Read Online The Stranger You Know by Jane Casey - Free Book Online Page B

have put them out when he was leaving,’ Godley said.
    ‘Never leave a naked flame unattended,’ floated up from the floor where Kev was approaching Godley’s feet.
    ‘I’m not sure that was his priority.’
    ‘There were candles at Maxine’s house as well. None at Kirsty’s,’ Burt said. ‘So he makes do with what he can find.’
    ‘It makes her look like a sacrifice,’ I said. A memory drifted to the surface: helping one of the nuns to prepare the altar for an early-morning Mass. White linen altar cloth. Pure white candles in their low holders. And flowers, rammed by me into a brass container too small for them, because I was bored and wanted to be finished. The nun had taken them from me, tutting under her breath, and cut away the bruised stems with a short, stubby knife she’d produced from the folds of her habit, until the arrangement looked perfect. I moved forward to stand just behind Anna’s savaged head and looked down at her. From this angle I could see what I’d missed before: she was lying on a handful of lilies. Their heavy scent drifted up, mingling with the bitter smell of the burnt candles.
    ‘These will be the flowers from the living room.’
    ‘Probably,’ Godley said, leaning over beside me. His sleeve brushed mine and again I was aware of him flinching away. Not the way to convince people we weren’t having an affair, I thought sourly. Since I had no way of actually saying that to him without stepping a long way outside what was appropriate for my rank, and his, I affected not to notice.
    ‘What do you think the flowers signify?’
    ‘No idea. Part of the ritual, I suppose, along with the candles.’
    ‘Being outside?’ Burt suggested.
    ‘Did he do this with the others?’
    Godley nodded.
    ‘With lilies? Or other flowers?’
    ‘Other flowers, I think.’ He frowned. ‘I have crime scene photos in the car.’
    ‘We should have a look,’ Burt said. ‘With the other SIOs.’
    ‘How did he know there would be flowers here?’ I bent down: from what I could see of the petals they didn’t look fresh. One or two were brown and coming away from the flower. Even allowing for them being crushed under the victim, they weren’t in the best condition. ‘Did he deliver these, maybe, earlier in the week? Is that how he saw her first?’
    Una Burt didn’t hide her scepticism. ‘Why would she let him in again, though? There was no sign of a break-in. Even if she recognised him, she’d never let a delivery man into her house.’
    ‘Unless he was carrying something heavy.’
    ‘Like what?’
    There was no evidence of anything having been delivered and I subsided, feeling squashed. But Una Burt was right, and she wasn’t trying to put me down, unlike Derwent. She was just saying what she thought.
    ‘What did he use to cut her hair? Scissors?’
    ‘Not that we found.’ Kev surfaced beside the bed. ‘If you ask me, looking at the way he left it, he used a knife.’
    ‘The same knife he used on her eyes?’ Burt suggested.
    ‘It’s possible.’
    ‘Did she fight?’ I asked. ‘What did the neighbour hear?’
    ‘Unusual noises, he said. Moving furniture. Thumps and bumps.’ Godley scanned the room. ‘Not that you’d know.’
    ‘If he made a mess, he took the time to tidy up afterwards. This was important to him – making this image.’ I stepped back to look at it as he might have, wondering what he wanted us to see. ‘He took the hair out of this room. He could have left it.’
    Godley was using his torch to examine the woman’s face, peering at it from a distance of a couple of inches. He looked disturbingly like Prince Charming leaning over Sleeping Beauty, ready to wake her with a kiss.
    ‘Stop. Go back.’ Something had caught my attention. ‘Where you had the torch before – I saw something.’
    He turned it back to the side, shining it across her bloodless skin, and again I saw a glint.
    ‘There’s something under her neck. A hair.’
    ‘Not surprising,’