The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths Read Free Book Online Page A

gives the outfit a rather surprised look.
    ‘Liz,’ said Judy, ‘we have to ask you to come to the station with us. We need you to answer some questions for us.’
    ‘Can’t I answer them here?’
    ‘We need you to come to the station?’
    Liz looks from one face to another. ‘Am I under arrest?’
    By Tim’s reckoning she has asked this question far too soon but Judy replies calmly, ‘No, but we’d like to ask you some questions under caution.’
    ‘In line with the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984,’ adds Tim, thinking he might as well come across as the unsympathetic cop who sticks by the rules.
    ‘Attendance is voluntary,’ says Judy, shooting a rather unfriendly look at Tim.
    ‘I’ll come,’ says Liz. ‘Can you give me a few minutes to get ready?’
    Tim assumes that she’s going to change out of her tracksuit, but when she emerges a few minutes later she’s still a vision in pink. It’s only when they are half way tothe station that he realises what she has done. She’s put on her make-up.
    There are a still a few reporters camped at the front of the station so Judy tells Tim to drive around the back. As they hustle Liz in through the door, Tim can hear Tom Henty, the grizzled desk sergeant, bellowing at the press pack. ‘You’ll get nothing from us until such time as DCI Nelson makes a statement.’
    ‘Have you got new evidence?’
    ‘Has she confessed.?’
    ‘Has this brought back memories of the Scarlet Henderson case?’
    ‘Why …’
    ‘How …’
    ‘Vermin.’ Henty slams the door.
    Nelson is waiting in the lobby, trying to keep out of the sight lines. Tim hears him ask the sergeant, ‘Who asked that question about Scarlet Henderson?’
    ‘Some woman reporter, I think. Young. That’s her in the green jacket.’
    Tim thinks for a second that Nelson looks rattled; far too rattled, surely, for some fairly innocuous questions from a fairly innocuous group of hacks? But then he turns to Tim and Judy and he is his normal self, brusque but in control.
    ‘Take Mrs Donaldson into Interview Room 2, Johnson, and then we’ll have a quick team meeting.’
    *
    Nelson begins the briefing at a gallop. ‘We can only keepthe suspect in for twenty-four hours without charge so let’s get our interviewing strategy right. How did she seem?’
    ‘Calm,’ says Judy. ‘Self-composed.’
    ‘She asked us to wait while she put her make-up on,’ puts in Tim.
    Judy shoots him another black look. ‘I don’t see that that’s relevant. Most women put make-up on before they leave the house.’
    ‘Do you?’ mutters Clough. Judy pretends not to hear him. Tim gives Judy a sideways glance. Her face looks shiny and make-up free. She has nice freckles, he notices.
    ‘I think it could be significant,’ says Nelson slowly. ‘It could mean that she’s putting on a different face for us.’
    Tim thinks this is a rather perceptive comment. Nelson has grown-up daughters, he remembers. Judy, though, snorts contemptuously. Nelson carries on, ‘Has she called a lawyer?’
    ‘Yes,’ says Tim. Liz made two phone calls before they left the house. One to her ex-husband and one to her lawyer.
    ‘Who’s her solicitor?’
    Judy answers. ‘Nirupa Khan.’
    Nelson groans. Tim gathers that Ms Khan is not a personal friend. ‘Well, we’d better get going double quick. Nirupa will have her stopwatch going. Johnson.’
    ‘Yes Boss.’ The briefing room is small but Tim notes that Judy has moved as far away from him as possible. ‘I want you to take the lead on this. Be sympathetic. You’rea young mum, you know what it’s like to have a crying baby, all that kind of thing.’
    ‘I’m not bringing Michael into this.’ Judy looks mutinous.
    ‘Shall I do it?’ Tanya chimes in. ‘It might be too distressing for Judy, having a young baby and everything.’
    Tim suppresses a smile. He has already noticed that Tanya always volunteers for everything, whether it’s meeting the chief constable or going on the