Hanson nodded, trying to align herself with his trust. Perhaps she just needed to get to know the chief better. But she still felt, at some level, that something was up with Jonah Sheens. And she wanted very much to know what.
* * *
—
BELLS AND WHISTLES had the small ground floor in what should have been an attractive nineteenth-century building. But the fish-and-chip shop and betting shop on either side were both run-down and shabby, and their signs dominated the building.
The shop had a lot of pink and a lot of glitter. The sort of place that small girls would be drawn to like magpies. It was empty of customers at the moment, however. He could see only someone reading a magazine behind the counter.
He was immediately certain on entering that it was Becky sitting behind the counter, despite the lack of makeup and frizzy hair. She had the same round face, and the air of uncertainty.
“Can I help?” she asked, standing as he approached. Her accent was pure working-class Southampton, with a slight trace of a wheeze to it.
“I’m DCI Sheens,” he said as lightly as possible. “I’m looking to have a quick chat with Becky Morris. Is that you?”
“Yeah,” she said, looking a little hunted. “Sorry, you’re…from the police?”
“Yes. It’s nothing to worry you. I’m the officer in charge of investigating Aurora Jackson’s death, and I wanted to ask you a few questions.”
“Aurora?” she asked. “Yeah, OK. I mean…I don’t think I can help much.”
“That’s fine,” Jonah said. “I just thought you might know a few more things about her that could help us.”
“Right. I haven’t got anyone who can cover today. We’ll have to talk here. Do you…do you need a seat?”
“No, that’s all right,” he said with a smile.
Becky perched herself back on the high chair behind the counter. “OK. What did you want to know?” she asked.
“I’d like to know if Aurora seemed happy to you in the days before she vanished.”
“I think so. I mean…as happy as she generally was.”
“She wasn’t all that happy a person?”
“Not…not really. Not unhappy. Just not, you know, really cheerful. School was tough for both of us.”
It was strange watching her. She visibly shrank as she spoke, as if weighed down by memories of that time.
“Were either of you bullied?” he asked.
“Yeah. A bit.” She was a mixture of resentful and embarrassed, which was something he’d heard in a lot of bullying victims. Even grown men and women like Becky who by rights should have moved on and forgotten about it. But that kind of thing left a mark on people.
“That’s sad to hear. Was there anyone in particular?” he asked.
“Mostly a couple of girls in the sixth form,” Becky said. “Lisa and Emma. They were twins, and they were pretty crap to everyone.”
“Would you say Aurora had been driven to despair?”
“What do you mean?”
“You don’t think she was on the verge of doing something stupid?”
“No, it was nothing like that.” Becky gave a half laugh. “Actually, it’d got a bit better. Topaz’d had words with them.”
Jonah was taken aback. He couldn’t remember Topaz ever sticking up for her sister.
“What did Topaz say?” he asked.
“She saw them pushing Aurora and me around in the middle of the schoolyard, and she stormed over,” Becky said, and he could hear a little note of worship in her voice even after thirty years. “She said to get their fucking hands off us, and if they touched us again, Connor would beat the life out of them.”
Jonah found himself smiling. That was a little typical of Topaz, to use her hanger-on to her advantage. But she’d gone to Aurora’s aid when she needed it, despite her embarrassment at her spacey sister. He wondered whether she would still have done that when drunk or high, and if the person threatening her sister had been someone she was interested in.
“Sorry, I don’t think this is very…I probably don’t know anything that helpful,” Becky said uncertainly, smoothing down her skirt.
“It’s helping me understand Aurora better,” Jonah reassured her. “What about boyfriends?”
“Who? Aurora?”
“Yes.”
“No. Neither of us was…She didn’t have anyone.”
He caught something in her expression. For the first time, someone wasn’t laughing at the idea of Aurora dating.
“Had she had someone before?”
“Not…not exactly.” There was a momentary pause, and then she said, “Sorry. I need my inhaler.”
She scrabbled under the counter and came up with a blue Ventolin inhaler.
“Asthma?” Jonah asked. “That’s a pain.”
She took a puff, held her breath, and then nodded. “Always had it,” she said, once she’d breathed it out. There was a slight breathlessness to her voice. Jonah knew to be patient, even when he was itching for her to continue.
“So was there some kind of complicated situation? Someone who pursued Aurora, maybe?”
“It…it wasn’t…it was someone she liked.”
Jonah waited, beginning to suspect that he knew what she was going to say.
“She was totally in love with our English teacher, Mr. Mackenzie. I mean, we all were a bit. But Aurora could hardly talk about anything else. And she was always going to see him about stuff, having extra lessons with him….”
“He gave her extra lessons?” Jonah asked. “Outside school?”
“Yeah. He was helping her with a competition she was entering, and she’d written a book, and she wanted him to read it.”
“So would you say…that he might have encouraged her a bit?”
There was a very brief silence. “I don’t know. Maybe. She was always telling me how he looked at her, and there was this thing between them. I guess part of me believed her and part of me thought it was all in her head.”
“She didn’t mention him touching her? Kissing her?”
“No.” Becky seemed positive about that. “I think she would have told me. If she was all excited about a nice comment on her work, she would have told me if something had actually happened, wouldn’t she?”