‘She doesn’t live round here, she’s back at uni,’ said Ian. ‘I wouldn’t mention her. Dilys’s cat, that she was supposed to be feeding, died when Dilys was in hospital. The cat was ancient, but Dilys hasn’t forgiven the girl, and when Dilys loses her temper, believe me, you know it. She’s been worse since she slipped on the ice last autumn. Knocked herself out, going down the hill. She was lying out there in the dark for a couple of hours and nobody realised. She was in hospital a month and – shit,’ said Griffiths, jumping up as a muffled thump issued from somewhere out of sight. He left the room. They heard another couple of thumps, Dilys saying, ‘That wasn’t me! I can do it!’ then the sound of a closing door. Griffiths re-entered the room.
‘’S’all right, she just hit the hall table,’ he said.
‘So Tyler never mentioned silver to you?’ asked Robin.
‘No, he just told me he’d got a job in a pub, somewhere down south. Dilys was angry I never told her that, see, but I thought she knew. Anyway, I dunno if Ty was telling the truth. He didn’t give me the name of the pub or anything. He might just’ve wanted me to think he had a plan.’
They heard a distant flush.
‘You’ve been to Belgium,’ Strike said to Griffiths.
‘What?’ said Griffiths.
Strike lifted the small gold figurine from the table beside which he was sitting. ‘This is the Manneken Pis, isn’t it? Copy of the Belgian statue?’
‘Oh – Chlo sent me that, from interrailing. Family joke. Find the tackiest souvenir you can, wherever you go.’
‘Ah, right,’ said Strike, setting the thing down again. He supposed that explained the glittery Virgin Mary and the neon pink Thai elephant on the shelf over Griffiths’ head.
‘Mrs Powell was interviewed by the police, wasn’t she?’ asked Robin.
‘Yeah,’ said Griffiths, ‘but I don’t think it went anywhere. Ty took all his stuff with him when he took off, see, so there was no ruling him out on DNA. Like I say, he was kind of squatting in the house after Gill and Ivor went to Florida. They got rid of most of the furniture before they put the place up for sale.’
‘Have they been in touch with Tyler, do you know?’ asked Robin.
‘No idea, you’d have to ask Dilys, but like I say, they’re not very concerned parents.’
Dilys shuffled back into the room a few minutes later and was again helped down into her armchair by Griffiths. Rather than thanking him, she scowled up at him.
‘Your Chloe stopped talking to Ty, and they was supposed to be friends.’
‘She didn’t, Dilys,’ said Griffiths. ‘She was just off on her trip, so—’
‘Tyler didn’t have nobody on his side,’ said Dilys. ‘Nobody. All of ’em saying he’d done something to the car. He never. He never did.’
She seemed both angry and upset, her hands moving restlessly in her lap.
‘When did Tyler leave Ironbridge?’ asked Robin.
‘Months,’ said Dilys. ‘Months ago.’
‘Must’ve been… May, Dilys?’ said Griffiths. ‘I know it wasn’t long after Chloe’s birthday.’
‘They was supposed to be friends, but she left and never stood up for him,’ said Dilys, for whom this seemed a very sore point.
‘Only because she was off inter—’
‘Looking at his phone, all the time. Defending himself, he said. On the internet. I told him, “stop looking at what they’re saying, you’re only upsetting yourself”.’
‘Have you heard from him since he left, Mrs Powell?’ asked Robin.
‘He whatsitted me,’ she said, gripping and releasing her hands in her lap. ‘But then he stopped.’
‘You mean WhatsApped?’ suggested Robin tentatively.
‘Yer,’ said Dilys.
‘Can you remember when the messages stopped?’
‘What?’ said Dilys, scowling as she raised her hand to her ear.
‘Could I see the messages?’ asked Robin more loudly.
‘What for?’
‘To see the dates,’ said Robin.
Griffiths lifted Dilys’s bag off the floor and gave it to her. Mumbling under her breath, Dilys fumbled in its depths, at last retrieving an old Nokia. Breathing laboriously, she stabbed at the buttons, and after a protracted wait, handed the phone to Robin, who looked down at a short series of messages.
Hi gran hope your ok
my knees so bad I cant hardly walk
I’m sorry can’t you call Doris?
I can’t be bothering Doris all the time. when are you coming back?
are you ignoring me?
Ignorant bastard
after all ive done for you
Gran I’m not ungrateful but I’m busy Ive got a job
so your happy me being a prisoner in my own house
I can’t do shopping or nothing