Walking with Ghosts

don’t call it anything. India was my friend. Edward fucking Blake left her to starve to death in that shed. I think he should be punished for that.’ Her voice had risen to a shout. But she checked herself, and the next words were little more than a whisper. ‘I couldn’t believe it when the police let him go.’
    There was a pine kitchen table behind her, and Marie could see her hands gripping the edge of it. Suddenly Naiomi raised herself up on to the table. Her eyes glazed over and a single tear fell down her cheek. ‘He even tried it on with me,’ she said. ‘He knew we were friends and he’d happily have taken me to bed.’
    ‘The guy’s the worst kind of slime,’ Marie said. ‘He cheats and lies, and he’s always on the lookout for the main chance. But that doesn’t make him a murderer. If you know something else, something that India mentioned, about another man, then you should tell me.’
    ‘India didn’t mention anything.’
    ‘Maybe she wasn’t having an affair. Even if it was a  friendship, we should know about it.’
    Naiomi shook her head. ‘I asked India about it, and she told me she wasn’t having an affair. She never mentioned another man. Not a lover. Not a friend. Nothing.’
    Marie sighed and got up from the chair. ‘The police have closed the case against Edward Blake. They’ve looked at all the possibilities and decided that he didn’t have anything to do with her murder. We’ve also looked at it and come to the same conclusion. I’ve personally interviewed the guy, and I have all the same reservations about him that you have. But I don’t think he murdered his wife.
    ‘And something else. He’s not going to be arrested again. Whoever it was murdered India Blake has got away with it up to now because everyone assumed her husband did it, and a lot of time was wasted investigating him. I don’t know if you’re trying to protect India’s reputation, or if you’re hoping that Edward Blake’ll be arrested again. But whichever it is, the end result is that the man who killed India is still free and liable to murder again.’
    Marie walked to the door of the cottage and opened it. Naiomi stayed put on the table. ‘Thanks for your help,’ Marie said. She walked out of the door and closed it behind her. She got into the Montego and put the key into the ignition. She’d reversed around the white Rover before the door of the cottage opened and Naiomi came over to her.
    Marie wound the window down.
    ‘Come back,’ Naiomi said. ‘I don’t think it’ll help, but I’ll tell you what I know.’
     
    ‘We met in Taylor’s on Thursdays. We’d been doing that for years. Lunch. Girl talk. India enjoyed it as much as I did. If something else came up I’d always put it off. Thursday lunch was one time in the week when we’d put the world to one side. By the time we’d finished it would be around three. But then, a couple of weeks before she died India wanted to be away around two o’clock.
    ‘The last Thursday I saw her was when I asked her if she was having an affair. I couldn’t understand what was so important all of a sudden. That she’d let it take over our time together. I could only think it must be a man.
    ‘But like I said, she denied it.’
    Marie had settled herself into the ladder-backed chair and listened to Naiomi’s confession without interrupting.
    ‘I didn’t believe her. She left Taylor’s just after two and I followed her. She fairly flew along Stonegate. She didn’t have a clue that I was behind her. I’m sure it never crossed her mind that I might follow her. She was so fixed, so intent on her target destination that there wasn’t room in her mind for anything else.
    ‘She went to the Coppergate Centre. It was busy in there, j people queuing to get into the Viking Museum, a couple of buskers, and children and young people running around. There were some homeless people juggling with fire clubs, and India collided with one of them, so he dropped his club and gave her a mouthful, but she hadn’t seen him, and she didn’t hear him shouting after her.
    ‘I followed her into Fenwick’s, the department store, and almost lost her there. I saw her get on the escalator, but by the time I got to the bottom of it she’d already disappeared off the top. The first floor there is dresses, suits, underwear,-and I wandered around for a few minutes, but didn’t see India anywhere. I thought she’d given me the slip, gone up the escalator and