Alice caught the bus to Fulham and sat with Agatha on her lap, looking out through the steamed-up window at the streets and the piles of slush on the grass verges. It was always so dismal when the snow started to melt, Alice thought, watching the pedestrians with their heads bowed against the wind, and the back-to-work grind of January somehow palpable in their stances.
She rarely came out this way these days, but still remembered the pub, The White Horse, nicknamed The Sloaney Pony, where she and Jinx had hung out in years gone by. How long ago and how carefree those times seemed now.
It was a lot smarter around here than it was back then, Alice noticed, as she and Agatha got out by Parson’s Green. Alice checked the address that Jacques had written down. Katy’s flat was in a nice terraced street that led down from the green. She walked along the black and white tiled path to the porch and rang on the buzzer. Soon a woman’s voice crackled out of the intercom. ‘Hello?’
‘Is that Katy? Katy Ellison?’ Alice asked, cocking her ear to the metal box.
‘Yes?’ The girl sounded suspicious.
‘Oh, I’m so glad I caught you. It’s Alice Beeton. We spoke on the—’
‘I told you. I don’t have anything to say.’ The intercom went dead. Alice buzzed again, but Katy didn’t answer.
Alice just stood there, staring at the door. Then turned to walk away, because really, what else was there to do? Only Agatha sat resolutely on the doorstep, her little head cocked at Alice.
‘Oh, you think we should try again?’ Alice asked. ‘I agree. Let’s pop round the block and come back.’ Because of course, Agatha was right, they’d never been much good at simply giving up. And best for Katy to think Alice had gone, in order to catch her off guard next time.
The ruse worked, because just as Alice was about to ring the buzzer again, she heard footsteps thundering down the stairs inside. The door swung violently open and a young woman about the same height and build as Alice stood, her mouth falling open with shock. She was dressed in dungarees and had dark hair poking out from beneath a black beanie. Her face was suntanned, and her nose was peeling. The tell-tale sign of someone just back from a trip.
‘Katy?’ Alice said, with what she hoped was a friendly smile. ‘I’m Alice Beeton. We spoke—’
‘If you don’t go … I’ll … I’ll …’ But the young woman didn’t seem to know what she might do. She was younger than Alice had thought she’d been on the phone, barely twenty.
‘I only want to ask you a few questions,’ Alice told her, as gently as she could. Agatha sat neatly by Alice’s feet, her head cocked, looking her most cute, and Alice saw Katy glance down and her fury falter. She let out a low sigh, and her shoulders slumped.
‘OK,’ she said. ‘You’d better come in.’
Alice followed her inside and Agatha scampered past the bikes in the hallway and up the narrow flight of stairs to the first floor. Katy unlocked the door and pushed inside.
‘Oh, how lovely. I do admire anyone who can grow a monstera like that,’ Alice said, following her and nodding at the sprawling plant that almost filled the open plan kitchen-cum-living room. ‘I don’t have very green fingers, but then you have such lovely light in this room.’ Alice took in the IKEA sofas and cushions. ‘I live in a basement and I do hanker after light, especially at this time of year.’
‘Look, can we just get this over with?’ Katy said. ‘What exactly is it that you want?’
‘Right. As I said on the phone, the Messents were rather hoping you’d go back to them. They are in somewhat of a bind.’
‘I can’t. I’ve got another job,’ Katy said, her eyes shifting away to the right. She was clearly lying.
‘Right,’ Alice said again, nodding. ‘I see. But you said you knew Enya?’
‘I didn’t say that.’ Katy’s eyes met hers briefly and then slid away again.
‘But you knew the Messents had employed her? You said that on the phone?’
Katy pressed her lips together, colour rising in her cheeks.
‘Katy …’
‘I didn’t think it would end in something like this. Not with her dead.’ Katy’s voice rose a little, both defensive and scared. ‘I looked it up online after you called. I had no idea. Am I in trouble?’
‘Why would you be in trouble?’
‘Because she wanted me to …’ She trailed off.
‘She? Enya, you mean? Wanted you to …?’
Katy looked over at the wall, her knee bouncing nervously.
‘So, you do know … did know Enya?’
Katy was silent then nodded once reluctantly. Alice realised she was going to have to tread carefully to get this skittish girl to open up, but warning signals were flashing in her mind. Katy was hiding something, something important enough to be scaring the living daylights out of her.
‘I know this is presumptuous,’ Alice said, in her most gentle tone, ‘but is there any chance I could trouble you for a cup of tea?’
Katy nodded quickly. She lifted down two mugs from the cupboard and put a teabag from a jar in each one. PG Tips by the looks of it, Alice thought. Totally fine in the circumstances.
‘How do you have it?’ Katy’s voice was weak.
‘Oh, the normal. Builders,’ Alice said. ‘No sugar.’
Katy stayed facing away from her as the kettle boiled. The silence stretched and Alice twiddled her necklace, looking at Katy’s tense shoulders, but eventually she made the tea and placed a steaming mug in front of Alice on the counter.
‘Thank you.’
She noticed Katy looking at her necklace, and when she met Alice’s eyes, Alice smiled gently. ‘Why don’t you start at the beginning and tell me how you met? You and Enya?’
‘It was in a coffee shop. In South Ken.’
‘When?’
‘A couple of months ago,’ she said. ‘Maybe less. The first time we just chatted. She was so friendly. She said she was a housekeeper too and we seemed to have a lot in common. I told her about the Messents. She was just so easy to confide in.’
‘Go on.’
‘I bumped into her a few times after that. It was uncanny, the coincidence. We joked about it.’
Unless Enya had been following her, Alice thought. ‘What happened then?’
‘In December, she called. I’d given her my number and she asked me to meet her. So, I did. She said she had a proposition that couldn’t wait.’
‘A proposition?’
‘I’d told her about wanting to go skiing, you see. I’d just said it casually and had explained how I hadn’t really expected to get time off from my job and how I’d only half-heartedly asked for it, but I really wanted to go as my friends were going and this guy … a guy …’ She fizzled out. ‘It was just a little piece of information I’d shared, nothing more. But when I met Enya that time she said she had it all worked out. She told me that I should go skiing and that she could replace me. She’d finished her placement, you see.’
‘Oh? Did she say where she’d been working before?’
‘Just for some family, but that now she was free. She could take over from me. She said she liked the sound of my job. I’d told her it was an easy gig, you see.’
‘So the plan was for her to cover for your holiday?’
‘No, to take the job full time.’
‘But if it was an easy gig then why would you give it up? Didn’t it bother you? The thought of being unemployed?’
‘Yeah, but I don’t know … she was kind of persuasive. She convinced me that I’d be able to get another job easily once I was back from skiing. That it was outrageous that the Messents wouldn’t give me time off at this time of year and that life was too short not to spend it with friends. She made it sound so easy. She said there were tonnes ofjobs around. Ones that were even better than the one I had.’
‘So you quit?’
‘Yes. Madame Messent wasn’t very pleased.’
‘No, I can imagine she wasn’t.’
‘I told her that there were other people – experienced people – who could replace me. Right away. She just had to ring the agency.’
‘Elite?’
‘No, not Elite. They would have been furious about me quitting. Enya told me that. She gave me a number. It must have been your number. For your agency. She told me to give it to Madame Messent and to tell her to call straight away.’
Alice let out a slow breath, a new understanding suddenly dawning. Enya booking her appointment with Alice on 21 December … it had all been part of some elaborate set-up? She’d come in knowing that Madame Messent would be phoning and that she’d then be right there on hand to offer herself up for the job.
‘And how could she be so sure Madame Messent would hire her?’
Katy shrugged. ‘She’d asked me about what kind of qualifications I’d needed to get the job there when we first met. She said she was putting together a more up-to-date CV. And I told her that first-class references were always the most important thing. Languages would help.’
Exactly what Enya had pointed out to Alice on her CV. She’d obviously done her research on Alice too, coming to the office and being so charming about Mrs Beeton. Alice felt a rising sense of indignation that she’d been duped.
Katy shrugged, as if trying to make sense of it herself. ‘I wanted to go with my friends so badly and Enya, she …’
‘She what?’
‘She … well … she made it worth my while.’
Katy looked down at her hands and Alice saw more guilty fidgeting. ‘Worth your while how?’
‘She paid me.’ Katy’s voice was small.
‘Paid you?
‘Just … she made it sound like a Christmas bonus. The one I wouldn’t be getting from the Messents. She said she had plenty of spare cash, and it would help me have the skiing holiday of my dreams.’ Katy looked down, shamefaced. ‘You must think I’m awful.’
Enya had paid Katy to leave. ‘How much?’ Alice asked, trying very hard not to sound judgemental.
‘A couple of thousand. In cash. Euros. Enough for the trip to Courchevel.’ She nodded at a packed bag in the hallway, her cheeks reddening even more. ‘I just got back.’
‘I see.’
So Enya had engineered it so that Katy had left and had thrown in cash to sweeten the deal. Interesting.
Alice took a long sip of her tea. ‘If you don’t mind me asking, what was your impression of the Messents?’
‘I spent most of my time with Laura and supervising the cleaners. Monsieur Messent was very particular. Wouldn’t have anything out of place. Wanted the whole house to be spotless at all times. It was quite stressful living there.’
‘I see.’
‘But I hardly knew him – or Madame. They were away so much. But she’s a good kid,’ Katy said, looking wobbly again. ‘Laura, I mean. Just a shame she’s got the parents she has.’
‘Oh,’ Alice said, ‘what do you mean?’
‘Just that, they might look perfect on the outside, but you never really know what people are really like, do you? Behind closed doors.’
‘I suppose not, but then someone in your position of privilege would be party to exactly that, wouldn’t they?’
‘I guess.’
‘So I’m just wondering how they differed from other families you’ve worked for? The Messents?’ Alice probed.
‘Something about them … it never felt quite right. Nothing specific. Just too many heated conversations … slammed doors … that sort of thing.’
‘I suppose it’s good you’re not going back there, if you feel like that,’ Alice said. ‘And, as you said, you’ve got another job now. So, it seems that Enya was right.’
Katy’s eyes slid away. She realised she’d burnt her bridges now.
‘I won’t take up any more of your time,’ Alice said, getting up and calling for Agatha.
‘That’s it?’ Katy asked.
‘Why? Is there more?’
‘No, but how did she die?’
‘The police aren’t yet certain.’
‘I mean … do you think it was quick?’
‘Yes, I think so. But I’m afraid not very pleasant.’
‘Poor Enya.’
‘Quite.’
Alice smiled without warmth and opened the door.
‘You won’t tell them … about what I just told you, will you?’ Katy asked, looking terrified.
‘Who?’
‘The police.’
‘No, but perhaps you should,’ Alice said, looking Katy right in the eye. ‘If you think it’s relevant. If I were you, I’d report exactly what you’ve just told me to Detective Rigby. In fact,’ she said, opening her bag, ‘here’s his card.’