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Chapter 18
Monday 8th February
Cheltenham Central Police Station
‘Right, so who knew you were thinking of leaving the country around the 1st of April? Apart from us? Who did you tell? Here, have another sip of water. Are you feeling OK?’
DCI Steph Warden leans across the table and touches Mary Ellis briefly on the hand. Her skin feels cold and clammy, and Steph scrutinises her face for a few moments.
She doesn’t look well, she thinks. Mary’s hair is tucked behind her ears, the scarring on her left cheek more livid than usual against the paleness of her face. When she’d spoken to Jess earlier to tell her she’d received something unsettling in the morning post, Jess had asked if she could bring it straight into the station, and Mary had been in reception within twenty minutes, her hands shaking as she’d handed over the brown envelope containing the single piece of paper with its disturbing message. It’s sitting on the table between them now, and Steph looks at it again as she waits for Mary to answer her question.
TWO DOWN, TWO TO GO.
DON’T TRY AND RUN, MARY ELLIS.
I’M WATCHING YOUR EVERY MOVE.
YOU CAN’T HIDE FROM ME, NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE.
TWO DOWN, TWO TO GO …
‘Mary? Who else knows?’ Jess, sitting next to Steph, says gently.
Mary picks up the glass of water in front of her, takes a sip, then another, then slowly puts the glass down again. She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand.
‘Hardly anyone. I mean, apart from Pete, obviously. I’ve told him I might go away.’
‘OK,’ says Jess. ‘Anyone else?’
‘Well …’ Mary hesitates, frowning. ‘Look, I wasn’t sure if I should mention this, because I wasn’t sure there was anything in it, but now …’
She points at the note on the table, and Steph nods.
‘Go on,’ she says.
Mary looks at her for a second, then her eyes flit to Jess, then back to Steph.
‘Right, well now I feel really stupid for not telling you about this before,’ she says. ‘I should have. I know you said if there wasanything…’
She sighs.
‘So, there’s this guy at work, at The Hub. His name is Edward Cooper. He’s single as far as I know, mid-forties; he’s a freelance PR guy, for sports gear companies mainly. He started working with us a few months back, around October time. And he’s … well, maybe I’m being unfair, he’s generally fine, and nobody else seems to have a problem with him. But I find him a little bit … well,creepy. He’s always appearing out of nowhere and sort of … looming over me. Standing far too close, you know what I mean?’
‘Sure,’ says Steph. ‘We’ve all met them.’
‘Definitely,’ says Jess. ‘But what’s worrying you about him specifically?’
Mary puts her elbows on the table and clasps her hands together, resting her chin on them for a moment, then says, ‘Well, last week I was at work and I started looking up flights to Botswana. I think I told you, Jess, that one of my oldest friends, Lucinda, is living there at the moment, and it’s one of the places I’ve thought about going if I do decide to get out of the country? Anyway, I had some time to spare in the office, and I know, Iknow, I probably shouldn’t have done it there, I should have done it at home or somewhere private, but I just didn’t think …’
She sighs again, and rolls her eyes, as if in despair at her own foolishness.
‘Anyway, suddenly there he was. Edward Cooper, creeping up behind me again, and he saw what I was doing, and he asked me about it. “Oooh, off to Botswana, that’s different,” he said, or something like that.’
She imitates her co-worker in a whiny, nasal-sounding voice which sounds quite comical, and Steph suppresses a smile.
‘OK. What happened next?’
‘Nothing really, because he was distracted by some notes on my desk. It was just before I went to Oxford, to chat to Lisa Turner’s brother for my article. I had some notes on a pad, and Edward asked me about that too. But then – and this is the thing I really should have told you sooner –thenhe told me that he’d been in Oxford for New Year’s Eve. He’d gone for the night with Satish Patel, another guy who works at The Hub. I mean, I know loads of people would have visited Oxford over the Christmas period, but …’
