‘Sorry to bother you,’ Louise says, ‘but can you tell me where you keep the spare sheets?’
CHRISTINA MURDOCH
PART 1 OF RECORDED INTERVIEW
Date:- 01/08/2020
Duration:- 27 Minutes
Location:- Kingsbridge Police Station
Conducted by Officers from Devon & Cornwall Police
(cont.)
POLICE
So you’ve known Louise Page for how long, Ms Murdoch?
CM
God, I don’t know. Thirty years?
POLICE
And you say the job was your suggestion, not hers?
CM
Yes. To be honest, I didn’t think she’d be interested once she knew the details.
POLICE
But she was?
CM
She needed the money.
POLICE
When did you have this conversation?
CM
I don’t remember exactly. [Pause.] We had lunch maybe four or five weeks ago. Louise mentioned she didn’t get paid over the summer, and was trying to pick up more freelance work to tide her over, and I said I might be able to help. She called me about it a week or so later.
POLICE
So it was at her instigation?
CM
No, like I said, she just reminded— Look, what does it matter? It’s got nothing to do with what happened to Andrew. Louise wasn’t the one stalking Caz; it was the other way around.
POLICE
But she moved into the current Mrs Page’s house, correct? That didn’t strike you as odd?
CM
It was Andrew’s idea, not hers. Her kitchen ceiling came down in a storm, and she had nowhere else to go. Her parents’ place isn’t big enough, and she couldn’t afford a hotel.
POLICE
Mr Page could have afforded one, presumably?
CM
I don’t know. I suppose so.
POLICE
But instead, he suggested his ex-wife and children stay at his house?
CM
That’s what Louise told me.
POLICE
Why do you think he did that?
CM
I’ve no idea.
POLICE
Caroline Page can’t have been happy about it, surely?
CM
I don’t suppose she was thrilled. But she and Andrew live in London most of the time. Louise was just borrowing the place for a couple of weeks. They weren’t all going to be living together like Mormons.
POLICE
So the plan was for Mr and Mrs Page to return to London with their son, while Louise Page remained with her children at the house in Brighton until her kitchen was repaired?
CM
Yes.
POLICE
But a week or so later, she suddenly moved out. Do you know why that was?
CM
Louise and Caz had a row.
POLICE
This would have been the altercation when the police were called?
CM
No, that came later.
POLICE
Do you know what this earlier row was about?
CM
Not really. [Pause.] Look, I don’t feel comfortable speaking for her. You’ll have to ask her about it.
POLICE
We will. Would it be fair to say, Mrs Murdoch—
CM
Ms.
POLICE
Sorry, Ms Murdoch, would it be fair to say that, overall, Louise and Caroline Page were not on good terms, particularly in the last couple of months?
CM
Yes.
POLICE
And yet you still thought employing Louise Page a good idea? Surely you were pouring petrol on a situation that was already extremely volatile?
CM
It had nothing to do with Andrew’s death.
POLICE
Are you sure about that, Ms Murdoch?
Four weeks before the party
Chapter 15
Louise
It’s weird and unsettling to be in the house Andrew and Caz share. There are so many items I recognise, familiar things I lived with for more than a decade before Andrew took them with him in the divorce: the Syrian carpet we bought together, a painting of Bella aged six that I had a friend do for Andrew’s birthday one year, a pair of matching bronze figurines that used to be his mother’s.
But so much is different, too. Andrew has switched sides of the bed; his books and reading glasses and old-fashioned alarm clock are on the right bedside table now, instead of the left. Caz is clearly a bit of a neat-freak; there are none of the notes or magnets fixed to the fridge there used to be when Andrew and I lived together, and every counter in her sparkling modern kitchen is antiseptically clear. That must drive him mad; he used to hate it if I put away the coffee machine he used every day, or tidied his piles of newspapers into a drawer. He likes things within easy reach, to be surrounded by the familiar detritus of family life. Or he did.
I reclaim several of my favourite books from the shelves in the sitting room, and go into Kit’s bedroom to tuck them away in the bottom of my suitcase. I can’t bring myself to sleep in Andrew and Caz’s bedroom, so I’m using Kit’s, even though my feet hang off the end of his bed. I put a sweater across the books, and close the case. Andrew never reads: he won’t even miss them.
Ever since he and Caz married, I’ve been careful to avoid imagining their lives together. I didn’t want their relationship given flesh and substance. But now it’s unavoidable. I drift around the house when Bella and Tolly are at school, tormenting myself with the ordinary, domestic background of their marriage. There are photographs of the two of them together, or with Kit, everywhere. I wonder if they’re happy together, or if it’s all just for show.
‘He looks miserable to me,’ Min says, putting a photograph of the three of them at a ski resort back on the hall console. ‘Look at his eyes,’ she adds. ‘You can tell he’s hating every minute of it.’
He does detest being cold. ‘He always refused to go skiing when we were married,’ I say sourly. ‘But he’ll do it for her.’
She’s already on her way up the stairs. I follow her into Caz and Andrew’s bedroom, watching as she flings open the door to Caz’s huge walk-in wardrobe, shamelessly prying. ‘Jesus! I’ve never seen so many shoes. No wonder Andrew’s always pleading poverty.’
‘Wait till you see her sweaters.’ I pull open a row of drawers. ‘Look at them, all colour-coded. Cashmere, too. Not the cheap M&S kind, either, these are the real thing—’
‘Louise, what are you doing in this house?’ Min demands suddenly. ‘It’s fucked up. I’ve told you, I’ll give you the money for a hotel.’
‘I’m not taking your money.’
‘Fine. Put it on your credit card. Rob a bank if you have to. But you can’t stay here any longer. It’s not healthy.’
I knew Min would take this the wrong way. ‘It’s not like Andrew and Caz are actually here,’ I point out. ‘The house sits empty most of the time.’