‘It wouldn’t be anyone with a criminal record,’ Janet said. ‘Whoever this person is, they’re not on the database.’
‘I can’t see anyone here I’d have any doubts about,’ Marlene said, turning back from the computer.
‘Would you be happy to send us the names,’ Janet said, ‘so we can double check?’
‘Sure.’
‘Did Rosie and Lisa know each other?’ Rachel asked.
‘Yes. Not friends, though. Rosie was chummy with a girl called Angela – they were the same age, and Lisa was a couple of years younger. In fact, Lisa and Angela had a few scraps.’
‘Where’s Angela now?’ Rachel said. Rosie knew her rapist, Rachel was sure. If Angela was close to Rosie, perhaps she’d have an idea who it might have been.
‘I can get her last address for you.’
‘Could you send us a list of all the girls who were resident here, same dates, 2008 onwards?’ Janet asked.
‘And those that are here now?’ Marlene said.
‘Yes, please: names and dates of birth,’ Janet said.
Marlene nodded in agreement.
‘Can you think of anyone from outside the home who knew both Lisa and Rosie? Boyfriends, hangers-on, dealers?’ Janet said.
‘No one I knew about. There are a lot of problems with gangs targeting care homes, grooming girls for sex, but so far we’ve escaped that.’
‘What about the staff?’ Rachel said baldly. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Janet wince, heard her draw in a short breath of air.
Outrage sparked in Marlene’s eyes and her face set like a mask. ‘Our staff are all CRB checked and trained to rigorous standards,’ she said frostily.
‘Martin Dalbeattie was their social worker,’ Rachel pointed out, ‘both of them.’
Marlene looked as if she’d explode. ‘Martin worked with us for almost twenty years. He was an exemplary worker, hugely well respected. You can’t barge in here, making libellous and completely groundless allegations on some sort of fishing expedition-’
‘I’m sure Rachel didn’t mean-’ Janet started her peacemaker routine.
But Rachel wasn’t going to let it drop. ‘If he had an alibi…’ she said.
‘Rachel!’ Janet glared at her. ‘I do apologize,’ she said to Marlene.
‘Not on my account,’ Rachel said. The kid outside was on top of the climbing frame and bawling.
‘Will you just-’ Janet shot at her.
‘Look, having a fistful of qualifications is no bar to crime. The world’s full of nutters who deliberately work in places like this-’
Marlene leapt to her feet. ‘We have never, ever,’ her eyes glittered, ‘had one allegation of sexual impropriety brought against any member of staff. I live in the real world, I know what goes on. Hell, half the kids in here come from that sort of horror show – and we look after them.’ Really losing her rag.
Janet spoke quickly, ‘We’re aware of that and we are not here to ask about staff. I’m sorry. If you could send through those names, we’d appreciate it. You’ve got my email. We can check if any others have come to harm since leaving care.’
Marlene’s eyes were hard, her nostrils flaring. Like a horse with a cob on. Rachel half expected her to whinny and start pawing the ground. ‘Certainly,’ she said, squeezing out the word like it’d kill her.
‘Jesus! What charm school did you go to?’ Janet muttered as they reached the car, out of earshot of Marlene, who stood on the front steps, arms folded, lips pursed, obviously intent on seeing them off the premises.
‘She shouldn’t be so touchy,’ Rachel said.
‘Rachel, you were suggesting, without any grounds, that her colleague, a man she respects and admires, is a potential rapist and murderer. That’s outrageous. You know what it’s like when someone accuses a cop of being dirty?’
They got in the car. ‘Sometimes they are,’ Rachel pointed out.
‘Yeah, but we hate it, don’t we? The possibility that someone’s joined the other side. It’s sickening.’ Janet started the engine, buckled her seat belt. ‘And if someone starts putting it about that a good cop is corrupt, it’s a total nightmare. Try and see it from her point of view.’
‘Why?’
‘Because a bit of bloody empathy’ – Janet was riled now – ‘will get you a damn sight further than slinging your weight around. We want her cooperation. I know Marlene; she’s brilliant at what she does, so your little party piece won’t put her off doing the best she can to protect those kids and get justice for them, and she’ll come through with the list. But a different face, a different day and we’d be whistling for it. Acting the way you did is like cutting off your nose to spite your face. You need to improve your communication skills.’
Rachel stifled a yawn, stared out of the window and let her drone on for a bit, wondering how she could establish Martin Dalbeattie’s whereabouts on the day of Lisa’s murder without anyone finding out.
34
‘MUM?’
‘Sammy?’ Expecting him to ask about a sleepover or money to go to the cinema.
‘I’m at hospital.’
‘What?’ Gill’s heart bucked in her chest. ‘Why?’
‘I’m OK – broke my wrist.’
‘How? What happened?’
‘Argument with a car.’
Her blood ran cold. I should have been there. ‘Which hospital?’
‘The General, A and E.’
‘Right, stay there. I’m on my way.’
Gill asked Andy to step up. Hopefully she’d be back in the saddle soon enough.
‘Anything I can do?’ Janet asked when Gill gave her the news on her way out.
‘No, ta.’
Her mind was spinning fantasies as she drove: what if he had internal injuries too? They didn’t always present themselves immediately. What car? Some pillock taking the lane too fast, fifty-five in a thirty-mile zone? Had they even stopped? Which hand? If it was his right hand, how would he cope at college? Hit and run? Had anyone else been hurt? Oh, God. He’d have said, wouldn’t he? Would he?
The car park was chock-a-block, so she pulled in near the ambulance bay. Where had he been when it happened? He must have already had an X-ray if he knew it was broken. Why hadn’t he called her earlier?
She spotted him straight away, on the chairs in the waiting area, talking to another patient or relative, an older bloke.
‘Sammy, you OK?’
‘Hi, Mum, it’s cool.’ He looked relieved she was there. One wrist, the left, was in a basic sling, but not cast or bandaged. His fingers were cut and grazed and she saw the denim on both his knees was torn, with traces of blood and dirt there. She sat beside him, touched his right shoulder gently. ‘Does it hurt?’
‘Yes.’ He nodded.
‘They should give you something,’ she said. Leaving him to suffer!
‘Said they will, after I’ve had the bandage on, then I’ve to come back to the fracture clinic in a few days for the plaster.’
Gill shook her head. ‘Did the car stop? Where were you?’
‘This is Matthew,’ he said, indicating a man on the other side of him.
What did she care?
‘It was his car,’ Sammy said.
‘Really?’ She’d break Matthew’s wrists, both of them, then his ankles.
‘He brought me here.’
‘Oh, how kind,’ she sneered.
‘Mum,’ Sammy said.
‘Runs you over but at least he stops, eh?’
‘Your son was skateboarding, in the dark,’ Matthew said crisply. ‘I didn’t see him until I was on top of him. It could have been a hell of a lot worse.’ He was blazing, but containing it – just. A craggy face, greying hair. Well spoken.
Gill was mortified. She turned to Sammy. ‘I have told you-’
‘I know,’ he said quickly. ‘I didn’t realize it was so dark. It wasn’t when I started.’
‘What were you doing on the fucking road,’ she hissed. Aware of heads turning, of voyeurism rippling around them.
‘It’s the best surface,’ he said.
‘We’ve a whole driveway, Sammy.’