Ash & Bone

Estelle Cooper's eyes were closed.

'Did he hit you, Estelle?'

'Yes.'

'Often?'

Eyes still closed, Estelle turned her head aside.

Karen looked across at Elder again.

'Did you ever talk to anyone about what was happening?' Karen said. 'Ask for help?'

'I tried to, but I didn't know… it wasn't easy. In the end I plucked up courage and spoke to my mother, but at first she just wouldn't, she wouldn't listen. She stood there with her hands clasped over her ears and then, when I persisted, she said, "You silly little cow, why don't you stop complaining and just do what he says.'"

She was sobbing now, her arms locked tight across her chest, rocking slowly forwards and back. Karen went over and leaned towards her and at the first touch of a hand on her shoulder, Estelle stiffened and gasped.

Elder went in search of the kitchen and when he returned with a glass of water the two women were sitting on the settee side by side.

Estelle drank the water in small sips, like medicine.

'Take your time,' Karen said quietly.

Her hand not quite steady, Estelle gave Elder back the glass.

'When finally I found the courage to tell him I was leaving him,' she said, 'he just said no. As though there wasn't any room for argument. I'll change, he said. I won't do it any more, you see. And for a long time, months, almost a year, that was what he did. It was like it had been before, when we started going out together, and then, suddenly, without reason, it happened again, he hit me, so badly I had to go to hospital, in the middle of the night, to Accident and Emergency, and I said, "Right, this time I am leaving you, I really am" and he said, he said, "I'll kill you if you do.'"

There was a clock ticking somewhere that Elder hadn't noticed before.

Karen reached across and took one of Estelle's hands in hers. 'You believed him,' she said.

'Yes. Of course.'

'What did you do?'

'I told my father this time. I hadn't dared tell him before. And he was wonderful. He came round when Steven was out and helped me pack my things, and then he went with me to the police. They asked me if I would make a formal complaint about Steven, apply for a restraining order against him, and I tried to say no, just tell him to keep away from me, but my father said, "You've got to sign a complaint", and in the end I did.'

'But, in the event, it never went that far?'

'No.'

'It never got to court.'

'No, I… I changed my mind. The thought of standing up in front of a magistrate, other people, and having to talk about… I couldn't go through with it. And besides, by then I thought Steven would have calmed down, found somebody else.'

She laughed nervously, as if something had suddenly struck her as amusing.

'I lived with my parents for six months or so before finding a flat of my own and that's when he started to turn up again. Just once or twice at first. I'd see him, you know, in the supermarket, or across the street, but then it was more and more. He'd be waiting there when I finished work, wanting to give me a lift home, things like that, and I told him it had to stop, I didn't want to see him again, and then one evening I came back home and he was there, in the flat, he'd got in somehow, I don't know how he'd got in…'

Pulling away from Karen, she pressed both hands hard against her face.

'I went back to the police and they said if I wanted anything done I would have to go through the whole process again, and this time I said I would. I'd had enough. My nerves were in tatters. But then – I don't know if Steven knew, about the police, I mean – but he just stopped. Following me. Coming round. I didn't see him again. Not after that. Not once.' Her eyes lowered. 'I assume he'd met someone else.'

'I'm sorry,' Karen said, 'to make you go through all this.'

'It's all right,' Estelle said. And then: 'Steven, has he… has he done something?'

'We don't know,' Karen said.

'He has, hasn't he? He's done this to someone else.'

'We really don't know.'

Estelle looked towards the window; before long it would be dark outside. 'The children will be home soon.'

Karen got to her feet, Elder following suit.

'I'm sorry for bringing all that back,' Karen said at the door. 'I really am.'

Estelle smiled the best smile she could. 'I hope it's done some good.'

'I'm sure it has. Thank you again.'

She stood there, watching them go. Jake and Amber would soon be chasing each other to the door. Biscuits and a warm drink to keep out the cold. How was school today and then probably a video before tea.

Karen stopped alongside her car, keys in her hand. Her face had lost its glow. 'I need a drink and I don't want to sit in a pub on my own. Maybe we could stop and pick up a bottle of Scotch?'

'How about Irish?' Elder said. 'I've got some back at the flat.'

'Okay, I'll follow you.'

They drove along Whetstone High Road towards North Finchley, the traffic congealing around them, Elder wondering why Estelle's story had affected Karen as much as he thought it had.

25

'Jesus!' Karen said. 'Don't you have any heating in here?'

Elder smiled. 'It's that underfloor thing. Comes on automatically, as far as I can tell.'

'No thermostat? Override?'

'What looks like a thermostat in the bedroom. Doesn't seem to work.'

Karen looked at him, eyebrow raised. 'How about the living room? Is it any warmer in there?'

'I doubt it, but I'm not sure. I seem to spend most of my time in here.'

In the kitchen were a dining table and two chairs and little else. Karen wandered off to check the living room, while Elder rinsed two glasses and wiped them dry. Still wearing her coat, Karen returned and looked idly along the kitchen shelves.

'This is how it works, then? They set you up in one of these places, what, rent free?'

Elder nodded.

'Plus salary?'

'Some kind of daily rate.'

'Overtime?'

'We didn't discuss it.'

'Maybe I should apply for early retirement now.'

'What? Before you make superintendent?'

'Yeah. And hell freezes over.'

Elder was holding the bottle of Jameson's over Karen's glass. 'Say when.'

'Say it for me.'

He poured them both a good shot, considered, then poured a little more.

'Cheers.'

They clinked glasses and stepped back.

'You want to sit?'

'Why not?'

The chairs were made from some kind of moulded plastic, less uncomfortable than they looked, though it was a close thing.

'It really got to you, didn't it?' Elder said. 'This afternoon.'

Karen shrugged. 'Kind of thing you hear all the time.'

Elder thought there was more to it than that, but he let it ride.

'How come you drink this?' Karen said. 'And not Scotch?'

'Habit, I suppose.'

Karen tried a little more. 'If you had to drink it blindfold, you think you could tell the difference?'

'I doubt it.'

'Kennet,' she said a few moments later, 'what do you reckon? You reckon he's our man?'

Elder made a face. 'We've got no forensics, nothing that places him at the scene.'

Karen nodded. 'Plus the little matter that he was still in Spain when Maddy was killed.'

'You said that had been checked?'

'We saw a print-out from the airline – electronic ticketing, isn't that what it's called? But did we go rifling through flight manifests and so on? No, I don't think so.' She sighed and shook her head and drank some more whiskey. 'We fucked up, right?'

'We don't know that.'

'No,' laughing despite herself. 'Not yet. But chances are looking pretty good.'

'Like I say, we don't know it was Kennet at all.'

'We know what he does when someone tries to walk away.'

'That was different, they were living together.'

'I'll kill you, that's what he said.'

'Situations like that, stakes are raised, people say that all the time. Doesn't mean they're going to follow through.'

Karen looked at him. 'Have you?'