Silent Voices

for her.
    Vera directed the next question to the boy. ‘Did you know Danny? You went to different schools, but you were about the same age.’
    ‘Yeah, I knew him. I was a bit older, but we had friends in common, went to the same parties. We weren’t close, though.’
    ‘Have you seen him this holiday?’
    Simon hesitated. Because he was trying to remember, or because he had something to hide?
    ‘Once perhaps. A couple of weeks ago in a pub in Hexham.’ He turned to Hannah. ‘Do you remember, sweetie? You were there.’
    ‘Yes,’ she said immediately. ‘Yes, of course.’ But Vera thought she would have said anything to please him.
    ‘Why did you only go out with Danny a couple of times?’ Vera asked her. Hannah was so frail that she wondered if she would manage to answer even something as simple as this.
    ‘Nice body, shame about the personality,’ Hannah said. It wasn’t the first time she’d used the phrase. Perhaps that was how she’d described Danny to Simon. ‘I fancied him like crazy, then I realized he was an arrogant little shit.’
    ‘So you dumped him?’
    ‘Yes.’ Again there was the brief flash of a grin. ‘I think it was a new experience for him.’
    ‘Did he ever meet your mother?’
    Vera asked the question as gently as she could, but still she felt the girl’s sudden pain at the memory.
    ‘Once. At least once. Mum asked him to Sunday lunch.’
    ‘How did it go?’
    ‘It was rather hideous actually.’ Hannah pulled a face. ‘You know how it is when you suddenly see a person through someone else’s eyes? I’d been taken in by Danny. He’d impressed me with his talk, his dreams and his plans for the future. He tried the same stuff with Mum, only he couldn’t impress her. She was perfectly pleasant and tactful, but it was obvious to me that she couldn’t stand him.’
    ‘That’s why you dumped him?’
    ‘I think so. Not because Mum didn’t like him. But because she made me realize that I didn’t like him much either.’
    ‘How did he take it?’ Vera realized that Ashworth had slipped into the room again and she felt more confident for his being there.
    ‘No one likes rejection, do they?’
    ‘Did he give you any hassle?’ This was Joe’s question.
    ‘Only enough to give my ego a nice boost. A couple of love letters. Some soppy emails. Just a case of wanting what he couldn’t have, I think.’
    ‘Has he been in touch recently?’
    ‘Not for ages. I saw him about, of course. Someone told me he had a girlfriend in Bristol.’
    Her voice had become stronger as the conversation progressed. For a couple of minutes she’d forgotten about her mother, felt sympathy instead for this stranger in Bristol who had lost her boyfriend.
    ‘Did you ever meet Danny Shaw, Mrs Eliot?’ That was Joe Ashworth being suitably deferential.
    ‘No, how would I?’ Brisk to the point of rudeness.
    ‘He never came to this house, for example?’ Joe widened the question to include Simon.
    ‘Of course not!’ Veronica answered for them both.
    ‘Because someone answering his description asked for directions to your house on the afternoon of Jenny Lister’s death.’
    Vera smiled at this. They had no real description of the guy who’d called at Connie’s cottage to ask his way. But it was fine with her if Ashworth chose to stretch the point.
    ‘I don’t know who gave you that information, Sergeant, but nobody came here.’ Veronica, mouth clamped, was determined not to give in. Danny could have danced naked on the lawn that day, but Veronica wouldn’t tell them now. She was a woman who never admitted to making a mistake.
    ‘Perhaps you know Danny’s father?’ Vera thought it was time to change tack. ‘Derek Shaw. He’s a builder and developer.’
    ‘I know of him.’ Veronica’s response was immediate and hostile. ‘Horrible man. He built that disgusting estate on the edge of Effingham. I have a friend with a property there. She said it halved the value of her home.’
    ‘Ever thought of developing that land where your grandfather’s house once stood?’ Vera asked. ‘That’s close to Effingham. Greenhough, isn’t that what you said the place was called? The land would be worth a fortune, wouldn’t it, even these days?’ The question had been niggling at the back of her mind since she’d wandered through the cormorant-headed gateposts.
    ‘We wouldn’t get planning permission,’ Veronica snapped back. ‘And we like it the way it is. Even if it were possible