‘Let’s hope she didn’t,’ Diamond said, to draw a line under all the speculation. He turned to Ella. ‘If you wouldn’t mind stepping outside, I can point to the lake we were talking about as the setting for your project. I had a walk down there and it looks ideal to me.’
Ella’s eyes widened. She was hooked.
Outside the studio, and alone with Ella, he pointed down the hill towards the copse and added the promising news that large vehicles of some kind seemed to travel the estate. ‘I think you could safely ask Tom if you can bring the House of Usher here and whether they can provide the transport.’
‘It’s a good thought, but I couldn’t ask him.’
‘Why not?’
‘After I crashed the party, I’m not exactly the flavour of the month.’
‘Want me to have a word with him?’
‘About my project? Would you?’
‘If you don’t ask, you don’t get.’
She gave him a rare smile. ‘Thanks.’
‘And now will you tell me what happened to you at the party?’
The smile vanished. ‘To me?’
‘Did you take something that made you ill? It’s OK, you can be open with me. I’m not the drugs squad.’
‘Who told you?’ she said, fired up again. ‘Tom?’
‘Doesn’t matter. One of the others. They saw the state you were in and Ferdie told me you spent the night on the sofa and couldn’t face breakfast in the morning.’
The mood changed. She was resigned to Diamond knowing. ‘I took one tablet of E and it went to my head.’
‘Who supplied it?’
‘No one.’
‘That can’t be true, Ella.’
‘Someone at another party, ages ago. I’ve had it in my room ever since and I brought it with me. Tom was pissed off with me, but he acted really kind, helped me across to the house and made me comfortable on the sofa. I said some cringe-making stuff to him. I think I even tried to kiss him. In the morning he drove me home in his MG. Not quite home, because I didn’t want my parents finding out, so he put me down at the end of the street and I walked the rest. That’s it. End of story.’
‘Have you told the others?’
‘Not yet. I’d really like them to know I rode in the MG, but it’s kind of embarrassing, me spending the night there and not sleeping with Tom. I’m supposed to be the most liberated girl in the school. They’d give me a hard time if they knew.’
‘He’d get a worse time. He’d lose his job.’
‘I swear to God he didn’t touch me.’
‘I believe you, Ella.’
‘Unlike some of his friends. They treated me like I was some kind of slag.’
‘Who do you mean?’
‘That Geraint, for one. He’s evil. I just happened to be standing near him and he scared me, the way he looked at my body. He called me “bitch” and grabbed my arm and squeezed really hard. I mean, just because me and him were both in goth gear it doesn’t give him the right to hit on me. I only got away by spilling pineapple juice down his trousers.’
Diamond managed not to smile.
‘And worse than that was Davy.’
‘The model?’
‘He was coming on to me even before I reached the studio. He stopped me outside, where he was having a smoke. I couldn’t avoid him. He’s middle-aged and he was, like, “Hey, babe, I wouldn’t mind seeing you without your kit on.” That fat old freak wanting to me to strip for him. I nearly threw up on the spot, I was so disgusted. Just because everyone has seen him nude he thinks he can get away with murder. Well, not murder, but really bad behaviour.’
‘But you managed to escape?’
‘This is going to sound bad. You’ve got to remember I crashed the party. I told you I met Davy outside the studio when I arrived. I decided it would be easier going in the door with someone else than on my own, so I took control. I walked into the studio with him as if we were an item and dumped him after one dance.’
‘Have you spoken to him since?’
‘No, and not to Geraint either.’
‘Two men got their marching orders in one night. You’re formidable.’
She grinned.
‘And you didn’t see much more of the party because the ecstasy tablet made you ill? Was it still in full swing when you left?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘So it’s not impossible that Mel turned up later — after getting the text about Miss Gibbon — and you didn’t see her?’
Denial was written all over her face. She didn’t want to be blamed for sending the text. ‘There’s no evidence of that. Nobody saw her. That was just a dumb idea of Naseem’s.’
Diamond wasn’t letting it go so easily. ‘Remembering what happened to you — meeting Davy outside the studio — it’s just possible Mel did try to gate-crash and was met outside and never got in.’
She caught her breath. ‘Who would have met her — Davy?’
‘As you say, it’s a dumb idea.’
25
The life drawing still hadn’t resumed when Diamond returned. Davy the model was standing outside the studio in his dressing gown, smoking, no doubt pleased to be earning a fee for doing nothing. Inside, the noise level had reduced and the food and drinks had been cleared away. But some of the artists were restless.
‘Something holding you up?’ Diamond asked Drusilla.
She rolled her eyes upwards. ‘We can’t start without Tom. We need him to set the pose.’
‘Where is he?’
‘Over at the house. There’s some kind of flap going on. The police arrived.’
He moved fast. Two response cars and a large yellow van marked SPECIALIST SEARCH UNIT had drawn up in front of the house. Georgina was there among a group of uniformed officers doing her best to appear in control of events.
‘So there you are,’ she said when he approached, and made it sound like a rebuke.
‘What happened?’
‘Isn’t that obvious?’
‘But what brought them here — a tip?’
‘Better than that,’ Georgina said. ‘Good information. One of the many responses to the TV appeal. On the night of the party a Boxgrove businessman was returning late from London in his car when he passed someone on a scooter in the lane only half a mile from here.’
‘A scooter?’ The hairs on his neck stood up. ‘Mel?’
‘He said she looked young and female. This was about eleven to eleven fifteen. The report was processed with all the other possible sightings and this morning Chichester CID linked it to information from the parents that Melanie came here on Saturdays for the art sessions.’
His throat had gone dry. ‘Is Montacute with them?’
‘With the Standforths in the house. He knows all about the party.’
‘He won’t know all about it. He won’t know about the texts Mel was getting.’
Georgina said with a petulant sigh. ‘What’s this — something else you’ve been keeping from me?’
He was far too troubled over Mel to get into a spat with Georgina. He simply told her what he’d heard from the schoolgirls.
‘How long have you known this?’ she asked, still suspicious he’d failed to share vital information.
‘A few minutes.’
He could have joined in with her as she spoke the thoughts forming in her brain:
‘These text messages may have been the trigger for Melanie going out that night, especially the one about Miss Gibbon being a member of the art group before she went missing. We know how keen the girl was to trace Miss Gibbon. She must have got on her scooter and come straight here to find out more.’
He nodded. Speech was difficult right now for him.
‘You’d better inform Montacute. He’s in charge of the hunt for the girl. Our enquiries, such as they were, have been overtaken.’
‘He won’t welcome being told.’