Three Little Maids(8)

A short, plump girl, Stacey, in tight blue jeans and cream sweat shirt, white ankle socks and blue and white trainers came into the room cautiously. Kent quickly summed her up as having the mental age of a twelve year old as she blinked her tearful brown eyes owlishly behind her round glasses at the two police officers.

‘Hello, Stacey. I’m DI. Kent. You know DS. Turner, don’t you? Can you tell us what Angela told you? Do you know where she was going last night? Did she tell you who she was meeting?’

She gulped and said; ‘She-she told me that she was supposed to be meeting Jason Perkins in her father’s workshop.’ She blinked cast a scared glance in her mother’s direction and sniffed into a wad of wet tissue. ‘In the Carey’s Funeral Parlour. She’d met him there before. But she said she wasn’t going out with him. She changed her mind.’

‘In her father’s funeral parlour!’ Kent exchanged astonished looks with Turner over the table. Turner put down his empty cup with a clatter.

‘Yes-s,’ Stacey hiccupped tearfully. ‘Angela - she liked the idea. Said it gave her a buzz being shagged amongst the coffins.’

Kathie stubbed out her cigarette jerkily into the saucer. ‘Christ! Why on earth didn’t you tell me that this was going on? Her old man would have had a heart attack if he’d found them in there.’ She turned her face aside to grin at Turner who fished out another sweet from his jacket pocket.

Kent groaned mentally and hoped that the Carey’s might be spared this information for a while at least. ‘So this Jason Perkins is the boyfriend?’

‘Yeah he is-was.’ Stacey was eager to tell it all now. ‘It was like having one up on her father, see. Old Carey was so strict about her, boys and-and everythin’, Mum.’ She threw another frightened look at her mother who was lighting another cigarette. ‘She said he’d never know that she was fooling around with Jason Perkins in there.’

She fidgeted with her damp tissue between her hands. ‘She was on the pill, Mum. She made sure Jason used condoms an’ she was protected an’ everythin’.’

Her mother interrupted, stubbing out her cigarette in the saucer. ‘Are you telling the truth about this? These police officers will take you away if you’re telling lies, my girl.’

‘I’m not, Mu-um. It’s true. She told me!’

‘Was Jason Perkins the only boy she took there, Stacey? Or were there others?’ Kent asked gently. ‘Are you quite sure about this? Would she have told you everything?’

‘I dunno.’ She shook her head and sniffed again. ‘There might have been...’

‘So if it wasn’t Jason Perkins? Who was she going to meet last night? Did she say?’

Stacey looked uncomfortable. Her mother chipped in quickly. ‘Answer the Inspector. Let’s get this sorted once and for all. I don’t want the neighbours round here talking about police visits.’ She lit up another cigarette.

‘She was meeting someone. She told me.’ Her face screwed up and she sniffed again and scrubbed her tears away with her knuckled fist. ‘An’ she’d had an awful row with Jason. He was good and mad at her. Came round here looking for her after she’d gone. Banged on the door. I had to let him in, Mum. He wanted to know where she was and who she was going to meet. But I couldn’t tell him.’

‘She didn’t tell you, Stacey? Do you know anyone else she might be meeting? Someone she spoke to you about before?’

She looked doubtful and shook her head. ‘Maybe she could have met Roger Welbeck. He goes to the Chapel an’ she talked about him a lot sometimes.’

‘Roger Welbeck? He’s married and at least twenty years older than your friend,’ Turner said.

‘I know that.’ Stacey glanced apprehensively at her mother again. ‘But she made a real fuss about dressing up last night. She wore a lovely new pale blue dress an’ borrowed some of your Opium perfume, Mum.’ This last bit was blurted out.

Kent’s smile was involuntary, the perfume lingered there still in the morning sunshine.

‘Took it more like!’ Kathie Flitch declared loudly. ‘The spoilt little tart. I always reckoned Angela was a crafty one. Ask the doctor if her family knew she was on the pill, I should, Inspector.’ The ash missed the saucer this time. She brushed it off the table top quickly. ‘That kid never missed a trick. I reckon your best bet is to talk to Jason Perkins. He knew her best I reckon.’

‘What’s this Jason like?’

‘He’s a good looking boy. Seems quiet and a bit dopey till you get to know him, I’d say.’ She stubbed out her cigarette carefully and stood up.