has been that to make sure that the actual things you’ve ordered actually arrive, and then that the actual things you’ve asked to be done with them are actually done, is more than a full-time job. While I was on the phone trying to sort it out with a gormless female at the other end, I heard the doorbell ring and while I was still talking a ratty-faced man in a gray suit was shown into the room. I gestured toward him while trying to get some sense out of, or, to be more accurate,
He also looked at the note and I heard him swear under his breath and he leaned down very close to it as if he were desperately short-sighted. Finally he gave a grunt and looked up.
“Have you got the envelope?”
“What? Er, no, well, I think I chucked it in the bin.”
“Where?”
“It’s in the cupboard there, by the sink.”
I couldn’t believe it, but he went and pulled the bin out, lifted the top off, and started rummaging in it like some down-and-out.
“I’m sorry. I think there may be tea and coffee grounds in there as well.”
He lifted out a scrunched-up envelope that looked a bit damp and brown and generally worse for wear. He held it very delicately, by a corner, and put it on the side near the letter.
“Excuse me a moment,” he said, and took out a mobile phone.
I retreated across the room and put the kettle on. I heard fragments of his conversation: “Yes, definitely” and “I think so” and “I haven’t talked to her yet.” Apparently from then on it was bad news for Sergeant Aldham. Because his side of the conversation turned into squeaked questions: “What?” “Are you sure?” At last he gave a resigned sigh and replaced the phone in his pocket. His face was red and he was breathing heavily as if he had just jogged here. He was silent for a while.
“Two other detectives are on their way,” he said in a sullen tone. “They would like to interview you, if that’s possible.” Aldham was mumbling now. He looked miserable, like a dog that had been kicked.
“What on earth’s going on?” I protested. “It’s just a silly note. It’s just like an obscene phone call, isn’t it?”
Aldham perked up for a moment.
“Have you had any phone calls?”
“You mean obscene ones? No.”
“Can you think of anything that might be connected with this letter? Other letters maybe, or someone you know-anything?”
“No, of course not. Unless it’s some stupid joke.”
“Can you think of anyone who might play a joke like that?”
I was nonplussed.
“I’m not very good on jokes,” I said. “That’s more Clive’s subject.”
“Clive?”
“My husband.”
“Is he at work?”
“Yes.”
Things were a bit sticky after that. Aldham hung around looking embarrassed. I tried to get on with things, but his doleful, drab face put me off. It was quite a relief when the front doorbell rang, not much more than a quarter of an hour after Aldham had first arrived. I went to answer it and Aldham trailed me in a slightly absurd way. This time the front door was positively crowded. At the front were two slightly more upscale-looking detectives and with them were a couple more uniformed officers and two other people, one of them a woman, coming up the steps behind them. In the street I could see two police cars and two other cars with them, all double-parked.
The older man was balding, with gray hair cut very short.
“Mrs. Hintlesham?” he said with a reassuring smile. “I’m Detective Chief Inspector Links. Stuart Links.” We shook hands. “And this is Detective Inspector Stadler.”
Stadler didn’t look like a policeman at all. He looked more like a politician, or one of Clive’s colleagues. He had a smartly cut dark suit, a discreet tie. He was rather striking looking, in a way. A bit Spanish, maybe. He was tall, well built, and had very dark hair that was almost black, combed back. He shook hands as well. He had a curious soft handshake that pressed my palm with his fingers as if he were finding out something about it. It was rather disconcerting. At any minute, I thought, he would lift my fingers to his lips and kiss them slowly.
“There are so many of you,” I said.
“Sorry about that,” Links said. “This is Dr. Marsh. He’s from our forensic department. And he’s brought his assistant, Gill erm…”
“Gill Carlson,” said the woman gamely. She was a pretty little thing, in an un-made-up sort of way. Dr. Marsh looked like a scruffy schoolteacher.
“You’re probably wondering why there are so many of us,” Links said.
“Well…”
“A letter of the kind that you have received is a kind of threat. We need to assess its seriousness. In the meantime we have to ensure your safety.”
Links had been looking me in the eyes. But with that he slowly shifted his gaze toward Aldham, who began to look even more abjectly embarrassed.
“We’ll take over from here,” he said quietly.
Aldham mumbled something to me. I think it was good-bye. Then he eased his way past us and was gone.
“Why did he come?” I asked.
“A misunderstanding,” said Links. He looked around. “You’ve recently moved in?”
“In May.”
“We’ll try not to cause too much disturbance, Mrs. Hintlesham. I’d like to see the letter and then I’d like to ask you one or two questions and that will be all, I hope.”
“Downstairs,” I said faintly.
“Beautiful house,” he said.
“It will be,” I said.
“Must have cost a bit.”
“Well…” I said as a way of not getting into a discussion about property values.
And so, a few minutes later, I found myself sitting at my table with two detectives in the middle of a half- completed kitchen. For reasons that I didn’t remotely understand, the two uniformed officers were wandering around the house and garden. The letter had been read by everybody and then lifted with tweezers and inserted into a transparent plastic folder. The crumpled, sodden envelope was put into a small polyethylene bag. There was one item for each scientist, and they left clutching them.
Before speaking to me the two men whispered to each other, which I found mildly irritating. Then they turned to me.
“Look,” I said. “Can I just say that I don’t think there’s anything remotely I can tell you? It’s a horrible silly letter and that’s all there is to it. I don’t know anything about it.”
The two men looked thoughtful.
“Yes,” said Links. “We’ll just ask a couple of routine questions. You’ve just moved into this house. Did you live in this area before?”
“No. We lived miles away, south of the river, in Battersea.”
“Do you know a school called Laurier?”
“Why?”
Links sat back.
“One of the things we try to do is to establish connections with other threats that may have been made. Do you have children?”
“Yes. Three boys.”
“Laurier is a state primary school just off Kingsland Road in Hackney. Is it possible you ever considered it for
