Asking For Trouble Read Online Free PDF Page B

Fran? I don’t think I can manage to face the police alone!’
    I smiled again. But he was going to have to manage somehow because they’d interview us separately for sure.
    Honestly, I’d never seen so many coppers in my life, not all in one house. They brought all sorts of equipment, lights and cameras and I don’t know what else. It would have been interesting to watch if we hadn’t been at the centre of it all.
    A Detective Sergeant Parry arrived. He had crewcut ginger hair and bright blue eyes too close together. His eyebrows were almost non-existent and possibly by way of compensation he was trying, not very successfully, to grow a moustache. It sprouted unevenly along his upper lip with varying thickness and hue as if it were infected with mange. His manner was sarcastic. Whatever he told him, he obviously didn’t believe any of it.
    ‘All right, what happened?’ He’d produced a notebook and was thumbing wearily through it.
    We told him we didn’t know.
    ‘Don’t give me that. And don’t waste everyone’s time, mine, yours, the inspector’s. Do you know how much an investigation like this costs the taxpayer? No, don’t suppose you do. You lot don’t pay any taxes. Just scroungers, live off the social. Come on, let’s have the whole story.’
    What can you say to someone like that? We said nothing.
    ‘What is this?’ He scowled at us. ‘Someone told you you’ve got a right to silence? Got something to hide?’
    ‘No,’ I said patiently. ‘We already told you that we just don’t know what happened.’
    He sighed. ‘Look, it was a game, right? It went wrong. It was a stupid bet or something. You were pissed out of your skulls at the time. Or high as kites. Which? Both? There will be a post mortem. We’ll find out what you were using. It’ll be much easier if you tell me now. Stand you in good stead before the court.’
    ‘What court?’
    ‘Coroner’s court. What other? Sounds to me as if bad conscience is troubling you.’
    I’d meant to keep cool but at that, I couldn’t. ‘I thought you were supposed to make tactful and sympathetic inquiries when this sort of thing happens – not try and invent something you can stick on us?’
    ‘Sassy little madam, aren’t you?’ He pointed his Biro at me. ‘But you’re talking yourself into a lot of trouble, lady. Don’t cheek me! I’m writing it all down here.’ He tapped the pad. ‘Every word.’
    I told him, ‘That moustache looks like something the cat brought up. Go on, write that down. You’re supposed to write it all down, not just pick out the bits which suit you.’
    He put his notepad and Biro away. ‘All right, have it your own way. We’ll go down to the station and interview you all there. It’ll be recorded on tape. You can make all the smart remarks you want, darling. But when the tape’s played back they won’t sound so clever.’
    I asked, ‘Are we being arrested? What’s the crime?’
    He looked mock-shocked. ‘Of course not, dear! The very idea!’
    I knew we could refuse but, on the other hand, we were hardly flavour of the month and it might be best not to make things worse. So we went.
    They took our fingerprints. I’d never been involved in a suicide enquiry, but this didn’t seem justified to me. I asked why. ‘For elimination. Once we don’t need them any longer, they’ll be destroyed,’ I was told.
    I asked, ‘Elimination from what?’ But I didn’t get any answer.
    They split us all up so that we couldn’t confer. I don’t know where Nev and Squib went. Nev looked awful as he went out, grey-faced, sweating and looking as guilty as hell. I hoped the police realised he wasn’t well.
    I sat for ages in a bare little room, watched by a bored copper who kept scraping his finger round inside his ear and inspecting the tip of it to see what he’d found there. I wished they’d offer me a cup of tea, but they didn’t. Eventually, Parry came again and said Inspector Morgan would like to talk to