‘Was she forced into it?’ said Debbie.
‘He says it was her idea. He pointed her in the direction of the information, and she came to him a few weeks afterwards and said she wanted to take the pledge.’ She frowned. ‘However, what is noticeable is that none of the template pledges online or provided by Duncan to Sophie included anything about being betrothed to one particular person. She added in the wording that she would remain chaste until she married Josh Hamilton.’
‘Interesting,’ said Sharp. ‘We’ll need to speak to the families again, to see what gave her that idea.’
Kay jotted down a reminder in her notebook. ‘Will do.’
‘I think it’s wrong they can marry off their daughter like that,’ said Carys, shaking her head. ‘That sort of thing usually happens in other cultures, for goodness’ sake. That’s why the council spends so much money trying to stop arranged marriages and educate communities around here.’
‘Well, it’s a bit different from those scenarios,’ said Debbie. ‘For a start, at sixteen Sophie was already old enough to marry whoever she wanted, as long as she had her parents’ consent.’
‘Besides,’ said Kay, ‘it’s worked well for the English aristocracy for years. All those upper-class families, marrying off their kids to protect their wealth and standing in society. Keeps the lineage going, doesn’t it?’
Sharp wrinkled his nose. ‘You’ll be telling me you’re a Jane Austen fan next. All that “Ooh, Mr Darcy” rubbish.’
Kay burst out laughing. ‘Not me.’
‘It is a bit creepy though, isn’t it?’ said Debbie.
Kay turned in her seat as Barnes and Gavin hurried into the incident room and apologised to Sharp for their lateness. She noticed the air of excitement between them.
‘What happened?’ said Sharp.
‘Sophie Whittaker was pregnant,’ said Gavin.
A stunned hush filled the room.
‘Pregnant?’ said Kay eventually. ‘Is Eva sure?’
‘Apparently, Sophie confided in her the day of the ceremony.’
‘Is Peter the father?’ said Sharp.
‘Eva said Sophie didn’t tell her who the father was,’ said Barnes. ‘They were outside, next to the conservatory when Sophie told her and she clammed up when the gardener appeared. Eva didn’t get the chance to ask her about it again because everyone was so busy getting ready for the ceremony.’
‘Do you think she’s telling the truth about not knowing who the father is? Perhaps to protect that person?’
‘We wondered that,’ said Gavin. ‘She did seem to be holding something back from us.’
‘I’ll get on to Lucas and ask him if he can hurry up with the full post mortem report so we can confirm it,’ said Kay. ‘We’ll obviously ask for a paternity test as well, in the circumstances.’
‘Christ,’ said Sharp, and rubbed his chin. ‘What a mess. Did Eva give any indication as to Sophie’s state of mind when she told her?’
‘Frightened,’ said Gavin. He flipped open his notebook. ‘Her exact words to Eva were, “they’ll kill me if they find out. What am I going to do?” – Eva said she managed to calm Sophie down, and they’d agreed to talk again the day after the ceremony once they could get some time to themselves.’
‘Did Sophie tell anyone else?’ asked Carys.
‘She told Eva that she hadn’t,’ said Gavin, ‘and Eva says she hadn’t told anyone else either – she was still in shock.’
‘How did Sophie find out?’ said Kay. ‘Missed period, or did she do a pregnancy test?’
‘Both. Missed her period four weeks ago,’ said Barnes. ‘Eva said Sophie told her she’d eventually bought a pregnancy test in a chemist in the Fremlin Walk shopping centre, and used the public toilets there to do the test. She found out the day before she told Eva.’
Sharp perched on top of the desk nearest the whiteboard. ‘Well, we’re not going to have the post mortem results for a while yet, even if you do chase up Lucas this afternoon,’ he said. ‘Not after that bus crash on the M20 over the weekend. In the meantime, we’ll follow this up with Peter Evans. Find out if he knew his girlfriend was pregnant.’
‘You think he panicked, guv?’ said Barnes.
‘Maybe,’ said Sharp.
‘I’ll phone the duty solicitor and ask him to get here as soon as possible,’ said Kay.
‘Thanks,’ said Sharp. ‘I’ll clear my diary for the rest of tomorrow as well. Let’s see what transpires out of this interview, and go from there.’
‘I’ll continue to research this purity pledge business, too,’ said Kay. ‘And I want to find out more about Duncan Saddleworth’s background. I got the impression he wasn’t telling me something, so I’ll look into where he was based before he came to Maidstone, and whether anything cropped up while he was at university in Oxford.’
‘Right.’ Sharp recapped the pen and tossed it onto the shelf under the whiteboard. ‘We’ll have another briefing at eight o’clock tomorrow morning. Barnes, let’s go have a chat with Peter Evans and see what he’s got to say for himself.’
Sixteen
Kay sipped her wine as Adam stood at the stove, stirring a Thai green curry that had been simmering away for twenty minutes.
He seemed tired, reticent. Usually, by now he’d have asked her about her day even though he knew she wouldn’t be able to tell him too much about the current investigation. Instead, he appeared to be preoccupied, lost in thought.
‘Everything okay?’
His shoulders sagged and he put the spoon to one side before turning down the heat on the stove and moving to where she sat.
‘I went up to the cemetery this afternoon. I took some fresh flowers – the heat over the past few days had withered the ones we left last time.’
She reached out for his hand and gave his fingers a squeeze. ‘If you’d waited until the weekend, I might’ve been able come with you. You didn’t have to go alone.’
‘I know. I happened
