PR: I didn’t know about that either. Not a thing.
LK: How does that make you feel now – all this going on under your nose and you didn’t notice?
PR: She was obviously very good at hiding it, wasn’t she?
LK: Did she do that a lot – keep secrets from you?
PR: Not as far as I knew. Seems I was wrong, doesn’t it.
LK: Have you spoken to her about it since we arrested her?
PR: Briefly.
LK: What did she say?
PR: [shrugs]
That she didn’t say anything at the time because she wanted to protect us.
HL: Protect you from what?
PR: [silence]
HL: Embarrassment? Shame? Loss of face? What?
PR: [shrugs]
LK: Do you know who the father of the second baby was?
PR: Not a clue.
LK: Did she ever mention a Tim or a Tom?
PR: Not that I recall. It’s five years ago.
LK: Does the surname Baker mean anything to you?
PR: No.
LK: I believe you were quite active with Camilla’s school – helping out with events and so on?
PR: I wasn’t the only one.
LK: No, I understand that. But we’ve been told you were particularly active with the hockey team? That in fact you travelled with the Burghley Abbey team to the 1997 UK national under-18s hockey championships?
PR: Yes, so?
LK: It was the night of the final that Camilla went into labour. She drove herself, alone, to Birmingham and checked into hospital.
PR: Well, I didn’t know that.
LK: You were with her for three days, watching her play hockey – a vigorous and occasionally aggressive game, might I add – and you didn’t suspect she might be pregnant?
PR: I told you –
HL: My officers have also spoken to someone else who was at that tournament. A teacher from Lady Elspeth Haskell’s School in Shropshire.
PR: So?
LK: She said it was perfectly obvious to everyone that Camilla was pregnant. That both her colleagues and the girls on the Lady Elspeth team had mentioned it. Girls who had shared changing rooms with her.
PR: [silence]
LK: She also said she spoke to someone from Burghley Abbey – she was worried about Camilla’s well-being, and extremely concerned that a young girl in such an advanced stage of pregnancy should be playing at all.
PR: [silence]
LK: She said she approached someone she saw watching on the touchline. She thought it was a teacher. But it wasn’t. It was you.
PR: I don’t remember that.
LK: She said she pointed Camilla out – not knowing she was your daughter – and asked if there was any possibility she could be pregnant.
PR: [silence]
LK: You don’t remember what you said?
PR: [silence]
LK: You said it was ’none of her business’.
PR: [silence]
LK: So you did know.
PR: No, I told you.
LK: Someone points out your daughter and says she looks pregnant and it doesn’t give you pause?
PR: [silence]
LK: Did you speak to Camilla?
PR: No.
LK: Why not?
PR: [to Mr Gilmour]
Do I really have to answer all these questions?
WG: No, you don’t. And I think that’s enough for today, officers. My client has made it perfectly clear that she knows nothing about the baby, or what happened to it –
LK: Her own grandchild –
WG: Should you have any further questions, please contact me to make an appointment.
LK: Interview terminated at 9.40.
* * *
Adam Fawley
24 October
18.25
‘You spoke to her? What did you say?’
‘I asked about her weight gain. I mean, I didn’t put it quite that way, but that was the gist of it. God, it was embarrassing. It’s a massive no-no, talking to another girl about her weight.’
‘How did she react?’
‘She laughed. Said something about having eaten too much Häagen-Dazs.’
‘Was she just fobbing you off?’
She spreads her hands, at a loss. ‘I genuinely don’t know. It’s possible she really didn’t know she was pregnant.’
‘Was this the first time or the second?’
A pause, a frown. ‘The second.’
‘Then how could she not have known? Surely she’d have recognized the signs the second time.’
She shrugs. ‘You’d think so, wouldn’t you.’
‘Did you ever have any suspicions about who the father of that baby was? I know you said you didn’t in your original statement, but if there’s anything you might have thought of since, however vague, it might really help.’
She gives a lopsided smile. ‘’Fraid not. Your guess is as good as mine. Better, probably.’
There’s a silence.
Quinn clears his throat. ‘Sorry to have to ask this, Ms Rutherford, but were you and Camilla ever sexually involved?’
Her mouth drops open. Only a little, but enough.
She swallows. ‘How did you know?’
He spreads his hands. ‘I didn’t. Not till now – what I mean is, you’re obviously in a same-sex relationship now, aren’t you? And then it struck me that Leonora Staniforth said something in the documentary about you and Camilla having been particularly tight around then.’
She sighs. ‘Well, since you’re asking, then, yes. We did have a thing. Briefly. No one knew – not even Leo. I think it was just experimenting – for Cam, I mean. It was different for me.’
‘Different in that you already knew you were gay?’
‘Partly. Cam certainly didn’t take it very seriously. It was just a bit of fun. For her. A sideshow to the real event.’
I sit forward. ‘And it wasn’t for you? It was serious?’
She sighs. ‘I thought so. For a time. She has that effect on people.’
‘You never mentioned this during the original investigation.’
She flushes a little. ‘I was just a junior in the firm then. And people weren’t as “open-minded” fifteen years ago, especially not in Magic Circle law firms. And like I said, I didn’t know who the father of the baby was. Letting the whole world poke about in my private life wasn’t going to change that. My relationship with Cam – such as it was – was entirely irrelevant.’
I leave a pause. ‘Not “entirely” irrelevant, surely?’
She frowns. ‘I don’t follow.’
‘If you were having a physical relationship with Camilla you’d have been better placed than anyone to know that she was pregnant. In fact, it’s hard to see how you couldn’t have known.’
She flushes and looks away.
‘Ms Rutherford?’
She turns back to face me. ‘OK. What I said before – about asking her about her weight – that did happen. The only thing I left out was that it was in bed. On a memorable Sunday afternoon when her parents were lunching with friends.’ She stares at me. ‘Happy now?’