She took another drag.
‘We went home.’ She spoke with smoke in her lungs.
I stared at her.
She exhaled. ‘It’s shameful, I know. We were…I was frightened to get involved. They were drunk, there was a knife, anything could have happened.’
Anything did. Ahktar died.
‘You didn’t ring for an ambulance?’
‘I wish I could say different.’ She lowered her voice, ‘Rashid said someone else would get an ambulance or call the police. I think maybe the shock…’ She broke off. There could be no justification.
‘But you did contact the police?’
‘The next day, the day after. We heard that he’d died and-’
‘Ahktar?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did you know him?’ I asked.
She stared at me. ‘No, no.’ She shook her head emphatically. ‘I didn’t know him. We never knew him.’
‘I thought perhaps from the club…?’
‘No, I’m sure. Neither of us knew him.’ She was rattled. Understandable. Bad enough to walk on by while someone bleeds to death; even worse to think you might have known them.
‘How did you hear?’ I asked her.
‘Sorry?’
‘About the death. There weren’t any papers on New Year’s Day.’
She paused. ‘The radio, there was something on the radio.’
‘OK. So you went to the police on New Year’s Day?’
‘Yes.’ She took another long drag on the cigarette. ‘We told them what we’d seen and they arranged an identity parade.’
‘And you both picked the same suspect?’
‘Yes.’
‘Had you seen him before?’
‘No, only that night.’
They’d been very reluctant to get involved. So reluctant that they didn’t even phone for an ambulance or alert the security staff at the club, but the next day they were contacting the police like model citizens. ‘What made you go to the police?’
She shrugged. ‘We’d seen what happened. We felt obliged…’ She tasted filter and grimaced, ground out the cigarette in a large glass ashtray. ‘Is there anything else?’ She tried to be dismissive but there was no conviction behind the phrase.
‘Just a few points,’ I said. ‘What time did you get to the club?’
‘About ten o’clock.’
Luke and friends had gone early knowing it would sell out.
‘Did you meet friends?’
She looked perplexed. ‘No.’
‘Just the two of you?’ I sounded surprised.
‘Yes, just the two of us.’
‘And you didn’t bump into anybody by chance, no acquaintances, friends?’
‘No,’ she insisted. ‘It’s not somewhere we usually go; we don’t know those people.’
‘So why were you there?’
‘I don’t see what this has to do with anything.’ She stood up ‘I’ve helped you all I can, now please…’
‘You didn’t drink. Did Rashid?’
‘A little.’ She shook her head impatiently.
‘I’d like to see Mr Siddiq,’ I said, ‘when’s a good time to catch him?’
‘Why?’ She looked appalled.
‘To hear his version of events.’
‘It’s the same as mine,’ she said urgently.
‘There are always differences in what people notice, what they remember.’
Unless they’re rehearsing a story.
‘We identified the same man,’ she said, ‘we both saw what he did. The police believe us. You’d better go.’
‘OK. Thank you for your time. When can I call on Mr Siddiq?’
‘I don’t know, he’s very busy.’
‘Where does he work? I could call in, perhaps?’
She hesitated. She was behaving like a suspect, not a witness. What the hell was going on? ‘Or I could come back here one evening?’ She paled.
‘Is there something wrong?’
‘No. No,’ she blinked. ‘He’s just…very busy.’
I smiled. ‘It shouldn’t take too long. Where does he work?’
I could see her trying to decide whether she should tell me. ‘Are you sure there’s nothing wrong?’ I pushed her.
‘No.’ She gave a little laugh, brittle. ‘Just he’s busy, you know.’ She gave up. ‘The Asian Cash and Carry on Upper Brook Street.’
‘Thank you.’
She was quiet as she saw me out. Muttered goodbye at the door. If the prosecution were going to use her as a witness she’d need plenty of coaching. I’d found her responses puzzling, veering from guilt to indignation.
Why was she so anxious about my intention to interview her husband? What was she so frightened of? Him? What he might say? What also intrigued me was that some of the seemingly innocuous questions about the evening itself had riled her as much as those about the murder and their inhumane response. Questions about why they were there, who’d driven and who they’d met. Now why would those upset her so?
