Stop Dead (DI Geraldine Steel)

was much later than that.’
    ‘But it’s already three!’ Sam wailed. ‘I wanted to be away by five.’
    ‘Did you say you’re going out this evening?’
    ‘Well –’ Sam hesitated. ‘It’s just that it’s Saturday night, and technically I’m not on duty this evening, and I’m supposed to be going out and I’ve still got to get home and change and I really need to wash my hair and if I don’t get going soon I’m going to be late and it’s a hen night and I promised her I’d be there and if I let her down again she’s going to go mental … ’
    Geraldine gave the sergeant a sympathetic smile.
    ‘Let’s crack on then, shall we, and see if we can get done in time? You speak to the guard who called us and I’ll question Gideon Grey.’

     
    The witness who had reported the body was sitting in the dingy station office, sipping tea from a stained mug. He was around thirty, casual yet smart in dark jeans, a shirt and jacket. He looked up when Geraldine entered, and launched into an agitated complaint before she had even introduced herself.
    ‘I’ve been kept here, virtually a prisoner, for over an hour.’
    ‘I’m sorry sir, but we’ve come from Hendon. I’m Detective Inspector –’
    ‘I don’t care who the hell you are or if you’ve come from bloody Timbuktu, I’m supposed to be at a family party and all this has been –’
    He broke off, his voice suddenly unsteady, eyeing the warrant card she was holding up.
    ‘I’m sorry sir, but you are aware this is a murder enquiry, and we really would like to take a statement from you. Your name is Gideon Grey?’

     
    Gideon shrugged, no longer concealing his shock behind a smokescreen of anger.
    ‘Look, I’m sorry, really, but I’m afraid I can’t help you. I’ve no idea who the old stiff is. I’ve never seen him before in my life and – I wish I never had seen him, I can tell you that for nothing.’
    He heaved a sigh that shook his shoulders.
    ‘I’m sorry he’s dead and all that, but this has got nothing to do with me, it just happened to be me that saw him. When the train stopped I was sitting right opposite him or I’d never even have noticed him. He wasn’t exactly conspicuous out there. He could have been there for days for all I know. Shit, I shouldn’t even have been on that train. It’s only because the Met line isn’t working that I used the Piccadilly line at all today. I knew I should’ve stayed at home.’

     
    He paused to take a sip of his tea and screwed up his face.
    ‘This is disgusting.’
    ‘Mr Grey, can you tell me exactly what happened?’
    He shrugged, tapping the toe of a scuffed shoe on the dusty floor.
    ‘There’s not much to tell.’
    His expression sombre, he described how he had been startled on catching sight of the dead man’s face staring at him through the train window.
    ‘It scared the shit out of me, I can tell you. I mean, I didn’t really take it in, not at first. It’s not the sort of thing you expect to see when you’re just sitting on a train, minding your own business. Some stiff, right outside your window, in broad daylight. But the train wasn’t moving, and there he was, right enough, dead as a doornail.’

     
    Geraldine glanced up from her notebook.
    ‘You knew straight away that he was dead then?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘How?’
    ‘How what?’
    ‘How could you be sure he was dead?’
    ‘It was kind of obvious, really. You didn’t need a medical degree to know that.’
    He paused, remembering.
    ‘It was the flies,’ he explained, and shivered. ‘It was gross. There were all these flies buzzing around him – those big fat bluebottles, you know? – and his eyes were open. He was just lying there, staring, without blinking. I tried to see exactly what had happened to him and I thought I made out blood on the side of his head, but it wasn’t that easy to see what was what, in all the weeds and stuff. But I knew he was dead alright. No one lies that still, with their eyes open, and all those flies.’
    He shivered again, raising his eyes to Geraldine in mute appeal not to talk about it any more.

     
    She took down Gideon’s details before thanking him for his help.
    ‘We may ask you to attend your local police station to sign a statement,’ she concluded. ‘But that’s all for now. Thank you again for your co-operation, Mr Grey, you’re free to go on your way whenever you’re ready.’
    ‘Will you let me know?’ he asked as he stood up, no longer quite