Jane peered through her bedroom window and saw DCI Church standing beside his car. She took a deep breath and walked out into the hallway, locking her front door and heading down the stairs. She opened the main front door and Church turned to give her a warm smile, waiting as she closed the door behind her.
‘OK, let’s go…’ he said, as she climbed into the passenger seat beside him.
Church started the engine and gave her a sidelong glance.
‘You OK?’
‘Yes. I’m fine, thank you.’
‘Dexter took care of you, did he?’
She blushed and hated the fact that she wasn’t able to disguise it. She stared ahead.
‘Yes, he did.’
‘It’s not going to be easy this morning. Just answer everything clearly, and don’t think you have to make any excuses. We just need to know the facts. Don’t embroider anything, just tell it straight down the line.’
‘I will.’
‘Don’t let Crowley unnerve you. All you have to realise is that he’ll be keen to establish whether or not we might have a breakthrough in Natalie Wilde. So be confident about your suspicions, and don’t worry that you may have fucked up.’
Jane couldn’t help laughing, and shook her head. ‘You certainly know how to make a girl feel reassured! I’m really worried that this might have damaged my future career.’
‘No way. If you’re proved right this could be your ticket to the Flying Squad,’ he said, smiling encouragingly.
‘I’m just very concerned after the Pearl situation, and now this…’
He tapped her arm. ‘Listen, Crowley’s position on the Bomb Squad is in jeopardy unless he gets results. Your mistakes could reflect badly on him, but if Natalie leads us to the ASU and arrests are made, cock-ups can be overlooked.’
Jane tried to relax, which was exactly what DCI Church had intended.
What he didn’t add was that she was going to be under enormous pressure about having unwittingly disclosed information that could have placed officers at risk. Jane’s career in the CID could very well be over — and if this was yet another example of her unprofessionalism he would aid Crowley in kicking her out.
Chapter Eighteen
Arriving at Scotland Yard Jane left Church and went straight to DCI Crowley’s office. He invited her to take a seat and walked over to a trolley with a hot water urn on it and five or six dirty cups alongside a few clean ones.
‘Water’s a bit tepid but is instant coffee all right for you? All the tea’s gone now.’
‘Yes, thank you… milk and no sugar, please.’ She realised from his remark and the dirty cups that he must have had an earlier meeting. It had probably been about her cock-up.
Crowley poured a coffee, placed it on the table in front of her, then sat down at his desk before opening a notebook and picking up his pen.
‘Right, WDC Tennison… let’s go over everything from the moment you met Natalie Wilde in the hospital. This time really concentrate on everything she said or asked.’
‘I told DS Dexter everything. Has he not spoken with you?’
‘Yes, and I made notes,’ he tapped the book with his pen, ‘but under the circumstances you may have been hesitant with Dexter about exactly how much information Wilde was able to get from you… so I want to go over everything again in fine detail.’
Jane wondered what he meant by ‘under the circumstances’. Was he implying he knew she had spent the night at Dexter’s flat, or simply the fact she had been distraught about the whole situation? Crowley opened a packet of Player’s cigarettes. He lit one, then offered the pack to Jane who shook her head.
‘I don’t smoke, sir.’
Again, Jane recounted meeting Natalie at the hospital. She explained that it had taken a moment for her to recognise Natalie from their Hendon days. Jane spoke slowly, trying to remember each time she had met Natalie, the conversations they had had and any probing questions she had asked. Then something struck Jane as unusual.
‘There is something about the first time we met at the hospital, but I’m not sure if it’s relevant.’
‘I’ll be the judge of that, Tennison… so come on, spit it out.’
‘At the hospital, Natalie said she was visiting a friend who’d just had a baby, but she wasn’t carrying any flowers, chocolates or any kind of gift. She didn’t even say if it was a boy or girl.’
Crowley was taking notes as Jane spoke. ‘Good. Anything else strange about that first meeting with her?’
Jane thought about what she’d learned on the Dip Squad. ‘I remember she bumped into me on the same floor that Daphne was on and asked me what I was doing at the hospital… but the maternity ward is on the ground floor. She distracted me by bumping into me so that I didn’t notice she wasn’t in the right place.’
‘If she’d seen the paper then she’d know you had been at Covent Garden… so the bump was probably a deliberate ploy. Anything else?’
‘Yes, she said she was interested in finding out what all our old Hendon classmates were doing now.’
‘What’s strange about that?’
‘She’s never once asked me about them since then. She was more interested in me and what I was doing, but I just didn’t see it as suspicious at the time.’
Crowley moved on and asked Jane when she next saw Natalie.
‘It was at an Italian restaurant called Fratelli’s.’
‘Did you drink much?’
‘A couple of glasses of wine… Why?’
‘Alcohol loosens the tongue, Tennison. Did you say anything about Daphne Millbank or the phone-box witness?’
Jane was upset by his remark. ‘I wasn’t drunk, sir, it was a friendly meal together and I never discussed my work at all.’
Crowley asked her about the next meeting with Natalie. Jane told him it was at Natalie’s flat in Belsize Park and she had said she rented it, but the bank gave her a housing allowance.
‘I’d gone there because Natalie said she’d give me a cooking lesson.’
‘Makes a change from cooking up bombs, I suppose,’ Crowley said flippantly.
Jane felt his remark was uncalled for, but kept her head down as she recounted their discussions about her relationship with Michael, the charge nurse, and DS Dexter and DCI Church.
‘So you gave her the names and ranks of officers you were working with?’
‘No,’ said Jane, embarassed. ‘I don’t think so. It was just a flippant conversation about who I found attractive…’
Crowley tapped the table with his pen, and shook his head. ‘So, inadvertently, or any way you like to describe it, you were giving away confidential details and discussing officers involved in a major investigation.’
Jane nodded, her head down, as Crowley looked at his notebook and continued, ‘She then encouraged you to accompany her to find a dress at a hire company she knew.’
‘Yes. When I got home I remembered that she hadn’t given me the address, but when I called her she wasn’t at home. She called me later the next day to suggest we meet up in a café in Sloane Square before going to the dress-hire venue together. So, the following evening, after I finished work, I met her.’
‘Did she know what you were hiring a dress for?’
‘Yes, the Good Friday Ball…’ As she spoke Jane realised the importance of what she’d given away to Natalie.
‘And did you tell her the location of the ball?’
Jane couldn’t speak, she felt so ashamed, just nodded, but was surprised Crowley didn’t shout at her.
‘Did she ever come to your address?’
‘No… There was one possible Irish connection, which at the time I didn’t register. Some of the clients who hired dresses were debutantes, and during the hunting season some clients would even come from Ireland for the hunt balls.’