Loved by Mr. Night

Chapter 13

Mrs. Hans looked at Adriel in consternation, her cheeks shining from the silent tears.” What did he mean?”

Adriel shook his head and sat down where the junior officer had been.” He doesn’t know what he means,” Adriel said.” These community police officers are just messenger boys. They don’t know anything.”

Outside in the alley they heard raised voices and the sound of something breaking. Adriel glanced right at the old man. He had not moved a single inch since they had come in.” Is her alright?”

A dead look fell across the mother’s face.” Who knows? He is my father. He has been like that since the stroke he had ten years ago. And what do I get? Nothing. I have to pay all for his medical care. I have to nurse him at home. Me and my child, with one bedroom amongst the three of us. That is why she has to work at nights. We needed the money.”

“Where did she work?”

She shrugged,” Different places. Bar work mostly. She said that there was always casual work in Bar street up in Santulin.” Her face crumpled in consternation.” Is it true? Was she really….. cut up?”

Adriel nodded. There was no way that he could hide this from her or conceal the facts. Even if he did then someone else would come along and tell her all the gory details about the murder of her child. She would also have to identify the body.

“I am afraid so,” he said.

And he also wondered if the girl’s mother really believed that she was working in bars all those nights on her own. And if working in bars was that easy. But then if her daughter was bringing in good money, perhaps she didn’t want to know any different.

Aria came back and appeared in the doorway. She nodded to Adriel almost imperceptibly. Adriel said,” Did she ever tell you that she was going to meet someone? Ever mention a name? A rendezvous?”

The mother held out her hands helplessly.

“We didn’t talk much,” she said,” about anything. She left school four years ago, and we have working in shop here together every day since.” She glanced at her father.” With him.” She paused as if dealing with some private memory.” We ran out of things to talk about a long time ago.”

Adriel nodded and allowed her a little space before he said,” Mrs. Hans, I know that it would be pointless to give you any kind of condolences as such no because nothing I say can bring her back to you. But I would like your permission for a forensics team to go to your house and go through the belongings of your daughter.”

Her mother sat upright suddenly. And she looked alarmed as if she was offended by the idea.

“I don’t think that I would like that. What difference does it make now anyway? She is dead.”

Adriel knew that this was a very shaky place and he had to tread carefully. He said patiently,” Mrs. Hans, she might have known the killer in which case we might find some clue to his identity amongst her things. She was not his first victim. And we want to stop him from doing this again.”

Mrs. Hans sank back into her despair and then nodded desolately,” I suppose so.”

“And if you have a recent photograph of her, that would be very helpful.”

The woman lifted her face and then stood up and reached into the cupboard and pulled out a cardboard box, it was a shoebox tied with a pink ribbon. She placed it carefully on the table and then undid the ribbon and lifted the lid. It was full of photographs.” I always meant to put them in an album.”

She looked around her shop.” I sit here all day and do nothing. The more time you have, the more time you waste.” She started taking out the pictures and laying them in front of her.

They did not appear to be in any date order, as if they had been taken out of the box often. There were family groups taken in happier times, a man on Mrs. Hans’ Arms whom Adriel took to be her husband. There was the picture of a little girl smiling toothily at the camera, cheap prints on which the colours had now. Guo Hans in school uniform—a blue tracksuit and yellow baseball cap. Her daughter with short hair. Her daughter with long hair. All appeared to have been taken several years earlier. Her mother fingered each photograph with a kind of reverence, each with its own memory and every one with its own baggage. And then she pulled out a strip of four photographs of a much older Guo Hans. She handed it to Adriel.

“These were taken a month or two ago. In one of these booths.”

Adriel examined them closely. The smile was self-conscious, and each photograph in the sequence was almost identical. She had shoulder length hair, and a pretty face all made up for the occasion. Having seen her at the Silk Street and at the morgue, Adriel would have never recognized her. She had a freshness about her, an absence of cynicism, the anyicipation of youth for the life ahead.

A life that never would be.

“May I take these?” asked Adriel and then he hastily added,” I promise to return them.”

The mother nodded and handed over the strip to him.” And I am so sorry to ask, Mrs. Hans but I have to ask you to come in once for the formal identification of the body.”

“Oh no! I can’t,” she crumbled down.

The woman thought for a moment and then her face collapsed into an expression of resignation as she shook her head looking at her father,” No. When do you want me?”

“I shall make sure that a car is sent for you first thing in the morning,” said Adriel and then he asked glancing at the old man,” Will he be alright?”

“I shall have someone watch him,” she said and then Adriel saw her hold her lips in order to hold back the tears but they started to tremble anyway, big and silent and make wet tracks down her cheeks.” They only let you have one child.” She took a deep breath and spoke,” There, in China, they let you have only one child. And I am too old to start again.”

She looked at her father again and Adriel was certain that it was resentment that he saw in her eyes.” He is all that I have left.”

As they have made their way back through the gloom of the antiques valley, Aria said,” That goddamned community cop was not going. So I had to break a vase on his back. My god, he was so determined to put up a fight.”

“I shall put in a complaint,” said Adriel as he looked at Aria and caught hold of her wrist and found that her hand was bleeding.

“I don’t think that he is worth the time, Adriel, and neither the paperwork that you have to put in for this i***t is not worth it as well,” said Aria as she took back her hand from his grip.

But if Aria was content to put it behind her along with Adriel, the community cop was definitely not. He was waiting for them out in the front and lingering in agitation beneath the moongate leading to a neighborhood compound. He came chasing after them.” Hey!” He said, catching Adriel’s arm.” Your girlfriend assaulted me.”

He barely had the time to breathe in surprise before Adriel wheeled around and pushed him hard up against the wall, his forearm against the officer’s throat. The hapless policeman’s hat went spinning across away from the cobbles.

“You are lucky that I am not breaking your neck right now, at this moment,” Ariel hissed at him,” I guess you were off the day they taught you sensitivity at the cop school.” He released the man and then said,” Don’t go near that woman ever again.”

The incident had only lasted seconds but already a crowd was gathering. It was unheard of a police officer being handled like that, and those who were witnessing it enjoyed the moment. The officer straightened his coat and stopped with as much dignity as he could muster to retrieve his hat.

“You have not heard the last of this,” he called after the both of them. And then he glared at the crowd and shouted,” What the f**k are you looking at.”

Both of them went out of that area and reached close to Adriel’s car.” Do you think that you can eat something? I mean I don’t know about you but I am starving. How about we stop somewhere for a bit of dinner?”

“I am never hungry after an autopsy but today I think that if I don’t put something in my stomach then I am going to faint. It has been a long day and I only had a sandwich,” said Adriel as they both got in the car.