‘Did she recognise you?’
‘She almost wet herself.’
‘When did you realise who she was?’
‘Just after she left the shop. She was off like a bride’s nightie. Jesus wept, that was the Jenkins woman, I thought. I turned to follow her, and I was almost through the door when the young bloke came round the counter and put his hand on my arm and asked to look in my plastic carrier.’
‘Too quick,’ said Diamond, who knew the law on shoplifting. ‘He should have waited for you to step out of the shop.’
She glared at him. ‘Listen, can you get it in your head that I wasn’t working? I told you, I was there to sell stuff. Told him, too. Showed him the cards in my bag. He got a bit narked and so did I and by the time I got outside, she was gone.’
Diamond sighed.
Ada said, ‘Look, she could have gone ten different ways from there. I had no chance of finding her. No chance.’
‘What time was this?’
‘Around four, four-fifteen. I came straight here.’
‘You’re positive it was the same woman who claimed to be Rose’s stepsister?’
‘No question. Look, I may have form, Mr Diamond, but I’m not thick.’
She seemed to expect some show of support here, so he said, ‘No way.’
‘She’s supposed to come from Twickenham, so what’s she doing in Bath?’
He reached for a notepad. ‘Let’s have a description, Ada. Everything you can remember.’
She closed her eyes and tried to summon up the image of the woman. ‘Same height as me, more or less. Dark brown hair. Straight. The last time I saw her, she was wearing a ponytail. This time it was pinned up, off the neck, like some ballet-dancer, except she was a couple of sizes too heavy for the Sugar Plum Fairy. I’d say she’s a sixteen, easy.’ She opened her eyes again. ‘Big bazoomas, if you’re interested.’
If he was, he didn’t declare it. ‘Age?’
‘Pushing thirty. Pretty good skin, what you could see of it. She lashes on the make-up.’
‘Eyes?’
‘Brown. With eye-liner, mascara, the works.’
‘And her other features? Anything special about them?’
‘You want your money’s worth, don’t you? Straight nose, thinnish lips, nicely shaped. Now you want to know about her clothes? She was in a cherry-red coat with black collar, black frogging and buttons. A pale blue chiffon scarf. Black tights or stockings and black shoes with heels. Her bag was patent leather, not the one she had when I saw her in the Social Security.’
As descriptions go, it was top bracket. He thanked her.
‘So what are you going to do about it?’ she demanded to know when he had finished writing it down.
‘Find her.’
She regarded him with suspicion. ‘You wouldn’t farm this out to whatsisname with the tash?’
‘DCI Wigfull? He’s busy enough.’ He got up from behind the table, signifying that the session was over.
But Ada lingered. ‘When you find her, you’ll put her through the grinder, won’t you? She’s evil. I don’t like to think what’s happened to Rose by now.’
‘We’ve appealed for help,’ he told her. ‘Rose will be all over the front page in the paper tomorrow.’
‘God, I hope not,’ she said, misunderstanding him.
After Ada had gone, muttering and shaking her head like a latter-day Cassandra, Diamond commented to Julie, ‘Don’t ask what we’re going to do about this. It’s a terrific description, but next time the Jenkins woman goes out she’s not going to be in cherry-red, she’ll have her hair down and be wearing glasses and a blue trouser suit. She won’t go within a mile of Rossiter’s.’
‘Because Ada recognised her?’
He nodded.
Julie said, ‘It’s a definite sighting – and in Bath.’ She hesitated over the question that came next. ‘Do you think Rose could still be in the city?’
‘Hiding up?’ He pressed his mouth tight. His eyes took on a glazed, distracted look.
Julie waited, expecting some insight.
Eventually he sighed and said, ‘Rossiter’s. I haven’t been in there since they closed the restaurant. Steph and I used to go for a coffee sometimes, of a Saturday morning, up on the top floor. Self-service it was. You carried your tray to a deep settee and sat there as long as you liked, eating the finest wholemeal scones I’ve tasted in the whole of my life.’
She was lost for a comment. This vignette of the Diamond domestic routine had no bearing on the case that she could see.
‘That was bad news, Julie,’ he said.
She looked at him inquiringly.
‘When Rossiter’s restaurant closed.’
It seemed to signify the end of his interest in Ada’s sensational encounter. Maybe it was his way of telling her not to expect insights.
They returned to the incident room to find that a message had been left by Jim Marsh, the SOCO. He had collected no less than seventeen hairs from Imogen Starr’s Citroen Special and the lab were in process of examining them. There was no indication when a result might be forthcoming.
‘Seventeen sounds like a long wait to me.’
‘Most of them belong to Imogen, I expect,’ said Julie.
‘One of Rose’s would be enough for me.’
He ambled over to Keith Halliwell and asked what else had been achieved.
‘You asked us to check on the neighbouring farm at Tormarton, the one that wanted to swallow up Gladstone’s little patch.’
‘Yes.’
‘It’s owned by a company called Hollandia Holdings Limited.’
‘We know that already, Keith.’
‘We checked with Companies’ House and got a list of the directors. It’s here somewhere.’ He sorted through the papers on his desk. ‘Four names.’
Diamond looked at them and frowned.
Patrick van Beek (MD)
Aart Vroemen (CS)
Luc Beurskens
Marko Stigter
‘Dutch?’
‘Well, it is called Hollandia-’
‘Yes. And we’re all in the Common Market and the Dutch know a lot about farming. What are the letters after the names? Is van Beek a doctor?’
‘Managing director.’
‘Ah.’ He grinned self-consciously. Abbreviations were his blind spot and everyone knew it. ‘Do we have their addresses?’
‘Just the company address, a Bristol PO number. PO – short for Post Office,’ said Halliwell.
The grin faded. ‘Thank you, Keith.’ He turned to Julie. ‘What’s your opinion, then?’
She said, ‘They’re not locals, for sure. Can we check if they own other farms in this country?’
‘We already have. Two in Somerset, one in Gloucestershire,’ said Halliwell. ‘The company seems to be kosher.’
The two of them looked to Diamond for an indication where the inquiry was heading now. He stood silent for
