Part 14 (1/2)

'Why are you so keen on this guy Alexander?' the boss said, pointing to a picture clipped to the file on his desk.

'He was Tamsin Grainger's boyfriend. Well, that's what he believed, but according to her friends she had a different idea. From what we can gather, he thought it was an exclusive relations.h.i.+p, but she had only seen him twice and he had totally misinterpreted the situation. After he found her in a car with one of his lecturers not one of hers, as it happens he had a ma.s.sive row with her, overheard by some lads returning from the pub. She laughed in Alexander's face, told him to grow up and refused to see him again. According to the lads, he was about to punch her, but they intervened. She told her friends to steer clear of him, that he was a weirdo, but he wouldn't leave her alone kept following her around, apparently. According to one girl, she stuck a picture of him on the wall in the halls of residence and wrote k.n.o.b underneath it.'

'Yeah, I heard about that. The boyfriend's got a cast-iron alibi, though, so rule him out and don't waste any more time on him. It's more than likely another ex who hasn't got over her. Check them all out, and the lecturer too dirty b.u.g.g.e.r, s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g his students.' Victor grinned.

Tom looked at his boss. He knew he wanted a result they all did but a result had to be the right result, not just another tick in a box. Victor wanted them to find one of the ex-boyfriends who didn't have an alibi and then pin it on him, but Tom hadn't given up on Alexander, alibi or no alibi.

He had to admit, it was an impossible alibi to break. Alexander had been in the company of about thirty other students at the time of both murders. For the first he had been in North Wales, and for the second he had been in the Lake District with a university sports club. But Tom couldn't help feeling that he knew something, although he had no motive at all for Sonia Beecham's murder as far as they had been able to tell. She was such a quiet girl, and they couldn't find any evidence that her path had crossed with Alexander's. But if the profiler was right, she could have been a decoy and her murder without motive.

There was something not right about this lad Alexander. When Tom had interviewed him he had talked too much.

'I wasn't even here,' he kept repeating. 'I was away with my team. I won my race it's all recorded. You can check, you know.'

Tom had pointed out more than once that they already had.

'And Tamsin I know things ended badly. What did you think of her?' Tom had asked.

There was a pause, as if the lad was trying to work out what to say.

'She was a slapper,' Alexander said, his mouth forming a tight line.

33.

The cycle track was slushy and Lily loved riding through the puddles to make the biggest splash she could. Josh wasn't having a good day, though, and Maggie felt helpless. She was distracted with worries about Duncan and that awful picture that had been pushed through her door the day before, and she was only giving her children a small percentage of her attention. Try as she might, she couldn't force away the desperate fear that Duncan was in danger and needed her help, and yet she didn't even know where he was.

Lily's st.u.r.dy little legs were pedalling furiously, and Maggie increased her speed slightly to keep up with her daughter as they rounded the bends in the path that ran along the outer edge of the woodland. It was a couple of minutes before she realised that Josh was no longer right behind her.

'Lily, stop,' she shouted, applying her brakes. 'We've lost Josh.'

But Lily ignored her, or didn't hear her, her wispy blonde curls blowing in the wind as she pedalled. She often sang as she rode her bike, and she was probably lost in her own little world. Maggie looked over her shoulder again. What should she do?

Josh was probably a bit further back, round the corner, hidden by the trees. But they couldn't cycle off and leave him, and now Lily was getting away from her.

Maggie only had one choice. She raised herself off her saddle and pedalled hard until she caught up with and pa.s.sed Lily. She swivelled to face Lily coming towards her.

'Stop,' she said. Lily laughed, thinking it was a game. 'We've lost Josh.'

Lily put her feet on the ground and turned her upper body to look back along the track. There was no sign of Josh.

'Come on, tiddles. We need to go back and find him.'

Lily heaved her bike round and started back along the track. They rounded the bend. But the path ahead of them was clear. No Josh. Where was he?

'There, Mummy look,' Lily shouted, her finger pointing to the side of the track.

Lying on its side was Josh's bike, but there was no sign of her son. Maggie's heart began to hammer in her chest.

'Jos.h.!.+' she shouted as loudly as she could. 'Josh where are you?' Lily joined in.

They were right at the edge of the woods, next to a small parking area, but it was empty or about to be. A white van was pulling out of the car park. Maggie stared open-mouthed at its retreating rear doors. 'Duncan?' she whispered, too quietly for Lily to hear her. She knew it was wishful thinking. The van wasn't as new as Duncan's. Or as clean. And there was no sign of Josh.

She jumped off her bike and threw it down on the side of the lane, screaming Josh's name as loudly as she could. She turned to Lily, who was staring at her, her mouth turning down at the corners. Oh G.o.d, I'm scaring Lily.

'It's okay, sweetheart. I'm sure he's hiding from us playing a game.' She plucked her daughter off her saddle with one hand and steered the bike off the track with the other, leaving it propped against a tree. With her daughter under one arm, she climbed the bank into the wood where it bordered the small car park.

'Josh,' she shouted, trying to keep the fear from her voice.

Up ahead she saw a flash of red. His cycle helmet.

Still carrying Lily she ran the fifty metres to where she could see the helmet. It was Josh, lying face down in the gra.s.s.

'Jos.h.!.+'

She fell to her knees at his side, put Lily onto the damp gra.s.s and reached out to her son. With relief, she saw his back moving but in seconds she knew he was crying.

'Joshy, are you hurt, darling?' she asked.

He didn't lift his head, but a weak 'No' emerged from above his folded arms.

'What happened? What are you doing here?' She stroked his back gently.

Slowly he lifted his head. 'I thought it was Daddy,' was all he said, before the tears came again. Maggie stroked his back gently. Lily stroked his leg.

'I don't think it was, sweetheart. This van was a bit old for Daddy's.'

He raised himself up on his elbows.

'I know. But I saw it this morning too at the top of our road. I thought it might be Daddy then, but there were two men in it so I thought I was wrong. Then it drove off.'

Maggie put her arm around her son.

'Then when we set off on the bikes, it was there again but parked round the corner outside Oscar's, so I thought it must be some men working on Oscar's house or something.'

Oscar was Josh's friend and lived just round the corner.

'That sounds right, Josh. There are always workmen there.'

'I know, but when we turned to go onto the cycle path, I put my hand out like Daddy taught me, and I looked in my mirror to check if there was anything behind. That's when I saw the van. It was following us. When we got to the car park, it was already there, and the men were watching. One of them had a camera.'

Maggie's hand flew to her mouth to cover her gasp. Why were these men following them? Why did they have a camera? But she had to calm Josh down. She rolled from her knees and sat down next to her son.

'Okay, Joshy. Not to worry. I can understand why you thought it was Daddy's van.'

'I know it wasn't, because the number was different. I checked. Wrong place, wrong year, and Bad Smelly Man.'