سؤالات زیاد

CHAPTER EIGHT

Too many questions

I arrived in Little Moreton in the early evening. I didn’t want to go to the police immediately, and I didn’t want to go the house on my own, so I went to the Ancient Mariner. I walked into the pub and saw that Mary was busy behind the bar. I sat down at a table. After a few minutes she came over. She could see from my face that something was wrong.

‘What is it, Carl? Have you heard about Tom? I only heard this morning. The police say he’d been dead for two days.’

‘Oh yes, they told me that. But did they tell you they think I killed him? Did they tell you they think I killed my wife?’ Mary sat down.

‘No, Carl, that can’t be right. You must have made a mistake. It’s not possible.’ I got hold of her arm.

‘Mary, you’ve got to help me. They want me to go and talk to them about Tom. Perhaps they think I was angry with him because I think he took my wife. I told them Linda hadn’t come back. Now they may think I’ve killed her, too, because of Tom. Oh Mary, what am I going to do?’

‘I’ll come with you to the police. I’m sure they don’t think that at all. It’s no surprise to anyone that Tom has killed himself. It must be because of that fish and thinking it was his dad. Believe me, I thought it was going to happen one day,’ said Mary. She got me a whisky and then told me to go and wait in the car.

Although I was still worried, Mary’s words made me feel better. If only Linda would come back everything would be all right again. I hoped that Mary was right.

We drove to the police station in Great Moreton without saying much. It was the next village, about six kilometres from Little Moreton, and twice as large. We parked outside the station and I followed Mary inside. As we went in a tall, dark man was coming out. Mary said hello to him.

‘You know everyone round here, do you,’ I asked her.

‘No, but that was Tom Parker’s brother, Bill. He lives in Great Moreton somewhere. It’s a good thing he’s gone. He’s a difficult man. Nobody likes him much.’ I turned to look at the man but he’d gone. I think I saw a taxi driving away. Later I wished I’d looked at him more carefully.

PC Grant was waiting for us. Mary had phoned from the pub to say we were coming. He took me into a small room. There was another policeman in there already. Mary had to wait outside.

‘Sit down, Mr Anderson. Thank you for coming to the station. I have a few questions to ask you.’ Then both of them sat opposite me. There was a table between us. I put my arms on it. ‘We want to know where you were from Monday to Wednesday? We also want to know when you last saw Mr Tom Parker?’ PC Grant wasn’t smiling and the other policeman looked very serious.

They asked lots of questions and I gave them the best answers I could. I was worried because I’d been alone for some of the time when I was in London. I was sure they were going to tell me they wanted me to stay, so I was surprised when PC Grant stood up.

‘Thank you, Mr Anderson,’ he said. ‘That has been very useful. We’re sorry about the problem with the fish. You know we spoke to Tom Parker about it. He was sure it was his father. When we told him it was just a fish he said he was going to look for his father again. We think he took his brother’s boat and went out to sea. He couldn’t swim, you know. Tom Parker was always afraid of the sea. It’s not your fault, Mr Anderson.’

I got up and was about to leave when the other policeman said, ‘Then there is the matter of your wife, Mr Anderson. We need to have a few words about that.’ I sat down again and PC Grant looked at me.

‘Mr Anderson, we know that you haven’t seen your wife since last week. Is that right?’

‘Yes,’ I said.

‘And that she had been staying with a friend and she was coming here on Friday night?’

‘Yes,’ I said.

‘Then a postman in Great Moreton said that he saw your wife on Friday night in Woodbridge with a man. Are you sure that you didn’t see your wife last weekend, Mr Anderson?’

I knew immediately what they were thinking. They thought I had got angry with Linda and had done something to her.

‘No, I didn’t see my wife last weekend,’ I said. I was trying to stay calm. ‘She may have been seen in Woodbridge, but that is only what the postman says. Yes, I got a letter from her. It was posted in Woodbridge on Friday.’

‘And in that letter she wrote you, sir,’ the other policeman said, ‘she said she was leaving you. Is that right?’ I didn’t like the way he spoke. It was as though he didn’t believe anything I said. I was very confused at this moment - I didn’t know what to think or do.

‘She said she was leaving me,’ I said, ‘but I know that she was just angry with me– Are you married,’ I asked PC Grant. ‘If you are, then you’ll know that sometimes it’s difficult. Linda was staying with a friend for a few days. Then I phoned her and she agreed to come to our house in Little Moreton for the weekend. I was waiting for her and she didn’t arrive. She was coming, but someone stopped her… I think she was on her way but something happened.’ They had to believe me.

‘Yes, Mr Anderson. That may all be true but can you explain why you went back to London if you thought your wife was here?’ PC Grant was writing something down.

‘Well, I needed to talk to one of her friends and I had to go back to work. I have an important job, you know.’ This didn’t sound so good now. I wished I hadn’t gone back to work. Linda was right. I always thought my job was the most important thing.

I put my head in my hands. My life was in pieces. My wife had left me. A madman had come into the house, put a fish head in my bed, and then died. And now the police think I’d killed my wife because I was angry with her for leaving me. I was surprised when PC Grant put his hand on my arm and said in a kind way.

‘All right, Mr Anderson. That’s all for now. You can go. We would like you to stay in Little Moreton for the moment. We’ll tell you if we have any news.’ They both stood up and walked with me to the door. Mary was still waiting for me. She looked up and smiled.

‘You’ve been a long time. Are you OK?’

‘No, not really,’ I answered. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

As we drove back to the pub I told Mary what the police had asked me. I said I thought they didn’t believe everything I had said.

‘But they let you go,’ she said and I had to agree. ‘What are you going to do now,’ she asked.

‘They said I must stay in Little Moreton for a few days. I’ll go back to the house,’ I answered.

‘You can come back to the pub if you like.’

‘No, thank you, Mary, but I want to go back to the house. It’s my house and if Linda comes back I want to be there.’

We drove back and stopped outside the pub.

‘Will you be all right? I don’t like leaving you there at that house on your own. Are you sure you don’t want to come back to the pub,’ Mary asked.

‘No, I’ll be fine. I want to go to bed. I haven’t been sleeping well and I’m tired. I’ll sleep on the sofa. See you tomorrow.’ She got out of the car and waved goodbye.

I drove on through the village to the house. It was dark and I was pleased to see that there were no lights on in the house and no taxi parked beside it. I got out of the car and locked it. I looked up and down the road. There was nobody and nothing to see. I decided at that moment to sell the house. I didn’t like it any more. Perhaps I’d never liked it. I didn’t like the countryside. It was too lonely out here. Linda would have to agree…

At this thought of Linda I suddenly felt sad and very tired. I opened the door and went inside and put out my hand to switch on the light. Nothing. The lights weren’t working. At the same moment I thought I saw, standing in the doorway of the kitchen, a tall woman with long fair hair. And then she was gone.

‘Who’s there,’ I shouted. Perhaps I was so tired I was seeing things that weren’t there, I thought. And it was dark. Suddenly I felt more afraid than I ever had in my life. I heard another noise. Who was it? It couldn’t be Tom. Tom was dead.

I shouted, ‘Who’s there. Who are you?’ and ran into the kitchen in the dark, hitting things as I did. At first I couldn’t see anything because it was so dark. I’ll get a knife, or something, I thought. And I was just going to get one when I saw her–