‘I think you can tell me the rest later.’ The Chief Superintendent looked at Diane Fry, who was standing by impatiently. ‘ J his woman they found, the suicide ra.se
But Hitchens hadn’t finished. ‘They haven’t managed to get the tanker out of the ditch yet,’ he said. ‘There’s milk all over the road. Fro/en solid it is, too, like a giant slab of vanilla ice cream. I’m told it looks delicious.’
Fry stirred restlessly at the Dl’s interruption. ‘You mean Marie Tennent, the woman on Irontongue Hill, sir.’
‘Yes,’ said Jepson. ‘What can you tell us about that, Frv?’
‘It’s an unusual way to choose to commit suicide,’ she said. ‘But perfectly effective, if that’s what she did. There was no way she would have survived the night. She wasn’t dressed for it, for a start. And she seems to have made no attempt to save herself. As far as we can tell, she simplv lay down and f’ro/e to death.’
‘It wouldn’t be my choice of a way to die,’ said Jepson, as if he had already spent some time weighing up his personal options.
‘Marie Tennent was aged twentv-cight. She had been working
o ^ o o
as a shop assistant until the babv was near. Her GP confirms she was in a nervous state about the baby, even before it was born. Who knows what goes through the mind of a woman in that state? Maybe she found the responsibility too much and couldn’t face it.’
‘She didn’t leave a note?’
‘No.’
151
‘That’s a problem. The coroner won’t bring in a suicide verdict without a note, or at least some conclusive evidence from her family or close friends about her state of mind. And this Marie Ferment has no husband, I suppose?’
Fry didn’t even bother to answer that question. ‘The main problem is the baby,’ she said. ‘I’m afraid we’re going to find it dead somewhere. The question then will be whether it died before the mother or after.’
Jepson sighed. ‘Oh, that’s terrible.’
‘No neighbours came forward to report Marie missing. She has no family locally, but we’ve traced her mother in Scotland. She says the baby’s name is Chloe, and she’s only six weeks old.’
The baby’s fate would be causing concern everywhere. In the morning the newspapers would be asking: ‘Have you seen Baby Chloe?’ The publicity would be their best hope of an earl}1 result.
‘And there’s no husband?’ said Jepson. ‘No fiance? A boyfriend maybe?’
‘Not that we can find so far.’
‘There must be someone, Fry. I mean, nine months ago, there must have been someone.’
Fry shrugged. ‘It was probably another case of a Saturday night out in Sheffield.’
T beg your pardon?’
‘That’s what some women tell the Child Support Agency when they ask who the father was. They saw they don’t know, that it was just a night out in Sheffield.’
‘Jesus. A Saturday night out in Sheffield? In my day, all that meant was that you woke up next morning with a hangover. Or a bit of vomit on your shoes, at worst.’
‘With respect, sir, you were a man.’
Jepson smiled tiredly. ‘So I was, Fry, so 1 was. You must have been looking at my medical records. But don’t they have a “morning-after” pill these days?’
Fry laughed. ‘Yes. And they’ve had condoms for decades, and lots of other methods of contraception too. I suppose I don’t have to mention that the man could have exercised some responsibility …”
152
‘All right, all right. Did Social Services have no reports of any potential problems with this woman?’ ‘None/ ‘And we weren’t involved anywhere along the line? There
v O
was no information received (from neighbours worried about her welfare? No anonymous tip-offs about babies that had suddenly gone missing? Please tell me there weren’t any reports that we never got round to following up.’
‘I haven’t checked yet, sir.’
‘Getter do it sooner rather than later, Fry, before someone goes to the press with that as well. Two dead bodies are enough. That’s all we need right now.’
‘The patient in the ambulance died, by the way,’ said Hitchens.
The Chief Superintendent was so still and pale for a few moments that Diane Fry began to wonder whether she ought to start cardiac massage. Then Jcpson stirred. When he spoke, it was clear he had decided to ignore the ambulance.
‘Thank God we got rid of the Canadian woman. The last
o
thing we need is that sort of distraction.’
o
‘But Marie Tennent,’ said Fry, ‘we need to find out who she left the baby with. And how do we know for certain she left it with anyone?’
v
