‘And officially they remain as missing persons. It answers a lot of the questions. Do you think it’s still going on, leaving the bodies at Littlehampton?’
‘Going on, yes, but I doubt if the location is the same. The Rigden case will have required a rethink. But from what we hear, people are still going missing all along the south coast.’
Georgina clearly liked what she’d heard. ‘No one in Chichester CID has thought of this.’
‘It’s just a theory,’ Diamond said.
‘But not obvious. If you and I can find Joe Rigden’s killer, we’re more than halfway to collaring the ghoul who is making so many bodies disappear without trace.’
‘Or there’s another way of looking at it.’
‘What’s that?’
‘Catch the ghoul first and he can lead us to our killer.’
She shook her head. ‘Far too difficult. He could be anywhere along the coast.’
‘He’s known to the people who use his services, else how would they contact him?’
‘Peter, I’m impressed. You’ve really thought this through. It wasn’t a day wasted.’
Here was a perfect opening ‘And how was your day, Georgina?’
This casual use of her name gave her a jolt. It practically gave her whiplash. Earlier on the trip she’d invited the liberty, but she hadn’t expected him to take it up. ‘My day?’ she eventually managed to say. ‘I was at the police station. I banged a few heads together, but basically they’re doing all they can. Soft-pedalling? I wouldn’t say so. Finding Joss is their priority and they’ve done all the right things, issued photos to the media, given a press conference, followed up on every lead.’
‘But no success?’
‘It’s not for want of trying.’
‘So DI Montacute can’t be faulted?’
‘He’s not the easiest person to get on with, but I’m used to dealing with awkward detectives.’
Diamond grinned.
‘However,’ Georgina went on, ‘I’m a little concerned about something that happened towards the end of the afternoon. It could so easily distract them. Well, it must, to some extent.’
He waited for her to go on.
‘In my opinion, it’s scarcely a CID matter at all. We deal with things like this all the time.’
‘Like what?’
‘A schoolgirl whose parents don’t know where she is. You and I know there’s nothing to get excited about when a teenager goes off the rails. In ninety-nine per cent of the cases they come back.’
His interest quickened. ‘Which school?’
‘Priory Park. She’s only been missing a few hours.’
‘Did you catch the name?’
‘Melanie Mason. Everyone calls her Mel.’
20
Miss Du Barry, the headmistress of Priory Park, liked to be known simply as the head. She was a natural leader, dignified, decisive and calm in a crisis. She also terrified the students. Here, in her office, seated in the white leather executive chair behind a desk that could have doubled as Queen Victoria’s funeral bier, she was ready to deal with anyone, police included. Gilt-framed portraits of previous headmistresses in academic dress adorned the wall behind her. She was in what she called informal attire, a charcoal grey suit and white blouse with a choker collar.
Peter Diamond, grey-suited as usual, on the other side of the desk in an upright chair a couple of inches lower than the head’s, had an inkling of how any girl summoned here must have felt. A sharp aroma invaded his nostrils and added to the unsettling effect. He traced it to an arrangement of yellow and white chrysanthemums only an arm’s length away, on the filing cabinet. Probably the school colours, he decided.
He’d come straight from the hotel. Georgina wasn’t with him, having told him quite reasonably that this was a distraction, unrelated to their mission. Doubtless she thought it was another excuse to avoid a meal in her company.
‘It’s late in the day, I know,’ Diamond said.
The head gave a thin indulgent smile. ‘Not at all. My responsibility is twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.’
‘It’s about the missing schoolgirl.’
‘We call them students, superintendent.’
‘The missing student, then.’
She gave a curt nod, familiar to anyone who has been through school, registering that a slow learner had got there without earning any credit. ‘And if they fail to appear in school we say they are absent.’
He wasn’t swallowing that. ‘By our reckoning, if a girl hasn’t been home all night and no one has heard from her, she’s missing.’
‘Do you have new information?’
‘Not yet, ma’am.’
‘Then why are you here?’
‘I need information from you.’
She tried persuasion first. ‘I have every confidence Melanie hasn’t come to any harm. Young people of her age often go through a rebellious stage and give their parents a fright.’ Then she covered herself. ‘However, we’re duty-bound to take it seriously.’
‘So are we. Have you spoken to the parents?’
‘To her stepfather, yes. He called me this morning, hoping one of her friends would know where she was.’
‘And I gather they don’t.’
‘No. Melanie happens to be the kind of girl who keeps her life outside school to herself. Most of them are only too eager to share every trivial detail with friends and with the world in general, using the entire paraphernalia of the social media. Not Melanie.’
‘Any reason for that?’
‘Her situation. She’s here on a bursary provided by the trade union her late father belonged to. He was killed in an accident at work. He was working-class, a road-mender, very different from the parents of most of our students. Any group of children is quick to notice an individual who is different. One can’t do anything about it.’
What an admission. ‘Have you tried?’
‘It doesn’t help the child in question. It’s group psychology at work.’
‘Mob violence.’
‘That’s overstating it. There was nothing physical involved. Some disapproval, a certain amount of teasing.’
‘Mental cruelty, then.’ Argument was futile, so he left it there. ‘But the mother remarried?’
‘To another working man.’
‘When did they first notice she’d gone?’
‘Don’t you know?’
Sharp question. He tried not to react like the class slacker. ‘I’m coming to the case rather late in the day.’
‘Melanie was at home yesterday evening in her room,’ the head informed him. ‘She would appear to have gone out at some point without saying anything to the parents. They discovered this when they were about to retire for the night, towards eleven. She never fails to say goodnight to them. The scooter she rides is missing. People of their sort are either panicky or indifferent in a situation like that. They are clearly the former. I understand they phoned your police station about six.’
Explaining that Chichester wasn’t his nick was just too complicated. ‘Everyone has been alerted. Is there a boyfriend?’
‘Not to the parents’ knowledge. And her fellow students haven’t heard of anyone either.’
‘But you said she keeps thing bottled up, so we can’t rule it out. Does she have any male teachers?’
Miss Du Barry shifted in her chair. ‘I don’t follow your reasoning here. If I do understand your question, I don’t care for it.’
‘It’s got to be asked,’ Diamond said. ‘Students have crushes sometimes and teachers have been known to take advantage.’
‘Not in this school.’
‘There’s always a first time. I assume you have some men on the staff?’
Her eyes slid upwards, letting him know this was all too impertinent. ‘A few.’
‘Getting back to my question, is Melanie taught by any of them?’