‘Is this it?’ Lily asked.
She turned a circle, biker boots squelching in the wet earth, looking for some evidence that Ferreira had brought her to the right place, something incontrovertible to prove that this was the spot where Corinne had died.
But there was nothing. No dried blood. No scrape marks. No gaping hole in the ground big enough to echo the scale of her grief.
It was just a small clearing between the budding trees, a slight depression which had hidden Corinne and her killer from the eyes of anyone passing on the nearby path.
Lily had insisted on seeing it for herself and Ferreira thought the girl deserved that much. In her position she would want the same thing, would need to test the atmosphere of the place and try to get some sense of her mother’s soul lingering in air. She wasn’t a religious person but under those circumstances even she would need to be sure.
‘It’s so close to the path,’ Lily said. ‘Why didn’t someone stop him?’
Ferreira didn’t have a good answer for her so she said nothing. The area was quiet at that time of morning but deep down she didn’t quite believe the attack had gone unwitnessed. She’d dealt with enough cases where street fights were watched by crowds who never stepped in, murders which took place in houses separated by the thinnest of walls and yet nobody called the police until long after the screaming had stopped once and for all.
People didn’t step in. They didn’t want to get involved. Told themselves it was none of their business or they’d only get hurt if they tried to intervene. Anything to absolve them.
Lily squatted down and touched the earth. She seemed a strange kind of girl, completely unlike the rest of her family, with her grungy goth vibe, the long dyed black hair and stacked silver rings, dressed in grey leopard-print jeans and black jumper with an elaborate Mexican skull on the front.
Maybe she saw herself as an outsider and that made her more sympathetic to Corinne’s situation.
‘Why didn’t she fight back?’ Lily asked and she sounded like a child right then.
‘It’s not easy to fight back when someone comes at you from behind. You’re off guard. Even if you’re stronger than them you can’t do much to defend yourself.’
‘Mum was strong.’
‘We think it happened very quickly,’ Ferreira said, hoping she’d take some comfort from that.
Lily straightened up, her gaze sweeping across Ferreira, to the pathway and back again. ‘But Mum was running on the path. So he must have dragged her over here. She had a chance to fight back.’
The girl was smart and that made this job harder. She wanted the truth but Ferreira couldn’t give her it.
‘Did she know him?’ Lily asked. ‘Is that why she just let him hurt her?’
Ferreira shoved her hands into her pockets, skin stinging with cold. ‘I can’t go into details with you, I’m very sorry, Lily, I’m afraid it’s procedure.’
Lily squinted at her. ‘It’s usually a family member, isn’t it? Or a lover? Statistically.’
A gust of wind battered Ferreira’s back and she spread her feet to brace against it, now wishing she’d refused Lily’s request to come here. If only she’d been a copper about it and driven her home to her mother, instead of letting sympathy overrule her better judgement. She’d seen something of herself in Lily, that was the problem. Recognised the watchfulness and the firmness which had come through in her request, an adolescent overconfidence which she suspected didn’t run very deep. She played the same trick at that age, too much make-up and mouth, cultivated a look which said ‘don’t fuck with me’ because it was safer than appearing approachable, opening yourself up to people who might hurt you.
‘Jessica said Mum was having an affair.’
‘We’re looking into it.’
Lily let out a small growl of frustration. ‘Why won’t anyone tell me what’s going on? My mum is dead!’
‘I know how tough this is and—’
‘Really?’ Lily snapped. ‘Has your mum been murdered?’
She should have taken her home. The girl was fragile and angry and it was her family’s job to hold her hand through this, but evidently they weren’t helping and it made Ferreira wonder what the atmosphere inside the house was like.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘You’re right, I don’t know what you’re going through but I can see that you’re in a lot of pain and I just want to help.’
Lily apologised, a mumble almost lost on the rising wind.
‘I can’t deal with this.’
‘There are people you can talk to,’ Ferreira said. ‘I can put you in touch with a counsellor if you’d like.’
‘It won’t help.’
‘No, maybe not,’ she admitted. ‘Can’t you talk to Nina about this? I’m sure she’s struggling too.’
‘You don’t know what she’s like.’ Lily wandered away a few steps to touch the cracked and mottled trunk of a dead tree. ‘She was so vile to Mum at Christmas. Making all these snide little comments and bitching about her appearance.’
‘Is that what the fight was about?’
Lily nodded but didn’t elaborate and Ferreira could see her reluctance. Harry and Brynn Moran had both minimised what had happened, had tried to pass it off as the usual seasonal sniping that had taken place at every dinner table as the holiday brought families together to air their petty grievances. She’d thought there was more to it at the time and now, watching Lily circle the tree, she was convinced the argument was anything but standard.
‘Do you want a hot chocolate?’ she asked.
They walked back to the car park near the lake and Ferreira ordered two chocolates from the small silver wagon stationed on the tarmac. In the car she started the engine to get the heater running, wriggled her toes inside her boots.
‘It must have been hard for your mum,’ she said. ‘Walking back into her own home for Christmas. Is that the first year she’d gone back for it?’
‘Yeah. Nina wouldn’t have her there the year before. She wouldn’t let me go to Mum’s either.’
‘But this year she was okay with it?’
‘I basically had to beg her to invite Mum.’ Lily took a mouthful of chocolate, as if washing away the taste of those remembered words. ‘She only agreed because she wanted to show off.’
‘Show off what?’
‘That she was “moving on”.’
‘With your uncle Brynn?’
‘Yeah.’
‘What’s he like?’
She shrugged. ‘He’s nice. He was always around when we were kids so it’s not that different. I reckon he could do better. She talks to him like crap most of the time but he doesn’t seem to mind. I think he’s kind of a sub.’
A submissive. It was an odd term for a fourteen-year-old girl to use. Ferreira didn’t think she’d have even been aware of it at that age, but times changed.
‘Him and Corinne were close, right?’
‘Before, yeah. They’d been best friends since primary school.’
‘And after?’
‘Until Brynn moved in with us, yeah. He doesn’t give a shit about Mum transitioning. He knows she’s still the same person whatever she looks like. But Nina wasn’t going to put up with them still being friends, was she?’ Another sip. ‘That’d be like her losing.’
‘That’s sad,’ Ferreira said. ‘If they’ve been friends all this time. Didn’t they see each other at all any more?’
‘No. I think Nina was jealous of them being so tight. She’s got Brynn now, she didn’t want to share him with Mum. Even though they were friends first.’ Lily’s face hardened. ‘That has to be more important than anything, doesn’t it? You shouldn’t let someone tell you who to be friends with just because you’re sleeping with them.’
‘Lots of people lose their friends when they get into a relationship,’ Ferreira said, feeling like the wise old head and not liking the sensation. ‘How were they at Christmas?’
‘Brynn tried to keep Nina in check. She was making all these digs and he tried to calm things down. He gave up in the end and went to hide in the kitchen.’ She frowned into her drink. ‘It was always going to blow up.’
Ferreira turned to fully face her. ‘What happened?’
‘I don’t know. I’d gone upstairs to check my phone and when I came down I heard Mum and Harry arguing in the hallway. Harry had hold of her under the arm. I mean he was dragging her out of the house. Her own fucking house.’ Lily scowled and Ferreira could see how fresh the anger still was in her. ‘I don’t know what Harry said to Mum but it sounded serious. Mum slapped him.’
Ferreira let the words settle for a moment, thinking of Harry Sawyer and his history of violence. How would he respond to being hit?
‘He must have upset her,’ she said. ‘How had they got on up till then?’
‘Harry was backing Nina. Every little dig, every nasty joke.’
‘Did any of them mention it after Harry threw her out?’
Lily looked down at the cardboard cup in her hands, thumbnail flicking at the ridges. ‘You don’t know my family. We don’t talk.’
‘Did you ask?’
‘Of course I asked. They all ignored me.’
‘What about Corinne?’ Ferreira tried to keep her tone as neutral as possible. She could see Lily squirming where she sat, knew she was already regretting what she’d said. ‘Surely your mum told you why she slapped Harry?’
Lily scrunched down in her seat, hiding half her face behind the fur trim of her parka. ‘She said he was being a little shit. It was probably nothing. He’d had a few beers, he was mouthy. He always is but it doesn’t mean anything.’
‘Had Corinne ever hit any of you before?’
‘No. Never. She wasn’t like that.’
‘So, it must have been something pretty bad for her to react like that,’ Ferreira said gently, hoping to draw her out. But she could see Lily shutting down. Too much said and now she was wondering if she’d damned her brother. ‘Lily, listen to me, I want you to think very carefully about what you heard.’
‘I didn’t hear anything,’ she snapped. ‘They were arguing. Everyone argues. It doesn’t mean Harry killed Mum. He’d never do that.’
She reached for the door handle and Ferreira elbowed the locks.
‘What are you doing? You can’t keep me in here.’ Lily looked scared, eyes wide and tearing up. ‘I don’t know anything.’
Shit, she’d spooked the kid.
‘I’m going to take you home, okay?’ she said, using her softest voice. ‘I have to deliver you back to Nina.’
They drove the rest of the way in silence, back to the Sawyer house where Brynn was waiting at the front door for them, hands on his hips.
‘These are my numbers,’ Ferreira said, giving Lily her card. ‘If you change your mind about the counselling or you think of anything else you want to tell me, just call.’
Lily got out of the car and almost ran to the house she’d slipped out of last night, as if it was the last safe place she had.
Ferreira turned round on the wide driveway and drove back to Sam Hyde’s house, found Zigic sitting on the low stone wall in front of the church opposite, phone in his hand, looking unbothered by the wait.
‘Sorry,’ she said, as he got in. ‘Lily had a bit more to say than I expected.’
She told him the story as they headed along Oundle Road and it didn’t sound as damning somehow without the fear she’d seen on Lily’s face and the girl’s sudden back-pedalling.
‘Murray called me a few minutes ago,’ he said. ‘Harry’s girlfriend has verified his alibi.’
‘So what? She was never going to do anything else.’ Ferreira accelerated onto the parkway. ‘What about Brynn?’
‘Same. Nina was adamant he was at home until half past seven. But we’ve got a window of opportunity for both of them even with the alibis.’ Zigic shifted in his seat, taking out a large manila envelope and putting it on the dashboard. ‘Sam told me something interesting though. Turns out the manager from the Meadham has a fetish for cross-dressers. He’s been with a few of them she says.’
‘Corinne?’
‘Sam says not. But he was flirting with her.’
Ferreira’s hands tightened around the wheel. ‘I knew it was going to come back to that place. We should talk to him.’
‘Let him defend himself?’
‘Or hang himself.’