Priscilla Masters: Frozen Charlotte

‘Take a quickie round the house,’ Talith said. ‘I’m wondering where that little kid’s blanket came from.’ He thought for a minute. ‘Unless she’s got grandchildren, of course.’

As they trooped downstairs, he was already adding that to the list of questions he wanted answers to.

As they reached the hall he made his decision and spoke to the two women. ‘I can’t see any point dragging you down to the station today,’ he said. ‘The senior investigating officer, Detective Inspector Alex Randall, will take over tomorrow. It’ll be up to him how he conducts the case.’ He omitted to mention that how things proceeded would also depend on the results of the post-mortem. Talith wasn’t sure whether he was glad or sorry he would be handing over responsibility for the case. It promised to be interesting but probably frustrating too. He had the feeling that winkling out the truth would prove to be a challenge equal to any police officer’s talents. Even Detective Inspector Alex Randall. A time lapse between what might have been a crime and the discovery of a body always made a case harder to solve and it might be hard to determine what exactly the time lapse had been. The SOCOs would be looking for other clues as to how long the child had lain concealed. But there was no doubt about it. DI Randall would be taking over the investigation in the morning and probably he, Sergeant Paul Talith, and definitely PC Gethin Roberts, who was right at the bottom of the pecking order, would be relegated to the Second Division. Talith was a fan of the ‘beautiful game’ and whenever possible he liked to use sporting jargon to describe his work. It made his job sound dangerous, exciting, energetic, and besides it made him feel better.

Acantha looked vaguely surprised at their release and Talith had the feeling she had expected a long grilling of her client most of the afternoon, so he explained his reasoning. ‘I’ve done what preliminary work is necessary, Mrs Palk.’ He glanced at Alice. ‘This is quite a strain on Mrs Sedgewick.’ A further quick glance at Alice confirmed that she was looking wan. ‘I think we should leave her alone for now until DI Randall takes over, the examination of the house is complete and we’ve done some further investigations.’ He gave a ghost of a smile. ‘I take it you’ll vouch for her.’

‘Yes,’ Acantha said, a little stiffly.

‘Have you contacted Mr Sedgewick?’

‘No.’

‘So you don’t know when he’ll be back?’ He addressed the question vaguely to both women. It was Acantha who answered.

‘Not a clue,’ she said airily. ‘Aaron rather makes up his own rules, doesn’t he, Alice?’

This elicited a vague nod.

‘He rarely tells Alice exactly when he’ll be home but always manages to arrive unexpectedly,’ Acantha explained then gave a wide, slightly mischievous smile. It transformed her face, melted away the severe expression and replaced it with a softness and humanity that made her look instantly attractive. ‘When she was younger I used to think he imagined he’d walk in on her doing something she shouldn’t.’

Both Alice and Sergeant Talith were startled. Alice stared at her friend.

Talith pursued the comment. ‘You mean another man?’ He gave a sceptical glance at Mrs Sedgewick.

‘Oh no,’ she said hastily. ‘No. Nothing like that. All the other things Alice wasn’t allowed to do. Eating chocolate, having a glass too much red wine. Talking for too long on the telephone. Wearing shoes in the house, not rinsing out coffee cups before putting them in the dishwasher. Having a Chinese takeaway or even worse a pizza delivery. There were a hundred things she wasn’t allowed to do. The children not in bed when they should have been, watching soaps on the television.’ She gave an amused grimace. ‘You don’t know what control is until you’ve met Aaron Sedgewick, sergeant.’

Alice was round-eyed with incredulity at Acantha’s forthrightness but she stayed silent, not defending her husband or contradicting her friend’s opinion.

‘I can hardly wait,’ Talith responded dryly.

He kept his last question back until they had walked outside into the freezing air. ‘Does Aaron Sedgewick have a mobile?’

Again it was Acantha who answered for her friend. ‘Probably. Everyone does these days, don’t they? But I don’t know the number. Alice,’ she said, ‘do you?’

‘Yes,’ Alice answered politely, ‘I’ve got it written down by the telephone in the kitchen but I’m only supposed to ring it in an emergency.’

Talith felt stunned. What on earth constituted an emergency in the mad Sedgewick household?

It struck him then that Alice Sedgewick was bobbing in and out of reality like a boat whose tether is loosened by a gentle but insistent current. At some point she might well drift all the way downstream.

Sunday afternoon

Martha had solved the problem of what to do. The day was bitingly cold but bright and the weather quite beautiful. She was fond of photography and Bobby needed a good long walk. She chose her favourite route, knowing that plenty of people would be sledging on Lyth Hill this afternoon. Mary Webb had had a house there and she was one of Martha’s favourite authors. She had studied Precious Bane and had loved the book ever since.

They set out, well wrapped up in gloves, scarves and anoraks, laughing in the sparkling air and the challenging cold and Bobby straining on his lead, barking and panting. Martha had thought they might take their sledge but Sam was worried about making his injury worse and Agnetha and Sukey said they preferred to walk and chat in their easy, friendly way. Martha decided she would cut a lone figure. One needed a child present to justify this juvenile sport. And there was always the chance that she would bump, either literally or metaphorically, into someone she knew professionally. The thought of the coroner whooping with joy and exhilaration as she sledged down Lyth Hill was perhaps not quite ‘the thing’, so reluctantly she’d slammed the garage door on the red plastic sledge.

Talith also had worked out what to do with his afternoon. He decided to visit the staff nurse who had been on duty the previous evening and take a proper statement from her. It would be less traumatic, he had decided, if he went to her house rather than summoning her to the station and he wanted to minimize the impact of the events of last night. She’d had a late night as well as a shock.

Lucy Ramshaw lived with her boyfriend on the Gains Park Estate. It was an area popular with the nurses because it was so close to the hospital – within walking distance. That meant they didn’t even have to battle over the scarce parking spaces and run the gauntlet of the vigilant and quite merciless parking attendants who slapped their fines and warnings on anyone, whether staff or patient. Lucy answered the door herself, looking very different to the harassed and upset nurse he had encountered the night before. She was wearing tight jeans and a low-cut blue sweater, which showed a neat, strong, slim figure, Paul Talith noted approvingly.

She recognized him at once and showed him into a small dining room, passing the sitting from where he could hear football on the television. He wished he could have been watching the Premier League game instead of working.

Lucy made them both a coffee and they sat around the small dining table.

‘I don’t think I’ve anything to add really,’ she said. ‘I mean I saw the woman but she didn’t seem to want anything. We were really busy what with the snow and everything. She just sat there. I mean she could have been waiting for a relative or someone,’ she finished lamely. ‘I didn’t realize she was holding a baby. It just looked like a blanket. If I’d known it was a baby obviously we would have dealt with her much quicker. But she just sat there,’ she repeated.