‘I just have one last question, if I may,’ DC Ward says. ‘Iris, you and Josh split up several months ago.’
‘Yeah. A year ago, actually,’ Iris says.
‘Can you describe your feelings towards him in more recent weeks and months?’ DC Ward asks.
Ash doesn’t like this. Roly must have filled in DC Ward about what happened to Iris and he can see where she’s heading with her question. Iris is still in therapy because of the damage Joshua caused her. She hates his guts. For all Ash knows, Iris is itching to dance on his grave.Careful what you say, Iris.He actually crosses his fingers behind his back, although he’s not superstitious in the slightest.
Iris shrugs. ‘I didn’t feel anything for him. It was over between us a long time ago. I went back to school this year. I just want to forget what happened and move on.’
Good girl. Good answer. Ash doubts that Iris will ever forget what Josh did to her. But it would have made things a lot easier for her to get on with her life if he’d passed his A levels and moved away instead of getting a job locally.
‘Can you think of anyone who might have wished him harm?’
She shrugs again. ‘No.’
Ash hears her voice crack and turns to look at her. A single tear rolls down her cheek. He looks at Roly. A look that says,that’s enough now. Roly has known Iris since she was about two days old. He’s glad Roly himself has come to talk to Iris this morning and he gets that his friend is just doing his job. But he wants him to leave. Now.
Roly seems to read the message in Ash’s eyes. ‘Thank you. You’ve been very helpful, Iris,’ he says again. ‘We won’t trouble you any more today.’ He gets to his feet. DC Ward follows suit.
‘I’ll just use your loo if I may,’ she says.
‘I’ll show you where it is,’ Iris says and leads her out of the room.
‘He wasn’t a nice person, you know,’ Carla says to Roly once she has left the room. Ash tries – in vain – to silence her with a small shake of his head. ‘He was probably mean to someone else. He got what he deserved, Ian.’
‘Carla, no one deserves to die the way he did, especially not so young. He was only a few weeks shy of his nineteenth birthday. I saw his body, you know. And it made me feel sick to my stomach. He wasn’t much older than Millie – that’s the thought that went through my mind. He wasn’t much older than Iris. Jaysus, Carla. It could have been Olly. Joshua Knoll died a very violent death.’
Carla looks suitably sheepish. Ash sees her open her mouth to say something, but she closes it again as Iris comes back into the room.
‘I’ll see you out, Roly,’ Ash says.
At the front door, as they wait for DC Ward, Roly turns to Ash and says, ‘Look, mate. About what you asked me to do. I can’t—’
‘I shouldn’t have asked,’ Ash says, combing his fingers through his hair. ‘Just forget it, yeah?’
‘I can’t plant evidence for you. I want to protect Iris. I do. I know her. I’ve known her all her life. I know she had nothing to do with this, Ash. But there’s only so much I can do.’
‘I understand.’
There’s a silence, which Roly eventually breaks. ‘I can’t tell you anything about the investigation. You know that. I couldn’t—’
‘I said I understand.’
‘I couldn’t tell you if they found anything at the crime scene – a footprint, for example.’ Roly has lowered his voice. ‘Hypothetically speaking. Even if I wanted to.’
Ash tries to read his friend’s face, but Roly is looking down, at the floor. Ash follows his gaze. Roly is staring at the floor, where Iris has kicked off her ankle boots. Dandruff has got her well trained.
‘I understand,’ Ash says once again. A wave of different emotions breaks over him: gratitude mixed with affection for his best friend as well as a stab of shame for the position he has put him in. ‘We’re quits,’ he adds, but he thinks perhaps he owes Roly now.
DC Ward materializes in the hallway and she and Roly leave. Ash lets out a sigh of relief as he closes the front door behind them and leans against it. He can hear Iris and Carla in the living room, but before he goes to join them, he stands there for a moment, in the hallway, and, just as Roly did a minute ago, Ash stares at Iris’s boots.
Chapter 18
Carla
NOW
Iris and I are still sitting on the sofa in Ash’s living room. Iris has turned her attention back to her phone. I look over her shoulder. She’s scrolling through clothes on Vinted. Perhaps that’s what we need. Some retail therapy. I could take Iris shopping in town. On second thoughts, she’s probably way too old for that now. She’ll ask me to transfer some money into her bank account and buy stuff online without leaving the comfort of her bedroom. She looks up, maybe feeling my eyes on her, and gives me a tight smile. Some of the tension that had built up in my shoulders eases. I think the interview or the chat, or whatever you want to call it, went reasonably well and Iris doesn’t seem too perturbed, which is the main thing.
