Free Death Bed by Leigh Russell Page B

car.’
    ‘Could you tell which direction it approached from?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Can you remember if it came from Junction Road or the other direction?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘What time did you hear it?’
    ‘I don’t know. It was just a car, you know. I don’t even know if I heard it. I was asleep. I might just have imagined it.’
    Or made it up to try and sound helpful, Geraldine thought. Time waster. The chess players returned to their game.
    ‘Sorry we couldn’t be more help,’ their flatmate apologised as he showed them out.
    They questioned the neighbours who lived opposite, but no one had seen or heard anything.
    ‘Why is everyone so bloody unhelpful?’ Sam grumbled. ‘It’s like no one cares that someone’s been killed. No one saw or heard anything!’
    ‘To be fair, it’s unlikely anyone would notice a rubbish bag being dropped in an alley in the middle of the night.’
    ‘Well, it would make our job a whole lot easier if someone had seen, and made a note of the car number,’ Sam replied with a grin, her usual good temper restored.
    A team was examining CCTV film, listing registration numbers of vehicles that had driven off the main road along Tufnell Park Road and cross referencing them to see if anyone with a history of violent behaviour had been driving in the area on Saturday night, but it was a long shot. The killer probably hadn’t been driving a vehicle registered in his own name, and the number plates might not have been legitimate. The chances of identifying the killer that way were slim. And they still didn’t know the victim’s name.

17
THE AGONY OF MOVING
    D onna recollected climbing a lot of stairs and supposed she must be in an attic. The burning in her wrists and ankles had woken her from a dream of Lily’s cooking and she could almost taste the food in her mouth, as she lay there nauseous with hunger. No light penetrated the slits around the blind that covered the window so she assumed it must be night. She was dimly aware of a subtle change in the atmosphere. The room felt somehow emptier and the rank musty odour had gone. As if to compensate, the sickening smell of excrement and sweat seemed stronger. Lying in her own filth, she couldn’t believe she had ever been clean. Her past life was a dream. As she became fully awake, pain dominated her consciousness so that the foul smell, even her hunger and thirst, faded into insignificance beside it.
    A distant door slammed. She felt the vibration of footsteps before hearing them and then sudden light dazzled her. Squinting up at the man, she saw he was holding the chipped cup out towards her and endured the agony of moving her head to gulp at the water.
    ‘Thank you. Thank you,’ she mumbled.
    Her head began to clear slightly.
    ‘I’m so hungry.’
    For a second she thought he was angry again, so she added hurriedly, ‘thank you for the water. Thank you.’
    He raised his hand, not to strike her but to force food in her mouth. She swallowed and gagged, her tongue too sluggish to search for crumbs stuck to her lips, her eyes watering with disappointment.
    ‘Would you like some more?’
    ‘Yes please. I’m starving. Please.’
    A feeling close to joy seized her as he pushed another mouthful of bread between her lips. It slid awkwardly down her throat and this time she didn’t choke. She looked up at the man and he smiled at her.
    ‘Thank you,’ she repeated.
    He leaned forward and fiddled with something by her neck.
    ‘There.’
    He stepped back.
    ‘I’ve loosened the chains so you can sit up now if you want.’
    She wriggled her hands but her wrists were shackled as tightly as before, only the chains were longer so she could move her arms further from the bed. She raised one arm, the movement arrested by a terrible pain in her shoulder. Glancing down, she saw her wrist, raw and bloody from the chafing.
    ‘Sit up,’ he ordered. ‘That way you’ll be able to see better.’
    ‘See what?’
    ‘The collection of