Deborah Crombie - In A Dark House

“Good.” Kincaid gave her a reassuring smile. “Believe me, the sooner we get this done, the better for everyone. Now, I understand you don’t use the upstairs bathroom. Is that right?” When Fanny nodded assent, he turned to Gemma and Winnie. “Did either of you use the basin or throw anything away in the bathroom?”

Winnie shook her head as Gemma said, “I didn’t. But I think we both looked in the medicine cabinet, and I looked in the cupboard over the toilet.”

“Your hair should be fairly easy to rule out if you shed one or two in the basin.” He shot her an affectionate glance. “But I’ll try the tub first, as that way we can eliminate Winnie more easily. What about the bed? Did either of you turn back the sheets?”

Gemma gave Winnie a questioning look before answering for them both. “No.”

Kincaid turned back to Fanny. “Anyone else have access to the upstairs?”

“No. I can’t remember when anyone else has been up there, until Winnie and Gemma came yesterday. Elaine did the cleaning herself. I told her I’d pay someone to come in, but she always wanted to save me money.”

“Right, then. I’ll get started.”

As Kincaid climbed the stairs, he felt a profound sense of relief. It wasn’t just the suffocating atmosphere in the room, he realized – Fanny Liu herself had made him uncomfortable. He was accustomed to dealing with people suffering from the grief and shock that accompanied a tragedy. Was it her illness that put him off? Of course he felt sorry for her. But if forced, he’d have to admit his pity was tinged with revulsion.

Feeling a flush of shame at his reaction to someone handicapped, he stopped at the head of the stairs. For a moment, he imagined Gemma struck down with some unexpected and devastating disease, confined to a wheelchair. Would he respond the same way? The thought horrified him.

But Gemma would rail against fate – she would be cranky and cross and difficult, and she would find a way to get on with her life. It was not Fanny’s physical condition that bothered him, he realized, but the fact that she radiated neediness. The woman wore her vulnerability like a flag. If Elaine Holland had taken advantage of her, it would come as no surprise. But if Fanny Liu was the victim in that relationship, what had happened to Elaine Holland?

Gemma had to force herself not to follow Kincaid as he left the room. Her natural instinct was always for action. She wanted to be doing something, not sitting in the too-quiet room, watching as Fanny seemed to shrink before her eyes. It seemed to her that the woman’s flesh had melted away from her bones just since yesterday, and with Kincaid’s departure Fanny had sunk even further into herself, as if she’d used up all her energy reserves.

The creaking of Kincaid’s footsteps as he moved about above them was clearly audible. Gemma found herself straining for the next sound, willing him to hurry. Beside her, Winnie sat quietly, and Gemma envied her supportive patience. But then she’d never been much good at hand-holding, even as a constable – and fortunately, these days her job allowed her to delegate such things to those more suited for it.

Then Winnie’s phone rang, breaking the silence. After a murmured conversation, Winnie rang off and stood. “I’m sorry. I’ve got to run over to the church office for a bit. Fanny, I’ll be back as soon as I can.” She leaned down to give Fanny a brief hug, then said quietly to Gemma as she went out, “Stop in at the office before you go?”

Winnie’s departure seemed to have roused Fanny. She sat a little straighter in her chair and focused her dark gaze on Gemma. “I still don’t understand why Elaine would have been in a warehouse. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Maybe she didn’t know Michael Yarwood, but could she have been meeting someone else?” suggested Gemma, quick to take advantage of the opening.

“Who? Elaine went to work and came home. She didn’t socialize.”

“Someone from work, then?”

“She didn’t really like anyone in her department. She never went along when the other women met at the pub, or got together for birthday lunches. They invited her, but she said they were cats, all of them, and she’d rather spend her time with…” Fanny faltered for the first time. “With me. And even if she had met someone, what happened to the other person? Why weren’t they burned in the fire?”

Gemma wasn’t about to tell her that, according to the pathologist, the woman in the warehouse had been brutally murdered and left to burn by her companion. Maybe by the time that information was made public and Fanny’s knowledge of it unavoidable, they’d have a positive ID on both murderer and victim. “We don’t know,” she said simply. She did, however, think it was time Fanny knew a little more about her flatmate. “Fanny, you said Elaine never went out. But when I was checking her room yesterday, I found a number of evening things.” When Fanny looked at her blankly, she elaborated. “You know, dressy outfits, high-heeled shoes… Did you ever see her wearing them?”

“Elaine?” Fanny smiled. “No. I can’t imagine. Maybe she used to go out more, before we… before she moved in with me.”

Gemma was unconvinced. She could have sworn that some of the things she’d seen were a good deal less than two years old. “The really odd thing,” she continued, “was that these clothes were hidden away. Did you know there was a storage cupboard in the back of the wardrobe in that room?”

Fanny shook her head. “No. I only bought this house after my parents died, and I got sick not long after. I never really used that room for anything. But why would Elaine want to hide her things?”

“Why would Elaine tell you she didn’t have a mobile phone?” countered Gemma. “I found the box on the shelf in her wardrobe.”

“Elaine has a phone?” Fanny whispered.

“It certainly looks that way.” Gemma thought for a moment. “Fanny, didn’t you say that the evening before Elaine disappeared, she was late home from work?”

“Yes. But that wasn’t unusual. Elaine often worked late. She said she could get more done when everyone else had gone home.”

It was the classic excuse, thought Gemma, used by many an errant husband or wife, but it had obviously never occurred to Elaine’s housemate to doubt her. “Did you never ring her at work after hours?” she asked, wondering how Fanny could have been so gullible.

“No. I wouldn’t have wanted to interrupt her. She-” Fanny stopped as they heard Kincaid’s tread on the stairs.

“I’ll be off, then,” he said from the doorway. “The sooner I get these samples off to the lab, the better. Miss Liu – Fanny – we’ll let you know as soon as we have a result. Gemma, a word?” He jerked his head towards the door.

Gemma said a quick good-bye to Fanny and followed him out into the street, fuming at being summoned like a lackey. “Did I fail to notice the house was on fire?”

“What? Oh, sorry,” he said distractedly as he unlocked his car and set the collection kit in the passenger seat. “I just got a call from Cullen. Michael Yarwood’s coming into the station to look at the CCTV tape. They’re waiting for me.”

“Did you get anything?” She gestured at the kit.

“Yeah. Quite a bit of hair from the bathtub drain and a few from the bed. And I found some tissues in the bathroom waste bin. Looks like someone had a good cry, and if it wasn’t you or Winnie, we’ll have to assume it was Elaine Holland.” He shoved a hand through his hair impatiently. “Listen, I’ve got to-”

“I’m going to stop by Guy’s Hospital,” said Gemma, making the decision even as she spoke. “I want to see if I can talk to someone in Elaine’s department.”