Waiting for Wednesday

you?’
    ‘No, it doesn’t. Were you
angry?’
    ‘Why should I be?’
    ‘Because your father was being
unfaithful to your mother.’
    ‘It doesn’t matter what I
feel.’
    ‘Could you tell us where you were on
Wednesday, the sixth of April?’
    Ben looked puzzled, then grimly amused.
‘Are you serious?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘All right, then. I’m a
schoolboy. I was at school.’
    ‘And you can prove that?’
    He gave a shrug. ‘I’m in the
sixth form. We go out sometimes, if we’ve got a free. We might go for a coffee or,
you know, a walk.’
    ‘But not for the whole day,’
said Yvette. ‘And when you have coffee, you have it with someone. You have a walk
with someone. And they can vouch for you?’
    ‘I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe
not.’
    ‘Hang on,’ said Munster.
‘What you need to do first is take this seriously. A woman has been killed. Some
children have lost their mother. We don’t want to waste our time chasing up false
leads. So, what we want you to do is, first, to show us some respect, and second, pull
your finger out, look through your diary or your phone, talk to your friends and put
together a convincing story of what you were doing for every minute of that Wednesday.
Because if we have to do it ourselves, we won’t be very happy about it. Do you
understand?’
    ‘Whatever,’ said Ben. ‘So
is it just me? Are you going to hassle Josh as well?’
    ‘Your brother was a hundred and fifty
miles away, so far as we know, but we’ll check up with him.’
    ‘Can I go now?’ said Ben.
‘I’ve got homework to do.’
    When they were back in the car, Yvette asked
if they could make a diversion via Warren Street.
    ‘Is this about Frieda?’ said
Munster.
    ‘Why shouldn’t it be about
Frieda?’
    ‘I was just saying.’
    When Frieda opened the door, Yvette noticed
over her shoulder that there were people there. She recognized Josef but no one else.
For a few seconds, the two women stared at each other, then Frieda stepped back and
invited Yvette in. She shook her head.
    ‘Why did you call me about the
charge?’ she asked.
    ‘If it’s a problem,’ said
Frieda, ‘just say.’
    ‘I didn’t mean that.’
Yvette glanced round to see if Munster was listening, but he was oblivious in the front
seat of the car with his headphones on. ‘Since your injury, we hadn’t talked
properly.’
    ‘We hadn’t talked at
all.’
    ‘Yes, well.’ Yvette bit her lip.
‘Anyway, I hadn’t said things I meant to say. So when you rang, I
didn’t know how to interpret it.’
    ‘You don’t need to interpret
it,’ said Frieda. ‘I told you about it on the phone. I thought Karlsson was
sick of clearing up my messes.’
    ‘And now it’s my
turn?’
    ‘As I said, if it’s a
problem …’
    ‘I called the police down at Waterloo.
Look, Frieda, what you did wasn’t sensible. All right, that bastard Bradshaw set
out to humiliate you. If it were me, I’d want to go and sort him out. But you
can’t do things like that. If you do, you leave yourself open to all kinds of
trouble.’
    ‘So you think I’m in
trouble?’
    ‘I talked to the officer you saw. I
explained about our relationship with you, things you’ve done for us. So I think
this will go away.’
    ‘Yvette, this was all
rubbish.’
    ‘I’ll take your word for it. But
if these things get into court, you just never know which way they’ll go. And
another thing: you don’t want to put yourself into the power of someone like
Bradshaw.’
    ‘Thank you,’ said Frieda.
‘Really. I hope you haven’t gone out on a limb for me. But I just want you
to know that when I went to see Ian Yardley it wasn’t anything to do with
Bradshaw.’
    ‘Then what was it about?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ said
Frieda. ‘Just a feeling.’
    ‘I get worried about your
feelings.’
    Frieda began to close the door, then
hesitated. ‘What was it you wanted to say to me? I mean, apart from my so-called
fight.’
    Yvette looked at the people behind Frieda.
‘Some other time,’ she said.



THIRTY-ONE
    Josh Kerrigan was making roll-ups, adding
thick tufts of tobacco to the Rizla paper, rolling it deftly between thumb and
forefinger, licking the edge and laying the thin, straight tube beside the others
he’d already assembled. He had six so far and was on to his seventh. Yvette was
finding it hard to concentrate on what he was saying. Perhaps that was the point: he was
making it quite clear that she was simply an interruption. She was getting a bit