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‘Does Arabella have Alzheimer’s?’
‘Yes, I understand it was early onset. Very sad. She’s been with us ten years. I’ve only been here for five.’
Peter Webster died in 2010, Tanya remembers. His wife must have entered the care home two years later. She wonders which of the sisters made the decision. She asks again about visitors.
‘Gaia comes quite often,’ says Adele. ‘About once a week now that restrictions have been lifted. I understand that she lives near by. The other sister comes occasionally.’ She pauses. ‘In fact, Arabella will probably think that you’re one of her daughters. Don’t let that upset you.’
‘I won’t,’ says Tanya.
The visiting room is large with French windows opening onto the lawn. ‘Ventilation,’ explains Adele. ‘Don’t forget to use hand sanitiser.’ Tanya squirts the gel liberally and finds her eyes watering. This stuff must be neat alcohol.
There’s a plastic screen across one corner of the room and a woman sits behind it, slumped awkwardly in an armchair. She’s wearing a Perspex face shield and her eyes seem to be closed.
‘Visitor for you, Arabella,’ says Adele, in a loud, cheerful voice.
Tanya approaches as the woman’s eyes open.
‘Emily,’ she says.
Nelson has planned another surprise visit to Leo Ballard but is, in his turn, rather taken aback to see two cars parked outside the lecturer’s house, the electric Kia and a large BMW, which is almost certainly diesel powered. Before he can hammer on the door, it opens and a couple appear, clearly the BMW’s owners because they match the car so well: a tall man in well-cut chinos and a glossy woman in a green dress. They both stop when they see Nelson glowering on the doormat.
‘Ah, DCI Nelson!’ Leo is hovering in the background. Nelson can just see his untidy hair. ‘What a pleasant surprise.’
Nelson is about to disabuse him of this idea when Leo says, ‘Have you met my former students Tom and Amber Westbourne?’
Nelson looks at the BMW couple with new interest. They look so much older than the girl in the photo on the incident room board but, had she lived, Emily Pickering might also be a well-groomed forty-year-old in a posh car. Nelson assumes that Tom and Amber are in the area for Emily’s funeral, which is scheduled for tomorrow. He thinks it’s interesting that they have taken time to call in on their old tutor.
‘I think my sergeant paid you a visit the other week,’ he says, unsmiling.
‘Yes,’ says Amber, chin lifting. ‘DS Fuller. She was very nice.’
If so, thinks Nelson, Tanya is losing her touch. He wonders whether her caring side is emerging in the nursing home.
‘We wanted to call in on Leo before the funeral tomorrow,’ says Tom. ‘Just for support.’
Who is supporting whom? wonders Nelson. But it’s interesting that Tom has offered this explanation. Especially when Nelson didn’t ask for one.
‘I’ll see you at the funeral,’ he says. ‘Now I’d like a word with Professor Ballard.’
He stands in the hallway while Amber kisses Leo on the cheek and Tom shakes him by the hand. Then the car roars away over the gravel.
‘What’s all this about, DCI Nelson?’ Leo sounds slightly less affable as he leads the way into the fire hazard of a study.
‘Do you know who this is?’ Nelson proffers a recent photograph of Cathbad. Supplied by Judy, it shows the druid on the beach with his dog at his side.
‘That’s Cathbad,’ says Leo. ‘He hasn’t changed much. Clean living, I suppose.’
‘When did you see Cathbad last?’
‘Years ago,’ says Leo. ‘It must have been when he was working at UNN. I think we met at an archaeology dig.’
‘One of your colleagues says that she saw you and Cathbad together at a party a few years ago,’ says Nelson.
‘Who said that?’ says Leo. ‘I can’t remember any party.’
Nelson is not about to give him the name. ‘This colleague said that you made a remark about Cathbad knowing where the bodies were buried,’ says Nelson. ‘What did you mean by that?’
‘I can’t remember ever making any such remark,’ says Leo. All the swagger has gone now and he looks wary, one leg jiggling convulsively.
