by Celina Grace
“Well, it’s a bit old, innit?” Courtney looked disdainfully at the worn leather sofa that Kate found so comfortable.
“Oh well,” said Kate rather helplessly. “I will when I get around to it.”
She made tea for those who wanted it: Peter, Olbeck, and herself. Jay had stood silently through the greetings and tumult of the female Redmans, and he was now sat at the kitchen table with his eyes cast down. Kate wished she could get rid of everyone so she could talk to him.
Olbeck saved her. While Kate was showing her mother and Peter, at their insistence, round the house and into the garden, she saw Olbeck talking quietly to Jay. After about ten minutes, he came over to tell her he was taking her brother to the station to make his statement.
“Statement?” screeched Mary. “What’s he done?”
“Nothing, Mum, I’ll explain later,” said Kate hurriedly, seeing Jay flinch. She squeezed his arm as he went past, hoping to catch his eye, but he flashed her a quick half smile and then he and Olbeck were gone.
Jade, Courtney and Mary surrounded her, bombarding her with questions.
“It’s nothing,” said Kate desperately. “He’s just a witness, that’s all. It’s nothing—”
“Now, now,” said Peter, unexpectedly. “Don’t badger the poor girl. Why don’t we all sit down and listen to what Kate has to tell us, if she’s willing and able to?”
Mary shut up instantly. Courtney and Jade subsided after Peter raised his hand in a ‘shushing’ gesture and motioned for Kate to speak.
While Kate was explaining what had happened—all that she could say about the case—a small part of her was mulling over Peter’s presence. Her mother was clearly smitten with him, and the girls seemed to like him. He seemed a nice enough man. But what was the attraction for him? Did he really like her mother? If so, why? Kate hated herself for thinking like that, but she’d faced the facts about her mother a long time ago. Mary Redman had a drinking problem, and she was feckless, short-tempered and unreliable. Where was the attraction in that?
They all left soon after. Kate shook hands with Peter at the door of her house as they were making their goodbyes.
“I didn’t ask you how you came to be in the vicinity,” she said. “Do you live around here?”
“Yes, duck—not far from here. Burton Abbot. You must come and visit me sometime.”
“That would be lovely,” said Kate politely. “I’m pretty busy with work at the moment, though. What do you do?”
“Me? I’m a driving instructor.” Peter laughed. “Bit nerve-wracking at times, but I do enjoy it.”
Courtney and Jade were getting into the back of Peter’s car. Kate gestured to it.
“Do you use that for lessons? It looks quite unscathed.”
Peter put an arm around Mary and began to shepherd her towards the passenger seat.
“No, I’ve got something a bit more modern for the learners,” he said. “You might even have seen it around. Bright yellow Mini. Easy for other drivers to spot—and avoid! Pete Buckley’s yellow peril, they call it.”
Kate smiled and waved as they drove away. Once they were gone, she went quickly back inside to her desk and scribbled ‘Peter Buckley, Burton Abbot’ on a piece of paper and put it in her bag.
She stood for a moment in the hallway, hesitating. Then she climbed the stairs and went straight to the cupboard where she’d put Jay’s picture. She drew it out carefully. It no longer induced in her a sense of nausea and panic, despite the resemblance to the crime scene photographs she’d seen every day at the office. She looked harder at the picture, noting that the leaves of the trees in the background were a bright, fresh green. There were wildflowers growing on the banks of the river. Kate noticed something she’d never noticed before: the crown of tiny daisies wound about Elodie’s tangled blonde hair. Of course, she was supposed to be Ophelia, wasn’t she?
“There is a willow grows aslant a brook
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples...”
Kate propped the picture against the wall and sat back on her haunches. It was coincidence, that was all. There was nothing to be afraid of. She would tell Anderton tomorrow, she told herself, and she ignored the tiny quake of fear that followed.
Chapter Eleven
“Cocaine,” said Anderton. “And marijuana, but we don’t care so much about that. The tox tests are back. Our girl tested positive for cocaine, which given DS Redman’s discovery the other day, probably doesn’t come as a great surprise to most of you.”
He stopped, swivelled on one foot and began to retrace his steps. His team watched him, ranged around the room in their various seats. He tapped Elodie’s school picture as he walked by it.
“Now, you’re not telling me that an eighteen-year-old private school girl, daughter of the headmaster no less, is the sole mastermind behind the supply of Class A drugs to her school mates. Because I just don’t believe it.”
“Me neither,” said Olbeck. “Who gave it to her?”
“Exactly, Mark. There’s someone behind all this.”
Kate was shuffling the various copies of the witness statements already taken from Elodie’s schoolmates.
“Several people mention an older boyfriend. Well, they mention a man they’d seen with Elodie a couple of times.” She hesitated. “I think I saw him myself, if it’s the same guy. He was older than her, definitely older.”
Anderton looked at her.
“Yes, you’ve mentioned him. What else can you tell us?”
Kate shrugged. “Unfortunately, sir, not much. I only saw him for a moment or so.”
“Did you recognise him?”
Kate lifted her shoulders up again. “It’s funny but when I first saw him, I did think I recognised him. Then I realised he just seemed familiar. I thought I might have arrested him at one time and that’s where I knew him from. That’s all. No name, nothing like that.”
Anderton swung on his heel again.
“Well, we must find him. I have the feeling this mystery man is the key to what happened to Elodie. Find him, and we’re a giant step forward.” He pointed a finger at Theo. “Theo, go through the statements that mention him. Talk to those witnesses again, get them to see if they can remember any more. Kate, go with him. See if what they tell you tallies with what you remember of this man.”
Kate nodded. She looked across at Theo, and he winked at her, which made her grin.
“Jane, where are we with the CCTV?” asked Anderton.
Jane hopped off the desk and handed over a mass of papers. “Several interesting sightings,” she said, pointing to something on the camera printouts. “Two men here, and again here. Unfortunately we can’t see their faces.”
“Bloody hoodies,” grumbled Anderton. “Do we have any sightings of Elodie?”
“Yes, she was on the camera outside the pub, leaving with a man—probably the one you saw her with, Kate—and walking into the car park. Unfortunately the camera on that area of the car park was on the blink and we’ve got nothing definite. She could have got into a car, she could have driven off somewhere, or she could have walked away. There are no cameras on that section of the river footpath.”
“Shame. Okay, this’ll do for now. What else?” He scanned the board and his scribbled notes. “Kate! DNA tests?”
“Sorry, sir, I haven’t had a chance. I’ll ring the pathologist today.” She could see Olbeck grinning at her from across the room and mouthed ‘sod off’ at him.
“You won’t have a chance today, you’ll be out with Theo. Jerry, you do it. Right, what else? What else?” He came to a standstill in front of the boards, both hands churning his hair. “Mark, Rav, you’re with me. We need to get young Reuben back in for more questioning. He’s not off my hit-list yet, not by a long shot. And at some point. we need to go back and question our jogger—what’s his name? Deedham.”
Ra
v stuck his hand up smartly.
“We’ve done that, sir. Jerry and I went to see him yesterday. Still insists he didn’t know Elodie Duncan. He’s regularly seen jogging on that stretch of the riverbank, and his wife also insists he didn’t know our victim. We did a bit of digging, but there’s nothing. Nothing at all.”
“Great,” said Anderton. “I suppose his wife alibied him too?”
Rav nodded. Anderton threw up his hands in exasperation.
“Fine, we’ll wash him out for now. What about Reuben Farraday? He got an alibi yet?”
“His parents,” said Jane. She shrugged. “For what that’s worth.”
“Fine, fine,” said Anderton through gritted teeth. “So we’re absolutely no further forward than we were. Bring him in, anyway and let’s get on with it. Oh—” Anderton sagged suddenly, as if struck by an unpleasant thought. His hands dropped to his side. His team stared at him.
After a moment, he went on.
“I can’t actually, I’ve got a meeting. Damn. You two carry on and report back. I can’t get out of this one. Unfortunately.”
There was a moment’s silence. Kate wondered if anyone else had caught the bleak look that flashed across Anderton’s face, just for a split second. Then it was gone, and he was calling out his goodbyes, carry on team, good work and striding out the door.
Olbeck was looking after Anderton with a worried look on his face.
“Hey, Mark,” said Kate, as much to distract him as because she wanted to know. “I hope you didn’t find my family too overwhelming.”
Olbeck turned to her, smiling. “Course not. Your brother’s a nice kid.”
“How was his statement?” asked Kate, speaking casually despite the sudden jump of anxiety that she felt.
“Quite straightforward.” Olbeck sat down and rummaged through the paperwork on his desk. “Here you go. You can read it at your leisure.”
“Thanks.” Kate took it and skimmed it quickly, inwardly quaking. But there was nothing there that jumped out. Nothing that could be construed as…dangerous. She blew out her cheeks and put the paper in her desk drawer to read properly when she had some more time. There was something else that she had to do—what was it now? Oh yes…before she pulled the scrap of paper from her bag, she asked Olbeck another question.
“What did you think of Peter?”
Olbeck was texting again. “Who?”
“My mum’s new man. The bloke with the beard.”
Olbeck looked up from his phone. “I didn’t really notice him much, to be honest. He seemed okay.”
“Hmm.”
Olbeck’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”
“Oh, nothing.” Kate swung her chair back and forth a little. “It’s just—why would someone like that…”
“Yes?”
Kate cringed inwardly as she said it. “Why would a man like that be interested in my mum? What’s he after?”
Olbeck stared at her for a long moment. Then he put down his phone.
“I don’t understand you,” he said. “I know this is a weird thing to say to a detective, but you are so suspicious. What do you mean, what’s he after? Why can’t he just be after your mum?”
“You don’t understand,” muttered Kate. She swung her chair away from him, avoiding his accusing gaze. “You don’t know my mum. Why would someone like him be interested in someone like her?”
Olbeck scoffed. “Listen to you. I’ve only met your mum once, and she’s not that bad, from what I could see. She’s quite attractive. I can see why he’d be attracted to her.”
“Quite attractive?”
“Yes.” He grinned suddenly. “You look quite like her, actually.”
“I do not!”
Kate fought a childish urge to put her fingers in her ears. She was suddenly furious with Olbeck. How dare he say that, how dare he compare her to her mother? I am nothing like her. She turned her back on him, picked the piece of paper out of her bag and fired up the various databases that she needed.
“What are you doing?”
She ignored Olbeck’s question. She looked down at the piece of paper in her hand. Peter Buckley, Burton Abbot. Then, ignoring the voice inside that told her she was being unreasonable, suspicious, paranoid, she typed Peter’s name into the appropriate fields.
“Are you checking up on him?”
“Shut up, Mark.”
“You are, aren’t you? Jesus Christ.”
“Shut up, Mark.”
Over the other side of the room, she could see Theo beckoning. She gave him a ‘five minutes’ gesture and turned her attention back to the screen. Nothing. No match. No records. A great swamping wave of shame washed over her. What on Earth did she think she was doing?
“You see?” said Olbeck from behind her shoulder.
“Oh, shut up.”
She got up and grabbed her bag and coat. Theo was waiting for her by the office door.
“Nutter,” said Olbeck, in a not unkind tone, as she walked off.
Theo drove. Kate hadn’t worked alone with him for some time, and it felt rather odd to be sat next to someone who wasn’t Olbeck. There had been a time, not long after she joined the team in Abbeyford, when Theo had taken her for a drink after work and made a pretty direct pass at her. She’d turned him down (not without some regret—he really was very good looking) and there had been a dreadfully strained couple of months before Theo had got himself a new girlfriend and had apparently forgiven her. All that was water under the bridge now. Kate liked him very much; he had the cockiness of attractive youth but was also whip-smart, ambitious and good at his job.
They presented themselves at the headmaster’s office on arrival. Kate wasn’t sure he would be there; perhaps he was still too grief-stricken to come to work. But after a moment’s wait in the superior secretary’s office, Mr Duncan came outside to shake their hands and greet them in a subdued fashion. He looked as if he’d aged twenty years in the few days since Kate had last seen him.
“Of course you may use the room,” he said, in answer to their question. “You must have free rein…”
He trailed off, staring past Kate’s shoulder and out of the window. Then he seemed to recollect himself.
“I’m sorry. Please go ahead with whatever you have to do.”
“Poor bastard,” whispered Theo as they left the room. Kate nodded.
She thought she knew the way to the room they’d used before, but she was mistaken. After several wrong turns down wood-panelled corridors, she stopped, irritated.
“This place is a bloody maze.”
Theo gestured.
“I recognised that bit back there.”
They retraced their steps to a small foyer, where glass fronted cases displayed various trophies and awards. There were several large class photographs, children lined up in rows with the teachers standing behind them. The names of the children were printed underneath. As Kate hesitated, wondering where to go, a name caught her eye.
“Violet Sammidge. Look, Theo. That’s the girl who committed suicide here last year.”
They both looked. Violet Sammidge had been a gawky, large-eyed girl with a mass of frizzy brown hair. She stared out of the photograph, grinning anxiously. Kate felt a flicker of something too intangible to name. A fluttering of clarity in the far corners of her comprehension, something so brief that it was gone almost before she could acknowledge it.
“Ah, Detective Sergeant,” said an urbane voice by her shoulder. She turned to find Graham Lightbody, the grey-haired teacher, standing by her with an armful of files.
He saw what they had been looking at.
“What a tragedy that was,” he said. His face contracted briefly. “I don’t believe we’ve got over it yet.”
“You taught Violet?”
“Taught her? My dear, she was my protégé. A quite exceptional talent. I was just devastated—” He broke off abruptly, staring at the photograph of the dead girl. After a moment, he went on. “She was an unhappy child, I could see
that. Her parents had not long gone through a very messy and painful divorce when she began her lessons with me. I don’t know how much I helped…” He trailed off again. “Not enough, it seems. Not nearly enough.”
There was a moment’s silence. Then Mr Lightbody pulled the files closer to his chest.
“You’ll have to excuse me, Detective Sergeant. I have a class now.”
He nodded to Theo and set off down the corridor, his footsteps echoing back from the panelled walls.
Chapter Twelve
They eventually found the room they were looking for and settled down to go through the statements.
“Who’s first?” asked Theo
Kate read the name on the first statement and groaned.
“Amy Peters.” She gave Theo a wry look. “You’ll enjoy this one.”
“Why?”
“She’s young, lively and beautiful.”
Theo brightened up. “Let’s get started then.”
Amy Peters entered the room in a slightly less dramatic fashion than she had the time before. There was still a hint of staginess about her, and the hair-tossing had not noticeably decreased.
“Of course I saw Elodie with a man. Several times. I told you this before.”
“Perhaps you could just take us through it again, Amy,” said Kate pleasantly. She kept her eyes on the girl’s face. What had her relationship with Elodie really been like? Best of friends or something else? It was hard to see through the theatrical gloss of Amy’s behaviour.
Amy cast Theo a flirtatious glance from underneath lowered lashes, smiled, and then turned back to Kate.
“I saw him a couple of times with Elodie. He was tall and pretty fit if you like the older man thing.” She giggled and threw back her hair. “I even asked Elodie about him once, but she wouldn’t tell me anything.”
“Do you know when she met him? How long she had known him?”