Dr Board ignored his colleague. ‘Who would have thought the old bag had so much wind in her?’ be murmured, and finished his coffee. As Dr Mayfield was led out by the Vice Principal, Dr Board turned to Professor Baxendale.
‘I must apologize for Mayfield,’ he said, ‘I’m afraid this Joint Honours degree has been too much for him and to tell the truth I have always found him to be fundamentally unsound. A case of dementia post Cox I daresay.’
Inspector Flint drove back to the Police Station in a state bordering on lunacy.
‘We’ve been made to look idiots,’ he snarled at Sergeant Yates. ‘You saw them laughing. You heard the bastards.’ He was particularly incensed by the press photographers who he asked him to pose with the limp remnants of the plastic doll. ‘We’ve been held up to public ridicule. Well, my God, somebody’s going to pay.’
He hurled himself out of the car and lunged down the passage to the Interview Room. ‘Right, Wilt,’ he shouted, ‘you’ve had your little joke and a bloody nasty one it was too. So now, we’re going to forget the niceties and get to the bottom of this business.’
Wilt studied the torn piece of plastic. ‘Looks better like that if you ask me,’ he said. ‘More natural if you know what I mean.’
‘You’ll look bloody natural if you don’t answer my questions,’ yelled the Inspector. ‘Where is she?’
‘Where is who?’ said Wilt.
‘Mrs Fucking Wilt. Where did you put her?’
‘I’ve told you. I didn’t put her anywhere.’
‘And I’m telling you you did. Now either you’re going to tell me where she is or I’m going to beat it out of you.’
‘You can beat me up if you like,’ said Wilt, ‘but it won’t do you any good.’
‘Oh yes it will,’ said the Inspector and took off his coat.
‘I demand to see a solicitor,’ said Wilt hastily.
Inspector Flint put his jacket on again. ‘I’ve been waiting to hear you say that. Henry Wilt, I hereby charge you with…’
Chapter 16
In the reeds Eva greeted the dawn of another day by blowing up the airbed for the tenth time. It had either sprung a leak or developed a fault in the valve. Whichever it was it had made her progress exceedingly slow and had finally forced her to take refuge in the reeds away from the channel. Here, wedged between the stems, she had spent a muddy night getting off the airbed to blow it up and getting back on to try and wash off the sludge and weeds that had adhered to her when she got off. In the process she had lost the bottom half of her lemon loungers and had torn the top half so that by dawn she resembled less the obsessive housewife of 34 Parkview Avenue than a finalist in the heavyweight division of the Ladies Mudwrestling Championship. In addition she was exceedingly cold and was glad when the sun came up bringing with it the promise of a hot summer day. All she had to do now was to find her way to land or open water and get someone to…At this point Eva became aware that her appearance was likely to cause some embarrassment. The lemon loungers had been sufficiently outre to make her avoid walking down the street when she had had them on; with them largely off, she certainly didn’t want to be seen in public. On the other hand she couldn’t stay in the reeds all day. She plunged on, dragging the airbed behind her, half swimming but for the most part trudging through mud and water. At last she came out of the reeds into open water and found herself looking across a stretch to a house, a garden that sloped down to the water’s edge, and a church. It seemed a long way across but there was no boat in sight. She would have to swim across and just hope that the woman who lived there
