Silent Voices

Probably some reference to her infatuation with Simon. The solution was easy.’ Vera looked up, became again their mentor and teacher. ‘Anyone?’
    ‘Danny,’ Holly said, jumping in ahead of Ashworth. ‘He had a pass key.’
    ‘Right! Simon cleared out of the hotel as soon as he could; he was too bright to be seen hanging around there. Not so concerned, you notice, about Danny. He left him to collect the bag and get rid of it, and to bring the notes back to him in Barnard Bridge. But Danny was curious. Who wouldn’t be?’
    ‘So he checked out what was in the bag before he dumped it?’
    ‘Of course. And he wasn’t as cool as he pretended either. He didn’t know Barnard Bridge and got lost on his way to the house. He’d thrown the bag into the weeds at Mallow Cottage before Connie saw him.’
    Ryan Taylor came up to clear the table. By now all the waiting staff had left and they were the only guests remaining. ‘I’m sorry, pet,’ Vera said. ‘You’ll want to be away home. Just throw us out when you’re ready for us to go.’
    ‘No rush,’ he said. ‘I’m staying here tonight.’ He flicked a switch and dimmed all the other lights in the room so that they were spotlit by one dusty chandelier. Vera felt like an actress; she’d always enjoyed performing for an audience and looked around her to make sure she had their full attention. Perhaps when she retired she’d go in for amateur dramatics, though she didn’t see there’d be nearly as much fun in the made-up stuff.
    The background music had been turned off now. Vera thought this was not so much like being on the stage, but in one corner of a huge film set, one of those big dusty hangars, where fantasies were created with bits of hardboard and scraps of velvet and silk.
    ‘So Danny Shaw? If the lads were such friends, why did Simon kill him?’ Ashworth leaned across the table and took Vera’s bottle, poured a large measure into his glass. Oh, Joey boy , Vera thought. What will the perfect wife make of you turning up pissed? You’ll be changing the mucky nappies for the next fortnight.
    ‘Danny started to think he deserved more than a thank-you for helping Simon commit murder,’ Vera said. ‘And maybe he didn’t even get that. If Simon hadn’t taken him for granted, I don’t think he’d have made demands. For him it had all been about friendship.’
    He talked about friendship to Michael Morgan. Michael was preoccupied and not listening properly and, self-centred bastard that he is, he thought Danny was talking about him. Until I asked him about it again this morning.
    ‘So Danny started to blackmail Simon?’ Holly said. Even after a week with little sleep and a bucketful of alcohol, she still looked poised and lovely. Some things in life weren’t fair.
    ‘He was probably more subtle than that. But Bristol’s a university that attracts wealthy folks’ kids. His girlfriend’s parents were minted. He wanted enough cash to feel that he belonged.’ Vera paused. ‘I don’t think he ever would have gone public on Simon, he probably didn’t even threaten to, but Simon couldn’t risk it. That day he borrowed Jenny’s car. He told Hannah he was going to the supermarket and he must have gone shopping on the way home. Cool customer! More like his father than his mother. I’d guess Christopher could be pretty ruthless too, and Veronica just lost it at the end. Did she suspect her son had killed the social worker? Maybe she saw some of the notes he brought home. Maybe she heard the end of a phone conversation with Danny. That was her worst nightmare, that her son was a murderer. That’s why she suddenly became best buddy with Connie Masters. She wanted information, reassurance.’
    ‘Can we get back to Danny Shaw?’ Charlie was struggling to get the words out without slurring. ‘Don’t know about you guys, but I’m going to need my bed pretty soon.’
    ‘Simon strangled him and lit the bonfire with the files from Jenny’s bag. Taking out anything that might point to him first, of course. To implicate Danny in the first murder and just generally muddy the waters.’ Vera beamed to herself and realized how drunk she must look, but she didn’t care. Muddy waters. Good image.
    ‘Then things got to him and he lost all that composure, started to do the “what if” thing, and that’s always dangerous. What if Jenny had gone to interview Connie for her book? Simon hadn’t even realized she was living in the village until I