Twisted

by Lynda La Plante

  She poured his coffee as he tucked into the pancakes with relish.

  ‘I happened to be passing the office and there are papers and files on the floor and over her desk; it just seems so unlike her.’

  ‘Well maybe, Agnes, considering the emotional strain we are under at the present time it’s no wonder she’s not been concentrating on work.’

  ‘I just thought I’d mention it to you, Mr Fulford.’

  He put down his fork and turned towards her, becoming irritated by the way she hovered around him.

  ‘And?’ he asked.

  ‘Well I took out the garbage as usual and there’s bags full of clothes in the bin; some of them have been cut up – all your shirts and trousers.’

  He sighed and promised that he would talk to Lena, and if Agnes didn’t mind he would appreciate it if she left him to have his breakfast in peace. She obviously did mind as she pursed her thin lips and walked out, closing the kitchen door sharply. He no longer felt hungry and pushed the plate aside, but he drank his coffee as he contemplated having to have a serious talk with Lena. Not only must she have cut up his old clothes, but he thought he had also better ask her about her work and lastly tell her that if he did remain at the house it would be in the guest bedroom. He decided that he would call Simon Boatly and see if he would reconsider helping him out financially.

  Reid had tried to speak to the headmistress again but could spend only a short time with Miss Harrington as she had parents’ meetings coming up, and was brusque and impatient. She told him that Serena Newman had been very distressed at the disappearance of Amy and had caught a very bad cold so her parents were keeping her at home until she was recovered. Reid found her to be very dismissive and decided he was not going to go into any details about the journal, but he did ask to speak with Mrs Vicks.

  Mrs Vicks was alone in a classroom, marking a stack of exercise books; she replaced the cap on her pen and pushed the books aside as he entered. Thanking her for sparing him some time, he sat himself on top of one of the girls’ desks in front of her raised teacher’s desk.

  ‘Still no news?’ she asked sadly.

  He pondered whether or not he should go into the complicated details of the reason he was there, but instead cut to asking if she had been aware of any signs that Amy was distressed about anything before she had disappeared. Mrs Vicks said she hadn’t been.

  ‘Would it be possible to look at some of Amy’s exercise books? And have you ever noticed any difference in her handwriting?’

  ‘Well I can give you access, but as I said before she is very accomplished in all her subjects.’

  Mrs Vicks went to a large cupboard and opened it to reveal neat stacks of different coloured exercise books. She spent some time sifting through them before selecting several with Amy Fulford’s name on a white label on the cover. As she was checking them he asked about Serena Newman.

  ‘Yes, the poor girl has come down with a very nasty virus, it will be a few days now that she has not been back to class.’

  She placed the books in front of him, and opened the top one.

  ‘This is Amy’s history book; we were doing the Roman Empire, and as you can see her essays are very well researched, and I encourage the pupils to add unusual items that will create interest and be informative beyond the dates and historical references.’

  Reid saw that the writing was neat and methodical and without a single spelling error, as Mrs Vicks flicked through the pages pointing out her high marks. He asked if she would turn back a page. She leaned over him, pointing with her finger to the essay heading ‘The Murder of Caesar’.

  ‘This is very interesting: Claudius Caesar of the infamous I, Claudius died of suspected food poisoning and here you see Amy’s supposition that he did in fact die from ingesting deadly mushrooms; she proposes that although there was never any proof of this poisoning it was possibly the deadly toxins that attacked the tissues of his body, which could have been the reason behind the descriptions of his convulsions and irregular breathing. Although death is recorded as a heart attack, his organs failed after eating a mushroom described as “Death Cap”, which breaks down the red blood cells.’

  He was taken aback, as he recalled reading the mention of mushrooms in Amy’s journal, and asked if any of the other pupils had also written about the poisonous mushrooms.

  ‘No – as you can see she was awarded top marks for interest and I believe they were studying different types of mushrooms in Biology, which is . . .’ She set down one book after another before finding the biology exercise book. He loathed the way she leaned in so close; she had unpleasant breath, and he eventually asked if it would be possible for him to take the books with him as he would like to study the various subjects because he had noticed a change in Amy’s handwriting.

  Mrs Vicks dithered, saying that was probably due to the different pens used, from biro to fountain pen to felt tip, and insisted she call Miss Harrington before allowing him to remove them. He also asked her to see if he would be able to speak to the school matron while she was at it. She left him in the classroom so he was able to glance through the biology book. He paused to look at a drawing of a mushroom named ‘Ink Cap’ and beneath it was an underlined sentence: ‘If this is ingested and combined with alcohol, even hours later, it can cause death as the toxins will attack the liver and kidneys and the victim becomes dehydrated from severe vomiting and diarrhoea. The body eventually becomes unable to remove the dangerous toxins that are absorbed into the bloodstream.’

  Mrs Vicks returned and said she had been unable to speak with Miss Harrington but that the deputy head had agreed to allow him to take the exercise books, as long as they would be returned. The matron, Mrs Hall, would see him in the surgery, which was outside the new building and inside the second older building on his right as he left the classrooms.

  Reid found the so-called ‘Surgery’, which was a small office next to a room with a bed and various medical supplies. Mrs Hall was like the classic version of a matron in a cartoon: she was overweight with enormous breasts that looked like two large balloons, and she wore a loose-fitting blue tunic with a pocket containing a row of pens that had leaked ink in dots beneath it.

  She stood up as he introduced himself and was almost the same size sitting as standing, but she had a round pleasant motherly face, devoid of any makeup, and her hairstyle was circa 1940, the permed curls like tight sausage rolls.

  ‘I really appreciate you agreeing to talk to me,’ he said.

  She sat back in her comfortable padded armchair and Reid drew up a hard-backed one from against the wall.

  ‘I have been so saddened by the disappearance of Amy, she is such a sweet gentle creature, not that I knew her well as she was never sick, but occasionally she would come in to see me. I just wish I had more indication that anything was wrong.’

  ‘What do you mean by “more”?’

  ‘Oh well, you know teenagers, they have menstrual problems and she is fifteen, and very attractive but never flaunted it, but I always make sure the girls know that I am here if they want to talk through anything.’

  ‘So Amy came to talk to you?’

  ‘Yes, it was a while ago, but to be honest I wasn’t sure what was bothering her.’

  ‘Can you take me through why she came to see you?’

  ‘She said she was having trouble sleeping, and I am not allowed obviously to administer sleeping tablets. I said to her that when she felt restless she should write down in a sort of journal what was bothering her to help get to the root of it. I’m no therapist but I read somewhere that it was a productive way of helping a troubled mind.’

  ‘Did she explain what was making her restless?’ Reid wondered.

  ‘No, but you know these newfangled iPhones, Twitter and Facebook things they all use nowadays can also be used in very hurtful ways, and I think she said that someone was writing unpleasant things about her.’

  ‘Did she mention anyone in particular?’

  ‘No, s
he was quite evasive, and when I asked her if I could do anything to help she said that she could handle it, and now of course I worry that it might have been the reason she ran away.’

  She kept on patting her hands together, and he was certain that she had more to tell him.

  ‘When you say she was evasive, what gave you that impression?’

  ‘Detective Reid, what the girls talk to me about in here is kept very private. I have in a few cases advised contraceptives and asked a few of the girls to consider going on the Pill. This is a very delicate subject, because I make them aware that being in any way sexually active could have severe repercussions, including unwanted pregnancies.’

  ‘Can you recommend using birth control?’

  She quickly interrupted him. ‘Let me just say I have in the past suggested it, but parental permission is always advisable. I am very loath to even admit that very infrequently I have sent girls to see the school doctor, because although they are teenagers I am aware they are sexually active.’

  ‘Did you advise Amy – I mean by that, did she admit to being sexually active?’

  ‘When I said that she was evasive I perhaps used the wrong word. You see, I did try to understand why she was here with me. I tentatively suggested the reason might be because she was worried about getting pregnant.’

  ‘And was that why she had come to see you?’

  The fat hands stopped patting each other. ‘No, in fact she was very dismissive, and she was really quite sarcastic. I had recommended some Pepto-Bismol as she had irregular bowel movements and suffered from loose stools – quite regularly in fact as I made a few notes about it – so it was not connected to pregnancy concerns. She said that she was fully aware of taking precautions, and she flounced to the door. It was so unlike her, because she was sort of smirking at me.’

  Her round fat face was shiny with perspiration, and she eased herself up to cross to a box of tissues, plucking one out she dabbed at her top lip.

  ‘She called me a fat menopausal incompetent, who didn’t deserve to be have the position of matron, and said if I made a complaint she would report that I had been instrumental in a number of girls being prescribed the birth control pill without their parents’ knowledge.’

  She was quite distressed, still patting at her perspiring face. ‘That was the last time I saw her, and quite obviously I did not report her rudeness.’

  He stood up to leave. ‘How do you feel about it now?’

  She gave a long sigh, her enormous breasts rising up and down. ‘That she was possibly a very troubled young woman, but you know I am not a psychiatrist, just a nurse, and I try to the best of my ability to look after the girls.’

  ‘Thank you for your time, Mrs Hall. Just one more thing – Serena Newman apparently came to see you recently?’

  ‘Yes that is correct, she had a bit of a temperature and stomach pains; she said that she had been sick at her home, but on arriving back at school felt worse. Due to the various viruses going around I kept her in the sick bay next door, and when she was still feeling poorly I called her parents and they came to collect her and take her home. Apparently she is still not feeling very well as she has not returned.’

  She turned her back on him, blowing her nose with yet another tissue; he probably should have said something to comfort her, but he didn’t. Time was now catching up with him and he had to call in on the Fulfords.

  At the station, the meeting room was packed with journalists plus a TV camera crew from the evening news on standby. DCI Jackson had finished giving them the latest information and the room erupted as every journalist wanted to get their questions answered; it was very obvious that this latest development would give them front-page headlines and this was exactly what Jackson wanted. He had pulled strings and called in favours to get the room jam-packed and it had worked. Press packs were handed out containing details and photographs and he had requested the journalists not to harass the parents, adding that all enquiries were to be handled by their press office. While some journalists jostled for attention, some legged it out fast in an attempt to gain early coverage.

  Jackson agreed to give TV interviews outside the station so they were setting up their cameras. This was exactly what he had wanted but even he was taken aback by the overwhelming response. He just hoped it would also bring results. As he was preparing to be interviewed he was told that they had traced not only the Chinese prostitute Lily Leo, who was even now being driven to Fulham, but that the street musician had been tracked down in a Kingston shopping centre. The officers were bringing him in even though he had argued and become belligerent as he was earning good money from the shoppers.

  Lily Leo was taken into an interview room and given a cup of tea, and had to wait some while before Jackson eventually came in to see her with a female detective. The very petite prostitute looked more like a college graduate. Her thick silky black hair was braided and she wore a woollen beret, a neat navy coat and small leather boots with fur trim. She wore no makeup apart from thick dark kohl around her eyes. As she was very nervous, the DCI made it clear that she was not under arrest, simply there to answer questions and assist in their investigation. She was shown the photograph from the CCTV footage of Amy in her school uniform, but she insisted in her slight Cockney accent that she had told Detective Wey everything she knew and could add nothing else.

  They then showed her the entire set of PhotoFit pictures of how Amy might look with various wigs.

  ‘Look, I only ever saw her that once talking to a punter.’

  ‘So how do you know for certain she was trying to sell her body for sex?’

  ‘Some of the other girls seen her hanging around and warned her off because they all had patches they covered. She was an obvious amateur, but nevertheless a threat as she was so young, and the school uniform really got their tempers flaring.’

  ‘Do you know anything about her father Marcus?

  ‘Don’t know the name, but I heard a couple of girls been questioned about their underwear, and admitted to having sessions with her father. They had a nickname for him, “Backdoor Man”, and I don’t suppose you need me to explain what it means.’

  Jackson recalled the ‘Watcher’ in the journal describing anal sex and the thought that it was young Amy watching through the peephole sickened and angered him.

  ‘Anything else about him, Lily?’

  ‘I heard a rumour he also used a couple of rent boys, but you know they come and go round there, especially if they pick up a rich bloke who will take care of them, and most are quite young, but I dunno if that’s true, just what I heard.’

  ‘Rent boys?’ Jackson sighed as no one had ever reported Marcus Fulford with rent boys; to the contrary he appeared to have had numerous women, judging from the array of underwear found in the flat. He decided not to question Lily any further on the subject. Instead he showed her the photograph from the vice squad, pointing to the car as he pushed the photo towards her.

  ‘What about the john in the Bentley – you ever seen him picking up the girls?’

  ‘Listen, there’s more Bentleys around that area than red buses in Park Lane, so I couldn’t tell you if I had seen him before or not, and on the photo you can’t even see his face.’

  Jackson let her go; she had given nothing new and he was now impatient to interview the street musician Eddie Morris. He was about to head down the corridor when one of his team suggested he leave it a while longer as Eddie needed to sleep off whatever he’d been ingesting, snorting or shooting up in the Kingston Plaza.

  Jackson took himself off to the canteen, saying they should give the bloody pest some strong black coffee.

  Marcus had been trying to contact Simon Boatly for over an hour. But yet again the phone went to answer phone and he felt disinclined to leave a message even after the fourth attempt. He went to the back door to look in the bins for his cut-up clothes and, having found them, he decided to confront Lena, but thought he would just give Simon one more try first. This
time the phone was picked up, and with relief he asked to speak to Simon.

  ‘He’s not here, he was taken into hospital this morning. Who shall I say is calling?’

  ‘It’s Marcus Fulford. Who am I speaking to?’

  ‘I’m Grant, I’m taking care of the house. We’ve had to get the vet out as his dog died this morning, and then poor Simon felt so bad I took him into A&E. That’s where I’ve been all day, as they’re keeping him in to do some tests.’

  ‘What’s the matter with him?’

  ‘I dunno, some stomach bug he’s come down with – vomiting, terrible diarrhoea and he was dehydrated so he’s been put on a glucose drip. Doc said it was a gastrointestinal disorder, probably something he’s eaten. I just thank God I’m a vegan, but he hasn’t actually been able to keep anything down.’

  Marcus felt that it was all too much information, and Grant seemed to need to tell him all the details even though they had never met, so he was eager to cut off the call.

  ‘Just pass on my best wishes. I’ll maybe try to come out to Henley to see him.’

  ‘We won’t be here for long as we’re going to Barbados, but I’ll tell him you rang, and I know you were staying at the flat in Green Street. It’s unbelievable, he’s already got a property developer after it – they’ll gut it, I suppose, and I think he’s also selling up this old pile. All right for some, isn’t it? I was never left so much as a toothbrush, and—’

  Marcus interrupted, certain this Grant would get into a lengthy diatribe about his family and he knew better than anyone just how wealthy Simon was. Perhaps he would consider lending him a lump sum if he was even more flush than usual.

  ‘Nice to talk to you, Grant. Maybe we’ll meet up soon.’

  ‘Yeah, okay. Bye now.’

  Marcus slowly replaced the receiver. In the past he had almost hated Simon for his wealth, not that he hadn’t been generous, often to a fault, but there had always been on his part a certain amount of envy. Their relationship had really never been the same after he had married Lena. At the time Simon had sarcastically said he would give it a year and Marcus would come back to him. Marcus had felt that originally Lena had really liked Simon, but now she was not interested in having any further contact with him. He had obviously continued to meet with Simon secretly, but after Amy was born their close friendship lessened and they just met infrequently for the odd game of squash, or the occasional lunch. Marcus’s inability to gain employment had left him with a lot of free time, so while Lena successfully built up her business he had felt inadequate.