In the Light of Madness (34 page)

“We’ll keep them as long as we need to,” snapped Lennox.

Gould led them towards the waiting group lined up in the corridor. He begrudgingly allowed the detectives to use his new, temporary office. Wednesday offered a smile to the gathered group, but was met with a frosty reception.

“Ralph and Mr Saunders please,” said Lennox as he opened the door for Wednesday to pass through first.

Father and son appeared very similar in stature and colouring. Both were tall with broad shoulders which tapered to a slender waist.

“I’m not sure what we’re doing here. The woman on the phone was very cryptic. I can’t imagine my Ralph being in any kind of trouble,” said Mr Saunders, brushing the seat with his hand before sitting down.

“He’s not in trouble, but some more information has come to light involving Ralph which we wish to clarify.”

Ralph shuffled in his seat but kept his head high. He listened intently as Lennox recounted Lucinda Edwards’s conversation about him being a boyfriend.

“And does this make him a suspect for her murder?” asked the father as he folded his arms across his chest.

Ralph sat up straight, and looked towards his father for reassurance.

“No, Mr Saunders, but it does connect him to Claudia, and we need to find out what she was doing, and with whom, in the days before she died. When was that last time you saw Claudia, Ralph?” asked Wednesday, turning to him.

He gave a quick look in his father’s direction, and was encouraged by the nod he received.

“I told you already, I saw Claudia at school on Thursday and she was hyped up because she had the house to herself again.”

The adults looked on as he cleared his throat and continued recounting.

“She asked me to go round that evening,” he gave a sideways glance at his father and drew a deep breath. “She wanted me to stay over, you know, the night.” His face was now as red as a lacquered pepper, and even his father looked tight-lipped.

“Would you like to speak to us alone?” Wednesday suggested.

“I’m not leaving,” said Mr Saunders, jutting out his chin.

Ralph remained silent, so Wednesday took that as her cue to carry on.

“Claudia was pregnant at the beginning of this year. Did she mention that to you?” she asked, keeping her focus on him constantly.

Ralph’s face drained of colour. His father, looking clearly shocked, turned to his son and demanded that he reply.

“I didn’t know about that,” he exclaimed in a cracked voice. “It couldn’t have been me . . . not me.” He was almost pleading with Wednesday to end his misery, and allow him to leave the room.

“Are you saying that you never slept with Claudia, or that you had protected sex?”

Mr Saunders got up and paced to the window, where he stood gazing out onto the autumnal garden, waiting to hear his son’s answer. Ralph looked in his father’s direction and then replied in a low voice.

“We only did it once, and it was safe, you know, I used a condom.” After speaking, he hung his head and crushed his hands between his thighs.

“Were you aware she had an abortion?”

“Hell no.”

“Now you have all you need, I presume we can go,” Mr Saunders said as he walked over to his son and made him get up by tapping on his shoulder.

“Thank you, we’ll get back to you if we need to,” replied Wednesday as she stood up and extended her hand. Mr Saunders ignored her gesture and hurried Ralph out the door, leaving a chill in their wake.

Lennox then invited Tony Pennymore and his father, Dick, into the room. Both looked uneasy and subdued, and neither relaxed when Wednesday informed them that she wanted to know more about Tony’s relationship with Claudia.

“Relationship is a strong word to use. Kids are never serious at this age,” said Dick Pennymore, relaxing visibly.

“Claudia was pregnant. Did she mention that to you?” she asked Tony.

“Not bloody likely,” replied Tony, sitting up straight. “She wouldn’t sleep with me. I wasn’t good enough for that, I was only good to flirt with and tease. I was an easy way to get some alcohol.”

Tony slumped in the chair once more, but kept his eyes locked with Wednesday’s.

“Did that make you angry?” she asked, maintaining his gaze.

“I see what you’re getting at,” interjected Dick. “You think my lad killed her ’coz she wouldn’t sleep with him.” He rose to his feet and glared at Wednesday.

“Sir, enquiries sometimes lead us to ask difficult and uncomfortable questions. Rest assured that presently we are only gathering information.”

Dick Pennymore remained standing and was about to tell his son that they were going, when Lennox spoke.

“Please sit down and allow us to finish,” he said as he gestured for him to sit.

“When was the last time you saw Claudia?” continued Wednesday.

“On Thursday in geography. She was buzzing about something; I saw her whispering into James’s ear. They sat together.”

“Who would you say was Claudia’s boyfriend? Was it James?”

Tony rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders, not caring to answer the question.

“Did you want to be her boyfriend, or was she dating all three of you and you all found out that Thursday?”

“Again, you’re insinuating my son’s a murderer. Come on Tony—we’re off.”

He yanked Tony up by the arm and dragged him out of the office, startling James and his father, Keith, as they sat waiting in the corridor. Lennox beckoned the pair in and closed the door behind them.

Wednesday ran through the same batch of questions, waiting for a similar response to the previous pairs, from both father and son, and she was taken aback by the coolness of the pair.

“Claudia and I were having sex on a casual basis—did it every time her folks went away to London, actually.” James held his head high and looked proudly over to his father after he had spoken.

“Were you aware that she was pregnant?” she asked, watching him closely, but he never flinched.

“Nope, it never came up.”

“Is it possible that you were the father?”

“Could have been. We usually used condoms, but who knows?”

“You said ‘usually’ and yet you don’t seem that concerned. Were you aware of this, Mr Almond,” asked Wednesday as she turned towards the father.

“I remember what it’s like to be a teenage boy, all those hormones bouncing around. But I didn’t know she was pregnant. James knew what to do if that happened.”

Wednesday raised her eyebrows at James and waited.

“He means get rid of it. Dad said he’d pay if I got into a fix.”

“So, had Claudia got you into a ‘fix’, so to speak,” asked Wednesday, feeling irritated by the pair’s casual attitude to sex and relationships.

“I think my son has already answered that question, Detective.”

Wednesday sat back in her chair and folded her arms, whilst she crossed one leg over the other.

“I would imagine that your father owning a hotel is a bonus, all those bedrooms to choose from. Did you ever use the hotel with or without your father’s knowledge?” asked Lennox.

Wednesday gave him eye contact fleetingly, admiring his cool thinking whilst she had become entwined in her anger at the chauvinistic viewpoint echoed by father and son.

“We don’t have secrets, apart from those we keep from his mother,” replied Keith Almond with a glint in his eye as he nudged his son.

“When did you last see Claudia, James?” Wednesday said, interrupting the father-son jovial moment.

“Not sure. I suppose it was on the Thursday.”

“The same Thursday you sat next to her in geography and she told you her parents were away.”

James cocked his head, and for the first time during the interview, his cheeks blushed a gentle shade of pink.

“Yes, just like you said. We already told you she said we could go over that evening. Tony was going to get a bottle of vodka from the pub like always.”

“Were you all dating Claudia at the same time?”

James snorted and then placed his hands behind his head as he tilted back on two chair legs.

“None of us were actually going out with her exclusively. We were all just having fun.”

“Was Claudia having fun too?”

“Oh yes,” leered James.

“So what happened Thursday evening?” asked Wednesday, ignoring his ego trip.

“Like we’ve already told you, we all met at her house and kept ringing the doorbell, but she wasn’t in. We assumed she’d chickened out, so we hung around together in the maze garden at my dad’s hotel and drank the vodka.”

“Did you not wonder where she was?”

“No, and once the alcohol kicked in, we’d forgotten all about her.”

Wednesday closed the interview and thanked them for their time. As they left she turned to Lennox and declared that they had gleaned very little from their time there.

“I’m not sure what to make of Claudia now,” said Wednesday, climbing into the passenger seat.

“Does it make any difference? She didn’t deserve to die like that.”

“I know that. It’s just she’s not the girl her father painted, half the girl her mother painted, and a whole other person as painted by the boys.”

“We’re all different people to the various people around us.”

As Lennox started the engine, Wednesday received a call from the forensic team—it was Alex. Wednesday made humming noises whilst writing notes down. After thanking him she relayed the details to Lennox.

“Forensics have found Darren’s DNA on the sleeping bag from the vicarage attic, but only unidentifiable smudges on the crisp packet from the crypt.”

Lennox stared straight ahead, keeping his focus on the road.

“We’ll need to visit the vicarage again, but now I think it’d be useful to visit Claudia’s GP, to see whether they could enlighten us on the baby’s father.”

Without waiting for his response, she called the station and left their new itinerary with Jones. She then pushed her head into the headrest and gazed without focusing at the passing skyline.

“Did you want to talk about your family troubles?” she asked without looking at him.

“Not really, can’t get my own head around it, never mind trying to explain the quagmire to you.”

The journey into town was conducted in silence, broken periodically by Lennox’s manic drumming on the steering wheel.

After a short wait in reception, Doctor Hall agreed to meet them both.

“Patient confidentiality prevents me from answering your question,” she replied to Wednesday’s request to know who the father was regarding Claudia’s pregnancy.

“This is a murder enquiry, Doctor. We can wait for a court order if you prefer.”

The doctor scanned her notes on the computer, frowning at the screen for a few minutes. “A court order would make no difference, she didn’t tell me the father’s name. I even spoke to her without her mother being present, but she insisted she didn’t know who the father was. Sorry.”

“You weren’t concerned about her being abused, by her father, for example,” asked Wednesday.

“Certainly not. I’ve been their family doctor for years. Her mother had spoken to me about her concerns regarding Claudia’s burgeoning sexuality and interest in school boys, and their interest in her.”

The detectives were disappointed by the dead end, but thanked the doctor for her time. They had nothing concrete to take back to the station, and they knew Hunter would be waiting for them to deliver. Had Wednesday been a religious person, it would have been the time to pray.