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

I thought for a moment, then picked up my notebook and flicked to a page, pointing to one of my scribbles.

The thefts. I wasn’t prepared to back down on this one. Paul Ilford told us he had to change her shifts because several clients accused her of theft. Maybe she knew who the real thief was, and they killed her to keep her quiet.

You’re assuming Nadia wasn’t the thief, Sasha replied, with a tilt of her head. Maybe she was.

I wasn’t going to be deterred. In which case, maybe she took something that was far more valuable than she realised – either monetary value, or sentimental – and someone was desperate to get it back.

They wouldn’t kill her then, would they? Sasha reasoned.

They might, if she’d sold it on and they couldn’t find it. Or once they’d got it back, they could have just killed her in a rage. I sighed. All I’m saying is that we’re speculating, we don’t have any evidence, so we can’t fixate on one suspect. I have no problem with speculation, but if we don’t keep an open mind about it then we risk being as blinkered as you think the police are.

From the look on Sasha’s face I was sure she was going to argue with me again, but eventually she nodded.

Fine, we’ll consider all angles for now. But that means still looking further into Roy’s connection to Lukas and his movements on the day Nadia was murdered, as well as seeing what we can find out about the thefts.

I nodded, knowing that this compromise was the best I could hope for, but I was still uneasy. I wanted to help Sasha and Lukas, but I was mindful of Singh’s warning not to get involved. What Sasha was suggesting would involve more digging, and I didn’t know where to draw the line.

I have an idea, she continued, but I’m going to need your help. I think it’s best if a hearing person does it, and if he figures out who I am it could look bad for me.

She outlined her plan and I felt my heart sink. I wasn’t keen to do it, but if it meant we could rule out Roy as a suspect it was probably worth it. We spent a while discussing what I was going to do the following day, before I left Sasha to her emails.

On my way out of the door, I sent a quick text. I knew Sasha had her own way of going about this, but I had a nagging feeling that there was something she wasn’t telling me. Even though she had dismissed Mariusz’s visit, I wondered if there had been something he couldn’t bring himself to tell us. As he’d left, the words he’d muttered had been so quiet I might have misheard him, but I thought he’d said, ‘It’s all my fault.’

Chapter 13

Fifteen minutes later, my car door opened and DS Singh got into the passenger seat. I’d sent him a message asking if we could talk, and he’d told me to meet him outside the police station.

‘Aren’t we going in?’ I asked.

‘No, Forest’s in a foul mood for some reason. Better if we go somewhere else.’

‘Fine by me. Where to?’

In the end, we drove a few minutes round the corner to Scunthorpe’s Central Park. The old civic building had been closed down and was being converted into a new university campus and the car park was blocked off, so we drove round and parked by the children’s playground before getting out and going for a walk.

‘What did you want to talk to me about?’ Singh asked. I was surprised by the lack of small talk; I appreciated that he’d taken time out of his day to see me, but it would have been nice to catch up a bit with him. When we’d been sitting close to each other in the car I’d tried not to notice how nice he smelled, or the slight tingle I felt in my skin when he looked at me.

‘Lukas Nowak,’ I replied, and he nodded to show that he’d assumed that much by himself. I thought for a moment about where was best to begin, then stopped and faced him.

‘On the night he was arrested, I went into his room to see him, before Sasha arrived. He told me that he knew who was responsible for Nadia’s murder.’

Singh frowned. ‘Who?’

‘He didn’t say who, just that he knew who it was,’ I explained. ‘But then when Sasha arrived, he didn’t say the same thing to her.’

Singh folded his arms and looked away for a moment, up the path towards the fountain. ‘Paige, why didn’t you tell me this? When we were questioning him, or when you gave your statement?’

I grimaced, feeling stupid, and knowing I deserved the annoyance I could see written all over his face. ‘I’m sorry. I had this idea in my head that maybe he’d deliberately told me that to manipulate me, but I realise now I should have told you. I’m sorry,’ I repeated.

He nodded to show that I was forgiven. ‘I mean, I know it’s not evidence,’ I continued. ‘I might have been right, and he could have just been saying that to try and convince me he’s innocent, but then why wouldn’t he say the same thing to you?’

We’d come to a bench so I stopped and sat down, resting my elbows on my knees. He sat next to me, stretching his arm along the back of the bench for a moment before he caught my eye. He gave a shy little laugh, then pulled his arm back and clasped his hands together.

‘You’re right, it’s not evidence, and if he’d told us he knew who killed his wife but then wouldn’t say who it was, I don’t think I would have believed him. Have you any idea why he’d tell you that, then refuse to speak to us? Has he