Jane Renshaw - Watch Over Me

It had been a simple process for Mum, in the name of Elizabeth Susan Innes, to order copies of her marriage certificate and the birth certificates of herself and her daughter Ruth from the National Records of Scotland. Then Mum had used the certificates to apply for a brand new National Insurance Number. The fraudster had supplied them with fake school records which had allowed ‘Ruth Innes’ to attend high school and then university.

Their new ghost identities were solid enough to allow them to do anything they needed to do, with one exception: it was too risky to apply for passports, so foreign trips and holidays had been out of the question. But that had been a small price to pay to allow them to leave Rachel Clark and what she’d done behind them.

Ruth had, though, made a terrible mistake. When she’d registered Mum’s death, she had given her real maiden name of Hertz. She’d been in shock, she supposed, and not thinking straight. But the discrepancy wasn’t something that anyone was going to pick up, surely? And if they did, they’d just assume – and rightly so – that Ruth had made a mistake under stress.

She laced her hands together on the table in front of her and made eye contact with Kojak.

‘It was the Johnsons,’ she said. ‘It must have been the Johnsons. They must have killed him.’

He looked away to the screen of his laptop and, as if she hadn’t spoken, said, ‘How were things at home, between you and your husband?’

‘They were fine!’

That had sounded so forced. So unconvincing.

‘This business with the Johnsons. I understand that, two years ago, after a mistake by Social Services led to the Johnson family learning your names and address, you changed your names, your husband found a new job, and you moved here. But they found you again. Cautions were issued to Jed, Ryan and Travis Johnson concerning breach of the court order in respect of the closed adoption. They were harassing you. That must all have been extremely stressful for both you and Neil.’

Flora nodded. ‘It was. But we were coping.’

‘Your husband was charged with assaulting Carly Johnson. A pregnant woman. How did you feel about that?’

Flora took a breath. ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t see the relevance… I thought I was here to talk about… about what happened yesterday?’

Alec is dead .

He was actually dead . Gone.

Forever.

All he would be from now on was a list of nevers . The papers he’d never write, the students he’d never inspire. The wife and daughter he’d never see, never speak to, never hold in his arms again.

Never never never never .

Alec.

‘We’ll get to that, don’t worry. How did you feel about Neil’s assault on Carly Johnson?’

‘Neil… He’d just gone round there to their house to talk to them, and this girl stood at the gate blocking his way, and he just sort of tried to push past… It wasn’t an assault .’

‘Did you have a difference of opinion as to how to deal with the Johnsons?’

Who had they been speaking to? Ailish? What might Ailish have heard, over the garden wall?

‘Neil was always inclined to give people the benefit of the doubt. I was… I suppose I’m more of a cynic. I didn’t trust them.’ Her voice broke. ‘But I’m not exactly ecstatic to have been proved right.’

‘So you argued about it?’

‘Yes, we disagreed, and we did argue about it when the Johnsons were hassling us. But they haven’t been near us for months. There was no reason for us –’ And she stopped, realising the huge mistake she’d just made.

‘The Johnsons hadn’t been near you for months. Okay. Now, do you have anything to add to the statement you made yesterday?’

‘No… No, I don’t think so.’

‘You’ve told us everything that happened, from when you got home from the beach to when the paramedics arrived?’

‘Yes. I think so. Everything I can remember. I was – some of it’s a bit hazy, as I think I said yesterday. I suppose I was in shock.’

He gave her a long look. ‘Okay then, Mrs Parry, thank you. I do have some more questions, but first I’m going to hand over to DI Murray. All right?’

Flora nodded.

And it was DI Murray’s turn to lean forward in his chair and make eye contact. He was saying he was from Haghill in Glasgow. And he was talking about Saskia.

Not Neil.

Saskia.

‘A witness, a shopkeeper, saw a woman matching your description on the day in question, walking along Renfrew Road in a westerly direction at the relevant time, turning into Quarryfield Lane and getting into a red Ford Ka. The witness has also been able to give us the registration number.’

All Flora could do was stare at him.

‘Mrs Parry?’

‘Yes.’

‘Were you that woman?’

And before she could do anything about it, the silence had stretched on too long for a denial.

‘Yes. I – I’d gone to see Saskia, to ask her some questions about the Johnsons. I tried the buzzer, I tried all the buzzers, but I couldn’t get a response. So… I just came home.’

‘I see. And why didn’t you come forward with this information?’

She swallowed. ‘Because I didn’t see anything. There was no point. And – to be honest, I didn’t want the hassle. We had enough to deal with, so…’

‘You weren’t at any time in Saskia Mair’s flat?’

‘No. Well, I was before. Neil and I went to see her after we found out she’d been suspended, and why.’

DI Murray leant back in his chair. ‘Okay, here’s our problem with that. The witness who saw you getting into your car says you were wearing a grey hoodie. And there’s a grey hoodie, according to Mr Mair, missing from Saskia Mair’s wardrobe.’

Silence.

Flora looked from him to Sue, sitting alongside him taking notes on another laptop.

‘I found her!’ she blurted. ‘Okay, yes, I was in the flat, I found Saskia... I found her dead! I’m a nurse – I used to be a nurse, I knew she was dead, I knew there was no point calling an ambulance…’

DI Murray nodded at her, a little smile of satisfaction tweaking at his mouth. ‘But surely that would have been the normal thing to do? Call 999? Ask for the police, if not an ambulance?’

‘I couldn’t! The Johnsons – the Johnsons were obviously trying to set me up! Why would I kill Saskia?’

‘Saskia Mair hurt your daughter.’

‘Yes, but only so she could get her away from them! If she hadn’t, Beckie would still be with those monsters! It’s the Johnsons who hated Saskia. It’s the Johnsons who had a motive for killing her, just like they’ve killed Neil – surely you can see that? The Johnsons must have killed both him and Saskia. They’re – they’re criminals.’ Not like me . ‘They’re psychopaths! They’re trying to set me up for Saskia’s murder and for Neil’s!’

DI Murray raised an eyebrow.

‘You’ve been ages ,’ Beckie accused when Flora walked into Caroline’s living room. She jumped up from the sofa, where she’d been sitting with Caroline watching TV, and clamped her arms around Flora’s waist.

Flora stroked her hair. ‘I know, darling. I’m sorry.’

‘Why were you so long?’

‘Well, there was a bit of waiting around. And then the police had some more questions.’ She kissed Beckie’s hair. ‘They’re being very thorough, trying to find out… well. What happened.’

‘Do they know it was the Johnsons?’

‘No darling, no one knows yet exactly what happened. We have to just let the police deal with that now, and concentrate on trying to… trying to do what Dad would have wanted us to, don’t you think? Of course we’re very sad and we miss him so terribly much – but that doesn’t mean we can’t still do normal things. He wouldn’t want us to be miserable the whole time, would he?’