Silent Voices

warmth he hadn’t expected. It was as if they saw him as some sort of medium or magician, as if he provided a means of communicating with the boy they’d lost. Or perhaps it was simpler than that. The young detective was a distraction. They’d been blaming themselves and each other for the loss of their son, and now they had someone else to talk to. There was the guilt that always lingers with survivors. He listened to their confessions, knowing there was nothing he could do to make them feel better.
    ‘He wanted to go back to Bristol a few days ago,’ Karen said, the words spilling out like tears. ‘His girlfriend had gone early. She does drama and there was a film they were making. She asked him to act in it, just a small part. Her family’s got money and she doesn’t need to do paid work in the holidays. They’d been skiing in Colorado over Easter; they’d invited him too and he could have gone with them, if he’d been able to find the fare. A couple of years ago we’d have been able to give it to him, no problem. Now it was impossible.’
    She paused for breath and Joe tried to take her back to her first sentence. ‘That was the only reason he wanted to go back before the start of term? The film, I mean. Jenny Lister’s death hadn’t upset him?’
    ‘No.’ She stared up at him. He’d never seen her without make-up before. ‘Why would it?’
    ‘Well, he knew her, didn’t he?’ Joe gave an encouraging little smile. ‘Met her once at least. He’d been out with her daughter, Hannah.’
    ‘Hannah. I remember her. Bonny little thing. I never knew her surname, didn’t make the connection. You know her, don’t you, Derek? She was the little redhead. He was very keen on her for a while. His first real love.’ She gave a gasp of anguish, grieving perhaps because there would be no last love, no wedding, no grandchild.
    Derek nodded, though Joe wouldn’t have bet that he really remembered Hannah Lister. He didn’t want to admit to a gap in the shared experience of bringing up their only son.
    ‘Why did Danny stick around in the end?’ Joe asked. ‘Why didn’t he go down to Bristol to be in the film?’
    ‘That was about money too, wasn’t it, Derek? He’d have lost a week’s pay if he hadn’t worked out his notice. And I told him he couldn’t let them down. I’d got him the job, and I’d have looked bad if he’d just quit.’ Her own confession. ‘If I hadn’t been so bothered about what they’d think about me at the Willows, he’d still be alive.’
    The couple sat looking at each other.
    ‘It was just as much my fault.’ The husband was determined to shoulder his share of responsibility. ‘I told him he had to pay his way now. We spoilt him when he was a boy, Sergeant. Our only son. Money no object. We gave him whatever he wanted. It came hard to him when that had to stop. Especially when he hooked up with all those rich southern kids in uni. I could tell he blamed me. He was bored silly in that job in the health club. Sometimes I could see him looking at me and I knew he thought I’d let him down.’
    ‘Is that why he started stealing?’ Joe knew all about that now. Vera had called him as soon as she’d left Lisa’s house. Find out from the parents what was going on there. Did Jenny Lister catch him thieving? ‘Because it wasn’t for the cash, was it? He’d have hardly made enough to buy a couple of pints in the uni bar. Was it because he was bored?’
    Now both parents turned on Ashworth. Fierce looks. A stony silence broken by Derek. ‘You can’t accuse the boy. He’s dead. He can’t fight back.’
    ‘If you want us to find his killer,’ Ashworth said, ‘you have to help me here. We have a witness who saw him take money from the staffroom. Did he know he’d been seen?’
    Another silence.
    ‘You don’t seem surprised,’ Joe said gently. ‘If it’s not relevant, his stealing will never be made public. The witness won’t talk. But you must tell me what you know.’
    ‘I didn’t know ,’ Karen said.
    ‘But you guessed? Suspected?’
    ‘He’d been moaning about being skint one morning and then suddenly there was a ten-pound note in his pocket and he was buying coffee in the hotel lounge before his shift started. I wondered.’
    ‘That must have been terrible,’ Joe said. He imagined finding out that one of his own kids was a thief. ‘It must have eaten away at you. Did you discuss it with anyone at work?’
    ‘No!’ The thought appalled her.