The Silent Suspect by Nell Pattison (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud .TXT) 📗

valuable or sentimental in the items that went missing? Sasha asked. I knew she was wondering if there was anything worth killing for, but if Nadia’s clients were mostly elderly I couldn’t imagine any of them being viable suspects in her murder. It was worth looking into though, in case a family heirloom had gone missing and a relative of one of her clients felt cheated out of their inheritance.

But Paul was shaking his head again. ‘No, nothing like that. It was mostly cash that the client said they had kept in a drawer or a handbag, and there’s no way we can prove it even existed. One woman said her jewellery box had been rifled, but then she couldn’t say if anything was missing. It was all very circumstantial.’

Sasha looked thoughtful, her brows pulled together as she processed this information. And you’re sure Nadia was the only one it could have been?

‘Well, she was the only carer who visited all of the clients who complained, but I don’t believe she could have done anything like that. She was very conscientious; a hard worker and she valued her job. I feel like some of my staff only do this job because they need something to pay the bills, not because they actually care about the clients. But Nadia was different – she genuinely cared. She enjoyed their company, and in turn they enjoyed hers. I know my mum always asked for her first.’ A wistful look came into Paul’s eyes, and he looked away for a moment. I wondered how long it was since his mum had passed away. If it was recent, the shock of losing a friend and colleague would be even harder to bear when he was already grieving.

‘Can I go and see Lukas?’ he asked us a moment later, after swallowing hard.

‘That depends if he’ll see you. You’ll have to speak to the police and see if he’s allowed visitors,’ I said. ‘I don’t know anything about that side of things.’ I wondered if there was any point, as Lukas had refused to communicate with everyone else he’d seen, but it couldn’t hurt for a friend to go and see him.

He nodded, then stood up. ‘Thank you for taking the time to speak to me, both of you. I’ll need to contact the rest of my staff and let them know what’s happened, as well as deal with the practicalities of reallocating Nadia’s shifts. Sorry, that makes me sound callous, but I can’t have clients being missed out.’

Sasha and I nodded our understanding. On our way out, I stopped to look at some of the photographs on the wall and spotted one of Nadia with an elderly lady. Was that Paul’s mother? I turned back to ask him, but he was picking up the phone and gave me a dismissive wave.

Do you think any of that could provide a motive for Nadia’s murder? Sasha asked me once we were outside.

That depends on a lot of things. Did she steal something valuable that someone wanted back? Or was she framed for the thefts, and found out who the real thief was? I hadn’t really known Nadia, but I was inclined to believe Paul’s assessment of her as honest – it wouldn’t be in the interests of his professional reputation to cover up something like that.

We definitely need to find out more, but I think we’ve outstayed our welcome for today.

As we were driving away, I noticed a familiar figure walking towards the office: Caroline. Of course, how could I have missed that? Caroline had been wearing a carer’s uniform when we spoke to her earlier. I hadn’t realised that she and Nadia worked together, but perhaps Caroline’s reluctance to talk to us was connected to the accusations against Nadia. Whatever she was hiding, we now had another reason to talk to her, if she’d let us in the door.

Chapter 11

I spent the rest of the afternoon brooding over what I’d learnt and discussed with Sasha. Despite not wanting to get sucked into the investigation, I really wanted to know exactly what Jill Adams had said in her statement to the police. Had they delved deeper and discovered the ambiguity in what she was saying, or had they just taken her assertion that Lukas and Nadia were fighting at face value? I thought it was unlikely that Singh would give me that information, but I could ask him to look at what she’d said more closely, or maybe get a uniformed officer to interview her again.

Then, a worrying thought struck me. What if she realised that I’d found a hole in her story, and she changed it? What if she now told the police she’d definitely heard Lukas’s voice too? From what she’d told me about reporting them to the council to try and get them evicted, I wouldn’t be surprised if she did something like that just to be spiteful, not realising the devastating consequences for Lukas.

Sitting down at the table in the kitchen, I pulled out the yellow notebook, reminding myself that I’d have to get Anna a new one at some point. I found the page where I’d noted down the date and time I’d spoken to Jill Adams, and read back the notes I’d made, adding in anything else I remembered. Below that, I added what Paul Ilford had told us about Nadia and the accusations of theft. I hadn’t been able to make notes at the time because I’d been signing for Sasha.

There were so many questions going round in my mind, things I wanted to discuss with Sasha as well as things I wanted to ask Singh, that I knew I needed to write them down to try and get my thoughts in order. I supposed I couldn’t really blame the detectives for their attitude – after all, Lukas was the most obvious suspect and wouldn’t defend himself. What else were they expected to do, other than arrest him? I