Read Asking For Trouble for Free Online Page A

I?’
    ‘Because we’re squatters. Don’t tell me the law’s impartial. Tell your sergeant. He doesn’t know it.’
    Janice’s eyes were pale grey and now they looked like bits of steel. For a few minutes she forgot she was being nice to me and this was a cosy girls’ chat. ‘You’ve a complaint against Sergeant Parry?’
    Not if I knew what was good for me, I didn’t.
    ‘Lovely feller,’ I said. ‘Every woman’s dream.’
    She was studying me. ‘We’ll be getting a complete post mortem report. But there are already one or two things which puzzle us. You’re absolutely certain that when you left the house yesterday, you all left together?’
    ‘I told you, yes! Nev and I went over to see if we could get a place to live up Camden way. Squib went somewhere else. Up West, probably. He was looking for a clear piece of pavement to make a picture. He’s a pavement artist.’
    ‘Yes, we’re checking on that. Why do you call him Squib? I understand his name is Henry.’
    ‘He doesn’t look like a Henry. I didn’t give him the name Squib. He’s always had it as far as I know. No one calls him anything else.’
    If she’d known Squib she could have worked out for herself that he had a low-wattage brain and someone somewhere made a joke about his being damp.
    I added, ‘But he’s all right. He likes animals and they like him.’ I leaned forward. ‘I know what he looks like and I know what you’re thinking, but Squib is all right! You can trust him!’
    ‘And Nevil Porter? What about him?’
    I fixed her with a look and said very quietly because I wanted her to listen and take it in: ‘Don’t bully Nev. It would be easy for you to do that. He couldn’t resist. He’d tell you anything you wanted him to say whether it was the truth or not. He’s been ill, had a breakdown. He’s very intelligent but he can’t cope. That’s why he packed in his studies. Get a doctor to talk to him. And you can check all this. He hasn’t done anything and if you got him to confess to anything, his medical history would mean you couldn’t take it into court. So leave him alone.’
    She gave a thin smile. ‘We already know some of this. We’ve had a call from his family’s solicitor.’
    That was quick. They hadn’t wasted much time. But I guessed what had happened. Once they’d got Nev on his own, he’d panicked and asked for that solicitor. ‘Did Nev ask for a lawyer?’
    ‘Yes.’ Then she asked silkily, ‘We appreciate that he’s very nervous and it appears he has a medical history of breakdown. But all the same, why should he need a solicitor? Wouldn’t a family friend do? Or one of the doctors who treated him? If he hasn’t done anything, he only needs to answer a few routine questions.’
    I was angry because I’d just tried to explain all that and it was as if I hadn’t spoken. But I knew I mustn’t lose my temper. I met her eye and said firmly, and nice and clearly, just the way they’d taught us to speak up at that school, ‘Surely he’s entitled to have his solicitor?’
    She blinked. ‘Yes.’
    ‘So what’s the problem?’
    I’d hit the ball back into her court. She didn’t like it, but there wasn’t much she could do but give me a frozen smile. The corners of her mouth turned up, but her lips stayed clamped together. It was more like rictus than a smile and reminded me of Terry.
    I thought about Nev again. He must have been really afraid he’d go to pieces when he asked for the family lawyer. He would have known that the first thing that legal eagle would do, would be pick up the telephone and inform Nev’s parents he was in trouble. Next thing, they’d be down here from the wilds of darkest Cheshire before you could say knife.
    Still, I was relieved to know Nev had someone looking after his interests. But it had made the police even more suspicious. Neither Squib nor I had anyone to look after our interests. But we were probably luckier than Nev. I’d met Nev’s father once and