“No, I’m terribly sorry. We were only able to call on one locum at such short notice. You’ll appreciate we still have a number of patients to see. It would be awful to let so many people down. Colin had to go in early to arrange some more cover and he will be working today.”
Tamara noticed Janssen looking at her. He seemed surprised Colin had gone into work. So was she. “No matter. We can catch him later at the surgery.”
“I’m afraid he will be very busy,” Marie Bettany said with a shake of the head.
“I’m sure he’ll make time for us,” she replied, accepting the tea, served in a floral china cup with a saucer. “We really wanted to speak with both of you regarding this, Dr Bettany, so please forgive me for being blunt with my next question.” The comment made Marie sit up and take note. Her expression suddenly changed, revealing the depth of the pain she felt, presumably over the past couple of days. “Were you aware that your daughter was pregnant?”
The question came like a hammer blow. That was intentional. Marie’s face dropped. Her mouth fell open. “Pregnant?” Her response seemed to be one of genuine surprise. “I… don’t…” She was stammering, failing to complete the sentence. “How can that be? I mean, obviously I understand the biology but…”
“Was Holly in a relationship with anyone that you know of?” Tamara asked. She knew Janssen had already asked the question on his previous visit and Colin was quiet emphatic about there being no boyfriend but he wasn’t here. Marie looked up, meeting her eye before glancing to Janssen. “It is important, Marie.” She switched to addressing her by her first name seeking to build a rapport.
“There was one boy.” Marie’s reply was hushed almost as if fearful of being overheard. “One of the McCall boys. The youngest, Mark, I think his name is.”
“Why didn’t you mention this to my officers on Saturday?” Marie shot her a look. She was uncomfortable. That was obvious. Was she betraying a confidence?
“Colin didn’t approve. When he found out, he did what he would always do when Holly befriended a boy.”
“Which was?” she asked, keen to hear.
“Put a stop to it, of course!” Marie shook her head, a sign of her disapproval of her husband’s actions. “He thought Mark wasn’t good enough for Holly. Don’t get me wrong, I shared his concerns what with the family’s reputation and everything.”
“There’s more, though, Marie. Isn’t there?” She framed it as a question but in reality, it was more of a statement she sought confirmation of. Marie nodded. “Please, go on.”
“No one was ever good enough for Holly. It didn’t matter who she chose. She could have brought home one of the royals from Sandringham and he wouldn’t have made the grade for Colin. He stifled her at every turn.”
“So, your husband put an end to the relationship?” There was movement behind Marie. The door to the sitting room wobbled slightly, too much to have been the result of a draught from an open window.
“With good reason, so it would seem!” Marie snapped, her frustration coming to the fore. She immediately apologised to both detectives. She waved it away.
“I know you covered this before but neither you nor your husband knew where Holly was intending to go on Friday night. Is that correct? Nothing has come to mind since you spoke with my officers this past Saturday?”
Marie shook her head. “No. We both thought she was going to Norwich. As we said.”
“And you didn’t think to check that she got there okay?”
“I don’t like what I think you are insinuating. We are caring parents and Holly is… was… seventeen.”
The door moved again, drawing her attention. No one else seemed aware of it. “I see. You didn’t know where she would be. May I borrow your lavatory?” Marie was thrown by the sudden shift but gathered herself, offering directions. Janssen looked at her as she stood up, puzzled. “I won’t be a moment.”
Chapter Seventeen
Tamara swiftly crossed the room and stepped out into the hall just in time to see the back of a young girl disappearing into the kitchen. She set off after her, passing the door to the cloakroom and entering the kitchen. The girl was already seated on an occasional sofa overlooking the neatly manicured gardens. She absently flicked through a magazine, a vain attempt at indicating she’d been there for some time.
“Hello. My name’s Tamara. I’m a police officer,” she said, approaching the girl. She must have been twelve, thirteen at the most. Her long brown hair was pulled back into a pony tail, a tidy fringe fell across her forehead to just above her eyebrows. “You must be Madeleine.” The girl glanced up, offering a brief smile.
“People call me Maddie. I don’t like Madeleine.”
“In that case, please accept my apologies. May I sit down?” Maddie indicated that would be okay and she took a seat alongside her.
“Are you going to find out who hurt Holly?”
“I am, yes.” The girl had a bone structure similar to Holly’s, albeit she was fuller in face, possibly due to being younger and still with some height to reach but when she did, the two of them would be a spit of one another. “Did you hear what we were talking about in there?” She indicated back towards the sitting room with her eyes. Maddie nodded but said nothing, casting her eyes down. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”
“They don’t tell me anything, Mummy and Daddy.” Tamara tried not to judge her reaction as childish.
“They are probably looking out for you.”
The girl’s expression conveyed disdain for that point of view. “Holly was the only one who looked out for me. She wouldn’t back down from anyone!”
“Did your sister talk to you about Mark at all?”
Maddie shrugged. “A little. She liked him a lot. He was nice. To her and to me,
