The Lodger Read Online Free Page A

parlour, if you like, and I’ll tell mum,’ she said. But her mother appeared in the passage then. She wore an apron. Her light brown hair was pinned up, although little wisps had escaped, wisps that had a faint glint of gold to them. Her attractive looks were slightly marred by the small shadows and little hollows consistent with hard times. The high neck of her dress clasped her smooth throat, and her hazel eyes might have been her finest feature in their largeness if they hadn’t been ringed by dusty blue. She was thirty-three, and had a woman’s worry that the poverty trap would age her well before her time. The worry surfaced as she saw a policeman on her doorstep.
    â€˜Oh, don’t say the landlord’s sent you, not on a Saturday,’ she said.
    â€˜I don’t do errands for landlords,’ said Harry. He knew his sergeant would have told him to hurry it up ages ago. But there were occasions when one wasn’t inclined to. ‘If I could have a few words with you, Mrs . . . ?’
    â€˜I’m Mrs Maggie Wilson. You’d best come through to the kitchen, I expect I’m in trouble with the law.’
    â€˜You’re not, Mrs Wilson.’
    She brightened visibly with relief.
    â€˜Well, come through, all the same,’ she said. ‘I only got back from the market a little while ago, and the kettle’s on. I mean, would you like a cup?’
    â€˜Well,’ said Harry, ‘I – ’
    â€˜Yes, you must give him a cup, Mum,’ said Trary, ‘and I’ll take the kids in the parlour an’ keep them out of your way.’
    â€˜â€™E’s not goin’ to put our mum in the police station, is ’e?’ asked Daisy anxiously.
    â€˜As if he would, a nice policeman like him,’ said Trary.
    â€˜Are you nice?’ asked Maggie of the man in blue, a faint smile on her lips.
    â€˜â€™Orrible ragamuffin when I was a kid,’ said Harry, ‘but I’m a bit better now. I hope.’
    â€˜Come in,’ said Maggie, and led the way to the kitchen. He noted it was clean and tidy, but there was no fire going in the range, and nor was it laid. No wood or coal, he thought. He wondered about the larder. The shopping bag on the square table didn’t seem to contain much. Scarcity of food wasn’t uncommon in Southwark. Life was a hand-to-mouth existence for many families, and one’s sympathies had to be general, but he couldn’t help feeling a particular sympathy for this woman with no husband and four daughters. He supposed Daisy hadn’t been telling a fib when she said she’d got no father.
    Maggie quickly made the pot of tea. Harry placed his helmet on a chair and advised her he was making enquiries in connection with a certain incident. Maggie caught on at once and said she supposed it was the murder. She’d seen no newspapers, she couldn’t afford one, but the cockney grapevine had spread the news hours ago, and the East Street market had buzzed with it.
    â€˜You’re lookin’ for the man that done it? Well, I . . .’ She showed a faint smile again. ‘Well, I don’t have any man in this house.’ She poured the tea and handed Harry a cup. He thanked her. ‘There hasn’t been any man here since me ’usband went.’
    â€˜Your husband left you, Mrs Wilson?’
    â€˜Yes, in his coffin,’ said Maggie. ‘Five years ago.’
    â€˜I’m sorry. Hasn’t there been a lodger?’
    â€˜A lodger, yes.’ Maggie sipped her tea. ‘A man, no. I shut the door on the ’orrible creature two days ago.’
    That gave Harry food for thought. ‘Mind tellin’ me why you did that, Mrs Wilson?’
    â€˜He was oily, disgustin’, and he hadn’t paid no rent for weeks. He got to be . . .’ Maggie frowned in distaste, ‘well, unpleasant.’
    â€˜Very unpleasant?’ Harry put his tea down and picked up his notebook.