black. The sky was heavy with clouds, promising more rain. The sound of the early traffic disturbed the silence, and the smell of car fumes drifted through the air. The light crept across the water, across the mouth of the tunnel, reflecting up on to the brickwork. The colours began to appear, the dull green of the undergrowth on the towpath, the black of the sodden ground, the reds and yellows and blues of discarded crisp bags, softdrink cans, cigarette cartons. It illuminated the crumbling brickwork, the weeds growing in the pointing. The shadow of the tunnel lay sharp across the water which moved slightly as the wind disturbed it, slapping against the side of the canal.
The rain was starting again, making the light dull, making the surface of the water dance. And there was something in the water under the bridge. It was like a tangle of weed and cloth, half in and half out of the shadow, sinking into the oily water. As the water rippled, the bundle moved slightly, rocking gently in the eddies. Rise and fall back. Rise and fall back. And sometimes as it moved, a faint gleam of something almost blue white gleamed through the water in the thin morning light.
Roy Farnham was tired. His head was aching and his mouth felt dry. The call had come through shortly after six, jerking him out of a deep sleep. He’d sat up late the night before. It had been after one by the time he’d got to bed, and then the burial he’d been to had lodged in his mind, the dark cemetery and the funereal shrubs, the sparsely attended service. What a waste of a life.
His mind had drifted to the woman he’d talked to, Maggie Chapman’s friend – what was her name? Eliza. She’d been striking in a long black coat, her fair hair escaping from under her hat. Maybe he should drop in at the gallery, see this exhibition…
He’d slept, woken, slept again. And now, as the heaviness of true sleep was carrying him away, the phone, the fucking phone was ringing and he was back on duty and he was going to have to answer it.
He rolled over in bed and picked up the handset. ‘Farnham.’ As he was speaking, his hand was groping around on the bedside table where he’d dumped a packet of aspirin the night before. He popped a couple out of the foil and sat up as the bitter taste of salicylate filled his mouth. He looked at the clock display on the stereo: 6.15. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘OK, I’ll be there.’ He gave the instructions more or less on automatic pilot, then lay back for a minute as he got his thoughts in order. A body in the canal – suspicious death. Shit. Not a murder, not on his first day back. A young girl, they’d said. With a bit of luck, it’d be an accident. Or suicide.
The room felt cold as he pushed back the quilt. The heating wasn’t set to come on until seven. He pressed the advance switch, but the warmth hadn’t really begun to permeate the flat until after he’d showered and dressed. A fine rain was falling as he left the house, and the steering wheel was cold under his hands.
It was colder by the canal side. A body in the water always has the potential to be a suspicious death and the early summons had put the responsibility for the decisions squarely on Farnham’s shoulders. His hopes for a simple accident or suicide faded as he stood on the canal bank, listening to the pathologist with deepening resignation. He didn’t want another murder inquiry. But the body that was pulled from the water allowed for little doubt. ‘Whoever put her in there made sure she wouldn’t come up again,’ the pathologist said. She pulled the matted hair away from around the neck, and showed Farnham the cord that was twisted round the woman’s throat. It was attached to a bag. ‘There’s a brick or something in there. Pulled her right under. Poor girl.’
Farnham, crouched on the canal side, felt the wind cut through his jacket as it funnelled through the archway of the bridge. ‘Suicide?’ he said.
‘Mm.’ The pathologist looked at the cord assessingly. She didn’t sound convinced. ‘It’s possible. But look at her hands.’ She showed Farnham the damage to the fingers. They were bruised and misshapen, and there were faint marks on the wrists. ‘That’s pre-mortem damage,’ she said.
Farnham stood up, feeling his knees protest. He wasn’t forty yet, for Christ’s sake. He needed to get to the gym, cut down on the beer, start…After this case. He’d think about it then. He looked at the dark water of the canal. The wind ruffled the surface, sending ripples lapping against the stonework. ‘I’ll get a team down there,’ he said. They’d need to search the water under the bridge where the body had been found. They’d need a search team along the canal bank, along the canal itself – house to house – or boat to boat. God help his budget.
He looked down at the dead woman again. She seemed young, very young. The pathologist stood up beside him. ‘I’ll tell you something else,’ she said. ‘There’s a baby somewhere. This girl had a baby not so long ago.’
Farnham closed his eyes. This was all he needed. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘We’ll get on to it.’ The rippling water reminded him of the sea. A dead woman in the water. A baby. What were they going to find when they searched the towpath and the canal? He pinched the bridge of his nose, and rubbed his eyes with his fingers. ‘OK,’ he said again. ‘Let’s get started.’
Eliza put down the phone. She’d been talking to Maggie’s landlord. Maggie had named Eliza as her executor, and suddenly, all of this was her responsibility. She’d contacted him shortly after Maggie’s death to let him know what she was going to do about the flat. ‘The rent’s paid to the end of the month,’ Eliza had said, the first time she had talked to him, when Maggie was just two days dead. ‘The flat will be cleared by then.’ After Flynn’s exhibition, when she could give it her full attention.
But he’d phoned this morning with worries about security. The upstairs flat was unoccupied and the house was standing empty. ‘Word gets around,’ he said. Someone had been seen hanging round. Eliza doodled flowers on the pad by the phone as she listened.
‘I’ll get to it as soon as I can,’ she said. The flat was a nagging irritation, but he had a point. An empty flat was vulnerable. There was little, if anything, of value there, but she didn’t want Maggie’s place vandalized, her books, her diaries, her photographs – all the memorabilia of Ellie – damaged or destroyed.
After she hung up, Eliza contemplated the task she’d set herself. It probably wouldn’t take long. She found the prospect of sorting through the remains of Maggie’s life depressing. She’d get started on it as soon as she had a couple of hours. She tried to put it out of her mind. She made breakfast and stood at the window watching the canal as she ate toast and drank coffee. Daniel was arriving today. She felt a twist of emotion in her stomach which she found hard to analyse. Excitement? Fear? Anger? It was the way she always felt when she was about to do something new, something that presented her with a challenge, that was all. But she dressed carefully, twisted her hair on top of her head the way he used to like it.
The gallery was busy when she came downstairs from her flat. Mel was unpacking boxes on the floor, surrounded by polystyrene and bubble wrap.
‘Hi, Eliza,’ Mel greeted her. Her hair, which had been black the day before, was pale blonde, carefully tousled. ‘This is that stuff from Daniel Flynn.’ She ran her eyes assessingly up and down Eliza. ‘You look nice. Jonathan, Eliza’s got dressed up for Daniel Flynn. Doesn’t she look nice?’
Eliza felt her face flush. Jonathan looked up. ‘Mm,’ he said vaguely. Mel smiled.
‘What time did Flynn say to expect him?’ Eliza started checking through the post.
‘Sometime
