Russell turned pale. Then he looked at her for a moment, the way you look at someone who is leaving and will never return.
Finally, in silence, he walked to the door. Vivien did not have the strength to say or do anything. He opened the door and went out into the corridor. The last sign of life from him was the door gently closing.
Vivien felt more alone than she had ever felt in her life. Her impulse was to go out in the corridor and call him back, but she told herself she couldn’t do that. Not now. Not before finding out what Father McKean had to tell her. Many people’s lives were at stake. Hers and Russell’s didn’t matter. From now on she would need all her willpower and all her courage, too much to use part of it admitting she was in love with a man who didn’t want her.
She waited a few moments, long enough to give him time to leave the building. As she waited, she remembered the words he had said to her as they were coming in. They were like an accusation now.
She had said they were a team.
He had trusted her and she had betrayed him.
CHAPTER 30
When Vivien opened the door she saw the deserted, dimly lit corridor. The semi-darkness, and the thought that the man had walked down it for years, that every day he had planted his feet on that carpet, which had become an indefinable colour, made the place feel malign and hostile.
A wrinkled old black woman with incredibly crooked legs emerged around the corner of the landing and walked towards her, supporting herself with a stick. In her free arm she carried a shopping bag. When she saw Vivien closing the door, she couldn’t help making a comment.
‘Ah, so they finally rented it to a human being.’
‘I’m sorry?’
The old woman didn’t bother to give any other explanation. She stopped outside the door opposite the one Vivien had just come out of and unceremoniously handed her the bag. Presumably, her age and condition had taught her to impose, instead of asking. Or maybe she thought her age and condition in themselves gave her the right to whatever she wanted.
‘Hold this. But remember, I don’t give tips.’
Vivien found herself with the bag in her hands. A smell of onions and bread rose from it. Still supporting herself with her stick, the woman searched in the pocket of her coat. She took out a key and put it in the lock. She answered a question no one had asked.
‘The police came yesterday. I knew that man wasn’t a decent person.’
‘The police?’
‘Yeah. They’re great people, too. They rang but I didn’t open.’
After such an open declaration of mistrust, Vivien decided not to identify herself as a police officer. She waited for the old lady to open the door. Immediately, a big black cat poked its head out. When it saw that its owner was with a stranger, it ran away. Instinctively, Vivien checked that it had all four legs.
‘Who lived here before me?’
‘A guy with his face all scarred. A real monster. Not just the way he looked, the way he acted, too. One day, an ambulance came and took him away. To an asylum, I hope.’
In her concise, pitiless judgement, the woman had hit the target. That would have been the right place for the man, whoever he was, to spend his days. The old woman walked into her apartment and indicated the table with a nod.
‘Put it there.’
Vivien followed her in and saw that the apartment was a mirror image of the one she had just been inspecting. In the room there were two other cats, in addition to the black one. A white and ginger cat was sleeping on a chair and didn’t take any notice of them. A second one, a grey striped cat, jumped on the table. Vivien put down the bag, and the cat immediately ran to sniff it.
The woman gave it a cuff on its backside. ‘Get away, you. You can eat later.’
The cat jumped to the floor and went and hid itself under the chair where its companion was still sleeping.
Vivien looked around. The room was a triumph of the unmatched. Not one chair was similar to another. The glasses on the shelf over the sink were all different among themselves. The place was a chaos of colours and old things. The cat smell in the apartment was worse than the one in the lobby.
The old woman turned to Vivien and looked at her as if she had just seen her for the first time. ‘What was I saying?’
‘You were talking about the man who had the apartment opposite.’
‘Oh, yes, that guy. He never came back. That other guy came to see it a couple of times. But he can’t have liked it, because he didn’t rent it. God knows what state it was in.’
Vivien’s heart leaped. ‘Which other guy? The landlord didn’t tell me there’d been anyone else interested in the apartment.’
The old woman took off her coat and threw it on the back of a chair. ‘It happened a while back. A tall guy, in a green jacket. A military kind, I think. He was as strange as the first one. He came a couple of times then never came back. I’m glad he didn’t take the apartment.’
Vivien would have liked to stay and ask her more questions without making her suspicious: she had made it clear right from the start how she felt about the police. But that would take time, and the urgency in Father McKean’s voice required an immediate response. She promised herself that as soon as she’d seen the priest she’d come back and delve deeper.
The woman approached the kitchen area. ‘How about a coffee?’
Vivien looked at her watch, as if seriously considering the idea. ‘I’m sorry. I’d love to, but I’m in a hurry.’
A slight disappointment was visible on the old woman’s face. Vivien came to her rescue.
‘What’s your name?’
‘Judith.’
‘Well, Judith, I’m Vivien. I tell you what we’ll do. I’ll go to my appointment and when I get back I’ll knock at your door and we’ll have that coffee. Like good neighbours.’
‘Not between three and four. I have to go see the doctor because my back is-’
Oh no. Not now, not the list of aches and pains.
Vivien interrupted the start of what might turn out to be a long litany of arthritis and stomach aches. ‘Look, I really have to go now. I’ll see you later.’
She got to the door and before leaving threw her new friend a smile.
‘And keep that coffee warm. We’ll have plenty to talk about.’
‘OK. But remember, I don’t give tips.’
Vivien found herself alone again in the corridor, wondering how reliable that addle-headed old lady was. But she had given her some small ideas for leads, however slender. As Bellew had said several times, in their situation they couldn’t afford to rule out anything.