Maeve Winston looked across at her daughter, managed a weak smile. ‘I hope not, scared us half to death when you told us where you were.’
‘I can appreciate that the situation in the house is not the best,’ Larry said. ‘However, we need to follow through on the events at the cemetery.’
‘I told you all I know,’ Rose said. She looked as though she had been crying, lecturing from her parents most likely the cause. Not that it would help in the long run, Wendy knew, although it might make her think twice.
‘We’ve met with Brad Robinson,’ Larry said. ‘He’s not been able to help us much more. We need to see if you can help with anything, no matter how insignificant.’
‘That name is not to be mentioned in this house,’ Winston said, a man quick to anger.
‘Unfortunately, it’s a murder enquiry,’ Wendy said. ‘We must conduct our investigation, regardless of your dislike of the young man.’
‘How is he?’ Rose asked timidly.
‘He’s fine, sorry for what happened.’
‘Dislike is not the word I would use,’ Winston said. ‘Not only was he with our daughter late at night, but he was also planning something that we disapprove of, especially at Rose’s age.’
‘I don’t think we should talk about this in front of Inspector Hill and Sergeant Gladstone,’ Maeve Winston said.
‘Don’t worry about us,’ Wendy said. ‘I’ve been there, know the anguish that you both feel, Rose’s awkwardness. However, it doesn’t alter the fact that she and Brad Robinson probably saw the murderer.’
‘We only saw a man walk by. I can’t tell you any more than that,’ Rose said.
‘Let’s focus on him,’ Larry said as he sipped his tea and helped himself to a biscuit from the tray in front of him.
‘Do we need to go over this now? Rose is still traumatised,’ Tim Winston said.
‘You gave the two of them a ride back last night. Did they say anything to you?’
‘Neither of them spoke, which was as well. I was relieved to have Rose in the car, and as for the other one, it seemed the right thing to do; not sure why as he didn’t live far away.’
‘I understand that you knew his mother?’
‘We both did, Maeve and me, went to school with her, friends once.’
‘So you know of the family?’
‘Trouble, all of them,’ Maeve Winston said.
‘I’d agree that his mother hasn’t fared well,’ Wendy said, ‘and the eldest children have fallen on hard times, but the youngest hasn’t been in any trouble, nor has his mother.’
‘We hoped for better for our daughter,’ Tim Winston said.
Judging by the Winstons’ apparent affluence, Wendy didn’t understand why their daughter was at the same school as Brad. The area had more than enough schools for those who could pay, and most parents would seek an alternative to government-funded education if they could.
‘That can be debated at another time, Mr Winston,’ Larry said. ‘What’s important is what Rose can tell us. Now, Rose, you’re walking through the cemetery, not looking around, graves to each side, and a man walks by.’
‘We were almost out of the park, and we could see the bus stop on the other side of the road. He was wearing a hat, the collar on his jacket turned up.’
‘Jacket or overcoat?’ Wendy asked.
‘I can’t be sure. He wasn’t much taller than Brad; I can remember that.’
‘Anything distinctive about the clothing?’
‘Not that I could tell. I wasn’t looking that closely, and it was only afterwards, when you were asking, that we remembered him.’
‘Anything else?’ Wendy said.
‘He may have limped.’
‘May or did?’
‘Did. He nearly bumped into Brad, although he didn’t say anything.’
‘Does it help?’ Tim Winston asked.
‘It could,’ Larry said.
‘Is your day busy at school today?’ Wendy asked Rose.
‘After two o’clock I should be free, although I’ve got homework to do later. Why?’
‘We need you and Brad down at the cemetery. We need to recreate that evening, for the two of you to walk through with us, no shyness on your part, none on his.’
‘I can’t allow this,’ Tim Winston said. ‘Rose has suffered from this. I don’t think she wants to be reminded.’
Rose looked over at her father. ‘It’s fine, Dad. I can handle it, if it helps.’
The love of a daughter for her father, a father for his daughter, apparent in how they spoke to each other, how they caught each other’s gaze.
‘Very well. Either Maeve or I will need to be there,’ Winston said.
‘Make it your wife,’ Larry said. ‘We need Rose to act naturally, exactly as she did last night. We don’t want you there intimidating her.’
‘I can’t say I’m happy about this, but we’ll go along with you.’
‘We still don’t know who the dead woman was, no identification apart from a Buddhist chant tattooed on her leg. All indications are that she was there with the man voluntarily, no sign of a struggle. Which means one of two things: she was a local, and the man is possibly a local as well, or, and the most unlikely, the murder was an assassination, although why she was with her killer is unclear. So what we have is a local who has killed once, and may well kill again, and could be nervous that he was seen, or a professional who doesn’t want loose ends.’
‘Is that a convoluted way of saying that our daughter is a possible target?’
‘We don’t think there is any reason for concern. Needless to say, we’re anxious to wrap this case up as soon as possible.’
***
Kate Baxter worked late the first day she had been tasked with finding out what she could about the clothes and the footwear the dead woman had been wearing. Constable Ecclestone, who had been assigned to
