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Chapter 32

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Maggie didn’t know what to do next. How could she find out what Harvey was going to celebrate? Maybe Delia would know. Or someone in his treasure-hunting group. Did he have any close friends in that group? Or anyone at all who he confided in?

And why was Polly at the police station? Did the police have anything other than Harvey’s notebooks and photos which were found in her house?

Maggie headed towards the police station. Perhaps DCI Dexter would talk to her more about Polly. In exchange, she would tell him about Harvey’s celebration plans.

She drove to Leeds and found a space down a side street not too far from the police station and parked up. As she walked towards the police building, her thoughts went to Sam. She wondered how he was doing, and if he was still inundated with work. She wanted to talk to him, not just about Harvey, but about other things. She had got used to chatting to him regularly.

Maggie was lost in her thoughts and almost didn’t recognise the distraught woman coming out of the police station door.

The woman bumped into Maggie in her rush to get out. With her head down, she mumbled, “Sorry.”

“Polly?” Maggie put her hand on Polly’s arm. “Are you okay?”

Polly’s tear-stained face turned her way. She sniffed, and wiped her cheeks. “I can’t talk. I have to go home. I have to order—” Her voice broke. “I have to order a taxi.”

“You can’t go home in that state. Come back inside. There’s a bathroom in there. Let’s wipe your tears away, at least.”

Polly shook her head vehemently. “No! I can’t go back in there. They’ll lock me up again. I told them I don’t know anything about those notebooks, or those photos! I told them that.”

“Okay. It’s okay.” Maggie put her arm around Polly’s shoulders. “Let me give you a lift home then. My car’s not far away.”

Polly sniffed again, and gave Maggie a watery smile. “Thank you.” She gave Maggie her address.

Maggie handed her a tissue, then took her gently by the elbow and led Polly towards her car. The young woman was trembling.

As they drove away, Maggie asked gently, “What did the police say to you?”

Polly’s chin jutted out. “They said I’d mugged Delia Chester! Can you believe that? As if I would do that to an old woman! They said I’d taken some notebooks and photos which had belonged to Harvey. I kept telling them I didn’t know anything about them, and they kept saying I must do because they’d found them in my house.”

“How did they know they were in your house?”

“That’s exactly what I asked them! They said they had a tip-off. They wouldn’t say who from.” Her voice rose. “If they’ve made a mess of my house, I’m going to sue them! I’m going to sue them anyway for unlawful arrest. How dare they? They’ll be saying next that I killed Harvey.”

Maggie was tempted to ask if she had. Instead, she said, “Why did the police let you go?”

“They said I had an alibi for the time of Delia’s mugging.”

Maggie shot a confused look her way before looking back at the road. “Shouldn’t they have checked that first before bringing you in?”

Polly let out a bitter laugh. “You’d think that, wouldn’t you? I don’t think DCI Dexter knows what he’s doing.”

Maggie nodded at that. “Is your street the next one along? Number sixty-four was it?”

“Yes.” Polly was quiet for a few moments. Then she said, “What were you doing at the station?”

Maggie pulled up outside Polly’s house and switched the engine off. She turned in her seat so she could get a good look at Polly’s face when she said the next words. “I’ve found out something about Harvey.”

“Oh?” Polly’s face was expressionless.

“It was Harvey who organised that party at the café. He was planning a celebration, and I don’t think it was to do with his death. Do you know anything about a celebration?”

Polly’s head dipped. “I think I do.” She let out a long sigh. “For months, I’ve been telling Harvey about Elliott’s secret group, and all the extreme hunts he organises. Harvey suspected Elliott was up to something, but he never knew when the secret hunts were going to take place, or where. Which meant he couldn’t get any evidence. So, I offered to give him that information.”

“Why?”

Polly shrugged. “I wanted Harvey to notice me. He never paid me any attention when I went to group events. I’m not used to that, not from any man. It annoyed me. I thought getting Harvey to notice me would be a challenge, and I like a challenge. Once I offered to spy on Elliott, Harvey noticed me. He came to rely on me for information.” Her smile was triumphant. “I helped Harvey gather evidence against Elliott. Not just about his secret group, but all the times Elliott broke the rules, and all the nasty things he’d posted online about Harvey.”

Maggie stared at her in disbelief. “But you were dating Elliott, weren’t you?”

Polly’s response was a shrug. “Yeah. So?”

“Are you still dating him?”

“Yeah. Why shouldn’t I?”

Maggie didn’t know how to reply to that. She asked Polly, “What’s this got to do with Harvey’s planned celebration?”

“I think he was going to confront Elliott in front of everyone. He was going to embarrass him. That’s what he kept telling me anyway. Every time he got some new evidence about Elliott, he would rub his hands together and say he couldn’t wait for his big plan of revenge to come to fruition.” She smiled at the memory. “And it was all down to me.”

“Have you told DCI Dexter about any of this?”

“No. He didn’t ask.” Polly glanced towards her house. “What do you think the police have done to my house? How did they get in? They’d better not have broken my doors.”

“Do you want me to come with you and check?”

Polly gave her a small smile. “Please. I don’t know why I feel worried about going into my house, but I do. I know it’s just the police who’ve been in, but it still feels like an invasion of privacy.”

“I understand. I’ll come with you.”

Maggie and Polly walked towards the house.

Polly took her keys out. She gave the front door a long look. “It doesn’t look damaged, or as if it’s been forced open. Let me check the back door.” She walked down the side path and stopped at the rear door. “It doesn’t look damaged either. How did the police get in?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps they picked the lock.”

Polly unlocked the door and went inside. Maggie followed her into the tidy house.

Polly went straight into the living room. She put her hands on her hips. “Well, nothing’s been disturbed. Not that I can see.”

Maggie asked, “Where did the police find those notebooks?”

Polly pointed to the TV cabinet. “In that bottom drawer. As if I’d put stolen items in there!” Her look turned guarded. “Not that I stole them in the first place. But if I had, I wouldn’t have put them there. Only an idiot would do that.”

Maggie immediately thought someone could have put them there so the police could easily find them. Possibly the person who gave the police the tip-off.

At Polly’s insistence, Maggie walked through the house at Polly’s side. Polly declared that nothing had been moved. She almost sounded disappointed.

When Maggie left Polly’s house fifteen minutes later, she headed back to the police station. She had many questions for DCI Dexter. Whether he would answer them was another matter.