He turned to walk down the corridor as Mrs Vicks called loudly to a girl that she should return to her class.
‘I need to use the bathroom, Mrs Vicks.’
‘Very well, straight there and back, Alice. I will be timing you.’
Reid slowed his steps, the classroom door closed, and he heard the soft footfall of the girl behind him. As she approached he recognized her as the small quiet girl who had been sitting behind Serena. As she passed him she threw him a small rolled-up piece of paper and continued along the corridor into the toilets. He unfolded it and saw that written in a hurried scrawl were the words ‘Facebook – Slut Shaming’.
He paused a moment in the hope Alice would come out, but she didn’t and so he headed down the stairs to the ground floor. He made it to the exit of the complex but was then at a loss as to which way he should continue, until he saw one of the painted arrows to the art studio and recalled Detective Lane mentioning a Miss Polka. He decided he would see if she was available and made his way along a narrow path, following a second arrow pointing towards a glass-sided building with STUDIO in black letters over double French windows.
Peering through, he saw something that astonished him. There was a semi-nude female model on a draped couch and eight girls sitting with big white pads on easels sketching her. He shook his head; if that had been on offer at his grammar school he would have definitely taken up art as a subject. Suddenly a voice behind him asked what he thought he was doing.
He whipped round in embarrassment. ‘I am so sorry, I am Detective Inspector Reid and-’
The woman interrupted him. ‘They are finishing their class in a few moments and I don’t want them disturbed. Miss Harrington said you were here, so let me finish up and if you continue round this path and turn left there is a cottage at the end of it. The door is open so please let yourself in – it’s lunch time in a few minutes so we can talk there in private without interruption.’
He thanked her and she gave him a lovely smile. DS Lane had said she was very attractive but he was taken aback by just how gorgeous she was. She had what he would describe as Marilyn Monroe hair, that thick curly platinum-blonde, wide blue eyes and a small straight nose and then a mouth not covered in garish red lipstick but pink and natural. He had not had time to take in what she was wearing as he had been so struck by her face. As he walked to her cottage he laughed to himself as she must have first thought of him as some kind of peeping tom. Even though it was later than he had anticipated being at the school, he had no intention of leaving until he had talked to Miss Polka.
Arriving at the cottage, he let himself in just as the sound of the dinner bell could be heard from the main building. While he had been unable to see what the rest of Miss Polka looked like as he had been so smitten by her face, he now had every opportunity, as lining the small hallway were numerous photographs of her. A couple were of her posed naked like a Greek statue and she was breathtakingly pretty. Although the photos looked as if they had been taken a few years ago, he couldn’t resist examining them more closely, with the result that he was caught out yet again as she walked in and he flushed with embarrassment as she laughed.
‘I see you’ve found me. That was taken a while back, Sonoran Desert, Mexico.’
She ushered him into a small sitting room with more portraits of her, and again she laughed.
‘I used to live with the artist – nobody wanted to buy them so I kept them all here. Now let me make us a sandwich and put on some fresh coffee.’
‘Thank you, I’d like that.’
She cocked her head to one side, her expression suddenly very serious. ‘I need to talk to you about Amy; she is sadly missed. If you’re interested, there’s some of her work over on the window seat.’
The folder was made of cardboard with a red cord around it, and as he untied it some of the sketches fell onto the floor. They were in charcoal, smudged like shadows, and appeared to be of grotesque skeletons. Two were what he realized must be self-portraits, but both were incomplete, as if Amy had deliberately intended drawing only part of her face and leaving the other side blank. They were very good, but also quite unnerving. He couldn’t help but wonder why she had chosen to leave her face incomplete.
Chapter 20
Miss Polka carried in a tray of sandwiches and two mugs of coffee, with milk and sugar on the side. She was wearing a simple pale blue shirt tied at the waist with a patent leather belt and a full circular skirt of some soft material.
‘Sorry, did I make you jump?’ she said, smiling, and then indicated her black ballet pumps.
‘I always wear these as I am on my feet for most of the day. A long time ago I wanted to be a ballet dancer, but as often with teenage dreams I never had the opportunity or probably the inclination to put in the amount of hard work it takes to be an accomplished dancer.’
She moved like one, passing him a plate with a napkin and offering him his mug of coffee, then spooning in the two sugars he asked for. She placed a small round table beside him, so he was able to put down his plate and drink his coffee easily. It was strong, and the tuna mayonnaise and salad sandwich on crusty brown bread was delicious. She sat to one side of him on a small round cushioned stool.
‘This is just what I needed, Miss Polka.’
‘Please, it’s Jo, short for Josephine. Just so you know, I don’t often allow any of the pupils to be here, it’s sort of frowned on, even more so if Miss Harrington were to see all my nudity on display. It’s my private little domain and I don’t have any other place during term time, but during breaks I travel as much as possible.’
He nodded, remarking that he had always felt teachers had it cushy with so many holidays, unlike himself. She smiled and gave a small nonchalant shrug of her shoulders, saying that if teachers’ wages were higher then she would agree with him.
‘I find Amy’s artwork a bit disturbing,’ he confessed, finishing his sandwich.
‘Yes, but she is very talented, extremely versatile – some of her fabric designs are excellent and her still lifes even more so.’
She nibbled at her sandwich, and then nodded to the portfolio. ‘They were done last term. I have hopes of her working in oils or acrylic, but she seems to avoid colours – even her fabric designs are always in black and white.’
‘Why has she left half her face unfinished?’
‘I don’t know – she certainly was able to sketch her own likeness.’
‘Yes, I recognized her straight away.’
‘She is a very beautiful girl, very tall and slender, but I think her inability to make the usual schoolgirl attachments saddens her.’
‘Attachments?’
She seemed flustered. ‘By that I mean making friends – she is very much a loner, and it concerns me because it makes her appear very aloof, as if she is much older than the other girls in her class.’
‘You like her?’
Miss Polka nodded and turned away from him. He sipped his coffee, watching her, and got the feeling she wanted to tell him something but was avoiding it. Eventually she spoke quietly.
‘What do you think has happened to her?’
‘I honestly don’t know. As you are probably aware she had a sleepover with Serena Newman, but said she was going to her father’s place in Mayfair and no one has seen her since.’
‘I found it odd that she would even agree to staying at Serena’s – not that I have anything against her, but they were never what I would call close friends.’
‘I was just with Amy’s class and it became evident Serena is a bit envious of her,’ he suggested.
‘Well Amy does not cultivate friendships, and when I said she is a talented artist, she is also academically very clever, as well as athletically. In fact, everything she does she accomplishes with ease and never appears to need to work at it; she’s also very adult and sophisticated for her age.’