AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘I came home just after midnight. I thought Joyce… I thought my gran was in the living room, but she wasn’t and then I saw the television was all smashed so I… I began to panic…’
He tells them as best he can. No, there was no one else here, at least he doesn’t think so, not when he got here. No, he didn’t go into the kitchen, has not been in any other rooms since he got back. He was waiting with Joyce, keeping her company, you know?
‘I didn’t want her to be alone. Or cold. Even though she was… I mean, I knew she was…’
Maddy tells him it’s OK, to take his time. He nods and sips his tea, takes the tissue offered to him, wishes Naomi had answered the phone. He wishes she were here so she could hold his hand and share this ocean of sadness, this abyss that is pulling him towards it, pulling him in. He wants his boy, wants him in his arms. He wants his family. He needs them.
‘Can you tell us how you came to discover your grandmother?’
‘Sorry. Yes. I was in the living room? I saw she’d left her scarf and her shot glass. She has… she has a nightcap, you know? Amaretto. She loves it, loves almonds. Sorry, I’m only remembering that now. And come to think of it, she hadn’t cleared away her ashtray either. She has a… roll-up. So yes, so, I… I checked the garden, I think. The back door was open. I could feel the cold air. That’s how I knew it was open. Anyway, yes, I went out. I… Wait… I checked the shed. And the spade. The spade was missing.’
‘The spade,’ Stuart repeats.
‘All the other tools were there. They have their own individual hooks, you know? But the shovel wasn’t… it wasn’t there.’ Dimly Sam is aware of Maddy leaving them, her voice talking to someone on her phone out in the hallway.Check the shed, is all he hears.
Refocusing, he tells Stuart he ran upstairs as fast as he could, found her bedroom trashed, his grandmother all but unconscious on the floor. No, he has no idea if anything has been taken. He could check the safe, yes, but they would have needed the combination. No one knows the combination apart from himself and Joyce. No one even knows where the safe is.
The phone rings. It is Naomi.
‘Sam,’ she says, her voice sleepy. ‘Did you call me on purpose, love?’
He breaks down. ‘Oh God,’ he says. ‘Something terrible has happened.’
‘Sam?’ She sounds suddenly awake. ‘Oh my God, are you OK? What’s happened? Can you tell me?’
‘It’s Joyce. She’s been…’ Murdered, he thinks. She has been murdered. He has not yet had this thought, but now here it is, and he will never not think it, never not know it. ‘She’s dead,’ he whispers. ‘There’s been a burglary. She must’ve disturbed them, oh God.’
‘What?Dead? Joyce? She can’t be. How can… Are yousure? Oh myGod.’
‘I was out. I just got back and she was…’ He glances up at the liaison officer; she smiles sympathetically. ‘Can my fiancée come over?’ he asks her; she nods. ‘Can you come?’ he says down the line.
‘Of course, darling. Just let me call Jo, OK? Toms is still asleep. Just… hold on, OK? I’ll be there as soon as I can.’
He closes the call, smiles doubtfully at Stuart. ‘She was asleep. She’s calling her sister to come. For the baby, you know?’
The police officer nods, takes the rest of his statement. At a certain point, his mobile rings. He answers the call and a moment later leaves the room. More police have arrived at the house; Sam can hear them in the hallway.
‘Why are there more police?’
‘That’ll be forensics,’ Maddy tells him.
Forensics. My God.
Stuart returns, asks Sam if he has anywhere he can stay tonight.
‘I’d rather stay here. I can sleep on the couch. I don’t think I’ll sleep anyway. I don’t want to be away from her. I can’t leave this house.’
‘What about your partner’s place?’
He shakes his head, no.
‘That’s all right,’ Maddy says. ‘I’ll be here for a good while anyway. I can stay if necessary. Let me freshen that tea.’ She lifts the mug from his hands, moves away on soft soles.
Stuart is sitting back down, pen and notepad in his hands. ‘You think this person came in through the back?’
‘Yes. The door was wide open. Joyce must have forgotten to lock it.’
Stuart scribbles notes. ‘And are there any spare keys to the back?’
