The woman glanced at Rachel, able to tell she wasn’t just a passing customer or a rep pushing confectionery. ‘Feeding strays,’ she explained.
‘Dogs?’ Rachel said.
‘No – people.’ The woman laughed. She had a missing tooth. ‘But I think it’s only Rick that takes it.’
‘Stuff past its sell-by date,’ said Liam Kelly.
‘I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not,’ the woman said.
‘Better than giving him money to piss away on booze,’ he replied.
‘Softy at heart.’ She punched his arm.
‘Get off.’ But there was affection in his tone. ‘Police, about the murder,’ he gestured to Rachel. ‘This is Mels.’
‘You see the fire?’ Rachel asked.
‘Some. I was doing cash and carry,’ Mels said, ‘got back and it was all going up. You think it’s a drug thing? They say he was shot.’
‘We don’t know what’s behind it yet. But if you do hear anything, I’d really appreciate it if you got in touch.’ She handed over her card.
The chippy was busy. Rachel ignored the queue and the muttered complaints as she barged to the front and spoke to the Chinese woman serving, telling her she wanted to talk to her about the incident at the Old Chapel.
‘OK.’ She called out something Rachel couldn’t follow and her husband, Rachel assumed, came out from the back and took over at the counter so Rachel could talk to Mrs Lin, who spoke reasonable English. They were working until eleven but their son had told them about the fire. They’d no CCTV and she had no idea who might have been involved in the murder or the fire.
‘What about other trouble?’ Rachel said. ‘In the shop?’
Mrs Lin pulled a face, shook her head. When Rachel referred to the spate of break-ins next door, to the other arson attacks, all she said was, ‘Kids. It’s kids, yes. Very bad.’
Questions about the Perry twins were met with quick, vehement shakes of the head as if she was barely listening to what Rachel was saying. The husband’s approach to serving was heavy-handed, slamming chips on to trays, shovelling fish on top, banging the parcels on the counter top for the customer.
‘I wanted scraps,’ the person at the front of the line said loudly.
The man barked something in Chinese and his wife pulled another face. ‘Finished?’ she said to Rachel.
Rachel briefly considered asking for chips and curry sauce but thought it best not to give the locals anything else to grumble about. ‘For now.’
‘You here about that murder?’ a woman at the back of the queue called out.
‘That’s right,’ Rachel said. ‘Can you help?’
‘Me? No.’
‘If anyone can,’ Rachel said, addressing them all, ‘there will be a mobile incident van setting up in the area any time soon. And if anyone is aware of a person missing from home please let us know.’