Peter Robinson - Close To Home (aka The Summer That Never Was)

“Bradford, too? That complicates things.”

“Well, at least we know that Bradford had some sort of involvement with pornography. We don’t even have any evidence that Harris was bent yet,” said Michelle. “Only Shaw’s behavior. Which brings me to our interview with Des Wayman.”

“What did he have to say for himself?”

Michelle told him about Wayman’s assertion that Shaw was behind last night’s attack. “He’d deny he ever said it if we challenged him, and I’m sure Shaw will deny it, too.”

“But we know it’s true,” said Banks. “That gives us an edge. It was a stupid move on Shaw’s part. It means he’s worried, getting desperate. What about the burglary at your flat, the van that tried to run you down?”

Michelle shook her head. “Wayman knows nothing about that. Shaw must have got someone else, maybe someone a bit brighter. My impression is that Wayman is okay for the strong-arm stuff but couldn’t think his way out of a paper bag.”

“Like Bill Marshall?”

“Yes. You think we should have a chat with Shaw?”

“Soon. It’d be nice to know a bit more about Harris first.”

“I’ll call you later.”

“Okay.” Michelle turned and carried on walking down the path.

“Where are you going now?” Banks asked.

She slowed, turned and smiled at him. “You’re a very nosy fellow,” she said. “And you know what happens to nosy fellows, don’t you?” Then she walked on, leaving Banks to gape after her. He could swear he saw her shoulders shaking with laughter.

“Okay, Liz, are you going to tell us the truth now?” Annie asked once the interview room was set up and the tapes turned on.

“We didn’t do anything wrong, Ryan and me,” Liz said.

“I have to remind you that you’re entitled to a lawyer. If you can’t afford one we’ll get a duty solicitor for you.”

Liz shook her head. “I don’t need a lawyer. That’s like admitting I did it.”

“As you like. You know we found drugs in your flat, don’t you?”

“There wasn’t much. It was only… you know, for Ryan and me.”

“It’s still a crime.”

“Are you going to arrest us for that?”

“Depends on what you have to tell me. I just want you to know that you’re in trouble already. You can make it better by telling me the truth, or you can make it worse by continuing with your lies. What’s it to be, Liz?”

“I’m tired.”

“The sooner we’re done with this, the sooner you can go home. What’s it to be?”

Liz nibbled at her trembling lower lip.

“Maybe it would help,” said Annie, “if I told you we found traces of Luke’s blood under your bathroom sink.”

Liz looked at her, wide-eyed. “But we didn’t kill Luke. Honest, we didn’t!”

“Tell me what happened. Convince me.”

Liz started crying. Annie passed her some tissues and waited till she calmed down. “Did Luke call at your flat the day he disappeared?” she asked.

After a long silence, Liz said, “Yes.”

“Good,” breathed Annie. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”

“But we didn’t do him any harm.”

“Okay. We’ll get to that. What time did he arrive?”

“Time? I don’t know. Early in the evening. Maybe sixish.”

“So he must have come straight from the market square?”

“I suppose so. I don’t know where he’d been. He was a bit upset, I remember, because he said some of the kids from the school had pushed him around in the square, so maybe he had come straight from there.”

“What happened in the flat?”

Liz looked down at her chewed fingernails.

“Liz?”

“What?”

“Was Ryan there?”

“Yes.”

“All the time? Even when Luke arrived?”

“Yes.”

So that put paid to Annie’s theory that Ryan had interrupted something between Liz and Luke. “What did the three of you do?”

Liz paused, then took a deep breath. “First we had something to eat,” she said. “It must’ve been around teatime.”

“Then what?”

“We just talked, went through a few songs.”

“I thought you did your rehearsals in the church basement.”

“We do. But Ryan’s got an acoustic guitar. We just played around with a couple of arrangements, that’s all.”

“And then?”

Again, Liz fell silent and her eyes filled with tears. She rubbed the back of her hand across her face and said, “Ryan rolled a joint. Luke… he’d… like he was a virgin, you know, when it came to drugs. I mean we’d offered to share before but he always said no.”

“Not that night?”

“No. That night he said yes. The first time. It was like he… you know… wanted to lose his virginity. I don’t know why. I suppose he just felt it was time.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing much at first. I think he was disappointed. A lot of people are the first time.”

“So what did you do?”

“We smoked some more and it seemed to work. It was pretty strong stuff, opiated hash. He got all giggly at first, then he went sort of introspective.”

“So what went wrong?”

“It was when Ryan put that Neil Byrd CD on. You know, that new compilation, The Summer That Never Was .”

“He did what? ” Annie could imagine what effect something like that might have on Luke if he was under the influence of strong cannabis. Maybe it wasn’t a seriously dangerous drug, but it could cause paranoia in people, and it intensified and exaggerated emotions. Annie knew; she’d smoked it more than once in her teenage years. Reining in her temper, she asked, “How did Luke react to the music?”

“He freaked. He just freaked. Ryan was thinking it would be a neat idea to do a Neil Byrd song, you know, with Luke singing. I mean, it’d get a lot of attention.”

“Didn’t you realize how confused Luke was about his real father? Didn’t you know he never listened to Neil Byrd’s music?”

“Yes, but we thought this was a good time to try it,” Liz protested. “We thought his mind was, you know, open to new things, mellow from the dope, that it was more likely he’d see how beautiful his father’s work was.”

“When he was disoriented, ultrasensitive?” Annie shook her head in disbelief. “You’re a lot more stupid than I thought you were. Stupid or so selfish and blinkered it amounts to much the same thing.”

“But that’s not fair! We didn’t mean any harm.”

“Fine,” said Annie. “Let’s just say you were guilty of poor judgment and move on. What happened next?”

“Nothing at first. It seemed as if Luke was just listening to the song. Ryan was playing the chords along with it, trying a little harmony. All of a sudden Luke just went crazy. He knocked the guitar out of Ryan’s hand and went over to the CD player and took the CD out and started trying to break it in two.”

“What did you do?”

“Ryan struggled with him, but Luke was, like, possessed. ”

“What about the blood?”

“In the end Ryan just punched him. That was where the blood came from. Luke ran into the bathroom. I was just behind him, to see if he was all right. There wasn’t much blood, it was only like a nosebleed. Luke looked in the mirror and started going crazy again and banging the mirror with his fists. I tried to calm him down, but he pushed past me and left.”

“And that was it?”

“Yes.”

“Neither of you went after him?”

“No. We figured he just wanted to be by himself.”

“A disturbed fifteen-year-old having a bad drug experience? Oh, come on, Liz. Surely you can’t be that stupid?”

“Well we were stoned, too. I’m not saying we were, like, the most rational we could be. It just seemed… I don’t know.” She lowered her head and sobbed.