The Silent Suspect by Nell Pattison (epub e ink reader .TXT) 📕

a show of checking her watch, but she was clearly pleased to see us. The meeting itself was uneventful, but her cheerfulness helped to take my mind off the dull ache coming from the graze on my face, and thinking about whoever it was who had attacked me.

The time for us to leave seemed to come round quite quickly even though we had been with Miriam for over an hour, and we were crossing the lobby when Sasha’s phone rang.

I need to take this, she signed, indicating that she was going to step outside for some privacy. Before I went out to my car, someone else came into the lobby, walking in the direction of the outer door, and I paused to watch her. Her uniform looked familiar, and I realised that she worked for the same care agency as Nadia.

‘Excuse me?’

She stopped and turned to look at me, with a half-smile that suggested she didn’t want to be rude, but she also wasn’t in the mood to talk to strangers.

‘I’m sorry,’ I continued, ‘but I just noticed your uniform. Did you know Nadia? Nadia Nowak?’

The woman’s face softened and she nodded. ‘I did. Horrible, what happened to her.’

‘I know, I can’t believe it myself,’ I replied, hoping she would stay and talk to me for a moment. ‘I know her husband, Lukas,’ I explained, but didn’t give her any further information. People were often reluctant to talk to anyone connected to social services and I’d learnt my lesson from the other day with the people hanging around outside the scene of the second fire.

The woman’s face darkened slightly, and I knew she’d heard that Lukas was in prison for Nadia’s murder. Would she still want to talk to me?

‘It’s awful. They say he killed her. I can’t believe it myself – they always seemed so much in love. But then you never know what’s going on behind closed doors, do you?’

I shook my head and took a step closer to her, willing her not to leave before I could ask her a couple of questions. ‘No, you don’t. But the police will be looking into it.’

She made a noise that sounded like ‘huh’.

‘I heard Nadia had some trouble at work, a little while ago,’ I said. ‘Did they ever get to the bottom of it?’

‘Oh, the thing with the thefts?’ She waved a hand dismissively. ‘That was nothing. It was all a misunderstanding. The old woman hadn’t lost anything after all; she just didn’t know where anything was.’

‘That’s a relief,’ I replied, deciding to follow her lead in order to keep her talking. ‘I didn’t think she was the type of person to steal anything.’

‘No, not Nadia. She was lovely, and she was always great to work with. Some of the others, they don’t do their share, and if you’re paired up then you know you’re going to have a hard day of it while they fanny about and leave the crap jobs to you. But not Nadia – you could rely on her to work hard. I always liked working with her.’

The woman had leant back against the wall, and I could see the sadness in her eyes as she talked about Nadia.

‘I’m glad she had friends at work,’ I replied with a smile. ‘That makes all the difference.’

She nodded, and I thought she was going to say something else, but then she closed her mouth. I wanted to push her a bit more about these theft rumours – I was sure Paul had mentioned there being more than one accusation.

‘What happened about those other thefts, then?’ I asked. ‘It all seemed a bit strange, coming after the one where she was accused.’

A dark look crossed the woman’s face, and she looked out of the door as if she was checking that nobody else was coming into the building. When she looked back at me, she leant forward slightly and kept her voice low.

‘That wasn’t Nadia. They weren’t even proper thefts. Everything turned up eventually, after a week or two.’

I frowned. ‘What do you mean, weren’t proper thefts?’

‘I mean nothing was actually taken. All of the people who made complaints were convinced something had gone missing, when it hadn’t.’

‘Really?’ I tried not to sound too excited by this revelation, but it sounded like something I wanted to know.

She nodded. ‘And I’m pretty sure I know who it was. But Paul, the boss, won’t listen to rumours; gets really cross if we go to him with petty stories, and I can’t prove it. But she looked pretty smug when the rotas all got changed. She knew it was because of these alleged thefts, and them thinking it was Nadia, although I think she really hoped Nadia was going to lose her job.’

‘Who was it?’ I asked, trying to sound casual.

‘Caroline Nowak, Lukas’s ex. He and Nadia met through Caroline’s work, and that’s always pissed her off. I don’t know why she suddenly decided to try and mess up Nadia’s life now, but I’d swear it was her.’

I stood looking at her for a moment, before I realised my mouth was open, and swiftly shut it. She must have noticed my shock, because she nodded.

‘I know, it surprised me that she’d stoop that low too, but you know what they say about a woman scorned. Lukas and Nadia got together after the two of them had split up, so I can’t see that Nadia deserved any of it, but you never know how people feel in these situations. I reckon Paul had an idea it was Caroline, too, but he couldn’t prove it either.’

This caught my attention; Paul hadn’t mentioned anything about suspecting one of his other employees, and I wondered why he’d left that part out of his story. I was about to respond when the woman checked her watch and grimaced.

‘I’ve got to go. Don’t get much time between jobs these days.’ She gave me a nod, along with a searching look, probably realising she’d just opened up