Free The Little One [Quick Read 2012] by Lynda La Plante Page B

manor house?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘You were not at the tube station?’
    ‘No. I’ve already told you I was on the train.’
    Detective Inspector Douglas snapped his notebook closed, as if the interview was over. But it wasn’t.
    ‘You see, we have to question anyone who might benefit from Miss Reynolds’s death.’
    Alan and Kevin looked confused.
    ‘And you are Miss Reynolds’s main beneficiary.’
    Alan’s jaw dropped.
    ‘What? She couldn’t be! She hardly knew her!’
    ‘Nevertheless, yesterday morning Miss Reynolds altered her will to name Miss Hardy as her heir. That same afternoon, Miss Hardy, you met with Mr Sullivan, who told you about the will.
Isn’t that right?’
    Shaking, Barbara nodded.
    ‘Yes. But I had no idea of her intentions. She’d said nothing to me.’
    Kevin stared at the detectives.
    ‘Is this true? Did Margaret really change her will the same day that she died?’
    Detective Inspector Douglas nodded, keeping his eyes on Barbara.
    ‘We have a witness who was standing not far from Miss Reynolds at the tube station. She claims that Miss Reynolds was waiting very close to the edge of the platform. It looked to her, from
the way that Miss Reynolds jerked forward on to the line just as the train arrived, as if someone pushed her.’
    ‘Did this witness see someone behind Margaret?’ demanded Kevin.
    ‘That’s unclear. The platform wasn’t crowded and it appears that no one was standing close to her,’ Detective Inspector Douglas said.
    ‘Then why does she say Margaret was pushed?’ Alan asked.
    Apparently the witness thought Margaret was pushed in the small of her back and fell forward, unable to stop herself. They were waiting for CCTV footage to see if there was anything to confirm
this.
    The detectives thanked Barbara for her cooperation and asked if she would be staying with her friends in case they wished to talk to her again.
    Barbara glanced at Alan and Kevin, saying that if she wasn’t at this address she could be contacted on her mobile.
    As soon as the detectives left, Kevin confronted Barbara.
    ‘You really are a piece of work.’
    He sat in the same chair Detective Inspector Douglas had used.
    ‘Right, Barbara, start talking, and the truth this time. Why did Margaret make you her beneficiary so shortly after meeting you?’
    Barbara shook her head, saying it was exactly as
she’d told the detectives.
    ‘She never talked to you about it?’ Alan asked.
    ‘No. And to be honest, I thought she was behaving strangely the night before. But when we got on the train she seemed fine. It never occurred to me that she was even thinking about
suicide.’
    She started to cry and Kevin leaned across the table in barely controlled fury.
    ‘Bit late for tears, isn’t it? Just what did you do?’
    Barbara wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. She swore she hadn’t known about the will until she met Sullivan.
    ‘I couldn’t make it out. He asked me to sign all these papers. I even told him that it was ridiculous.’
    ‘You must have done something,’ Alan insisted.
    Barbara hesitated, then took a deep breath.
    ‘If you must know, the previous night I really did think she was unbalanced.’
    Kevin and Alan waited. Gradually Barbara told them about the time she’d spent at the manor house. She explained that she was certain someone else was living there, that Margaret constantly
talked to someone but she’d never seen them.
    ‘She would lock me in the kitchen. I would hear her talking and playing the piano upstairs. It was really starting to freak me out. I wondered if her husband had survived the helicopter
crash or if it was her sister, or her sister’s little girl. I was really scared . . . and the lights kept going off.’
    ‘You’ve got a vivid imagination,’ Kevin said, shaking his head in disgust.
    ‘I really thought she needed to see a shrink. She brought out this awful Bible, asking me to swear on it that I would never tell anyone what she was going