asked her of course, but I wasn’t surprised when she didn’t turn up. It wasn’t really her thing.’
‘Did she have a boyfriend?’
There was a silence. The women flashed a glance at each other. ‘We think she must have done,’ Emma said at last. ‘There were nights when she didn’t come home. But he never came to the flat. At least, not when we were in.’
‘And she never talked about him?’
‘Not to us.’ Emma paused. ‘Look, Inspector, in some ways Lily was a model tenant. Thoughtful, tidy. That’s why I wanted her to come in with us in the first place. But we were never friends. Not really. I can’t think of any reason why anyone would have wanted to kill her. But I wouldn’t know. Her life was a mystery to us.’
It was lunchtime and Vera brought the team together, bought in sandwiches, proper coffee, doughnuts. Anything to keep up the energy levels. After the catnap in the car she felt on top of the world, but she knew the younger members didn’t have her stamina. Still, they were a bit more alert now. A second body. A bright young woman. Somehow that made the case more exciting. They hadn’t been able to get worked up about a lad with a learning disability, but a pretty student and suddenly they were buzzing. She told herself she was too cynical for her own good.
She filled them in on the visits to Lily’s parents and the flat, walking backwards and forwards at the front of the room, in and out of the light streaming in from the windows.
‘The lasses she shared with are camping out at a neighbour’s house until the search team has finished. Of course we asked if Lily was at the flat on the night Luke Armstrong was killed. She wasn’t there. It wasn’t unusual for her to stay out. That’s why they presumed she had a boyfriend.’
‘Didn’t they ask about him? They must have been curious.’ This was from Holly Lawson. Eager, fresh-faced, looked like a sixth-former. ‘I mean, you might say you respected someone’s privacy, but really you’d want to know. Wouldn’t you?’ She looked around her.
‘You’re probably right. Go back and talk to the flatmates,’ Vera said. ‘You might get more out of them. You’re nearer their age.’ She took a sip from the cardboard cup. The coffee had been OK at the beginning of the meeting, but it was already cold and she could feel the grounds on her tongue. She set the cup on the table, went up to the windows and pulled the blinds to keep the worst of the sun out of her eyes. The room seemed suddenly gloomy, the people in it blurred shadows.
‘I think we’ll have to bite the bullet and have a news conference,’ she said. ‘I don’t want anything about the scene to get out. Not the flowers. Not the cause of death. The last thing we need is a copy-cat killer. I told the group who found the body that if they speak to the press they’ll have me to answer to. But someone must have seen the corpse being carried from the car park to the rocks. There’s that stretch of grass to cover and there’s usually someone there. Dog walkers. Parents with young kids. We’ll get the press liaison people to set it up.
‘Now, what have you got for me?’ Vera had landed on the desk at the front. Like a teacher. She wondered what sort of teacher Lily would have made.
‘We’ve found someone at the university to look at the flowers,’ Holly said. ‘A Dr Calvert. Senior lecturer.’
‘No.’
‘Sorry?’
‘Peter Calvert. He won’t do. He found the second body. At least, his son did. He was on the scene immediately after. We can’t use him.’
‘Oh God, I should have realized. I tracked him down yesterday, before Lily Marsh was killed.’ She blushed, stammered, waited for Vera to let fire the sarcasm. But Vera was feeling kind. She was thinking about Peter Calvert. It was probably a coincidence. It didn’t take a botanist to scatter flowers on a dead body. But if they were looking for someone who liked to play games, it could be seen as a calling card, a signature.
‘Get someone else,’ she said. ‘Not from Newcastle University. Try Northumbria or Sunderland. There must be another botanist somewhere in the north east. And check out what Dr Calvert was doing the night Luke was killed. Just to show we’re tying up all the loose ends.’ She remembered the scene on the veranda she’d walked into the night before. Four men sitting at the table. One woman. About the same age as her, but elegant, made-up. Desired. An interesting group, she thought again. ‘On second thoughts, you can leave Dr Calvert to me.’ It would be an excuse to go back. ‘Can’t trust you lot with the gentry.’
They smiled, not bothered. One less job for them and whoever heard of a university lecturer as a murderer?
She turned back to the group. ‘Who’s been checking out Geoff Armstrong’s alibi?’
‘Me.’ Charlie Robson. Charlie was older than her. She thought he must be up for retirement soon. He didn’t like working for a woman, but he’d had to get on with it.
‘Well?’
