A Lesser Evil - Lesley Pearse [157]
‘Would they? I suspect if they were dressed like builders and said your name, perhaps even the site you worked on, that would be enough for Fifi,’ Harry rubbed his hands on his face. ‘We all know how impulsive she is.’
Clara began to cry soundlessly, tears cascading down her cheeks.
‘I’m so sorry, Mrs Brown,’ Dan said, and impulsively moved over to her, sinking to his knees in front of her and taking her hand. ‘I know you don’t think much of me, and something like this happening to her must just confirm your worst fears about me.’
She didn’t brush his hand away. ‘I can’t blame you for this,’ she said with a sigh. ‘Fifi was always one for poking her nose into things she shouldn’t. I told her a hundred times or more that her curiosity would get her into trouble one day.’
There was silence for a few moments. Then Harry cleared his throat again. ‘She’d only been back at work for one day,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘So whoever did it hadn’t had any time to watch her and find out her routine. No one would wait indefinitely in the hope she might come along the road, would they?’
Dan got off his knees and went back to his chair. ‘Then maybe it was someone from round here, someone that’s known her since before she was off work with her broken arm. They’d know about where I worked too.’ He looked despairingly at his father-in-law. ‘But there’s dozens of people that know all that, Fifi talked to just about everyone. And she’s the kind of girl anyone would notice.’
‘Did she tell anyone about your row?’ Harry asked.
‘It doesn’t look like it,’ Dan replied. ‘She didn’t even tell Frank downstairs, and none of the girls at her work knew.’
‘Did you tell anyone?’ Harry asked.
‘Well, I didn’t actually talk about it, but most of the blokes knew I’d stayed with Pete over the weekend. A couple of them were taking the mick on Monday because I was miserable. Why d’you ask that, this hasn’t got anything to do with our row, surely?’
‘Well,’ Harry said, and paused. ‘It would be much easier to convince someone to hop in their car to see their husband, if they knew you hadn’t been together just an hour or so before. I mean, if I was walking to work and someone told me Clara was ill or she’d had an accident, I’d say, “Hold on, she was all right when I left.” Do you see what I mean?’
Dan nodded. ‘So they’d really need to know both things. That we’d fallen out and that Fifi was back at work?’
‘I’d say so. Did you tell anyone at work about that?’
‘Yeah, I did,’ Dan said. ‘It was at dinnertime in the hut on Monday. I didn’t have any sandwiches and Owen the chippy said I ought to nip home and make it up with Fifi and get some grub while I was there.’
‘And you said she would be at work?’ Harry asked.
Dan nodded.
‘How many men heard that?’
‘Owen, Pete, Roger, Chas.’ Dan ticked them off on his fingers, his brow furrowed as he tried to remember who had been there. ‘Oh, and Ozzie, five in all.’
‘So why don’t we give these five names to the police and get them to check if any of them have got criminal records?’
Dan looked aghast. ‘I can’t do that! Anyway, it couldn’t have been any of them, they were all there on Tuesday morning.’
‘Yes, but they could have passed the information on to someone else,’ Harry said.
‘Don’t be silly, Harry,’ Clara said. ‘Why on earth would one of Dan’s workmates want to pass on information about Fifi?’
‘Well, they wouldn’t under normal circumstances, but they might if they had some involvement with whoever killed Bolton.’ Harry got up from his chair and went over to the window. He gazed out thoughtfully for some little time, then turned back to look at Dan. ‘I know it’s a long shot, but I still think we should speak to the police about it. We’ll go down there now, and while we’re there I’m going to insist that they issue a press release on Fifi and Yvette being missing.’
Clara looked up at her husband fearfully. ‘Won’t that make it even more dangerous for Fifi?’ she said in a quivering voice.
‘A picture of Fifi in the papers might just