met Aaron Sedgewick, sergeant.’
Alice was round-eyed with incredulity at Acantha’s forthrightness but she stayed silent, not defending her husband or contradicting her friend’s opinion.
‘I can hardly wait,’ Talith responded dryly.
He kept his last question back until they had walked outside into the freezing air. ‘Does Aaron Sedgewick have a mobile?’
Again it was Acantha who answered for her friend. ‘Probably. Everyone does these days, don’t they? But I don’t know the number. Alice,’ she said, ‘do you?’
‘Yes,’ Alice answered politely, ‘I’ve got it written down by the telephone in the kitchen but I’m only supposed to ring it in an emergency.’
Talith felt stunned. What on earth constituted an emergency in the mad Sedgewick household?
It struck him then that Alice Sedgewick was bobbing in and out of reality like a boat whose tether is loosened by a gentle but insistent current. At some point she might well drift all the way downstream.
FOUR
Martha had solved the problem of what to do. The day was bitingly cold but bright and the weather quite beautiful. She was fond of photography and Bobby needed a good long walk. She chose her favourite route, knowing that plenty of people would be sledging on Lyth Hill this afternoon. Mary Webb had had a house there and she was one of Martha’s favourite authors. She had studied
They set out, well wrapped up in gloves, scarves and anoraks, laughing in the sparkling air and the challenging cold and Bobby straining on his lead, barking and panting. Martha had thought they might take their sledge but Sam was worried about making his injury worse and Agnetha and Sukey said they preferred to walk and chat in their easy, friendly way. Martha decided she would cut a lone figure. One needed a child present to justify this juvenile sport. And there was always the chance that she would bump, either literally or metaphorically, into someone she knew professionally. The thought of the coroner whooping with joy and exhilaration as she sledged down Lyth Hill was perhaps not quite ‘the thing’, so reluctantly she’d slammed the garage door on the red plastic sledge.
Talith also had worked out what to do with his afternoon. He decided to visit the staff nurse who had been on duty the previous evening and take a proper statement from her. It would be less traumatic, he had decided, if he went to her house rather than summoning her to the station and he wanted to minimize the impact of the events of last night. She’d had a late night as well as a shock.
Lucy Ramshaw lived with her boyfriend on the Gains Park Estate. It was an area popular with the nurses because it was so close to the hospital – within walking distance. That meant they didn’t even have to battle over the scarce parking spaces and run the gauntlet of the vigilant and quite merciless parking attendants who slapped their fines and warnings on anyone, whether staff or patient. Lucy answered the door herself, looking very different to the harassed and upset nurse he had encountered the night before. She was wearing tight jeans and a low-cut blue sweater, which showed a neat, strong, slim figure, Paul Talith noted approvingly.
She recognized him at once and showed him into a small dining room, passing the sitting from where he could hear football on the television. He wished he could have been watching the Premier League game instead of working.
Lucy made them both a coffee and they sat around the small dining table.
‘I don’t think I’ve anything to add really,’ she said. ‘I mean I saw the woman but she didn’t seem to want anything. We were really busy what with the snow and everything. She just sat there. I mean she could have been waiting for a relative or someone,’ she finished lamely. ‘I didn’t realize she was holding a baby. It just looked like a blanket. If I’d known it was a baby obviously we would have dealt with her much quicker. But she just sat there,’ she repeated.
Talith knew she felt guilty. ‘It wouldn’t have made any difference, really.’
The nurse nodded. ‘I know that but I still feel bad that I didn’t at least go over to her and speak. To tell you the truth I was relieved she wasn’t one of the more demanding patients. Some of them can be quite difficult.’
Talith looked at the nurse. She had one of those open faces, honest and true. ‘It really wouldn’t have made any difference, I promise.’
She looked mollified at that.
‘Now then. At what time did you first notice her?’
‘Eight, I think.’ She looked uncertain. ‘I can’t be sure.’
‘And she was simply sitting quietly in the corner?’
‘Sort of crooning. She was looking down at her lap, tucking the blanket round her. She looked sort of…’ Lucy fumbled for the word and found it: ‘Serene. Contented.’
‘And when you spoke to her, later?’
‘She seemed startled, a bit shy.’ Lucy Ramshaw thought for a moment. ‘As though she didn’t want anyone to bother with her.’
‘What time was that?’
‘Nearer ten thirty. Things were beginning to quieten down and I wondered about her.’
‘OK,’ Talith said. ‘Did you notice anything else?’
‘Well – she was dressed fairly shabbily.’ Lucy frowned. ‘There was paint on her jeans.’
‘She said she’d been doing some decorating – well – more investigating a proposed loft conversion.’
Lucy nodded. ‘Right – well – she was one of those people who faded into the background. I think she would have sat there all night if I hadn’t gone over to her.’
‘And when you did?’
‘She was in a sort of trance. She appeared vague. When I spoke to her she seemed startled almost as though she didn’t quite know where she was.’
‘And she let you take the baby from her?’
Lucy looked distressed. ‘Not at first. I didn’t realize what it was.’ She closed her eyes against the creeping horror she had felt when she had realized that in the blanket was an infant who had not moved or cried in the entire time it had been in the department. ‘When I realized it was a baby I asked her to hand it to me and she did. Then I looked…’ She was stricken at the memory. ‘It was horrible. Those eye sockets. That blackened, papery skin. Awful. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. It felt so light in my arms. Then I saw what it was and – I almost dropped it.’ She went pale.
‘Then what?’
‘I must have shouted out. People came running.’ She fixed a pair of large blue-grey eyes on him. ‘I’m a bit hazy. It all happened so quickly. Someone must have taken the baby from me because I wasn’t holding it. That’s about all I remember.’
‘Thanks,’ Talith said. ‘I’m sorry to have to question you like this but I thought better here than in the station or at work.’
Lucy Ramshaw gave a deep sigh. ‘Thanks. I suppose there’ll be an enquiry at the hospital,’ she said gloomily. ‘Just what I need with my wedding coming up.’
‘That’s up to the hospital,’ Talith said. ‘Not us. I would imagine they’ll want to play it down rather than make a big issue of it.’
‘I hope so,’ Lucy said, with feeling. Then: ‘Do you know anything about the circumstances? Was the baby hers? She looked a bit old for that. A grandparent?’
‘We don’t know yet.’
‘Or did she just find it?’
‘I can’t really discuss the case with you,’ Talith said kindly, ‘but don’t worry about it. No one blames you for anything. Anything at all. You acted just fine.’
