The Half Truth (12 page)

Tina sat in the car beside John, with Dimitri in the back. Tina had taken the week off from work, the incident at the café being passed off as an attempted robbery for the benefit of her boss and Fay. Only Tina, John and his team knew differently.

Tina walked Dimitri into the playground while John waited in the car. From where she stood she could see both of them. Dimitri was happy running around the playground, having an early-morning game of tag. Tina tracked him this way and that, her eyes never leaving him while her peripheral vision was vigilant to any adult coming within range. Anyone she didn’t recognise as a parent got a second look and a long second look until she was satisfied they were not a threat.

At last the school bell rang out, signalling the day was about to start and the children were to line up in their respective classes to wait for the teachers.

‘Have a good day at school,’ said Tina, bending down to plant a kiss on her son’s cheek. ‘Here’s your book bag and lunch box. Love you.’

‘Love you,’ said Dimitri, already distracted by the class line that was filling up. He blindly grabbed at the two bags before running over and jumping with two feet into the line, right behind one of his class mates, leaving no opportunity for anyone to cut in between them. His feet were rooted to the spot, his toes almost touching the heels of the boy in front of him. He turned and waved at his mum.

Tina watched the line of children as they filed though the school doors, satisfied that he was safely ensconced within the confines of the building. She returned to the car, where John was patiently waiting.

‘You okay?’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ said Tina, giving another look towards the school. ‘He’ll be fine there, I know. Besides, if whoever it was that was in the house last night, if it was Dimitri they wanted, then they would have taken him there and then.’

John flicked the key in the ignition. ‘Don’t jump ahead of yourself. We still don’t know for sure whether someone was there or not.’

‘Save your breath trying to convince me otherwise,’ said Tina. She pushed the clip of her seat belt into the holder and adjusted the tightness of the strap across her body. ‘You know as well as I do, someone was in the house. We just don’t know how.’

‘I’ll check it out when we get back,’ said John. He looked in the mirrors, signalled and pulled out into a gap one of the parents made for him.

‘We,’ she corrected him. ‘We will check it out.’

John raised his eyebrows. ‘Okay, we will check it out.’

She didn’t mean to sound snappy and was conscious of the edge to her voice. ‘I don’t mean to sound bad-tempered, but I’m seriously struggling to keep it together. This whole business is getting to me. If I let my guard down, I’m going to end up a weeping, pathetic woman.’

‘Showing your feelings isn’t such a bad thing, you know,’ said John. ‘Although, I must admit, weeping and pathetic isn’t particularly helpful.’

‘Exactly.’

‘Right, let’s get you home, then, woman of steel.’ He said with his best mock-American hero voice-over.

Tina laughed despite herself. ‘Now I’m picturing myself in a pair of cast-iron pants and a cape.’

‘Wonder Woman-like,’ said John. He looked over at Tina with a smirk. ‘I kind of like that image, hot pants, knee-length boots …’

Tina dished out a playful tap to John’s arm.

The tension in the car eased and she felt herself relax back into the seat. Despite everything, she couldn’t deny that she liked being with John. He had a calming effect on her, his years in the police force clearly coming into play as he took everything in his stride without so much as a stumble or falter in his step.

John stood inside the front door, Tina at his side. He closed the door firmly.

‘So, let’s go through this again. The front door was definitely locked, as I remember putting the chain on and checking.’

‘And I had locked the back door, checked all the windows. I remember talking to Rascal,’ said Tina. ‘What? He understands everything I say.’

John smiled and shook his head. ‘Cat woman,’ he muttered.

‘At least you didn’t put “crazy” in front of that,’ said Tina.

‘We both heard a thud, a bang, call it what you like, but there was definitely a distinctive heavy noise from next door, followed by a different sort of bang.’

‘More like a clatter,’ said Tina.

John closed his eyes and tried hard to remember the unexpected sound. ‘Yes, different to the first. Almost like two pieces of wood banging together, a door or something.’

‘And then I definitely heard movement on the staircase. It really makes a noise. Admittedly the creaking noise was more indistinct, but that’s what I thought immediately, that it was the staircase.’

‘At which point we hot-footed it next door.’

‘And found nothing.’

John wandered down the hall and back again. ‘Has Mr Cooper got any pets?’

‘Nope.’

‘Any chance Rascal or another neighbour’s pet could have got into Mr Cooper’s house.’

‘Nope. And let’s just say a cat did. Unless it’s of the wild cat-lion variety, then I doubt it would have made such a loud noise.’

John looked thoughtfully up the staircase. ‘If I wanted to get from one house to the next without being detected, what would I do?’

He looked at Tina, who shrugged. He continued with his verbal thought process. ‘I can’t go in and out the front or back doors, they are locked and I don’t have a key. How else can I get through? I’m not a ghost, I can’t walk through walls.’ He paused again to see if Tina had picked up on where he was going with this.

‘If you know the answer, then rather than do the whole Sherlock and Watson routine, can you enlighten me?’ She tagged an impatient flick of the eyebrows to the end of the sentence.

‘I can’t walk through walls, but I can make a hole and get from one side to the next.’

‘John, please. Not a riddle.’

He took her hand and led her upstairs, coming to a halt on the landing. He looked up at the trap hatch to the loft. ‘If I wanted to move from house to house …’

‘Oh, shit!’ The penny had clearly dropped. ‘They’ve been coming in through the hatch.’

‘Where’s that torch we had yesterday?’

It was a rather precarious act, but using the small bookcase on the landing as a step and the bannister to support his other foot, John straddled the landing and pushed open the loft hatch.

‘Don’t you want a chair or something?’

‘No. I want to see how easy, or difficult, it is for someone to do this without moving anything. If the intruder used a chair, they wouldn’t be able to put it back after them.’

He pushed the torch up into the roof space, its cylindrical beam aimed into the blackness. Then he grabbed hold of the edge of the hatch on either side and heaved himself up, hooking his elbows as he did so. John was glad he kept himself in shape – he needed upper-body strength to then be able to raise himself up into the loft so that he was sitting on the edge with his legs dangling into the hallway.

‘Blimey, whoever it is has got to be fit to do that.’ He made a slow, steady sweep of the loft with the torch.

‘If you stand up, directly above your head there’s a pull cord,’ said Tina looking up from the landing. ‘There’s a light up there.’

‘Now she tells me,’ said John. He found the cord and gave one swift tug, the bare light bulb in the rafters lighting up.

‘I forgot. I don’t go up there. Last time I was up there I was putting the Christmas tree away.’

‘Did you forget about the ladder?’

‘The ladder?’

‘Yes, this step ladder.’ John slid the aluminium steps down through the hatch. As he did so, a little shower of dust from the edge of the hatch settled on to the floor.

The soft light didn’t quite reach the darkest corners of the loft. There was enough room for John to stand up straight between the trusses. He could see the loft had been boarded out, which would make navigating the space much easier without fear of putting his foot through the ceiling below. The Christmas tree, Tina had mentioned, was indeed there to the left of the hatch, within easy reach, meaning venturing into the loft fully was not necessary.

Apart from dust and cobwebs John couldn’t see anything else. He turned his attention to the party wall. Ducking under one of the roof trusses, he moved closer to Mr Cooper’s side.

‘Have you found anything?’

John looked back to see Tina climbing up through the loft hatch.

‘I thought you were going to wait down there,’ he said.

‘Don’t go getting all alpha male on me,’ she said standing up and dusting her hands off. She stepped over one of the boxes and rested her arms on the wooden A frame.

John resumed his examination of the party wall, sweeping from left to right, up and down with the torch beam. He stopped at a grey, heavy-looking blanket draped over a solid shape against the wall.

‘What’s that?’ he asked.

‘I don’t remember putting it there but, to be honest, it doesn’t mean it hasn’t always been there. As you can see, I usually only push things up through the loft hatch.’

‘My guess is that it’s a recent addition.’ John took a few steps closer. ‘Look at the floor. The dust has been disturbed around it.’

Tina ducked under the beam and moved to John’s side. ‘Do you think that’s how someone has been getting in?’

Her voice was less confident now, the false bravado apparent.

‘Let’s find out,’ he said.

John held the torch firmly in his right hand, ready to use it as a weapon, if necessary. With his left hand he took hold of the edge of the coarse fabric and moved it to one side. He gave a start, flinching slightly, the knock-on effect causing Tina to let out a small scream and jump backwards.

‘It’s okay,’ said John, immediately realising what he had actually seen behind the blanket. ‘It’s only our reflections. Look, it’s a full-length mirror.’ In truth, he felt a bit of an idiot at his reaction.

Tina gave a nervous laugh of relief. ‘I didn’t even know what I was screaming at. I jumped because you did.’

‘Hey, it was a flinch, okay, not a jump,’ said John, trying to make light of it.

‘It was so not a flinch.’

‘Your word against mine. I’m a police officer, remember?’

‘Hmmm, exactly.’ She gave him a small nudge. ‘Come on then, Captain Courageous, let’s see what’s behind it.’ Her voice grew serious. ‘Do you think there might be someone on the other side?’ she whispered, nodding towards the mirror.

‘I shouldn’t worry about whispering now,’ said John. ‘I think we’ve ruined the element of surprise. Here, hold the torch for me.’

John gripped the pine frame of the mirror. It wasn’t as heavy as he anticipated and it slid easily to the left, following the track already cleared through the dust. It was obvious the mirror had been slid in the same direction recently.

A hole in the wall, about a metre high, was revealed. It was just big enough for someone to squeeze through at a crouch. A small draught filtered through the gap, refreshing the arid air in Tina’s side of the loft. Several shafts of light streamed through gaps in the roof left by long-since missing tiles on Mr Cooper’s side.

John took the torch back from Tina and shone the light into Mr Cooper’s loft.

John could taste the mustiness in his mouth as he ran his tongue over his teeth. This was the tricky bit; going into another room that was dark and a space where you had no idea what, or who, was on the other side. Not a situation he liked to be in. If anyone was waiting on the other side for him, as soon as he poked his head through he was easy pickings.

John turned to Tina and put his finger to his lips and held his other hand up, indicating that she should stay exactly where she was. Tina nodded her understanding. He held his breath, listening hard for any tell-tale noises of someone on the other side. Anything, from a slight scuffle, weight being transferred from one foot to another, a creak in the joists or even heavy breathing. He closed his eyes. An old trick Neil had once taught him, to hone the senses, in particular the sixth sense, of being aware of the presence of someone else. Okay, it wasn’t scientific or anything they taught you at police training but, nevertheless, John hadn’t dismissed it, especially since it had got him out of trouble when playing cat and mouse with a particular nasty drug dealer who had waited for John behind a partition wall and with a scaffold bar. John had sensed the man on the other side of the wall and had taken him out, ankle height with his police baton. Rolling around screaming in agony over a broken ankle meant the scaffold pole was no longer a threat.

John rested for a few more seconds. No sixth sense, no tingling of the senses this time. He looked back at Tina, who let out the breath she must have been holding. He indicated that he was going in and she was still to remain where she was.

Still not taking any chances, John slowly extended his arm through the gap, shining the torch all around the opening. He could see the bricks that were once the wall stacked to one side and noted that this side of the loft space wasn’t boarded out at all. At a crouch, he stepped through, placing his feet on the joists. He took a careful look around, until he was satisfied there was no one else up there.

‘It’s okay, you can come through,’ he called back to Tina. ‘Watch your step. Keep your feet on the joists.’

Tina climbed through, but remained just inside, choosing to watch John rather than take up the challenge of shuffling along the joists without much light.

John knelt down at the loft hatch to Mr Cooper’s landing. Something shiny caught his attention and he picked it up.

‘What’s that?’ said Tina.

‘A knife,’ said John. He ran his hands around the wooden plinth to the hatch, coming to stop at a rough edge, where the knife had gouged a small indent. ‘I was wondering how our visitor opened the loft hatch from the inside. He digs the knife in here and flips the hatch up. As the knife is on Mr Cooper’s side, we can assume that he last exited this side.’

Tina gave a small gasp. ‘Do you think he’s in Mr Cooper’s now?’

‘Maybe. Although I’m not suggesting we drop down the hatch and find out. Best we go round to Mr Cooper’s the conventional way.’