Read Ramsay 04 - Killjoy for Free Online Page A

thought she’d done it on purpose to make us realize how indispensable she was. And then there she was. In the back of Gus’s car. Her face all swollen and distorted.’
    ‘You were expecting Gabby at the rehearsal tonight?’
    The girl nodded.
    ‘When did you last see her?’
    ‘This morning at breakfast.’
    Ramsay looked at Prue for explanation.
    ‘Gabby lived with us,’ Prue said. ‘ She was a sort of lodger, I suppose.’ She looked warily at Ellen.
    ‘We weren’t good enough for her,’ Ellen said sharply. ‘We brought her up and when she was sixteen she decided Starling Farm wasn’t good enough and she left.’
    ‘We?’ Ramsay asked.
    ‘Me and her gran. Her mam and dad were killed in a car crash when she was a bairn.’
    ‘When did she leave home?’ Ramsay asked.
    Ellen shrugged, not sufficiently interested apparently to work it out.
    ‘About eighteen months ago,’ Prue said.
    ‘And she’s lived with you since then?’
    Prue nodded. Ramsay turned again to Anna.
    ‘You didn’t see Gabby at school?’ he asked.
    ‘No,’ the girl said. ‘She still went to school in Hallowgate. To the sixth-form college. I’m at Otterbridge High.’
    ‘How did she get to school from Otterbridge every morning?’
    ‘I gave her a lift,’ Prue said. ‘Unless I had a meeting in another part of the region. Then she got the bus.’
    ‘But this morning?’
    ‘I gave her a lift.’
    ‘All the way to school?’
    ‘No. We were late. I dropped her here and she said she would walk.’ She put her head in her hands. ‘I left her here in the car park. We made plans for this evening. She said she had been invited to a friend’s house after school and she would come straight here afterwards. I never saw her again.’
    ‘Was that sort of arrangement usual?’
    Prue shrugged. ‘She was eighteen, as streetwise as any kid I’ve ever met. I didn’t feel any need to check up on her.’
    ‘She didn’t seem unusually worried? Or excited?’
    ‘She was always pretty high,’ Prue said. ‘ But perhaps she was even more excitable than usual. I didn’t think anything about it.’
    There was a pause.
    ‘Did you notice any change in her clothes when you found her body?’ Ramsay asked cautiously. The last thing he wanted was a distressing scene with Anna in floods of tears. ‘Or was she wearing the same things as when you left her this morning?’
    ‘The same,’ Prue said. ‘Definitely the same. Black leggings, a long navy sweater, a black leather jacket, and DMs.’
    ‘DMs?’ Ramsay asked.
    For the first time Hunter interrupted, pleased to emphasize Ramsay’s age, to show how out of touch he was.
    ‘Dr Marten’s,’ he said, with a sneer. ‘They’re boots.’
    ‘Oh yes!’ Ramsay said confused. Weren’t Dr Marten’s worn by the thugs who kicked policemen at football matches and marched on National Front demonstrations? What was a pretty young girl like Gabriella Paston doing wearing boots that his dad would have worn down the pit?
    ‘They’re quite common,’ Prue said. ‘All the kids have them.’
    He said nothing. How could he know what all the kids were wearing?
    ‘We’ll check with the school,’ Ramsay said at last. ‘See if she was there all day. We haven’t got a time of death yet…’
    He paused unhappily, aware that he was passing on ideas and information to which the witnesses had no right. He was treating Prue Bennett as a friend not as a possible suspect in a murder investigation. He should know by now the danger of becoming involved…
    ‘Gabby weren’t at school,’ Ellen Paston said suddenly. ‘At least she weren’t there late this morning. I saw her.’
    ‘Where did you see her?’
    ‘Hallowgate Market,’ she said flatly. ‘I don’t start here until six on a Monday. I went out and did my bits of shopping before I came.’
    ‘What time did you see Gabriella?’
    She shook her head. ‘Twelve o’clock,’ she said. ‘Half past.’
    ‘Did you speak to her?’
    ‘Na!’ she