Free The Darkest Hour by Katherine Howell Page B

wanted as an enemy, and sometimes they started ‘forgetting’. But at the same time, ordinary people weren’t good liars. You could tell it in their faces, and a little gentle pushing often brought out that last bit of detail.
    She chose to start with the older woman, and asked the younger one, a sad-looking woman in her fifties with a brown beehive hairdo, to stay where she was while they walked a few steps further.
    She smiled at the woman, guessing she was in her seventies, noting the glasses, the tweed suit, the grey hair in the tight bun. ‘Thank you for waiting, ma’am. I’m Detective Ella Marconi.’
    ‘I have fish here.’ The woman raised a green enviro shopping bag. ‘Out of the fridge too long, it’s no good.’
    ‘I’ll make this as quick as I can.’ Ella opened her notebook. ‘What did you see here tonight?’
    ‘I’d been at my friend’s place, and stopped in at the shops for a piece of fish for tomorrow’s dinner on my way home. Back on the street here I was walking along, slowly, you know, when I heard a strange noise.’
    ‘A noise like . . .?’
    ‘Like when one person walks into another, and that one has the wind knocked out of him. An “oof ” noise.’
    ‘Right,’ Ella said.
    ‘I turned to see the man fall to his knees then onto his hands. Someone almost trod on him, he went down so fast,’ the woman said. ‘People kept going past him, can you believe it?’
    ‘I can.’
    ‘I asked him if he was okay, and he muttered something I didn’t catch. Then somebody else said there was blood, and for someone to ring an ambulance.’
    Ella said, ‘So did you see who walked into him?’
    The old lady shook her head. ‘I only saw him fall. He was behind me. I turned when I heard the strange noise.’
    ‘You didn’t notice anybody hurrying away?’
    ‘There were a lot of people around,’ she said. ‘Everyone’s always in a hurry.’
    Just as I thought
. Ella clicked her pen away and got out her card. ‘Thank you for your time. We may be in touch again, but in the meantime please call me if you think of anything else.’
    The woman took it. ‘How is the man?’
    ‘I’m afraid he passed away.’
    A frown creased the old lady’s forehead. ‘This city.’
    When Ella approached the beehive witness, she found her blinking back tears and plucking at a fray on her handbag strap.
    ‘It was awful.’
    ‘Take your time,’ Ella said.
    The woman took a deep breath, and pointed along the street. ‘I was coming along here, in a bit of a hurry because I wanted to get home. Then suddenly there was this bit of a bustle in front of me.’ She squinted at the footpath as if remembering. ‘There were two men together, just for a second, as if they’d collided with one another, then one moved on and a split second later the other fell to the ground.’
    ‘What did you do then?’
    ‘As I got closer I could see the man on the ground was grabbing at himself, at his chest. I thought maybe he was having a heart attack, from being knocked over, you know. But then I saw the blood, and I got out my phone and called an ambulance.’ She pointed to one of Murray’s witnesses. ‘That man there started CPR.’ She lifted her chin. ‘I made him stop.’
    Ella wrote quickly. ‘What did the other man look like?’
    ‘He was white, in his thirties or so I’d guess.’
    ‘Hair colour? Clothing?’
    The woman hesitated. ‘Dark hair, I think. Brown more than black. Clothes, I couldn’t really say. Long sleeves, I think. Maybe jeans.’
    Ella asked the woman to wait for a moment, and went to speak to Murray. ‘I’ve got a description.’ She read out what the woman had said.
    Murray looked at his own notebook. ‘Matches with what I’ve got. White male, blue jumper, short dark hair.’
    Ella went back to the beehive woman. She took down her details, explained that they’d be in touch to get a formal statement later, thanked her, and let her go just as Detective Sergeant Kirk Kuiper strode along