Chapter 4

That evening, Andy had a few too many, with Maria having to help him inside when she took him home. She helped him undress and into bed, giving him a motherly kiss on his forehead as he started to snore.

She had a look around while she was there, the detective in her coming to the fore. This was her chance to learn the things he had bottled up. She decided that his place was very tidy, much tidier than she would have expected of a single guy. His wardrobe was basic, but generally good quality materials, and everything hung away properly. She took pity on him and picked up the things that had ended up on the floor, folding them and putting them on the dresser.

In the kitchen, the tidiness stood out. The fridge held packs of instant dinners and the dishes were all dry and sitting in a wire rack. If she didn’t know better, especially after tonight, that he was a guy, she could almost think that she was in a girl’s home. She wondered if he was just a bit fastidious, but that hadn’t been apparent during his time at work. She left a note on his kitchen table before walking out and pulling the door shut.

On her way home, she thought about her feelings for the younger boy. He had come into her life as a jittery lad with frightened eyes and was now a far more confident and forward-thinking man. His work, at the dives, had been inspired, and his comment at the team meeting had made her think about the cases with another viewpoint. If the bodies were taken in three-month intervals, kept quiet and well-fed for a couple of weeks, and then dumped so that everyone would see the body; it could only mean that there was a simple reason for it all. She had heard of ‘killing clubs’ in other countries. Could this be one of those, with the body having to be found to prove that the experience was all real, and not a drugged dream.

Saturday morning, she got a text from Andy. He apologised for being a drunkard and asked who took him home as he couldn’t remember much after ten. Her reply was that she had been the one and that he could make it up to her by meeting her at Jamie’s Italian in the Bullring at midday, as she needed someone to carry her shopping bags. She had an idea which may open him up.

She managed to get a table for lunch and told the waiter that she was waiting for a friend but to bring her a coffee. The coffee was nearly finished when she saw Andy came in, wearing good slacks and jacket. She gave him a wave and he came over to the table and sat down.

“Before you say anything, I have to apologise for last night. I’m not used to alcohol but getting a proper warrant card made me lose control. I’m sorry if I said or did, anything wrong. All I know that I was in the pub one minute and then waking up with a full bladder and a mouth like the bottom of a parrot cage. On top of that, I was naked.”

“Andy, I’ll say this once, and once only. You were the perfect gentleman last night. I drove you home, helped you inside and helped you get your clothes off. You have nothing I haven’t seen before. Not often enough, but I have seen a guy’s tackle. You were snoring before your head hit the pillow. Today, you will pay me back by being my helper. After you’ve bought me lunch, I need to go into Debenhams and find a dress to wear at lunch next weekend. My old friend, Jenny, is coming up to town with her husband, to see his folks. We are going to meet at Carters, and I want to look different to my old self. She was involved with the cases we’re on and I’ve texted her with some snippets of what we’ve been doing. She want to meet you, as well.”

“You’re inviting me to join you there?”

“Yes, Andy. I think you’ll like her. Her husband is a nice guy as well, so it might be a good meal. It won’t cost the earth either, as I’m happy to pay my share. She, and I, have eaten there before, to shed the pressures of that other office and all the other pricks that work there.”

They ordered an ate their meal, Andy getting easier in himself, as they talked about anything but the case and last night. They were back to normal relations when he paid, and they went the short distance to Debenhams. She expected him to baulk when they went into the dress section, but he stayed at her side. Well in, and surrounded by racks of dresses, she stopped.

“Right, young man. What style do think would look good on me?”

“I don’t know, Maria. I haven’t seen you in anything but jeans while we’ve been working, except for the slacks you had on when you first came into the office, and the ones you’re wearing now. I haven’t seen your legs to be able to pass an observation. The other thing is that I’ve only seen you in flats, heels make every girl look different.”

“Shit, you’re right. Never mind, stay with me until I try something on. Now, that dress over there looks nice. It looks like wool, and the price is keen.”

They went to the dress and Andy reached out and felt the material.

“The price is because it isn’t all wool. If I wanted to take a guess, I’d say about 60/40 and the label will just say ‘Wool Mix’.”

Maria looked inside the collar.

“O.K. Buster! How did you do that?”

“I have very sensitive fingers, with a lot of experience with fine materials. There’s one thing I haven’t told you, and I’d rather show you. You might find something better to wear, and I’ll be able to get my suit out of storage. We can take your car and I’ll give you the story on the way, it’s not far.”

They found the car without Andy saying anything. Maria was truly intrigued now, and waited until they were out of the carpark to ask what it was that he had held back.

“First, you can set out for Harborne, I expect that you can find your way there with your eyes shut. See if you can find a park in the Co-op servo on High Street, it’s only a few steps from there. Now, the story is something that you have to keep to yourself. It concerns my parents and how I was brought up. The fact is that my father was an Inspector at the Harborne station, working in Traffic for forty years. My mother had a dress shop; well, a bit more than that, it was an up-market outlet for imported garments. All my young life I was helping her in the shop, and she trained me in the art of knowing materials by feel, with the idea that I’ll take over running the business.”

“That’s why everything you wear is good quality, and why you’re so easy to get along with. You must have absorbed a lot of feminine traits during that time. When I took you home, last night, I was staggered to see how clean and tidy your place was. She had taught you well.”

“She did that, true, but she also wanted me to take any path I chose. The shop was big enough to have a manager, who is still running the place. When Dad retired, they would go over to Europe on buying trips; Mum had some contacts who would keep her up to date on what was good to buy. It was on one of these trips, in my last year in school, when they had a head-on collision with an English tourist, over there for the first time and on the wrong side of the road.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Andy. Is that why you ended up in the Police College?”

“It is, but indirectly. I always wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps, not my mother’s. I had planned on joining the force but had kept it from them. After they had been brought home and we had the funeral, I went to live with an auntie, until I finished school. The will was a bit complicated; they hadn’t expected to be dead so early, who does? Our house was sold, but the shop was kept in trust for me to take over when I turn twenty-five. When I was not allowed to actually join the force, properly, I decided to just stay in as a Special until I turn twenty-five, when I was going to do something about the shop, or just sell it as an ongoing business.”

“Do you have an income from the trust fund? I wondered how a Special could afford a two-bedroom flat with separate lounge and kitchen.”

“You’re very observant. There is a regular income from the money in the bank, almost a decent wage. What caused me to drink too much, last night, was the dilemma I’m now in. I didn’t expect to be carrying a proper detective warrant card. That’s thrown the whole plan into the air. I love doing this job, it was my dream. Now I can take the money and sell the business when the time comes.”

“There’s more, though, isn’t there? You weren’t just spooked by seeing that body because of being castrated to sing falsetto, were you?”

“No. It wasn’t just that. Some nightmares had me being transformed into being a girl so that I would be perfect to run the shop. That was fairly regular before my mother died. The other story was a lie.”

“It’s all right, everything happens for a reason. Having a solid feminine side is good if you want to be a true gentleman. You would never be one of those Neanderthals that I used to work with, and your thinking has that element of intuition that you’ll find will be your extra skill. I think that we’re close, the carpark is just up here.”

She parked next to the service station, and they got out. Andy led her across the road to a converted house.

“Jolene’s! You bloody own Jolene’s. You have no idea how many times I’ve walked or driven past here and wondered what it would be like to be able to afford to just walk in and look around.”

Andy opened the door and held it for her as she realised her dream. Inside was a surprise for Maria. She had expected to see a range of high-end clothing on mannikins; instead, there was a room that looked like a lounge, with easy chairs and coffee tables. A door opened and a middle-aged lady strolled towards them, elegant in a Paris creation.

“Andy, sweetheart, it’s been too long! I thought you had forgotten little old Collette! What brings you here on a Saturday afternoon? Hopefully looking for a going-away dress for this lady. Haven’t you bought her a ring yet?”

“Not that, Collette. We’re here to get Maria a dress, but something that will transform her for lunch at Carters, next week. Nothing too over-the-top. This is Maria, by the way, we work together in the CID at Aston. The slacks are a result of the work we do. You may have seen our picture in the papers, this week, pulling a body out of Edgbaston.”

“I thought that looked like you, but it was the farming outfit that put me off, I’d never thought that I’d see you in that sort of gear.”

“You’ve no idea what it took to be seen in public in that outfit. Anyway, what can you do for Maria? I’m going to the same lunch, so I need to get a suit out of the store.”

“Right, we’ll start there. Follow me to the back and we’ll see what we have to match with.”

Maria was bemused as she followed Collette into the back of the building, past rows of gorgeous gowns on racks, until they went into a large room that was cooler than the rest of the building. Maria had heard about climate-controlled storage for furs, but this was the first time she had ever seen one. Collette saw her look of wonder.

“There’s over a million pounds worth of furs in here, kept for our better clients. It is where we keep anything that has to be in storage for a long time, like Andy’s better things. I can see you looking around and wondering what happens if someone comes into the shop while we’re here. When we left the lounge, I electronically locked the front door. If anyone rings the bell, my phone vibrates, and I can see who they are on CCTV. This dress has, like a lot of the dresses we sell these days, a hidden pocket to carry a phone without spoiling the lines.”

There were four suits, hanging on a rack, that she led them to.

“Andy, take all four and go into a changing room and try them all on. I’ll take Maria into one of the others and see what we have to work with. Aim for the one that’s the best fit, you’re not the shape you used to be. If the best one is a bit tight, I can get it altered before next week.”

Andy took the suits and went off to see how much weight he’d put on. He found that it wasn’t as bad as he’d feared. The best fit was one that was the newest, a charcoal single-button one, quite expensive and had been bought for the funeral. He swallowed and put the memory behind him.

“Found one!” He called as he came out. Collette put her head out and nodded.

“I thought that it would be the best fit, if not the best in terms of past events. Still, it will be good to wear it at a happy time, which will let you wear it more. Go up to the lounge and make yourself a drink, we’ll be a little while.”

Andy went back into the storeroom and found a box near where the suits were hung. It contained shoes to go with the suits. There were several boxes and a couple of other racks nearby, which had a lot of his mother’s things, with some of his father’s, like his old uniform. Tears welled in his eyes as he put the shoes on and left the room. In the lounge he fired up the coffee machine and brewed himself a cup. It tasted as good as he remembered and smiled as he remembered all of the times he had sat in this room with his mother, happy that she was happy, but worried that she was turning him into a girl. Today was having an unexpected outcome, forcing him to think about what he really wanted to do.

He did as he had done, so many times before; he looked out of the glass door into the High Street and watching the people and cars go by. He wiped his eyes and started to feel good. Here he was, a newly minted detective, sitting in a business that would be his, one day soon, waiting for a woman who was his co-worker, fast becoming a friend. She now knew all those things that had haunted him for years but had smiled and stayed by his side.

When the door opened, and Collete ushered Maria into the room, he had to blink. He rose to his feet, unable to say anything. The Maria he had worked with was nowhere to be seen. In her place stood an elegant lady, in a charcoal and white dress that highlighted her beauty and showed off her good legs, now supported on four-inch heels in a matching pattern. The smile on her face said it all.

“On my account, Collette. That’s stunning. Maria, you’re beautiful.”

Maria came up to him.

“You’re not so bad, yourself. I think it might be time for a hug.”

They hugged as Collette looked on, a big grin forming.

“I can see that the two of you are more than just co-workers. I’ll take some pictures for you if you have your phones handy. You do make a striking couple. Maybe that ring isn’t as far away as you thought.”

The fact that neither of them argued with her was all the answer she needed. She took the pictures as they stood, his arm over her shoulders and hers around his waist, both with huge smiles.

“Right, go get changed, you two. I’ll sort out garment bags for you. Maria, I’m not letting you out of the shop in the clothes you came in with. We have much better for you. They may be good for work but not for a weekend lady. Andy, that suit looks good, no need to have any alterations. Whoever you wanted to impress, next week, is going to be blown away.”

When they left the shop, with Collette’s cheerio’s as she closed the door, they both had garment bags with their outfits in, while Maria had a Jolene’s bag with the outfit she had come wearing. She now had a long skirt and peasant blouse with a short woollen jacket. She unlocked the car, and they laid the bags in the boot. As they stood, Maria put a hand on his cheek and leaned in to kiss his lips.

“There, that’ll make Collette happy, if she’s still watching.”

Both smiling, they sat in the car, and she left the carpark.

“I’m going to take the dress to my home and hang it properly. It’s not staying in the back any longer than it should. We can hang your suit there as well, and you can pick it up Friday after work.”

Having been working from the Harborne station, she didn’t live far away, Andy just sitting there with a smile on his face as she drove. At a semi-detached house, she parked in the driveway, and they got out.

“Welcome to my humble abode. The best bit is that I have the ground floor which also gives me the parking. The guy, upstairs, rides his bike everywhere.”

They took the bags and carried them inside, Maria leading Andy into her bedroom and hanging both bags in her wardrobe. Turning to him, she put both hands on his cheeks and pulled him into a proper kiss, his arms going round her waist and pulling her to him. As the kiss warmed them both, and the bed beckoned, her phone rang, followed by Andy’s just seconds later.

“That has to be work, they have no idea of timing, do they,” said Maria as she opened her bag and pulled it out.

They both answered their phones as they moved back out of the bedroom, Maria going to the kitchen to a notepad on the table. Andy had been called by Terry Gardiner, who told him to stay where he was and to ring Maria to let her know where to pick him up. They were, he was told, going to interview the man who most likely drove the Sapphire into the reservoir. Maria will have all the details. Overtime had been approved.

He had to wait until Maria had finished her call, her notepad now covered in writing.

“That was Sue. She told me to wait until you rang to tell me where to pick you up. The FSI guys got some prints off the steering wheel of that car. They matched a guy who has done time for nicking lead off a church roof. His sheet said that he worked for Singh back in the seventies. On top of that, we have a record of the calls that the wife has made since Friday, and one of them happened to be to this guy, Colin Entwhistle. I have the address. Sue said that if we get involved in this one, it will look more like the fact that this case was the reason we had been diving.”

They went back to the car, both thinking of what may have happened, but only letting their smiles show their feelings. On the way to the destination, they got serious and discussed how they were going to conduct the interview.

At the house, they were confronted by a large woman, who had cases stacked on the front porch.

“Who are you, then? Whatever it is, we’re not buying. I’m waiting for a taxi, so you can just bugger off!”

“Mrs. Entwhistle?” asked Andy, showing her his warrant card. “I’m afraid that if you’re traveling, it’s likely that you’ll be alone. We would like to talk to your husband, is he inside?”

The woman nodded and Andy pushed past her, leaving Maria on watch. In the house he heard some swearing, going into a bedroom to find Colin trying to close a suitcase.

“I’m sorry to bother you, Colin, but your holiday has been cancelled. If you would come down to your kitchen, and call your wife in, we need to have a serious discussion. I think you already know what it’s about.”

Colin’s shoulders drooped; he knew that Andy had been trained in keeping him where he didn’t want to be; three years inside had ground him down. Once the bags were brought back inside, and the door closed, they all went into the kitchen.

“Colin Entwhistle, this is an interview and I’m recording it so that it can be played to your lawyer, should you want one. We are here to discuss the matter of you dumping a car in Edgbaston Reservoir, back in the seventies, with the body of Syd Singh in the back seat, your employer. I’ll not beat around the bush. We know that the wife rang you and that your fingerprints are on the steering wheel. Your options are limited; either you killed him for the twenty thousand that he had supposedly taken from his safe, or you were dumping his body at the request of his wife, who then paid you the twenty thousand.”

“You bloody idiot! You told me that you had won that money on the pools. That paid for our wedding and our first house. No wonder you rushed us through that, no doubt to get rid of the cash! So, officers, what now?”

“Madam, what we want, right now, is for Colin to just tell us the truth of what happened. At the moment, he is swinging between a charge of murder and a charge of being an accessory after the fact. What is it to be, Colin?”

“All right, I’ll come clean. I worked for old Singh, back then, and his wife got all pally with me, a couple of weeks before he died. She seduced me and then told me that she would have a job for me to do. If I didn’t do it, she would tell Mabel about our one night. A couple of weeks later, she gave me the keys to the car, told me not to look in the back seat, and then told me to get rid of it. She said that she would pay me with money from the safe. Then she said that, to make sure I stayed quiet, she had kept the knife that she had stabbed him with. It was my boning knife which I used in the butcher department and had my prints on it. I was only young, and stupid, back then, and wanted to marry Mabel. The money let us get set up. I didn’t kill him; I just did what I had to. I’m sorry, Mabel, the holiday, for me, is off.”

Maria went to the front door after the bell had been rung. She sent the taxi away and then called Susan in the office.

“Sue, he just confessed to dumping the body. He said that the wife kept the knife that she used to stab Singh. It was a boning knife that he used in the supermarket. Do you want us to bring him to Aston?”

Back in the kitchen, Andy formally arrested Colin and they left his wife, weeping on the doorstep, as they put him in the back of the car, Andy beside him, and Maria drove them back to the station. Here, they handed him over to the duty sergeant to put him in the cells, to await his fate. The last thing that Andy said to Colin was that a formal statement, along the lines of what he had told them, would go a long way to keeping him from a long sentence, seeing that the longer it was, the more likely he would die in prison.

Marianne Gregory © 2023