Alex Gray - Sleep like the dead

'She certainly didn't report him as a missing person. And the pathologist reckons he's been dead for several days.'

'I think it's a good idea to speak to her before the boy gets home. Otherwise he'll maybe do all the talking for her,' Lorimer said.

There was a murmur of agreement in the room. It was well known that many Asian families continued the tradition of the male being head of the family, the woman often choosing to be subservient to him. With the death of her husband, Mrs Jaffrey might well look to her teenage son to speak on her behalf.

Annie Irvine made a face. There weren't many women nowadays who'd let their men folk get off with that sort of behaviour. She thought back to Mrs Galbraith. There was one mother who hadn't minced her words. Would Mrs Jaffrey have the courage to tell the police anything she knew about her dead husband and his secrets?

She was suddenly aware that the DCI was looking in her direction.

Irvine.

You and DC Fathy go and see her,' Lorimer told them.

'See what you can find out.'

Mrs Jaffrey opened the door just wide enough to let the chain tighten. DC Irvine saw a tiny woman, caught sight of a dark purple sari banded with a design of red and gold, a matching scarf covering her head. But it was the expression of fear in the woman's eyes that caught the policewoman's attention.

'DC Fathy, DC Irvine, Strathclyde Police, ma'am,' Fathy said, holding his warrant card out in front of him.

The woman was silent as she fiddled with the chain, hands visibly shaking. The two officers exchanged glances. She was still in a state of shock and no wonder. A missing husband who had turned up brutally murdered was enough to numb the mind of any anxious spouse. The door was pulled back as though by a tremendous effort and as they stepped in, Mrs Jaffrey swayed where she stood.

Annie caught the woman's sleeve before she could collapse.

'Come on, dear, through here,' she whispered, guiding her back along the corridor to where she could see a glint of light under a door. Under Annie's grip, the woman felt like a thin bundle of bones hidden beneath the swathes of clothing. There was no one else in the house and Annie wondered when this woman had last eaten anything. The brightly lit room turned out to be the woman's bedroom and Annie reckoned from the state of the place that Sara Jaffrey had been lying in her bed, fully clothed, when they'd rung the doorbell.

'Here, sit down, are you okay?' Annie asked, helping the Asian woman into a chair beside her unmade bed. A tumbler of water lay on the bedside cabinet and Annie picked it up, setting its rim to the woman's lips, letting her swallow until she began to splutter.

Mrs Jaffrey gave a little cough then murmured something that Annie couldn't catch. As though exhausted, she leaned back, her eyes staring wildly at the two officers.

'Have you got him?' she asked, clasping her hands to her chin in a gesture that was so pitiful that it made Annie bite her lip.

'Have you found my husband?'

Annie looked up at Fathy. This was going to be a hard one, his expression said.

'Make some tea,' she hissed at him, then, taking the other woman's hands in her own, Annie knelt down beside her.

'Mr Jaffrey's been found, Sara. He's not coming back, though.

You know that, don't you?'

The black eyes full of tears stared at Annie uncomprehendingly.

'You'll find him, yes?'

Annie shook her head. 'He's not coming back, Sara,' she repeated gently. 'The other officers who came here, they told you that, didn't they?'

Sara Jaffrey continued to look at DC Irvine, eyes wide with disbelief then the first tears brimmed over and a quiet keening noise issued from her lips.

'We have to ask you things about your husband, Sara,' Annie continued gently. Tut if it's too much we can always come back?'

The woman looked blank for a moment then gave a ripple of sobs that ended in a long sigh.

'What can I tell you?' she replied, her voice thick with emotion.

'When did Mr Jaffrey disappear?' Annie asked.

There was a short pause and Annie realised that Sara Jaffrey was probably struggling to remember what day of the week it was.

'He didn't come home on Friday night,' she said at last. 'My son…' she broke off as Fathy entered bearing a tray of steaming mugs. 'No, thank you,' she said, a tremulous smile directed at the handsome young Egyptian. 'Perhaps later..

Fathy set the tray down on a small table next to the chair and stood beside the door, nodding his compliance at the two women.

With Fathy in the room a small change had come over Jaffrey's widow; a man commanded respect and she should comply with that, her straightening back and folded hands seemed to say.

'You were telling us when you saw your husband?' Annie prompted the woman once more.

Sara Jaffrey drew her scarf a little closer to her face in a gesture that both officers recognised: there was something she wanted to keep from them.

'My son thought his daddy would come home soon,' she said at last, casting her eyes downwards.

Perhaps that was half a truth, Annie thought. More likely she'd been told not to contact the police. `So you didn't worry?'

Sara Jaffrey's eyes flashed and they caught a flicker of indignation. 'Of course, I worried!' she told them. 'What am I? A wife without feelings?'

'But your son told you not to worry, surely? Didn't he, Sara?'

Fathy said, adopting an utterly reasonable tone.

'Yes, he did,' Sara agreed.

'What was he doing out in Mallorca, Sara?' Fathy asked.

'Oh, he was on his gap year,' the woman told them, her voice more confident now that she thought they were on safer ground.

'My Rashid will be going to Caledonian University,' she added proudly.

'And he bumped into an old family friend while he was there, didn't he?' Annie said.

Sara Jaffrey gave a little frown as though she were unable to remember.

'Billy Brogan, Mr Jaffrey's good friend,' Annie prompted, smiling.

The woman's face cleared. `Ah, yes. Mr Brogan is big family friend,' she nodded. 'Well liked by many of our neighbours, here in Pollokshields.'

'Just a coincidence that he was taking a wee holiday while Rashid was there, then?'

Sara frowned again, looking from one to the other. But whatever she saw in the two officers' faces must have reassured her.

'Yes, of course. Rashid had no idea that he was there. We thought…' she put her hand to her mouth as though she had already said too much.

'Yes, Sara, where did you think Mr Brogan would have been instead?'

But the woman was looking away now, fingers fidgeting on her lap. r 'How about that cup of' tea?' Annie suggested. 'Then maybe you can tell us more about Billy, eh?'

Solly sat with his head in his hands, staring at the pattern on the carpet. For the life of him he could not begin to understand what the woman had meant.

'She said she was grateful to me,' he murmured.

'Well maybe she meant that you'd been a great teacher?' Rosie suggested.

Solly raised his head and looked mournfully at his wife. 'No. It was more than that.'

His sigh seemed to fill the room. 'Lorimer reckons I saw her the day after her husband was killed.' He raised his eyebrows in a mute appeal.

'So what does that tell you?'

'I don't know,' SoIly shook his head. 'She was so…' his eyes lost their focus as he paused to remember. 'Animated. Yes, that's the right word, I think. Quite unlike the student I recalled from our seminars,' he insisted.

'And you think she was happy for a reason?' Rosie asked slowly.

'If her husband had been stalking her and she knew that he was dead, maybe that would be cause enough,' she went on.

'But why thank me? I didn't stop any of the things in her life,'

Solly replied, though in truth he was speaking more to himself now than to Rosie.