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The trouble is, thinks Nelson, there are just too many places for a lunatic druid to hide.
‘I’d better be off,’ he says. ‘Don’t worry. We’ll find him.’
‘Thanks, Nelson,’ says Judy.
Maddie is silent.
In the car, Nelson sees that he has a missed call from Tony. He presses ‘hands free’.
‘I think I’ve got something.’ The DS’s excited voice echoes round the car.
‘Gaia Webster,’ Nelson tells Tanya, Bradley and Lucy, ‘studied archaeology at St Jude’s College. Her tutor was Leo Ballard.’
‘Look to the sister,’ says Tanya. ‘I wonder if that’s what Ballard meant.’
‘It’s possible,’ says Nelson. ‘I want you to interview her, Tanya. She lives in Ely.’
This place name causes a murmur in the room and an excited noise from Tony on the screen.
‘Tony,’ says Nelson, ‘tell the others about the photo.’
‘I was looking again at the photo of Emily, Tom and Cathbad in the café,’ says Tony, waving the photocopy in front of his face although it’s too small for any of them to see. ‘I wasn’t sure who the figure in the background was. Freya said it was her but now I’m not so sure. Gaia still wears her hair like that, with plaits wound round her head. And Freya has a prominent mole on her cheek. I’ve zoomed in and can’t see it on the woman in the picture.’
‘Why would Freya say it was her?’ says Tanya.
‘I don’t know,’ says Tony. ‘But she was evasive about Gaia. She said she’d left home but didn’t say she went to university or who she studied with. In fact, Gaia had already graduated in 2002. She works in a museum now. I’m not sure I believe that Freya and Gaia lost touch either.’
‘You need to talk to Freya again, Tony,’ says Nelson. ‘Ring her up. Do it at the same time Tanya talks to the sister, so they can’t confer.’
‘I’ve got some news too,’ says Bradley, who has clearly been holding this announcement in. ‘I’ve made a breakthrough on Ballard’s car.’
‘Good work,’ says Nelson. ‘Did you find it?’
Bradley looks at his phone. ‘Ballard drove a Triumph Spitfire 1500. In April 2002 he put it into a classic car auction. It was bought by a man called Steve Elsing, who still has it. I spoke to him this morning. He’s a collector but it doesn’t sound like he drives his cars much. He’s agreed to let us have it for forensic tests.’
‘Better and better,’ says Nelson. ‘If it hasn’t been driven much since 2002, we might be able to get some evidence from it.’
‘A bit suspicious that Ballard got rid of his car a month after Emily vanished?’ says Tanya.
‘Very suspicious,’ says Nelson. ‘I’m surprised that the police didn’t seize it at the time. It was a sloppy investigation, as far as I can see. Of course, they didn’t realise it was a murder enquiry at first. It was never classified as such. Is there anything else?’
‘We got something from the house-to-house,’ says Tanya. She nods at Lucy to continue. The new DS hasn’t spoken yet, although she has been taking copious notes in her black book.
Now Lucy clears her throat. ‘We spoke to a Mrs Anne Bunting in Unthank Road, round the corner from Tony. She says that a man knocked on her door, about midday on Friday, and asked to use her phone. I showed her Michael Malone’s– Cathbad’s– picture and she made a positive identification.’
‘Why did he want to use her phone?’ says Bradley.
‘He’d left his mobile at home,’ says Nelson. ‘Typical. Did this Mrs Bunting let him use her landline?’
‘She did,’ says Lucy. ‘She said she thought he had an honest face.’
Nelson snorts but he knows what the woman means. Cathbad can radiate integrity when he wants to. It’s very annoying.
He says, ‘Did she hear any of the conversation?’
‘At first she said she didn’t,’ says Lucy, ‘but, when I pressed a bit, she said that she heard him say something about a gate.’
‘A gate?’
