John Eider - Not a Very Nice Woman

‘Hello,’ Grey waved to the residents, as attention turned to his arrival. ‘I’m Inspector Rase, and I’m the senior investigative officer. I want to thank you all for giving statements to my colleagues, and to say how much we value your assistance at such a sensitive time.

There was a general murmuring of goodwill, before a man went to rise as if to speak.

‘Please don’t get up,’ said Grey as he and Cori moved over to him and sat down.

‘As I said to your delightful Sergeant here,’ the man’s eyes twinkling as he glanced at her, ‘I’m sure I speak for us all when I say how shocked we are at such an act occurring under our roof; poor Stella, who could ever have done such a thing?’

‘That’s what we hope to find out, sir.’

‘Carstairs,’ he announced and shook Grey’s hand.

‘Was Ms Dunbar’s flat near yours, sir?’

‘No; my wife has difficulty with the stairs, so we took one on the ground floor.’

‘Of course, you don’t have a lift. I don’t suppose you knew Stella before she lived here?’

‘No.’ He suddenly looked serious. ‘I don’t think any of us did.’

‘And how would you describe her to me, sir, as one who never knew her?’

‘A fine woman, but a stern one; brooked no nonsense, and she earned my respect all the more for that.’

‘Well, thank you again for your help,’ said Grey and went to rise.

‘Inspector, before you go, could you tell me: will you be putting a policeman here tonight?’

A new voice crept into his ear,

‘A lot of them are asking for it, Inspector; but as long as we don’t know why Stella was killed…’

Grey looked up to see it was the orderly who was talking to him, on her way past with a coffeepot in one hand and three stacked dirty bowls in the other.

He nodded, confident he could square the overnight posting of one Constable with the Superintendent.

‘You have their statements?’ he asked Cori as they stood to leave, she shaking a folderful of papers in response.

‘Come on, let’s get some space.’

They got as far as the car, where with the heater and map light on (for the afternoon was drawing in) they sat in silence; Grey finally speaking,

‘”We have nothing to fear but fear itself.’”

‘Sorry, sir?’

‘General MacArthur said that. It’s one of those terms you hear all the time but which I’ve never understood: like “self-parody” or “the exception that proves the rule”.’

‘I’m afraid you’ve lost me, sir.’

‘Sorry; it was just something Derek Waldron told me: that Stella vetoed any attempt to get that end flat sold, the one with the cheeseplants.’

Alone at last and with a moment to breath, they quickly caught each other up with all they’d learnt since the flat search.

‘So she blocked the sale?’ asked Cori.

‘Apparently she was terrified of who she’d get living next door, of they invading her corridor space; even when their Trust Committee vets new applicants.’

‘A fear response?’

‘Yes, when so much else about her suggests she was in complete control.’

Cori mused, ‘It’s interesting, you talking of her having a veto on what’s meant to be a committee — I got a definite impression from the residents that Stella was someone you’d look over your shoulder for before mentioning her name.’

‘Yes, definitely not one among equals.’

‘But I can understand her fear — I had a flat before I met Brough, and you can make it as homely as you like but you can never quite forget that you don’t own the building, that you can’t go far without sharing space with others and having to trust them. I love our house, I could never give it up now.’

‘In Paris whole families live in flats. They don’t even own them, don’t pass any property on to the kids. Still, this fear’s the only chink in Stella’s armour that we’ve found till now — we should bear that in mind.’

‘ Stella this, Stella that… you’re on first-name terms now?’

‘Sorry?’ he was still deep in thought.

‘You way you talk it’s almost like you knew her.’

‘After today I’m not sure I didn’t — you know both Derek Waldron and Rachel Sowton told me I was her friend now, as if her memory had been placed in my hands. Anyway, I think I’m beginning to take to our Stella Dunbar. I’ve always warmed to cold people; don’t ask me why. I think it’s an admiration for stoicism, the effort it takes.’

Cori chuckled, ‘You make me laugh, sir.’

‘God, what a pair to have around in a crisis though: that Derek Waldron; and Charlie Prove sounds even worse.’

‘They’ve had a tough day, sir.’

‘But honestly, you think at a time like this they’d pull themselves together.’ Even as he said it it sounded harsh.

‘But these are the very times that people fall apart.’

‘We don’t.’

‘Well, that’s why we do the job we do.’

‘You’ll be Superintendent one day with a logical mind like that. So,’ he gathered up the arguments, ‘the major players, her friends: what did you make of them?’

‘Well, I saw Derek Waldron in the dayroom after you’d finished with him. He looked a bit shaken, I must say, I don’t know what you’d been doing with him. He just seemed like a very genuinely upset person, and has given us our only witness statement of interest.’

‘Yes, the girl on the stairs. So, Rachel Sowton?’

‘I don’t think I saw her again after she left us at the third floor flats. You were rather hogging her, I was told — didn’t the pair of you go for a walk?’

‘We bought oranges.’

‘That didn’t do Marlon Brando any good. But from third-party accounts, she is an excellent Duty Manager — tireless, on call twentyfour-seven, even too-hard a worker — and no one here has a bad word to say about her.’

‘Not quite twentyfour-seven — she was out that evening.’

‘Yes,’ Cori rustled the papers. ‘She was one of the first to give a statement before we got here. She was out last night between eight thirty and one am, though she wouldn’t say where she was, only that she was in town and went straight to her ground floor flat afterwards, where no note had been left by the orderlies of anything requiring her attention, so went straight to bed.’

‘And that leaves Charlie Prove. You’ve seen him?’

‘Yes.’

‘A contender?’

‘Not big-big, but solid-shouldered. Of all of the men here I’d guess he’s the one strong enough. But…’

‘Go on.’

At these words Cori said quietly, ‘You haven’t met him yet, have you, sir.’

‘No, and won’t get to any time soon if the doctor keeps needing to sedate him. I do know he reacted so badly when they found her that Derek Waldron half-wished it had been Rachel Sowton’s sorry lot to have to find their friend’s body alone.’

‘Well I can’t say about any of that, sir, only what I saw with my own eyes, when Charlie came down to the dayroom later.’

‘Which was? Spare no detail — fact, not analysis.’

‘Well, I was with the Constables, going through statements, talking to residents, when in he came to sit at one end with people who must have been close friends. Ellie brought him coffee…’

‘Ellie?’

‘The orderly. You spoke to her, with Mr Carstairs?’

‘Oh yes, of course. Carry on.’

‘I caught Ellie’s eye and called her over, and she confirmed it was Prove. Only, no sooner had I got up to approach than he was suddenly crying, making this noise like a screeching that you wouldn’t credit, and hugging a poor old dear in a way I thought might break her in half. Ellie and another orderly went to soothe him and took him away, only for the doctor to arrive soon after and put him under again.’