He glanced into the rooms as they passed. They were, as he had expected, luxuriant and well-ordered. There were cream carpets, coordinated curtains, smart, polished antique furniture. And yet it felt little used. It was very tidy and impersonal. Apart from comfortable wealth there was no clue as to the Sedgewick’s characters and interests. Talith wondered whether Alice did her own cleaning. Probably not, he decided. She was more likely to have a ‘daily’. He followed her up a wide, mahogany staircase with a narrow strip of dark red carpet anchored by brass stair rods and then towards an extending loft ladder on the landing. Acantha drew up in the rear, saying nothing, but she kept a suspicious eye on the white-suited forensic team ahead of her, as they clambered, noisily bouncing up the ladder. Perhaps she too, was apprehensive at what they would find at the top.
‘How long have you lived here?’ Talith asked the question conversationally but Alice Sedgewick wasn’t fooled. ‘Only five years,’ she said deliberately, turning around and reading his eyes.
His next comment was equally polite but probing. ‘It’s a very big house for a couple whose children have flown the nest.’
Alice turned around again with that perceptive and unsettling stare. ‘My husband likes big houses,’ she said, adding to herself, ‘even though he isn’t here that much.’ There was resentment in her tone and Talith wondered whether she shared her husband’s enthusiasm for living in big houses.
They reached the top of the ladder. Alice Sedgewick put her hand out to the left and flicked a light switch on illuminating the entire loft space with four swinging light bulbs. Talith made a mental note of even this small action. She’d remembered to turn the switch
Already Talith’s policeman’s mind was starting to look at scenarios, possibilities and ask the relevant questions.
The loft was neatly boarded. There was plenty of headroom and four bare electric lights so they had a good view. Now they could see how huge the roof space was. Big enough for a couple more bedrooms and bathrooms. Talith straightened up and looked around. It held the usual loft contents: a couple of suitcases, a few boxes stacked neatly to one side, beams and spiders’ webs, insulation against the roof. There was a soft, urgent scrabbling in the corner. Mice? Bats? Rats?
It was easy to see where Alice had found the infant. In the far corner stood a hot water tank partly boarded in. Behind it and to the side was a pile of dust and rubble. Talith and the team approached the area. In the rubble was a small piece of tattered woollen cloth so smothered with the dust it was hard to tell what colour it had once been. So, as Delyth Fontaine had suggested last night, Alice must have found the infant partly covered, unwrapped it, taken it downstairs and found the blanket in which she had wrapped the child to bring it to the hospital. She had provided the newer pink blanket herself. From where? It had been no larger than a cot blanket – nowhere near adult sized. But it was surely a long time ago that a baby had been resident here, in number 41. Alice Sedgewick’s children were in their twenties.
As though reading his mind, she followed his gaze. ‘That’s where I found her,’ she said very quietly. ‘I – there was some plasterboard around the hot water tank. I thought I’d take a proper look to see if it should be moved. I pulled off some of the boards surrounding it.’ Alice was walking towards the spot very slowly, in a trance, speaking softly to herself, as though she had forgotten they were there. ‘Then I found her, waiting for me. She was wrapped up.’ Her eyes were wide open now but unfocussed. ‘She’d been lying there all that time. Not buried at all. Just stuffed behind an…’ There was a look both of grief and horror in her face.
‘Hey.’ Acantha put her arm around her friend’s shoulders. ‘Hey.’
It looked as though Alice Sedgewick was beginning to lose the plot again, Talith thought. And yet, though the content of her tale was enough to tip the sanest mind into hysteria, there was, around Alice Sedgewick, a complete lack of drama. She had simply related the story in a flat, quiet voice.
The SOCOs had already slipped on their gloves and were stepping towards the spot ready to bag up the tattered woollen rag, but not before Talith had seen some staining on it, dark and rusty. As a policeman he’d seen enough of this particular mark before to know exactly what it was.
Acantha saw it too and intervened quickly. ‘Don’t you think it would be better if all this was continued back at the station while your people look around?’
Talith nodded slowly. The team would work better unhampered anyway.
He took a quick sweep of the area, frowning. He couldn’t really see why Alice Sedgewick had investigated the area around the water tank. If he had been considering converting the loft into further living space it wouldn’t immediately have struck him as that important.
He had a quick, quiet word with Roddie Hughes, the scene of crimes investigator. A sharp-eyed Essex boy who had moved up to Shrewsbury a few years ago because he’d visited the town for a weekend and liked it so much he’d decided to stay rather than go home.
‘Take a quickie round the house,’ Talith said. ‘I’m wondering where that little kid’s blanket came from.’ He thought for a minute. ‘Unless she’s got grandchildren, of course.’
As they trooped downstairs, he was already adding that to the list of questions he wanted answers to.
As they reached the hall he made his decision and spoke to the two women. ‘I can’t see any point dragging you down to the station today,’ he said. ‘The senior investigating officer, Detective Inspector Alex Randall, will take over tomorrow. It’ll be up to him how he conducts the case.’ He omitted to mention that how things proceeded would also depend on the results of the post-mortem. Talith wasn’t sure whether he was glad or sorry he would be handing over responsibility for the case. It promised to be interesting but probably frustrating too. He had the feeling that winkling out the truth would prove to be a challenge equal to any police officer’s talents. Even Detective Inspector Alex Randall. A time lapse between what might have been a crime and the discovery of a body always made a case harder to solve and it might be hard to determine what exactly the time lapse had been. The SOCOs would be looking for other clues as to how long the child had lain concealed. But there was no doubt about it. DI Randall would be taking over the investigation in the morning and probably he, Sergeant Paul Talith, and definitely PC Gethin Roberts, who was right at the bottom of the pecking order, would be relegated to the Second Division. Talith was a fan of the ‘beautiful game’ and whenever possible he liked to use sporting jargon to describe his work. It made his job sound dangerous, exciting, energetic, and besides it made him feel better.
Acantha looked vaguely surprised at their release and Talith had the feeling she had expected a long grilling of her client most of the afternoon, so he explained his reasoning. ‘I’ve done what preliminary work is necessary, Mrs Palk.’ He glanced at Alice. ‘This is quite a strain on Mrs Sedgewick.’ A further quick glance at Alice confirmed that she was looking wan. ‘I think we should leave her alone for now until DI Randall takes over, the examination of the house is complete and we’ve done some further investigations.’ He gave a ghost of a smile. ‘I take it you’ll vouch for her.’
‘Yes,’ Acantha said, a little stiffly.
‘Have you contacted Mr Sedgewick?’
‘No.’
‘So you don’t know when he’ll be back?’ He addressed the question vaguely to both women. It was Acantha who answered.
‘Not a clue,’ she said airily. ‘Aaron rather makes up his own rules, doesn’t he, Alice?’
This elicited a vague nod.
‘He rarely tells Alice exactly when he’ll be home but always manages to arrive unexpectedly,’ Acantha explained then gave a wide, slightly mischievous smile. It transformed her face, melted away the severe expression and replaced it with a softness and humanity that made her look instantly attractive. ‘When she was younger I used to think he imagined he’d walk in on her doing something she shouldn’t.’
Both Alice and Sergeant Talith were startled. Alice stared at her friend.
Talith pursued the comment. ‘You mean another man?’ He gave a sceptical glance at Mrs Sedgewick.
‘Oh no,’ she said hastily. ‘No. Nothing like that. All the other things Alice wasn’t allowed to do. Eating chocolate, having a glass too much red wine. Talking for too long on the telephone. Wearing shoes in the house, not rinsing out coffee cups before putting them in the dishwasher. Having a Chinese takeaway or even worse a pizza delivery. There were a hundred things she wasn’t allowed to do. The children not in bed when they should have been, watching soaps on the television.’ She gave an amused grimace. ‘You don’t know what control is until you’ve
