And there had been someone else with them at the Cedars last night… Grey ran, almost going over in the process, from the flat, through the corridor and into the dayroom… where all before him were respectable citizens chatting, eating, and looking at his chaotic appearance. It was a young and distinct voice that first spoke directly to him,
‘Good morning, Inspector. Come and meet Alex, he was telling me about his visit to Russia last year.’
‘Ludmila, you’re okay?’
‘Yes, are you? You look like you slept even better than me. Are you… all right? Has something happened?’
He came to their table and sat down in sheer relief.
‘Of course, I’d learned Russian during National Service…’ continued Alex.
It was the reassuring figure of Ellie who brought Grey back to reality,
‘It looks like you could use this.’ She put a cup of coffee down before him. ‘So, a wild night over at Rachel’s place then?’
‘Eh?’
Ludmila took up the theme, ‘The Constable came in earlier, asking if anyone had seen you, as you were needed at the police station. I told him you’d been here last night with Rachel.’
‘And as we’d seen no sign of her either this morning… and here’s herself now.’
Rachel appeared at the dayroom doorway.
‘A man in her room all night? So a leopard can change its spots,’ said someone in the dayroom to a ripple of general amusement, her social life evidently no secret here; but she had no time for such frivolities,
‘Inspector, where is he? What did he do?’
Good, she had remembered. He answered,
‘He left early this morning. I’ve put the alert out, people will be looking for him. As soon as I’ve got my legs back I will be too. The warm milk?’
‘I think it must have been. You know he’s washed everything up in there?’ she noted.
‘He’d left us each a glass of water too for when we woke,’ he said in equal disbelief.
‘What are you pair talking about?’ asked Ellie.
The Constable appeared at the door, ashen-faced.
‘What is it?’ asked his Inspector.
‘In private, sir?’
‘Ellie, you do a wonderful job, and I’m no going to keep you from it a moment longer. Look after Ludmila for me.’
Joining the Constable in the hallway, the man explained,
‘Sir, Derek Waldron isn’t in his room, doesn’t look like he’s been there all night. But he’s left this on his bed.’
Grey took the envelope from his hand, marked with his own name.
‘And sir, something’s happened at the Mars house. I’ve told them you’re here, and they sending a car for you right away. And sir.’
‘Yes?’
‘You might want to brush up…’
‘Thank you, yes.’
In the bathroom mirror of Rachel’s flat he smoothed down his hair and dried his face and neck; anything else would have to wait. He wasn’t wearing his suit jacket he suddenly discovered; and sure enough, found it folded neatly on the arm of the chair next to the one he had been passed out on.
‘Derek, what are you up to?’ he asked the room as he slipped the jacket back on, it instantly becoming the least disordered part of his otherwise slept-in apparel.
Rachel Sowton had followed him to her own door,
‘He’d taken your jacket off for you? He’d put my shoes at the foot of the bed. Your Constable’s doing a role call and room search, but no one’s noticed anything out of the ordinary this morning.’
‘That’s good. At least he didn’t drug the guard outside.’
‘It would have been easy though — this place is like a pharmacy, and he’d have seen what dose we use. Is he in trouble?’
‘I’ll know soon.’
‘Then let me know.’
‘I will,’ and with that he left to meet the squad car he saw from the window pulling up in the road outside.
Chapter 22 — Social Services
The interview room at the Social Services building was more like a coffee lounge, considered Cori as she entered with Janice (whose surname Cori would learn was Roper). Plush sofas, low table, pastel throws — Cori noted that no one piece of furniture directly faced another. There was however, between a toddler’s playpen and a pile of put-away toys, a small glass cabinet that she guessed contained recording equipment. She shuddered at the stories this room had heard.
‘Ah, here they are,’ said Janice, all smiles now the interview was happening, and all tension at the participant’s broader situation necessarily left at the door. Esther entered first: teenage, wary, smartly dressed and with black hair falling straight over her face beneath a polka dot bow. With her was her mother, Maisie, whose lighter and curlier hair made Cori wonder how much effort her daughter put into making hers so.
After greetings all around, Janice spoke both to those gathered but also to the room and it’s recorders, beginning with the date and time and listing those present, before continuing softly,
‘Now, Esther, you know that we’re here today to talk about your tutor, Stella Dunbar.’
‘She wasn’t just my tutor.’
‘Well, that’s what the Sergeant here will go away and investigate after our discussion. Specifically, we’re here to ask you about your meeting with her on Monday of this week.’
‘The night she was murdered.’
‘Yes, the night she was attacked. We’ll soon get on to that. I also know that the Sergeant is also very keen to learn all she can about Stella as a person; so first, Esther, to give us a perspective: you’d been seeing Stella twice a week after school since the previous term?’
‘Yes.’
‘And what was she like?’
‘She was nice. A bit serious at first, she wouldn’t let you laugh or mess around. “We’re not here to share jokes,” she’d say. I was a bit shocked, she wasn’t like our teachers. I didn’t think I’d go back.’
‘But you did?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why, Esther?’
‘Because I knew Jeff and Louise would give me hell.’
‘Oh, Esther,’ answered her mother, ‘they’ve never given you hell. Don’t be so melodramatic.’
‘Oh, Mum, you know what I mean.’
Janice smiled at this, at evidence of a rebuilding of a relationship between mother and daughter.
Maisie turned to Cori, glad it seemed of anyone to make this point to,
‘Esther couldn’t have been luckier than having Janice find the Wheelwrights for her. After I… after the divorce when I couldn’t cope with looking after her alone, Janice took care of everything. She said, “We have a good family here in town, and I’ll find if they have a space”; and they had.’
‘So,’ Janice turned back to Esther, finding her thread, ‘Stella seemed very serious at first?’
‘Yeah, I thought I’d done something to upset her. It was like she was always about to tell me off. I wasn’t used to it, I don’t know anyone else like that. I was nervous and I started giggling, and I think she thought I didn’t care. She said, “Tutoring is a two-way street, young lady: If I’m to make the effort, they you need to too.”’
