Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Slowly, Lily turned. It wasn’t a surprise to find Mr Patel shifting his weight behind her. His navy chinos and sky-blue shirt were neatly pressed and his dark hair looked freshly combed. Not exactly an intimidating image.
“This is what you were looking for?” she asked, holding up the paper.
“It’s n-not w-what it looks like,” he stammered.
“Really? So this isn’t a threatening note to your landlord who’s now dead?”
“Well…”
Lily’s eyes skimmed over the words as she read them aloud. “I’m going to get you. You’ll pay for your bullying.” As far as threatening notes went, it wasn’t at all creative – or overly intimidating. Was this really the best Mr Patel could come up with?
Perhaps that wasn’t the most appropriate train of thought.
Lily’s gaze snapped to his face. “You sent this?”
“I can explain.” His attention flicked behind her. “Did you remove the screws?”
“Yes. Were you really trying to retrieve this with a fork?”
“I thought if I could tease the thing out it wouldn’t be so bad – less of a crime than breaking the lock or…”
“I didn’t break anything,” Lily said. “And I’m not sure we should focus on my misdeeds. Why did you send Mr Latham a threatening note?”
“I didn’t mean to.” He pushed his glasses up his nose.
“I find that hard to believe. No one accidentally sends a threatening note.”
“It was cowardly. I wanted to approach him directly. Talk to him face to face. But I’m not good with confrontation.
I was angry with myself for not being able to stand up to him.
In my anger I typed out this note and shoved it in his letter box before I’d properly thought it through.
But then the next morning he was dead, and I felt terrible. Also…”
“It looks very suspicious if anyone finds out you were threatening him and then he died?”
“Some people could view it the wrong way, yes. That’s why I wanted to get it back.”
“What did he do to deserve the note?” Lily asked. “I thought he’d been good to you when you were struggling with the rent?”
“I suppose maybe he was.”
“Maybe?” Lily asked.
“I suspect my wife didn’t tell me the complete story.
She was upset after she spoke to him, but she put on a brave face and told me everything was fine.
She does that… always trying to protect me when it should be the other way around.
But she refused to talk about it, so I don’t know for sure what was said. ”
“What was the issue then?” she asked, waving the paper.
“Liam,” he said softly.
“What about him?”
“I’ve been tutoring him. My wife’s idea. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure it was a good idea. I thought Liam was a bit of a thug and I didn’t see how it would work with me tutoring him. But then I got to know him. He’s a good kid beneath the bravado.”
“Did he have a problem with Mr Latham?” she asked.
He nodded solemnly. “He did.”
“What kind of issue?”
Mr Patel took a step closer to Lily and lowered his voice. “Liam overheard Mr Latham taunting his mum. Calling her names and telling her she was only fit for cleaning up after people. Of course Liam’s protective of his mum, so he approached Mr Latham about it when his mum was out at work.”
“What happened?” Lily asked.
“It’s sounds as though he’d gone to Mr Latham’s flat full of bravado and told him to back off.
” He paused and swallowed hard. “Mr Latham came across as quite placid so I don’t think Liam was expecting much of a reaction from him, but Mr Latham turned nasty.
Grabbed him by the throat and pinned him against the wall.
Told him that if he ever tried to tell him what to do again, he’d kick them out of the flat and report his mum for getting paid under the table at the petrol station. ”
“Is that true?” Lily asked. “She’s not officially employed?”
“Apparently so.”
“When did this happen? The altercation with Mr Latham?”
“About a week ago.” Mr Patel sighed heavily.
“Liam came to me, all upset. He might look tough, but he’s only a kid.
Mr Latham had rattled him. He refused to tell his mum and add to her stress.
I was touched that he felt he could talk to me about it, but I also felt terrible because he’d probably have been better off telling anyone but me. I’m useless with this kind of thing.”
“I’m sure Liam felt better just having someone to confide in.”
“That wasn’t enough,” Mr Patel said firmly. “Mr Latham needed someone to let him know that bullying people he deemed to be beneath him wasn’t okay. Someone needed to stand up to him. But I’m just not the right person.”
“So you sent the note?”
“Yes. Cowardly, but I hoped it might do the trick. Could I…?” Limply, he reached for the paper. Lily let it go without hesitation.
“Thank you,” he said, screwing it up. “I don’t want Mrs Patel to find out about this.”
“Or the police,” Lily muttered, picking up her screwdriver.
“I’d face the wrath of the law rather than my wife any day,” Mr Patel said lightly.
Lily smiled as she put the letter box back together. “It seemed as though Mr Latham got a lot of people’s backs up before he died,” she said, but when she looked over her shoulder Mr Patel was nowhere to be seen.
The click of his door told her he was back in his flat.