Until It's Over by Nicci French Read Free Book Online Page A

walked over and sat opposite me. ‘Why?’
    ‘I talked to the policeman and told him I had pretty much nothing to say, and then I heard that some people had been arrested so I thought that was the last I’d hear of it all.’
    He leaned back on his chair with his hands laced behind his head and looked thoughtful. ‘This morning we charged the four young tearaways…’
    ‘So why…?’
    ‘With breaking and entering. Namely Mrs Farrell’s car.’
    ‘If they did that, they must have killed her as well.’
    ‘Did someone offer you coffee?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘You’ll probably be asked to fill in a form so that we can improve our service to the public. It asks questions like were you made comfortable, were you offered refreshments.’
    ‘Well, I was.’
    ‘I’m glad to hear it.’
    ‘You were telling me about the murder.’
    ‘Was I?’ said Mitchell. ‘Oh, yes. We have CCTV cameras rigged up at various entry-points at the William Morris flats. We clocked these four gentlemen wandering past the Dyson Street camera at eleven forty p.m. on their way out of the estate, and fourteen minutes later we clocked them coming back, passing between them a bottle of Bacardi rum they had lifted from Mrs Farrell’s car.’
    ‘So they did it.’
    ‘They didn’t force entry to her car, because it seems to have been unlocked – perhaps because of damage done to it during your collision. They didn’t bother with the CD player. You can’t give them away now. But they emptied her shopping and took two bottles of spirits and her mobile phone, which was attached to the in-car charger.’
    ‘It doesn’t sound worth killing someone for.’
    Mitchell shrugged. ‘The first murder I ever worked on, a kid was killed by a classmate because he wouldn’t hand over his lunch money. Anyway, the receipt was still in one of the bags. It showed that Mrs Farrell completed her purchases at Tesco at seven twenty-eight p.m. What time was it that you saw her?’
    ‘It was a bit before eight.’
    ‘You’ll see the problem. We found Mrs Farrell’s body partially concealed behind the dustbins in the area down by the basement at the front of her house. She had been strangled and there were some signs of robbery. Her purse was missing, and so, according to her husband, were her watch and necklace. She had left her car unlocked and the burglar alarm inside her house was still engaged. You see?’
    ‘Not really,’ I said.
    At that moment the door opened and PC Prebble came into the room with a plastic mug of coffee. He placed it on the table with two small plastic milk capsules, two sachets of sugar and a dish on which lay two digestive biscuits. ‘I didn’t know if you took sugar or milk,’ he said, ‘or if you were hungry.’
    ‘Just black is fine,’ I said, and took a sip. It was stewed and lukewarm.
    Prebble didn’t leave. He took one of the seats in the corner and sat on it. Mitchell gave a sign and continued: ‘At about eight o’clock, Mrs Farrell opens her car door and you collide with it. She helps you and is profusely apologetic, but your housemates appear on the scene and take over. Is that right?’
    ‘Dario and Davy were sitting out on the steps having a… er… just chatting and they saw what happened and came and helped me.’
    ‘Mrs Farrell has her shopping in the car. She leaves you to be helped into the house. What is she going to do next?’
    ‘Go into her house, I suppose.’
    ‘Collect her shopping, take it inside. But from what we can tell, she never went back to her car to take out the shopping and never opened her front door. Her husband was away that night, and the lads from the estate didn’t arrive until four hours later.’
    I thought for a moment. ‘On the other hand, they could have attacked her, concealed her body and come back later to rob her car. Under the cover of darkness.’
    Mitchell’s hitherto grim face broke into a broad smile and he looked across at Prebble, who smiled back. ‘It’s a