Chapter 6 #2
This morning would need to be a blend of the two.
“She didn’t speak.” Lachy pushed his chair away from his desk. In a minute he’d start to spin on it, which was his brain’s way of helping him regulate. “From being arrested, she refused to speak. She offered us access to all the files on her – should we not ask for those now?”
“We have nothing to connect her apart from a crime she was convicted for. She’s done the time. If we’d seen her leave the house on Monday night then yes, absolutely, but we can’t let this look like a witch hunt.” Although I could sense the pressure from Wrigley to pin this on Lily Mayhew.
Lachy spun the chair around a couple of times.
“I wish they’d built outside gym equipment nearby.” I glanced over to the window as if it would magically appear. “You need a roundabout.”
“I used to love roundabouts as a kid. I’d make myself sick going round that fast.” He spun again.
“Colour me surprised. Okay, what evidence did the jury convict on?” Lachy had been going through the court transcripts. I was starting with the reports from the responding officers and working my way through to forensics.
“She was found with petrol on her hands, curled up in a graveyard two miles away from home, barefoot and wearing a nightdress. It was nine degrees outside – she must’ve been freezing.
” He shook his head. “The irony. That was pretty much it. There were statements about her behaviour in school and in the community. She was on the verge of being permanently excluded from the private school she attended due to refusal to attend lessons and truancy. Other parents were saying she was a bad influence. One of the teachers gave a statement about their concerns for her welfare, that they suspected something was happening to her outside of school that was causing her to display this behaviour.”
“A cry for help.”
“Pretty much. There were statements from family friends about how difficult she was at home.” He was back staring at the screen. “What was the name of Micky’s wife?”
“Ursula. Why?”
“Because Ursula Lamond was one of the witnesses who described Lily’s behaviour at home.
She said, and I quote ‘Lily was volatile in the house. She would deliberately play music at night as loud as possible stopping her parents from sleeping. She was deliberately untidy and also refused to look after her hygiene. I don’t know why her parents didn’t have her put into care.
’ What a lovely take on a fourteen year old girl. ” He stretched backwards in the chair.
“Let’s go for a walk.”
“Where to?”
“Coffee shop. Or somewhere that has something drinkable that doesn’t have caffeine in it.”
“A pub?”
“Too early and I need to keep my job. I have a mortgage.” I was fascinated with how the word mortgage contained mort, a homage to death of some sorts.
“I forget that you’re all grown up now.” He locked his computer and stood up, cracking his back which surely wasn’t healthy.
“The thing I’m curious about – and it’s not that you’ve chosen to buy and live in a building that should’ve been demolished although I do have questions about your sanity – is how this girl is so different to the woman we met yesterday. How can someone be so different?”
“She was in a secure hospital for over a decade. She’ll have had enough therapy to be able to administer it.” I picked up my bag and slung it over my shoulder. “Come on, I’ll buy you a decaffeinated coffee.”
We took the lift down to the ground floor and then headed into the wild west of the Northern Quarter, Manchester’s allegedly trendiest hipster spot, full of independent bars and restaurants that charged London prices but still had the same piles of Mancunian vomit on the pavements on a Friday night.
Two streets away was a café that had survived the trendy takeover owned by a bloke from Collyhurst. Colin knew how to fry an egg, use a deep fat fryer and that tea needed to have two bags to be drinkable.
The posters in the café were faded and the tables chipped Formica.
It was where someone might fall through the door at two am to lament the death of their relationship, or if they didn’t have enough money for the all night bus down the A6 to get home to Levenshulme.
They’d still get a couple of slices of buttered toast and a tea strong enough to stand your spoon in to help them on their way, because that was the sort of person Colin was.
A nutter.
“Eh up.” He was wearing the same pinny he’d had on last time, although it looked like the stains had been washed a few times. “What can I get you?”
“Two teas and a couple of tea cakes, please.” I slid in to a booth that was probably still the same as it was a decade or two ago.
Colin nodded, wiped his hands on his pinny, and left us to it. A few of the tables were taken; the café was a haunt for people in the know who didn’t need a place to be seen and had no concerns of ‘coffee’ being the only coffee on the menu.
“Two things can both be wrong,” I said, sitting down and avoiding putting my elbow in a pool of egg yolk and tomato ketchup. “Lily could’ve been responsible for the fire and have been reformed because of the treatment in hospital.”
“Fair point. But the person we met yesterday bore no resemblance to the girl that’s described in the witness statements.” Lachy sat back and looked around. “This place is interesting. What time does it close?”
“Seven on a Sunday evening for twelve hours. Otherwise it’s always open.” I wasn’t quite sure how Colin had permission for those hours; maybe it had been a long standing thing and no one had checked it over for a few decades, or maybe it was like Afflecks Palace and we’d just agreed to ignore it.
“Good to know. We had a couple of places like this back home.” Lachy studied the Formica. “I think we need to speak to some of the people who treated Lily while she was in secure.”
“Maybe. I’d be more comfortable if we had a clear connection first though.
Tell me about Ursula. She’s got a different name to Micky, but with it being such an unusual name, they must’ve married later.
” I watched Colin bring a tray over; two mugs of tea, milk already added, and two tea cakes, already buttered. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” He walked away, better things to do like the crossword in the tabloid on the counter.
“We can get that information from the daughter.” The daughter who’d asked us to call her after ten our time. “Maybe this has got nothing to do with Amanda and she just happened to be there.”
“That’s one angle. Doesn’t take us any further forward.” I tore the tea cake with my teeth, enjoying the rough texture and sweetness of the currants. Tonight I was meant to train with Jalen, which meant I’d need the calories and the energy, especially if I went back to his afterwards.
“Why wouldn’t a fourteen year old speak to defend themselves?” Lachy mused, demolishing his own food. “At that age I had an answer for everything.”
“And nothing has changed.”
“Fair dos. There’s no sign of situational mutism at school or in the community before the fire.
Is it caused by trauma? The fire and losing her family would’ve been traumatic, and the consequences when she realised them would’ve been shocking for her – most teenagers don’t think consequences apply to them.
” He poked the rest of his tea cake in his mouth.
I sipped my tea, ignoring the fact that it was the same temperature as molten lava.
“Situational mutism can be triggered by a traumatic incident; it can be a coping mechanism or a way to disassociate because of fear. Generally, with situational mutism, there’d be a history of severe anxiety or sensory processing issues or communication delays.
Trauma-induced mutism wasn’t diagnosed because there were situations where Lily would choose to speak.
With trauma-induced mutism, the person doesn’t speak at all.
That is all textbook and we know nothing is ever a textbook case. ”
Lachy paused for a moment, whipping his hand away from his mug when he realised how hot it was. “I can see why you spent so long studying what you did.”
“It was really interesting and I think it can give us an idea of where to look, but ideally we need concrete connections. Drink up. I want to phone Micky Mulligan’s daughter and then get over to Amanda’s house.”
“It’s scalding.”
“You’re Australian. You swim with sharks. A hot tea should be child’s play.”
“I happen to like the inside of my mouth.”
I left him to develop his tolerance levels while I paid Colin, wondering where to start with the phone call to Micky’s daughter.
“I haven’t actually seen my father for about four years.
He won’t fly and, well, I guess with my own kids and work and what have you, we just haven’t had chance.
” There was a hitch to her voice. “I thought I had time to come and see him – I guess everyone says that. You don’t realise how little time there is until you run out of it. ”
“Your mum passed away a few years ago - ”