She sits back heavily on the bed, and reaches for her tablet to check when the next episode is due. Three days – three days? – she can’t wait that long, can’t not know that long. And why did it have to be now, of all times? When she can’t talk to Adam, can’t ask him what to do –
She puts a hand to her mouth, pushing down a sudden panic. How often has she heard her husband say there’s no such thing as coincidence – not in policework. What if the timing isn’t random at all?
* * *
‘Say that again?’
The team are gathered round the whiteboard. Not just Ev now, but Gis, Quinn, Baxter, Asante.
‘I was looking through Tobin Fisher’s colouring book,’ says Somer. ‘He’s doing a picture of St George and the Dragon. And he’s not doing the dragon in green, like he’s supposed to. He’s doing it in red.’ She points at the photo on the board. ‘Exactly like that.’
‘Coincidence?’ offers Asante.
‘No such thing,’ says Ev. ‘That’s what the boss always says.’
There’s the smallest of pauses, an ebb of time in which they all think the same thing, see the same face, then deal with it and move on.
‘So the question,’ says Gis thoughtfully, ‘is how Tobin could have known about Caleb Morgan’s tattoo.’
Baxter shrugs. ‘Perhaps Morgan took him swimming? I mean, he babysat him a lot, didn’t he. It’s not impossible.’
‘Or perhaps he mowed the lawn,’ says Quinn. ‘Easy to see him getting his top off in this weather –’
‘Marina Fisher doesn’t have a lawn,’ says Asante quietly. ‘The garden is paved.’
Quinn folds his arms and frowns. He hates being corrected, especially by Asante.
‘We can check the swimming thing easily enough,’ says Everett.
‘But what if it’s not that?’ asks Somer, looking round at the others. ‘What if Morgan never went near a swimming pool with Tobin? Because if that’s the case –’
There’s a silence; it doesn’t need spelling out.
‘But it doesn’t tally, does it?’ says Baxter eventually. ‘Morgan never said anything about them getting their kit off that night – in fact, he said quite explicitly that they didn’t.’
‘So,’ begins Gis, ‘either the boy saw the tattoo some other time –’
‘And recently,’ says Somer quickly. ‘He’s only halfway through that picture – it has to be within the last week.’
‘– or Caleb Morgan is lying about what happened during the alleged assault. After also conveniently failing to tell us about the incident with Freya on the doorstep –’
He doesn’t finish the sentence. He doesn’t need to.
Ev turns to him. ‘But that was a lie by omission not commission. It’s not the same. He’d have every reason not to mention he’d pushed Freya, but why lie about the sexual assault? What’s in it for him?’
Gis looks blank. ‘Search me.’
‘It’s on the Welsh flag, though, isn’t it? The red dragon?’ says Asante. ‘Presumably that’s why Morgan got the tattoo in the first place. Maybe Tobin picked it up from that. Maybe it’s nothing to do with the tattoo.’
Quinn considers. ‘Well, I guess it’s possible, but the only time I ever see Welsh flags is rugby or football, and this kid doesn’t seem to be interested in sport at all.’
‘And Wales weren’t in the World Cup either,’ adds Baxter, team footie wonk.
‘So he wouldn’t even have seen the flag on TV,’ finishes Quinn. ‘Not lately, anyway.’
Baxter clears his throat. ‘Maybe we’re all overthinking this – what’s wrong with the bleeding obvious? Fisher and Morgan were having an affair – they were going at it in the kitchen that night and the kid caught them doing it.’
Gis looks round at him. ‘But if that’s the case, why didn’t Fisher just come out and tell us that right from the start? Why let things get so out of hand?’
‘Perhaps she was scared of losing her job,’ says Ev. ‘If she admitted having an affair with a student she’d probably be sacked.’
‘She’ll be sacked pretty damn fast if she’s convicted of assault,’ says Quinn darkly. ‘Those stilettos of hers won’t touch the bloody ground.’
‘Yeah,’ says Ev quickly, ‘but that’s just it. If she’s convicted – not if she’s just accused. Perhaps she decided her best bet was to keep on saying she can’t remember and banking on there not being enough evidence for the CPS to pursue the case.’
‘OK,’ says Gis, ‘so being devil’s advocate – why did Morgan make the allegation in the first place if they’ve been banging on the quiet this whole time?’
Ev shrugs. ‘Who knows why people do anything? Could be a power play, revenge –’
‘Or to get him off the hook with Freya,’ says Asante. ‘We know how jealous she was – I can see her losing it big time if she discovered Morgan really was having an affair.’
‘So – what?’ says Somer. ‘Freya finds out something happened between Morgan and Fisher that night, and Morgan tries to dodge the bullet by claiming she assaulted him?’
‘Lipstick on his collar,’ says Baxter, ‘told a tale to Hughes?’
‘It was the scratches,’ says Ev quietly. ‘She told me as much.’
Quinn gives her a dry look. ‘Yeah, well, you don’t get those playing bloody Scrabble, now do you?’
Baxter nods. ‘And Morgan wouldn’t be the first person to allege sexual assault to get themselves off the hook with their partner.’
The implication hangs in the air: it might well be one of the oldest tricks in the book, but the people who play it are almost always women. Not tough, athletic young men.
‘There was one thing,’ says Asante slowly. ‘At the end of the interview, Fisher’s lawyer said the kid’s been having nightmares. Perhaps the dragon thing is connected with that?’
He looks round but they’re not joining the dots – not yet.
‘What I mean,’ he continues, ‘is that if Fisher really did have sex with Morgan that night and the kid saw them, maybe that explains why he’s so disturbed? Sex probably looks pretty scary if you don’t know what’s going on and you’re only eight.’
Ev is nodding again. ‘I buy that. Especially a kid like him. From what I’ve heard he sounds pretty fragile.’
Gis takes a deep breath. ‘OK,’ he says. ‘It doesn’t look like we have much choice. We need to ask Marina Fisher if she’ll let us question her son.’
* * *
Adam Fawley
12 July 2018
15.55
The lunch they brought me is congealing on its plastic tray. Hardly surprising, given it’s been there over an hour. The lad who brought it didn’t have the courage to look me in the eye, just dumped it and did one. I might as well have ‘pariah’ chalked on the door. So when the keys clatter in the lock again I wasn’t exactly expecting a social call. I hadn’t even remembered Gis was back in the office. It’s a measure of how fast I’ve fallen that I don’t find the contrast between me and his post-holiday self humiliating. Though he clearly does. He hesitates in the doorway, then comes in and pulls the door to behind him.