Vogel was about to answer that he most certainly did think that, when he caught Saslow’s eye. The DS was staring at him in some amazement. It was not like Vogel to be easily diverted when he was on a case. Particularly not when the case was a murder inquiry. He was genuinely fascinated by Helen Harris and her project. It wasn’t just that, though. Sometimes he found it best with certain people who were part of an investigation to create an illusion of friendship. What he really wanted to find out today from Helen Harris was just how far she would go to protect those staying at, or regularly visiting, Helen’s House. He suspected it would be a very long way indeed. Whether or not she would go so far as to provide a false alibi he had yet to discover. And he was about to take a big step towards doing so.
‘I think you have created something very special here, Miss Harris,’ he replied. ‘As I am sure do the many people you have helped through this venture. Which, of course, would include Gill Quinn, would it not?’
Helen Harris shot him what Vogel’s mother would have called an old-fashioned look.
‘I certainly hope we have helped Gill,’ she said. ‘Although she is going to need a great deal more help now, I have no doubt of that.’
Vogel thought that was certainly true, whether or not Gill Quinn had played an active part in her husband’s death.
He reached into his pocket and removed the piece of paper upon which he had scribbled the number of the phone Gill Quinn had used to text her son the previous day.
‘Do you recognize this number, Miss Harris?’ he asked.
‘Helen, please,’ said Helen Harris, as she took the piece of paper from him.
They had sat on a committee together. In some ways they were colleagues. All the same, Vogel did not suggest that she called him David. Apart from anything else he thought that might finish Saslow off.
Helen studied the number thoughtfully for a moment or two, and still looked thoughtful when she spoke again.
‘I don’t think so,’ she said. ‘Indeed I’m pretty sure I don’t recognize it. But I’m not great with numbers. May I ask why you are asking me about it?’
‘Because this is the number of the mobile which Gill Quinn used to contact her son on Saturday, when she did not have her own phone.’
‘I see,’ said Helen.
‘Could it be the number of your partner’s phone, or another member of staff here?’
‘It’s definitely not Sadie’s phone. And being a Saturday, we didn’t have any other members of staff in. None of our specialist workers, therapists or legal advisors are here over the weekend. Except in an emergency. And, as you may have guessed, finances are very tight at the House. We can’t even afford a professional gardener.’
She waved a hand, taking in with a sweep the two women weeding the flower beds and her incalcitrant lawn mower.
‘My windfall is long gone, and we rely primarily on charitable donations and a small local authority grant. We do everything we can ourselves, including, of course, our own cooking and cleaning. Gill could have borrowed one of the other women’s phone. You’d have to check with them. But can’t you just call the phone?’
‘We’ve done that. It’s a pay-as-you-go, and there’s no response. The phone seems dead.’
‘Ah. Probably run out of juice.’
‘More than likely,’ Vogel agreed. ‘I’d like DS Saslow to check with the other women here straight away. I hope you have no objections to that?’
‘Of course not,’ responded Helen. ‘That’s Mary and Celia over there. You could start with them. We have two other residents at the moment. They’ll be inside somewhere. Feel free to seek them out.’
Vogel watched as Saslow duly approached Mary and Celia. Then he turned back to Helen.
‘You do recognize the significance of this number, don’t you?’ he asked.
‘Yes. Of course I do. Gill must presumably have been with whoever owns the phone with this number. And if it isn’t someone who was here at the House, then that indicates that she was probably somewhere else for at least part of the day. Is that what you are thinking, Mr Vogel?’
‘Yes, it is.’
‘And are you therefore suggesting that I may have given Gill a false alibi? Is that why you have come to see me again?’
‘Possibly. Although not necessarily deliberately...’
‘Well, thank you for that, at least,’ responded Helen Harris with a wry smile.
Vogel did not smile back.
‘On the other hand, I am sure you would always do everything you can to protect and assist any victim of domestic violence,’ he said.
‘Yes, I would. Though not to the extent of perverting the course of justice, I can assure you. We encourage our victims to work within the law to escape from the clutches of their abusers. That is what we are for. We do not encourage anyone to take the law into their own hands.’
‘I’m going to be blunt, Helen, if, and I say if, you suspected that Gill Quinn had murdered her viciously abusive husband, wouldn’t you feel that his death was a kind of justice?’
‘I feel all sorts of things, Mr Vogel, that I wouldn’t dream of acting upon. In any case I do not suspect Gill of murdering her husband, if for no other reason than that she had no opportunity to do so. She was here, I assure you, Mr Vogel, all day.’
Vogel was still contemplating where he would like to take this conversation next, when Saslow reappeared. The DCI glanced towards her enquiringly.
‘I’ve drawn a blank, boss,’ she began. ‘That phone doesn’t belong to any of the women here today, or, as Miss Harris told us, to—’
Vogel interrupted, again addressing, not Saslow, but Helen.
‘Curious then, don’t you think, Helen?’ he enquired.
Saslow spoke again before Helen Harris had chance to reply.
‘There was another woman here on Saturday though, according to Sadie, Maggie Challis.’
‘Ah, yes, of course,’ Helen spoke quickly. ‘Maggie. She’s another one like Gill. A regular, if not necessarily frequent visitor. She uses us as somewhere to retreat to when things get bad at home. As a refuge. Which is exactly what we are. Like Gill she comes for as little as an hour or two, and rarely stays overnight. Women like them always say the same thing. He’ll have calmed down by the time they get home. He doesn’t mean it. And so on. Gill has been coming for well over a year now, and Maggie for even longer. I still find it rather extraordinary, but it really isn’t unusual. It is quite likely that they would have met before yesterday, and that Gill might have borrowed her phone.’
Vogel turned to Saslow. ‘Do we know if the phone number is Maggie’s?’ he asked.
‘Sadie checked. It’s not the number listed here for her. That’s for another burner which also isn’t responding right now.’
‘A lot of the women have at least one burner, so that they have a phone their abuser doesn’t know about,’ offered Helen Harris. ‘But that carries its own risks. Sometimes the abuser finds the phone, and sometimes the women just throw it away because they fear they’re in danger of being found out. Then, eventually, they may acquire another one.’
‘Did Sadie say when Maggie was here, and for how long?’ Vogel asked Saslow.
‘She said she came in the afternoon, and stayed about three hours. I’ve got her address, boss. She lives in Torrington.’
‘Good,’ said Vogel. ‘Give DI Peters a call, will you? I want a team sent round.’
Vogel turned back to Helen Harris again. ‘Did you see Maggie Challis, did you speak to her?’ he asked.