“I’d still like to have the full picture.”
“You’ve got it-apart from names, and they aren’t germane to your enquiry. People’s lives are threatened, Mr Diamond. I don’t suppose you’ve ever worked with a burden like this, knowing that named individuals will die if you make a mistake. Show some sensitivity towards your fellow officers who carry that responsibility.”
Faced with an argument like that, he couldn’t pursue it. He shrugged and said, “I can try.”
“If it’s of any interest you can look at other enquiries she advised on. I don’t mind giving you chapter and verse of those.”
Peter Diamond left Bramshill some time later with a sheaf of photocopied material that he slung onto the back seat of his car. He was unsatisfied and unconvinced.
9
DS Stella Gregson arrived in Crawley soon after ten and was driven to the school in Old Mill Road. She hesitated before knocking on the head teacher’s door. Childhood conditioning never entirely leaves you. Even after the head had introduced them and left them to it, neither Stella nor Miss Medlicott sat in the chair behind the desk, or anywhere. They remained standing.
“I hope this isn’t a waste of your time,” Miss Medlicott said. “All I’ve got for you is secondhand.”
“You don’t have to apologise,” Stella said. “We’re grateful for any information. This comes from a child in your class, I was told.”
“Haley Smith. She’s acted strangely-perhaps nervously is a better word. She drew a picture of a visit to the beach and told me one of the figures on it was a dead lady. I tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn’t be budged, so I discussed it with the mother when she came to collect Haley. Mrs Smith seemed rather guarded when I spoke to her. The family were at Wightview Sands on the day that poor woman was found, she admitted that. She thought the child must have heard her talking about the incident with her husband and then assumed some sunbather had been the dead woman. But it was a strained conversation, I felt. And I didn’t mention to her something else the child had told me-that her Daddy had been with the lady.”
Stella felt goosebumps prickling her flesh. Suddenly this low-key enquiry took on a new significance. “Haley said that?”
“Yes. And later in the week I had problems getting any response at all from the child. She was acting dumb, or so it seemed to me. One of the other children told me Haley’s daddy had said she wasn’t to speak to me. I tried to talk it over with Mrs Smith at the end of the day, but she was short with me and said it was obviously another misunderstanding, as if it was my fault. I’ve worried about it since, in case Haley did see something dreadful.”
“You did the right thing,” Stella said. “May I speak to Haley?”
“You can try. You won’t get much out of her.”
“Can I see her in the classroom?”
“That would be better than here.”
The children were on their morning break as Miss Medlicott escorted Stella along the covered walkway at the edge of the playground. Stella entered the classroom and the teacher went to find Haley.
The truth, simply stated, has to be used when questioning children. So when the small, dark-haired child was brought in with bowed head and sucking her thumb, Stella invited her to sit in her usual chair and sat beside her and said, “Haley, my dear, I want to talk to you about what happened that day you spent with Mummy and Daddy at the seaside. I’m a policewoman, and you don’t have to worry, because you’re not in trouble. I think you can help me.”
The child’s pale face, framed by the bunched hair, registered only apprehension. She was already shaking her head. Creases had formed around her little mouth.
“A poor lady was killed,” Stella continued, “and it’s my job to find out about it. We don’t want anyone else being killed, do we? Did you see what happened?”
Haley looked up and there was eye contact. She shook her head, gazing steadily, and Stella had to believe her.
“That’s good then. We can talk about other things. I was told you did a lovely painting of your day on the beach. May I see it?”
Haley showed she had a voice. “Miss Medlicott’s got it.”
“So I have. I’ll fetch it,” the teacher said, going to the tall cupboard in the corner.
Stella said, “Why don’t you help Teacher find it?”
It was good for the child to move. She’d been going tense in the chair. In a moment she returned to Stella, the painting in her hands.
“My, that’s a picture!” Stella said. “Such colours. What a bright blue sea. That is the sea, across the middle?”
A nod.
“And this yellow part must be the sand. Is this you on the sand?”
Haley shook her head.
“Are you in the picture?”
She placed her finger on one of the figures.
“Of course, it has to be you. Is that a ball in your hand, or an extra large orange?”
“Frisbee.”
She hadn’t clammed up completely. This had to be encouraging.
“So it is. Silly me. It’s too big for a ball. Did you play with the Frisbee on the beach?”
A nod. This was chipping at stone, but it had to be done.
“Who did you play with?”
“Don’t know.”
“Some other children?”
Another nod.
“And while you were playing, where were Mummy and Daddy?”
The tiny forefinger pointed to two stick figures on the band of yellow, with circles for heads, a scribbled representation of hair and rake-like extensions on the arms for hands.
“So they are. But they seem to be lying down. Didn’t they stand up to look for you when you were lost?”
“Don’t know,” Haley said, with logic. If she was lost, she wouldn’t have known what her parents were doing.
“I expect they got worried because they couldn’t see you.”
The child felt for one of her bunches and sucked the end of it.
“So where were you?”
She was silent.
“Haley, no one is angry with you. I’m sure you can help me if you really try to remember what happened.”
Haley took her hand away from her mouth and pointed once more to the picture, to the figure of herself with the Frisbee.
Stella said, “That’s you, of course. And these are children, too. You were playing with them, were you? That must have been a lot of fun.”
The comment disarmed the child and triggered the best response yet. “A girl I was with got hit in the face by the Frisbee and she was bleeding and crying and stuff, so we all went up to the hut where they’ve got bandages and things. Then the other girls went back to their mummy and I was lost, and the man found me and I went back to Mummy, and Daddy wasn’t there.”
Stella did her best to recap. “Who was the man who found you?”
“Him with a whistle and red shorts.”
“The lifeguard?”
“Mm.”
“Silly me. I understand now.”
Haley pointed again, to a horizontal figure immediately above the parents, half over the blue band representing the sea. “That’s the dead lady.”
“How did you know she was dead?”
“Daddy said so.”
“So Daddy came back?”
“I seed the lady lying on the beach and she wasn’t moving and the sea was coming in and I thought she was asleep and Daddy went to look and said she was dead and got some men and carried her off the beach. It’s not in the picture.” She’d answered almost in a single breath.
“So before this, Daddy must have been somewhere along the beach looking for you?”
“I’spect so.”
“Did Daddy know this lady?”
“Don’t know.”
“I believe you told Miss Medlicott he was with her.”
“Yes.”
“What did you mean by that?”
“He was with her. I told you.”
“Do you mean when he went to see what was the matter with her?”
She nodded.
“Daddy looked at the lady, did he? And got some help? Did you notice who helped?”