Кара Хантер - No Way Out

Zachary hurtles towards them and starts shouting, `Me too! Me too!'

Sam turns to Harry. `Are you sure you're up for this?'

That smile again. `Sure. No problem. I didn't have anything else planned. And I always wanted a brother when I was growing up.'

An hour later the boys are exhausted and Michael's retreated to his study. In the kitchen, Sam pours Harry a beer.

`Nice place,' he says, wandering through to the sitting room and looking round at the furniture, the grandfather clock, the piano with its framed photographs.

`It's Michael's family's house,' she says, wondering why she feels the need to apologize. `Nothing much has been changed in here since his grandmother died.'

Harry lifts the lid of the piano and plays a few notes, then makes a face. `Needs tuning.'

She sighs. `I know. We keep meaning to get it organized but you know how it is. Matty wants to learn, though.'

Harry looks up. `Really? You should encourage him. It's a great age to start.'

He closes the lid and picks up a picture of her son playing in a sandpit with his uncle. Matty must have been about four, grinning from ear to ear. Sam realizes with a sudden lump in her throat that he hardly ever smiles like that any more. Until this afternoon, that is.

`So you'll definitely come back?' she says quickly. `For the garden?'

Bishop Christopher's Church of England Primary still has a tired post-Christmas look to it. The bins bulging with recycled decorations aren't helping, and there are bits of tinsel still sellotaped to some of the windows. Somer and Everett get out of the car; Somer has never been here, but Everett has. It's why Somer asked her to come.

`Has it changed much?'

Everett shakes her head. `No. I suppose some of the kids will be different by now, but the place is just the same.'

Just the same as when Daisy Mason went missing and Everett and Gislingham came here to question her teachers and classmates. And now the school has lost another child and the questioning will start all over again.

Everett leads the way inside: it's a warren of corridors but she knows exactly where she's going. And they are `“ clearly `“ expected. Alison Stevens is waiting restlessly in the reception area outside the head teacher's office.

`DC Everett,' she says, coming towards them with an outstretched hand. `How nice to see you again, despite the tragic circumstances.'

`This is my colleague, DC Somer.'

Somer shakes the woman's hand, noting how cool her skin is and how anxious her smile.

`Do please come in. I've asked Matty's teacher to join us as well.'

Everett doesn't recognize the woman waiting inside. She has large round glasses, a splashy floral-print dress and heavy cardigan, with unflattering flat shoes, in sharp contrast to the elegant and understated Stevens.

`This is Emily West,' says Stevens. `She joined us last year.'

So she never knew Daisy Mason. Stevens doesn't say it, but she doesn't have to. Then she turns to the desk and starts occupying her nervous energy by pouring tea. There's a picture of her daughter by the computer, her hair in elaborate crochet braids. She must be about the same age as Matty Esmond.

Everett and Somer take a seat. Emily West seems a good deal less anxious than the head.

`You wanted to know about Matty?' she asks.

`I saw his doctor this morning,' says Somer. `She says you were concerned about him. Concerned enough for the school nurse to call her.'

Somer has deliberately left out the bit about the ghost. She's intrigued to see how `“ and if `“ they raise it.

West smiles. `I know you're probably assuming it was something to do with bullying,' she begins and Everett sees anxiety flicker across Stevens's face, though she says nothing. `But honestly, it was nothing like that. He was concerned about his mother. He said she wasn't very well. That it felt like someone had `њput her under a spell`ќ. But what was really worrying him was that she'd told him she thought there was a ghost in the house.'

`Did he say why she thought that?'

West nods. `Apparently she'd heard noises.'

`That was all?'

West shakes her head. `No. She'd seen it too.'

Everett sits forward. `Where, precisely?'

`Once in the garden, I think. And she thought she heard him indoors.'

Somer and Everett exchange a glance.

`So it was definitely a `њhe`ќ?'

West shakes her head again. `No, not necessarily. Apparently she didn't get a good look. I gathered it was more like catching a glimpse out of the corner of your eye.'

`Was she the only person who'd seen it?'

West pauses. `That's a good question. It's possible Matty had `“ or thought he had. It's hard to remember the exact words he used, but I got the sense he thought he'd seen something.'

But then again, thinks Somer, this is a boy described as `impressionable'. If his mother told him there was a ghost, it's quite possible his imagination did the rest.

`Did you speak to either of his parents about this?' asks Everett.

West nods. `I spoke to Dr Esmond one morning.' She glances at Stevens. `We wanted both Matty's parents to come in for a proper meeting but he said he was very busy and Samantha was unwell. He said she was on medication and sometimes it made her a bit spaced out, but it was all under control and there was nothing for us to worry about. But he did promise to talk to Matty. He was a bit short with me, to be honest, but he is a scientist after all. I suppose stories of ghosts and ghoulies are a bit beneath him.'

Not for an anthropologist, surely, thinks Somer. He would have understood what `stories' like that can signify.

`He hadn't seen anything odd himself?'

West is quick to reply. `No, absolutely not. The whole thing was clearly news to him. In fact, I think that was one reason he was annoyed `“ that we knew something about his family that he didn't.'

Everett takes out her notebook. `And when was this, that you spoke to him?'

`Last summer term, I think it was. Yes, definitely around then.'

`And how was Matty when he returned to school in the autumn?'

`Actually,' interrupts the head, `he seemed much happier. He'd struggled to make friends before but he seemed much more confident.'

`Was there any particular reason for that?' asks Somer, looking from one woman to the other.

`No,' says West. `But it can happen that way. Especially with boys. They can grow up in fits and starts.'

`Or not at all, if some of our colleagues are anything to go by,' mutters Everett, which elicits a wry smile from Stevens.

Somer takes a deep breath; in for a penny and all that. `And Matty got on OK with his father?' She keeps her voice light `“ she doesn't want to influence the answer.

West smiles. `Dr Esmond was obviously quite strict, but Matty clearly idolized him. He was always talking about him. How clever he was and what an important job he had. Last year he was the only child in the class with an academic for a father.'

` My dad's job's bigger than your dad's ,' says Everett.

West grins. `Something like that. You know how competitive kids can be.'

Something isn't adding up here, thinks Somer. But I'm damned if I know what it is.

`So you weren't aware of anything that was troubling him at the end of Christmas term?' she continues calmly. `No problems at home?'

West looks blank. `No, nothing. He was just excited about the holidays. Like all the kids were. I'm sorry. I don't know what else I can say.'

Everett and Somer get to their feet. No one has touched the tea.

Rigby is waiting at the end of the drive at Southey Road when Gislingham draws up. He's wearing a black jumpsuit and a hard hat, and has a face mask slung round his neck.