Garnethill by Denise Mina by Garnethill Read Free Book Online Page A

tagged and sealed inside. She turned the bag over. The soles still showed traces of dried blood. "Yeah, they're my slippers, but I don't see how they could be covered in blood. I left them in the cupboard, I haven't worn them for days."
    "But they are your slippers?"
    "Yeah, they're mine."
    McEwan dropped the bag back in the box and fitted a cardboard lid on it. She put Benny's packet of cigarettes on the table, took one out and lit it.
    McEwan watched resentfully as she inhaled. "I want to ask you again," he said. "Did you go into the living room when you saw the body?"
    "No. I definitely didn't go in there."
    "Did you go into the hall cupboard?"
    McMummb looked excitedly from Maureen to McEwan and back again. The question was clearly significant.
    "No. I didn't go in there either."
    "Okay," he said slowly, and jotted something in his notebook, stabbing a full stop at the end of the sentence. "Right, next thing, do you have any idea where Douglas's key to your house might be?"
    She thought for a moment. "He had it, I dunno, wasn't it in his pocket?"
    "No. Was he in the habit of putting it down somewhere in the house when he came in, say, on the hall table, somewhere like that?"
    "No, he kept his keys in his pocket. Are you sure it wasn't on him?"
    "No. We've been pretty thorough."
    "It wasn't in his jacket pocket?"
    McEwan sneered. " 'Thorough' would usually include his pockets."
    She thought about it with a rising sense of panic. "Could the man who killed him have taken it?"
    McEwan shrugged. "We don't know where it is," he said.
    Maureen slumped back in her chair. "My God, he's got a key to my house."
    "You're very sure it's a man, Maureen."
    "I'm guessing."
    "Of course, he may not have had the key on him." McEwan spoke slowly, watching for a reaction. "He could have got into the house some other way."
    "I didn't let him in, if that's what you're hinting at," she said. "I would have remembered."
    "Yes," said McEwan, tip-and-tailing the skinny pencil noisily on the table. He smiled up at her. "Do you know Douglas's wife, Elsbeth Brady?"
    "No."
    "You've never met her?"
    "No."
    He asked her to go through her movements yesterday morning and afternoon. She repeated the details she had given Inness at the house that morning: she went to work at nine-thirty and didn't leave until six o'clock. McEwan asked her carefully whether she had been out of the office for longer than a few minutes, say for lunch. She definitely hadn't. She'd been in the office with Liz all day, they could ask her if they liked.
    "We will," said McEwan, and closed his notebook. "Incidentally, your mother has been phoning here all day. She keeps demanding to speak to you. I suggest you phone her. She's been getting more and more . . . upset."
    "Right." Maureen knew full well what Winnie had been getting more and more. "I'm sorry if she's been bothering you."
    McEwan brushed over it. "Talking of mothers, do you know Douglas Brady's mother?"
    "I've seen photos of her in the paper."
    "But you've never met her?"
    Maureen shook her head.
    "Well," said McEwan, "we'll try to keep this out of the papers for as long as possible but there is going to be a lot of interest in it because she's an MEP. I don't want you talking to the press."
    "Right," she said, her heart sinking at the thought of Drunk Winnie's propensity to talk and talk and talk. She couldn't be with her all the time and Drunk Winnie's very favorite subject was family secrets and how shitty her kids were.
    She gave him Benny's name, address and telephone number. They wouldn't allow her into her own house unescorted; if she wanted to go home to get anything she would need to phone in advance and they would arrange for an officer to be present.
    "Why?"
    "In case you disturb any evidence we haven't collected yet."
    "You surely don't suspect me?"
    "We don't know who did it yet," he said, looking at his pencil in a manner that strongly suggested he did.
    As he was showing her out they ran into Elsbeth in the