Page 21 of Killing Mind

Penn decided to try the flat beneath Samantha’s first. It appeared to mirror the one above with the lounge looking out on to the road.

He rang the doorbell and almost jumped back at the volume level at which it had been set.

He waited a moment, hesitant to ring the bell a second time. Anyone close by with small children wouldn’t thank him.

His finger was poised as the door was opened by a man in his seventies, dressed in dark trousers, a shirt and a light jacket.

‘Good morning, sir, sorry to disturb you…’

‘Come in, come in, lad. I can’t be chatting on the doorstep. My burgers will thaw.’

Penn closed the door behind him and followed the man to the kitchen, where he was in the process of unloading shopping from a bag for life.

‘Don’t want them to go off after I’ve paid good money for them.’ He stopped and turned. ‘I say, before you state your business pop out to the car and see if I’ve left anything in there, will you, lad?’

Penn opened his mouth then closed it again. Maybe he’d missed it but he didn’t remember seeing any car. He put his head out and checked. No car.

He returned to the kitchen. ‘Sir, there’s no car out…’

‘Well, of course there’s no car,’ he said, rolling his eyes. ‘I packed in driving last year.’

‘Err… sir, my name is…’

‘I’m too old to remember names. You’re under forty years of age, so lad will do and you’re a copper.’

‘How did you…’

‘Cos I was one for thirty-four years.’

Penn was impressed. And here he was thinking this guy had lost his faculties.

‘And I saw you walking around yesterday with that lady who showed her ID a lot.’

Okay, so not quite as impressed.

‘And I’ve gotta say’, he continued, ‘she is one good-looking…’

‘Sir, may I take your name?’ Penn interrupted. He didn’t want to hear any more of that.

‘Gregory Hall, at your service, lad,’ he said, placing three apples in a fruit bowl.

‘And you’ve lived here for?’

‘Five years, since my hip operation.’

‘Did you see much of Samantha Brown upstairs?’

‘Oh, that was her name,’ he said, answering the question, and giving Penn a sinking feeling. He wasn’t going to get much information here, but it had to be worth another couple of questions.

The man shook his head absently as he took one apple from the fruit bowl and put it in the fridge.

‘You’re a bit late coming to see me, lad. In my day, we’d have been questioning the neighbours within the hour.’

Penn was not going to explain the reclassification of the death.

‘Did you see many people coming and going?’ he asked, losing the will to live.

‘You think I’ve got nothing better to do than stare out of my window watching the neighbours, lad?’