Piece of My Heart Read Online Free Page B

else to do with her, sir,” he went on. “I mean, I couldn’t let her go until she’d spoken with you, and she needed to sit down. She was feeling a bit faint.”
    “You did the right thing,” said Banks.
    “Anyway, it’s Mrs. Tanner. She’s the owner.”
    “No, I’m not,” said Mrs. Tanner. “I just look after it for them. They live in London.”
    “Okay,” said Banks, sitting down opposite her. “We’ll get those details later.”
    PC Travers shone his torch along the table between them, so that neither was dazzled and each could at least see the other. From what Banks could tell, she was a stout woman in her early fifties with short greying hair and a double chin.
    “Are you all right, Mrs. Tanner?” he asked.
    She put a hand to her breast. “I’m better now, thank you. It was just a shock. In the dark and all…It’s not that I’ve never seen a dead body before. Just family, like, you know, but this…” She took a sip from the steaming mug in front of her. It looked as if Travers had had the good sense to make some tea, which meant there must be a gas cooker.
    “Are you up to answering a few questions?” Banks asked her.
    “I don’t know that I can tell you anything.”
    “Leave that to me to decide. How did you come to find the body?”
    “He was just lying there, like he is now. I didn’t touch anything.”
    “Good. But what I meant was: why did you come here?”
    “It was the power cut. I live just down the road, see, the other side of the pub, and I wanted to show him where the emergency candles were. There’s a big torch, too.”
    “What time was this?”
    “Just before eight o’clock.”
    “Did you see or hear anything unusual?”
    “No.”
    “See anyone?”
    “Not a soul.”
    “No cars?”
    “No.”
    “Was the door open?”
    “No. It was shut.”
    “So what did you do?”
    “First, I knocked.”
    “And then?”
    “Well, there was no answer, see, and it was all dark inside.”
    “Didn’t you think he might be out?”
    “His car’s still there. Who’d go out walking on a night like this?”
    “What about the pub?”
    “I looked in, but he wasn’t there, and nobody had seen him, so I came back here. I’ve got the keys. I thought maybe he’d had an accident or something, fallen down the stairs in the dark, and all because I’d forgotten to show him where the candles and the torch were.”
    “Where are they?” Banks asked.
    “In a box on the shelf under the stairs.” She shook her head slowly. “Sorry. As soon as I saw him just…lying there…it went out of my head completely, why I’d come.”
    “That’s all right.”
    Banks sent PC Travers to find the candles. He came back a few moments later. “There were matches in the kitchen by the cooker, sir,” he said, and proceeded to set candles in saucers and place them on the dining table.
    “That’s better,” said Banks. He turned back to Mrs. Tanner. “Do you know who your guest was? His name?”
    “Nick.”
    “That’s all?”
    “When he came by when he arrived last Saturday and introduced himself, he just said his name was Nick.”
    “He didn’t give you a cheque with his full name on it?”
    “He paid cash.”
    “Is that normal?”
    “Some people prefer it that way.”
    “How long was he staying?”
    “He paid for two weeks.”
    Two weeks in the Yorkshire Dales in late October seemed like an odd holiday choice to Banks, but there was no accounting for taste. Maybe this Nick was a keen rambler. “How did he find the place?”
    “The owners have a website, but don’t ask me owt about that. I only see to the cleaning and general maintenance.”
    “I understand,” said Banks. “Any idea where Nick came from?”
    “No. He didn’t have any sort of foreign accent, but he wasn’t from around here. Down south, I’d say.”
    “Is there anything else you can tell me about him?”
    “I only ever saw him the once,” Mrs. Tanner said. “He seemed like a nice enough lad.”
    “How old