The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths Read Free Book Online

Norfolk police’s PR department.’
    ‘Don’t take it out on me,’ says Ruth. ‘None of this is my fault.’
    ‘Oh no,’ says Cathbad nastily. ‘It’s nobody’s
fault
.’ He rings off.
    Ruth drinks her cold cappuccino and wonders how Cathbad always manages to make her feel so guilty. It’s not her fault that his friend’s been arrested. For all she knows, Liz Donaldson
could
have killed her children. It certainly seems too much of a coincidence for three babies in one family to die of unexplained causes. But haven’t there been cases like this before, where the mother was accused but turned out to be innocent? Ruth doesn’t know and, quite honestly, she doesn’t want to know. Her dreams are already full of abducted and murdered children; she doesn’t want to add Liz Donaldson to her list of nightmares.
    A perfunctory knock at the door and Phil’s beaming face appears.
    ‘Yes?’ says Ruth unhelpfully.
    ‘Having a coffee break, Ruth? I just came to tell you the good news.’
    ‘What is it?’ She has a feeling that she might not share Phil’s definition of good news.
    Sure enough.
    ‘The TV people definitely want to include us in theirprogramme on Mother Hook. We’ve got permission for a dig at the castle and a crew is going to film it all. We’re going to do some of it at night. With
arc lights
.’ Phil looks as if he is about to explode with excitement.
    ‘Is this
Women Who Kill
?’ She tries to put sarcastic quote marks around the title.
    ‘That’s right.’ Phil misses the irony. ‘An hour-long special. They’re going to interview me.’ Phil swells still further. No wonder he’s so happy. He’s always longed to be a TV expert. ‘And they’re going to feature you digging. They’re very keen on digging.’
    That suits Ruth. The longer she is hidden in a trench the better.
    ‘And they’re bringing in a well-known historian. Frank Barker. Have you heard of him?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘He’s an American,’ says Phil, as if this is an occupation.
    ‘What does an American knows about a nineteenth-century Englishwoman?’
    ‘He’s an expert on the Victorians,’ says Phil. ‘He’s done a lot of television.’
    Christ, he’s even starting to sound like a media buff.
He’s done a lot of television
. God help us.
    ‘There’s a meeting tomorrow,’ says Phil. ‘I said you’d be there.’
    ‘I can’t wait,’ says Ruth.

CHAPTER 7
    Tim is pleased when Nelson asks him to go with Judy to bring Liz Donaldson in. Judy and Clough usually pair up, leaving Tim with the keen but distinctly junior Tanya. This would be a chance to bond with Judy, whom he admires as an officer but finds rather enigmatic as a person. He often hears Judy laughing with Clough or Nelson but with him she’s always utterly serious, polite and pleasant enough but strictly unsmiling. Well, she’s not going to be smiling today. Cases with children are always tough and this one seems to have hit Judy hard, probably because she’s got a young child herself. In fact, the one time Judy almost unbent with him was when he showed her pictures of his twin nieces. ‘I don’t know how people cope with twins,’ she’d said, ‘I find it hard enough with one.’ ‘Have you got a picture of your son?’ he had asked. ‘No,’ she said, closing down immediately, though he knew for a fact that Baby Michael was her screen-saver. Well, perhaps this job – harrowing though it may be – would give them a chance to get to know each other better.
    They drive to the Donaldsons’ house as soon as they get the nod from Nelson. They don’t speak much on the way. Tim is driving and he hasn’t quite got the geography of King’s Lynn straight in his head. Judy promps him in a brisk monotone. She’s a local girl, Tim knows.
    Liz Donaldson answers the door. She’s in a pink tracksuit and Tim wonders if she was on the way to the gym. He’s a gym addict himself and would understand the impulse to lose yourself in exercise. Judy, though,