‘Not much. They seem dedicated.’
‘Have you seen the leaflets they’re putting out?’
She nodded again but she looked confused by the shift in conversation. ‘Sorry, do you think they’re behind this?’
‘It’s far too early to speculate,’ he said, as he brought out his phone and opened the photograph of the black-and-white flier Josh Ainsworth had been sent. ‘Do you recognise this?’
Ruth peered at the screen and then sat back in her chair. ‘Not that one exactly but I’ve been sent similar ones. I didn’t know Josh was getting them too.’
‘He never mentioned it?’ She shook her head. ‘We found a large collection. It seems like he was saving them for some reason. Did he ever complain about being bothered by the protestors?’
‘No. We all try not to interact with them, to be honest with you. It’s not worth the hassle, is it?’ Ruth thrust out her bottom lip for a second. ‘They can be quite verbal when you’re coming and going though. I’d be happier if they were moved on but they have the right to be there, I suppose. Not much we can do about it.’
Zigic found the Paggetts’ latest mugshots and showed them to Ruth Garner. ‘These two? Are they verbal?’
‘I couldn’t tell you who’s doing the shouting,’ she said, still looking at the images. ‘I keep my head down and get past them as quick as I can.’
‘Have these two ever approached you beyond work?’
‘They’ve never come up to me, but I’ve seen them in the village pub a few times.’ She pushed his phone back across the table. ‘I was a bit nervous when I saw them, in case they started having a go at me while I was with my family. But they were no trouble to be fair to them, they just sat there and ate their dinner.’ She tapped the table. ‘Actually, now that you mention it, I did see them near my house awhile ago too. There’s a public footpath at the end of my garden – it’s a lovely walk, I see quite a lot of hikers and walking groups going by at the weekends – but it was a bit of a shock seeing them there.’ Ruth frowned. ‘Should I be worried about them?’
‘You should be vigilant, Ms Garner, but I don’t think you need to be particularly concerned about them.’ Zigic slipped his phone away again, thinking of the Paggetts hanging around outside Josh Ainsworth’s house, walking along the back of Ruth Garner’s place. Tried to think of an innocent explanation but couldn’t come up with one he even half believed.
‘How did Josh get along with the other members of staff?’ Ferreira asked.
‘Fine.’ Ruth Garner shrugged, a little too casually. ‘We don’t have a huge amount of contact with the other staff in the medical bay. Just the guards when they bring someone in for treatment. We’re quite self-contained.’
‘But Josh knew enough about the wider staff to know when they were abusing inmates,’ Ferreira reminded her. ‘Did you know what was happening, Ruth?’
Ruth let out a murmur pitched somewhere between confusion and discomfort. A trapped animal sound.
‘You were working here then,’ Ferreira said. ‘You must have known.’
Zigic could see the thoughts passing behind Ruth’s eyes. Was she remembering events she didn’t want to discuss or trying to decide if they were important enough to defy her apparently iron-clad NDA?
‘Dr Sutherland told us things got very nasty,’ Ferreira said, dropping her voice, so Ruth would understand that she knew the risks of speaking openly, too.
‘It was a long time ago.’ Ruth toyed nervously with her ID badge. ‘Mr Hammond took a zero tolerance approach when he arrived. He sacked most of the guards, brought in more women to do the job. This isn’t the same place it was back then. The women are safe now.’
Ferreira straightened in the chair next to him. ‘Hammond sacked these guards based on your testimony?’
‘My testimony, yes,’ she said slowly. ‘And Josh’s and Patrick’s, we’d all seen things happening we knew were wrong. We had to speak out.’
‘And now Josh is dead,’ Ferreira said and let the weight of the words hang for a few seconds. ‘If Josh’s death has anything to do with those reports, then you could be in danger as well. You need to tell us who the guards were.’
‘I can’t,’ she said, her voice cracking.
Ferreira leaned across the table. ‘Josh was your friend,’ she said fiercely. ‘You owe it to him to help us.’
Under the table Zigic nudged her leg, signalling for her to rein it in.
‘He died a horrible death.’
Again he nudged her but all she did was shift away from him slightly in her chair.
‘I can’t give you the names,’ Ruth said, virtually mouthing the words. ‘Please, I can’t afford to lose this job.’
‘What can you give us?’ Ferreira asked, desperation edging into her voice. ‘We need to speak to these people.’
The door opened and Field came in. A palpable relief washed over Ruth Garner, her face lifting immediately, her shoulders easing down from around her ears.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said, with a regretful little shrug and a show of her upturned palms. ‘I didn’t see Josh outside of work. He has a brother, maybe he could tell you more about his social life.’
Ferreira snapped her notebook closed and Zigic stood up.
‘Well, thank you anyway,’ he said tersely. ‘We appreciate your taking time out to talk to us.’
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
A security guard escorted them out to their car and Zigic half listened as Ferreira tried to engage him in conversation, getting nowhere. The man had a dull, dead-eyed look, and a neck as thick as Zigic’s thigh. Seemed the type who would take his orders without deviation.
‘Well, it’s immaterial now, isn’t it?’ Ferreira said, with grim satisfaction, when they were back in their car.
‘What is?’
‘Whether Josh Ainsworth was the anonymous whistle-blower from the film or not. We know he was informing the governor about his colleagues’ behaviour, and my guess is they knew he was the
