Felix Francis - Crisis

‘It doesn’t matter which friend,’ she said in annoyance. ‘It has nothing to do with the fire.’

‘So why did you lie to the police about the cinema?’

‘Because that’s what I’d told my mother. I was afraid they would check with her.’

‘Didn’t your mother ask which film you’d seen?’

She laughed. ‘My mother wouldn’t even know where the cinema is in Ely let alone what’s on. She was only too happy for me to go out as she then had her grandchildren all to herself. That’s what she lives for.’

‘Why didn’t you tell her the truth?’

‘Don’t be stupid.’

‘Does Ryan know?’

She glanced down at her daughter but the little girl was deeply engrossed in an episode of Peppa Pig .

‘No, of course he doesn’t,’ Susan said quietly. ‘So don’t you go and bloody tell him.’

‘Then answer some more of my questions.’

She had no choice and I wondered if I, too, was being guilty of a little blackmail. But, before I had a chance to ask another question, she unburdened some of her anger.

‘Do you have the slightest idea what it’s like to live in the Chadwick family? Talk about controlling. Ha! The Kennedys have nothing on us. Oliver decides everything. All their lives, he’s set the boys at each other’s throats so that they won’t gang up against him . He likes people to think that he’s doing his best to make them all get along but, underneath, he’s stirring things up as fast as he can.’

‘But they do all stick together,’ I said. ‘They keep the family secrets.’

‘Only because that’s what they have been taught to do. Drilled into them from the cradle that the Chadwicks are the best, and no one should be allowed to do anything to damage the family. Family first, second and third.’

‘But somebody has damaged the family,’ I said. ‘One of your number has been murdered and another has killed herself.’

‘Don’t be bloody daft,’ she said, throwing her hands up in frustration. ‘We women don’t matter. It’s only the Chadwick boys that count.’

‘Are you saying that Oliver is behind the fire?’

‘No, I don’t think so. He’s been losing his grip recently. Poor Ryan is struggling with the training and Oliver is finding that difficult to cope with. And, the more Oliver interferes, the worse the situation gets.’

She glanced at the kitchen clock.

‘Come on, Faith,’ she said. ‘Go upstairs, darling, and clean your teeth. It’s almost time to go.’

Faith didn’t move an inch from in front of the TV.

‘Why didn’t Faith go to school last Monday?’

‘Because of the fire,’ Susan said.

‘But you didn’t know about the fire when you decided to stay Sunday night at your mother’s.’

‘I was planning to leave Ely early enough to get back in time but, in the end, after Ryan phoned me with the news, I left both of the children with Mummy. It seemed easier.’ She looked at the clock again. ‘Come on, Faith.’

Again, Faith didn’t move, but went on watching her programme.

‘So why did Arabella kill herself?’ I asked.

‘She was always so bitter, mostly because she couldn’t have any kids. I know she hated me just for that. Perhaps it all got too much for her.’

It will all come out. I can’t stand the shame.

‘I don’t think it was that,’ I said. ‘There’s something else. What is the big family secret that no one talks about?’

‘Faith,’ Susan shouted, ignoring me. ‘Now.’

This time, reluctantly, the little girl dragged herself to her feet and, still watching the TV screen, she moved slowly towards the kitchen door. Susan, meanwhile, picked up the remote from the worktop and turned off the set. She was rewarded with a very surly look from her daughter as she departed up the stairs.

‘So, what is the big family secret?’ I asked again.

‘There isn’t one,’ Susan said jokily, but I wasn’t sure she believed it, even if she didn’t know what it was.

‘Was it to do with Zoe?’ I asked.

‘I didn’t know Zoe at all. Never even met her. Helped search for her, mind, when she went walkabout all those years ago.’

‘Why was that?’ I said.

‘Why was what?’

‘Why did Zoe go missing so dramatically as soon as she was eighteen?’

‘Because she was crazy,’ Susan said with a smile.

Thunderflash time.

‘Was it not because she was trying to get away from the ongoing sexual abuse perpetrated by her father and brothers?’

The smile on Susan’s face disappeared faster than a magician’s rabbit.

‘Don’t talk nonsense,’ she said.

‘Nonsense, is it?’ I asked sarcastically. ‘Then why don’t you ask Ryan why he’s been paying blackmail money to Zoe and her husband?’

Susan stared at me. ‘You’re making it up.’

‘Am I?’

Faith came back into the kitchen and stood next to us. ‘Another innocent little Chadwick girl,’ I said, glancing down at her. Then I looked up at her mother. ‘Don’t let it happen again.’

My phone rang as I was walking back to the hotel.

‘It seems your boy may be off the hook,’ DCI Eastwood said when I answered. ‘At least for now.’

‘How come?’

‘The CCTV cameras at Newmarket Station weren’t operational on that day so we have no pictures from them, but we have now received some footage from an on-train camera. It shows Zoe Robertson boarding a train at Newmarket bound for Cambridge on the day she died.’

‘But...’

‘I know,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t make sense. How come she turns up dead in Newmarket when she’d already taken the train home?’

‘Well, she obviously didn’t get home,’ I said. ‘Did any cameras spot her at Cambridge?’

‘The ones outside definitely didn’t, but we’re still searching through the tapes from those inside the station and we’ve extended the search to later in the day because it seems she caught the train after the one that Declan Chadwick said she did. We’re also checking the CCTV from the London-bound trains, although I can’t think why she would go all the way down there and then come back again.’

‘Zoe Robertson did a lot stranger things than that in her life.’

‘She certainly seemed to vanish. The on-board camera had quite a narrow field of view. It only showed her getting on the train, not where she sat in the carriage, or her getting off. But we’ll keep looking.’

‘Thanks for letting me know,’ I said. ‘I’ll pass on the good news to Declan.’

‘Did you find anything in the medical records?’ the chief inspector asked.

‘Your sergeant didn’t agree with you letting me see them,’ I said, neatly sidestepping the question. ‘He thinks it’s a mistake to help the defence.’

‘He’s very old-school,’ said the DCI. ‘He doesn’t approve of the police graduate-entry fast-track scheme either. I may be different from most coppers but I prefer to work with people rather than against them. That way, I tend to get more help in return.’

I wondered if he was purposefully making me feel bad.

But I could hardly apprise him of my half-baked theories just yet. I would be no worse than those on social media or in the tabloid press who scatter accusations around at the slightest hint of wrongdoing, without a care in the world for the reputations they are destroying in the process.

I was in the ‘reputation keeping’ business, not the other way round.

Would he even believe me anyway? DS Venables must have seen the letter from the psychotherapist about abuse and he had obviously dismissed it, just as Zoe’s GP had done at the time — fantasist .