Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Over coffee at the kitchen table, Lily scrolled through her phone, trying to make sense of the photos she’d taken. As far as she could tell, Mr Latham had evicted all his previous tenants because of asbestos.
She hadn’t found any information about work being done to remove the asbestos. She scratched her head, then did a quick Google search. Maybe she should find out exactly what the procedure is when someone finds asbestos.
Twenty minutes later, she felt much better informed, and also more confused.
Because asbestos wasn’t a reason for tenants to leave immediately.
Mostly, asbestos was only a problem if disturbed.
There could have been a need for temporary evacuation, but it wouldn’t be grounds for eviction.
And from what she could gather, if things had been that bad, the building would have been condemned and major works done on it.
According to Mrs Patel, that hadn’t happened.
And why was the letter addressed to Mr and Mrs Silverton?
Her mind was whirring when a hammering at the door started.
The banging continued while she moved towards the door.
“Hey!” Aiden’s voice shouted. “Open up. I need to speak to you.”
Knowing who was there made her feel marginally better, but the anger in Aiden’s eyes and his menacing frown weren’t entirely reassuring.
“What’s all the racket for?” Mrs Patel called, opening her door and glaring at Aiden.
“Nothing to concern yourself with,” he called out, then stepped inside and closed the door behind him.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Lily asked, backing up a step.
“Is your boyfriend here?” Aiden asked, his gaze going past her.
She tilted her head, debating the best answer to that.
“No need to look so worried,” he said. “I only want to know whether I’ll be speaking to both of you, or just you?”
“He’s at work,” Lily said. “You can’t just barge in here.”
“I just did,” he said. “And it’s a little hypocritical for you to have an issue with that since you don’t seem to have a problem barging into places you shouldn’t be.”
Lily’s shoulders dropped. So that’s what this was about.
“I only wanted to have a quick look,” Lily said.
“At a dead guy’s flat.” He propped his hands on his hips. “Why?”
That was actually a great question. One which Lily should probably take some time to ponder herself. She could be out shopping and exploring the city. Why on earth was she choosing to dig around in something that had nothing to do with her?
“You’ve upset Caroline,” he said sternly. “She has enough on her plate with two jobs and a teenager to deal with. She doesn’t need some busybody sticking their nose where it shouldn’t be.”
“I only wondered why she has a key to Mr Latham’s flat.”
“Because she cleaned for him,” he said, but there was a flicker of uncertainty in his eyes, as though he hadn’t previously known that. “Why did you want to get in there, anyway?”
She pondered making up another excuse before deciding it was time for a direct approach.
“A few things about his death aren’t adding up.”
“Such as?”
“Such as no one heard that bookcase fall. It would have been a huge crash, but no one heard more than a bump. Did you hear it? You were right next door? Surely you’d have heard it.” She waited, wondering if he’d remember to stick to his story about being at work.
“I worked that evening,” he said slowly. “But Caroline said she’d heard something.”
“Not a massive crash, though.” She paused, gauging how he’d react if she pushed him further. “And… were you really at work?”
His eyes whipped to meet her gaze. “Yes. Why?”
“What time does the restaurant close?”
“Eleven,” he said, his clenched jaw telling her he knew exactly what she was getting at.
“You said you got home at three.”
“I did get home at three,” he growled. “What the heck is this, some kind of interrogation?”
“It seems odd, that’s all.”
“I was at a mate’s place after work. Playing poker. That’s why I didn’t get home until later.”
“Okay,” Lily said, taking a discreet step back.
Aiden moved towards the door, then stopped. “What are you even trying to say? You think someone killed Jeremy?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered.
“Bloody hell!” He threw his hands up. “I may not have liked the guy, but you can’t seriously think I killed him.”
She shrugged. “Did you know he was planning on evicting you?”
He pulled his chin in. “What?”
“I found eviction letters addressed to you in his flat.”
Aiden opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, then muttered something indecipherable as he snatched at the door handle and let himself out.
A buzz of excitement rippled through Lily when Flynn called her late in the morning.
“Your landlord was going to evict you,” she said without preamble. “You said you thought he wanted you gone, and you were right.”
“Hi,” Flynn said, amusement clear in his tone.
“Yeah, hi. Sorry.”
“How do you know he wanted me out?”
“I found eviction letters in his office.”
“He has an office?”
“In his flat. The spare room.”
“Oh, I see. It’s crazy that you managed to find that without going back into his flat.”
She smiled at the mocking in his voice. “I know I said I wouldn’t go back, but it was too tempting. Did you speak to any of the officers dealing with the case?”
“No,” he said, his voice distorted by a yawn. “It’s been hectic this morning. Hopefully, I’ll get a spare ten minutes later and can look into it.”
“I found some really weird stuff in Mr Latham’s flat. There are eviction letters for you and Aiden, but more than one. They have different dates as though he’d spent weeks working up the courage to hand them over.”
“That’s strange.”
“Very. I also found the eviction letters for the people who lived in the building previously. Did I tell you he evicted them all at once because of asbestos in the building?” She didn’t wait for an answer.
“I found a letter from the builders to say there was asbestos and the building should be evacuated.”
“That’s slightly worrying.”
“What’s really odd is that the letter isn’t addressed to Mr Latham. It’s addressed to Mr and Mrs Silverton. Whoever they are.”
“Maybe it was his parents. I think he mentioned inheriting the building.”
“Wouldn’t his parents have the same surname as him?”
“Probably. It could also have been another family member. Aunt and uncle maybe.”
“Possibly.”
“It’s unusual that the builders sent the letter. I wouldn’t have thought it would be their job to report that.”
“No?”
He hesitated. “I don’t actually know much about building regulations, but I’d have thought the builders would have called in specialists.”
“This is all very weird.”
“Try calling the builders,” he said.
Lily smiled widely. “I thought you wanted me to keep out of this.”
“I actually just didn’t want you trespassing and disturbing what might be a crime scene, but since you’ve already been in there, you may as well follow up. Plus, I reckon you’re going to do it, anyway.”
“I already did it.”
“Called the builders?”
“I tried to. The number wasn’t in use and I can’t find any trace of them online.”
“Okay. That’s dodgy.”
“I don’t think there was asbestos,” Lily said. “I think Mr Latham wanted an excuse to kick the tenants out.”
“It’s a pretty good method. Most people wouldn’t question it. They hear asbestos and they want out, anyway.”
“Yeah.”
“Call the council,” Flynn said.
“How can they help?”
“They’d know if someone reported asbestos. It’s a public safety hazard, so it should have been reported if it was really there.”
“Great. Thanks.” She sighed. “I guess it makes sense that he wanted you out if he was doing something dodgy, or generally didn’t do things by the book. I wonder why he wanted Aiden out.”
The sound of Flynn’s radio had Lily moving the phone from her ear.
“Do you have to go?”
“Yeah. I’ll talk to you later,” he said and hung up.
It took her half an hour of being on hold and a ten-minute conversation with a grumpy council employee to find out there’d been no asbestos reported in the building.
So Mr Latham had unlawfully evicted his previous tenants.
Which was interesting, but didn’t shed any light on his death, other than leaving Lily with the assumption that if he was doing something dodgy a year ago, he might still have been up to no good more recently.
And maybe his dodgy dealings had left someone angry enough to kill him.
Stretching her neck, she crossed the kitchen to look out of the window. Her stomach growled. A quick root around in Flynn’s fridge didn’t inspire her. She’d nip to the supermarket and buy something for lunch.
A bit of exercise and fresh air would do her good.