Marcus nodded; he felt unbelievably tired, his body seemed heavy and his head throbbed. He held his hands tightly together, his palms wet as he was sweating with nerves, and he wanted to cry he was so numb from the shock of being arrested. He physically jumped when Jackson barged into the room. He introduced himself to McFarland and then gestured towards his DS.
‘This is Detective Sergeant David Styles, known to everyone as DS because of his initials and his rank obviously.’ If it was an attempt at a joke it fell flat. Drawing out a chair, he sat down, opening a thick file.
Jackson told Marcus the interview would be video-recorded and cautioned him. He was just about to begin when there was a knock at the door; he pushed his chair back and without even an excuse me left the room and saw DI Reid in the corridor.
‘Where the hell have you been, Reid?’
‘I have been with a Professor Elliot Cornwall and he has agreed to assist the investigation. There’s been a development and I-’
Jackson jabbed him in the chest with his stubby finger.
‘Whoever he is, you better have a bloody good reason for not informing me where you were going. You wait until I’m through in there and then see me in my office.’
‘Maybe, sir, you should speak to Professor Cornwall straight away or at least let me tell you what he said.’
‘I have Marcus Fulford in there with his solicitor; when I’m finished he will either be charged with murder or out of here, pending further enquiries. If it’s the latter you’re to blame for a piss-poor initial investigation.’
‘I did inform Chief Superintendent Douglas about taking the journal to an expert and-’
‘He may be senior to me but he’s not running this investigation, I AM! You are hanging onto your career by a thread because of insubordination; you have the journal of Amy Fulford, right? RIGHT?’
‘I did, sir, it’s at the lab for examination, but I have a photocopy for you.’
‘You should have told me earlier about the journal. Now get out of my sight and I’ll see you tomorrow.’
Banging the door closed behind him, Jackson strode back into the interview room.
Two hours later, Marcus was released without charge and returned to Lena’s. He had fixed himself a tumbler of scotch and settled himself at the dining table, which was still set for dinner. By now he was totally drained and had not even turned the lights on, preferring to sit in the semi-darkness, the dining room lit only by the hall lights. He had been sitting there for some time before Lena came down from her bedroom, wearing a nightdress and matching robe.
‘I didn’t hear you come home.’
‘Sorry, I didn’t want to disturb you.’
‘Agnes got some chicken in white wine sauce out for dinner – are you hungry?’
‘No, I couldn’t eat anything.’
‘Me neither. I expected you hours ago – you could at least have called me.’
She drew a chair closer to sit beside him.
‘Have they found something? Is that why you have been so long?’
‘No, they only interviewed me, and thank God for McFarland,’ Marcus said, meeting her eyes. ‘I really appreciate you arranging for him to be with me; he calmed me down and guided me through the interview – well, if you can call it that; it was more like a bloody Gestapo interrogation by DCI Jackson. I was finding it really hard to control myself.’
‘I’ve been so worried, but I don’t really understand why they took you in.’
He sighed and sipped his scotch. He told her that Harry Dunn had found Amy’s watch in his Mini, and hidden it, and he had been arrested and questioned about it. He hesitated.
‘I maybe should have told you, because I think Amy might have left it in the car when we went over to Henley one weekend,’ he went on quietly. ‘You know how she liked to ride there. It was raining hard so she never actually rode out, but I had spare keys for Simon’s place so we had a look round – well, Amy more than myself, while I made us a black coffee to warm up.’
‘Did they think because of the watch you had something to do with her disappearance?’
‘Jackson seemed convinced Harry and I were involved, but he admitted to finding the watch between the seats in the Mini and taking it.’
‘Well he’s out of a job, the nasty little thief. When I think what I have done for him,’ she spat.
‘I never asked him to clean the Mini – that was bloody Agnes. Jackson thought I’d asked Harry to valet the car and innocently get rid of any evidence. If I’d known Amy’s watch was there I’d have told the police right away.’
‘She loves that watch.’
‘I know, also that it’s a Cartier and you got it for her birthday; anyway, they then went on to question me about…’ He paused, not sure how he should tell her.
‘Go on, question you about what?’
Marcus explained that there was video footage from the vice squad, and that Amy had been caught on CCTV footage and appeared to be soliciting a passing motorist for sex.
‘She was wearing her school uniform, Lena.’ He was close to tears.
‘Well I don’t believe it, it’s preposterous. This Detective Jackson is a disgusting loathsome man; he came here and I refused to even continue talking to him. I think they are trying in some ways to implicate the both of us in her disappearance. I am going to make an official complaint against him; it’s outrageous that they are treating us like this, scrabbling around in a pitiful attempt to blame us because they are incompetent. As from now I will only talk to Detective Reid.’
He reached out and held her hand.
‘It’s not looking good, Lena. I mean it’s obvious they think that she’s met with some nightmare – do you understand what I am saying?’
Lena held his hand tighter. ‘They think she’s been murdered, don’t they?’
He nodded, hardly able to accept it, and yet by Lena being so calm it somehow made it a reality.
‘They’ve a murder team handling the case now. But they still have no evidence of an abduction and…’ He couldn’t say it, but Lena knew what he meant, that they had found no trace of a body. She released her hand from his and leaned towards him, putting her arms around him.
‘We just have to deal with it, don’t we?’
‘How do you deal with it, Lena? It’s as if I have a gaping hole in my chest all the time and I can’t face it, because if God forbid it’s true, how do we go on?’
She cradled him and kissed him, closer now than they had been for years.
‘Listen, darling, I will make you a hot drink and you take a couple of my sleeping tablets; you’ll feel more able to cope in the morning. You go up and get into bed and I’ll bring in a tray.’
She got up and went to the kitchen, taking a pan and heating up some milk to make him a hot chocolate. She noticed the two cartons of food and the note from Agnes on the draining board. It made her laugh that the ever-efficient Agnes had forgotten to label something. Lena wrote on the note that both cartons were in the fridge and then buttered two slices of bread without the crusts and cut them into soldiers.
Lena carried the tray into her bedroom, but Marcus wasn’t there. She left the tray on the dressing table and looked in her en-suite bathroom but he wasn’t there either. She went into the guest bedroom and could see by the light from the bathroom that he was taking a shower.
‘Marcus, I’ve made you a hot chocolate. It’s in my bedroom.’
He came out wrapped in a big white bath towel, his hair dripping.
‘Can you bring it in here? I’m just going to see where Agnes has put my clothes.’
‘They’re in my room, so you can have it in there.’
‘No, Lena, let me just have a really good night’s sleep in here. Let’s not use what’s going on as anything we will regret later. I’m sorry if you got confused about my being here, but I had nowhere else to go.’