Page 24 of The Way We Are Now

‘Unhappy?’ The three of us looked at each other for confirmation.

‘Just the opposite,’ I said. ‘She was really getting into her coursework, and then she’d started seeing Theo Mandeville.’

‘The thing is… Anna…? Anna, we spoke to a couple of her lecturers before we came up here. She doesn’t appear to have been going into college much.’

‘Oh, but she has,’ I said stoutly. ‘She said so. Told me she was really into Thom Gunn.’

‘Thom Gunn?’ The woman wrote down the name.

‘English–American poet,’ I said. ‘Gay, his mother, committed suicide when he was just fifteen…’ I trailed off. Why on earth was I explaining this to a woman who looked to have absolutely no interest in poets, gay or otherwise?

‘His mother is called Gay?’ The woman looked momentarily confused. ‘Oh, right, I get you.’

‘Can you think of any reason why she might have stopped going to lectures?’ The DI looked intently from one to the other of us. ‘Was she unhappy? Had you had a bit of a falling out maybe? Not always easy, you know, living on top of each other: nicking each other’s last Rolo; can’t get in the bathroom… someone taken all the hot water?’

‘What? No, no. Fliss was our mate. We all got on.’ I shook my head.

‘How long?’ Katy asked. ‘You know, how long has she not been going to lectures?’ Katy was beginning to sound like a mother trying to work out why their child had been legging it from school.

‘We all miss lectures occasionally,’ Clare put in with an apologetic little laugh. ‘You know, if we’ve been out and drunk a bit too much.’

‘Fliss never does,’ I protested. ‘She can get in at four in the morning and still be up for a nine o’clock lecture. Make-up on, clothes coordinated. Off in her Mini.’

‘A bit of a good-time girl, is she?’

‘A good-time girl?’ I stared. ‘I’m sorry, what’s that supposed to mean?’

‘That she likes to have a good time, that’s all.’ DI Crowther offered a little apologetic wave of his hand.

Katy nodded. ‘I’ll say that about her. You know, she’s always up for a laugh, up for a good night out.’

‘What else would you say about Felicity?’

‘Erm.’ Katy went pink once more. ‘Well, she’s…’

Clare turned to the DI. ‘Where is she then? Do you know? Have her lecturers reported her?’

‘Oh, don’t be daft, Clare.’ Katy tutted. ‘You’re not reported to the police for not going to lectures.’

‘The university tell us she’s from the London area. Has she seen her parents lately as far as you know?’

‘Oh, is this about her parents?’ I felt relief flood through me. Had something happened to them rather than to Fliss? ‘Her dad’s in Chelsea and her mum’s in Barbados on holiday at the moment,’ I explained. ‘Actually, possibly more than a holiday. Fliss seemed to think she’d met someone out there.’

‘Jamaica,’ Clare corrected, laughing. ‘Do you remember, I made that joke about Jamaica: “No, she went of her own accord.”?’ Clare looked across at us all, hoping for some sort of appreciation of her wit, but no one gave it.

‘Her mum and dad haven’t been together for a long time,’ I clarified.

‘But was she close to them?’

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘You’ll have to ask her yourself.’ But then I relented. ‘Not with her mother, I don’t think. She’d been in contact with her father – been to stay with him in London recently.’

‘Could we see her room?’

‘I’ll take you up there.’ Katy appeared to have taken charge again, and I got the feeling she was actually enjoying the drama.

‘Look, is she OK?’ I asked. ‘You can’t just come in here, asking questions about Fliss and not tell us what it’s all about. Is she OK?’

DI Crowther patted my arm kindly. ‘That’s what we need to find out, Anna.’ He turned to Katy. ‘Upstairs?’