Fair of Face by Christina James

Author:Christina James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Salt Publishing Limited
Published: 2017-10-10T13:04:09+00:00

Chapter 44

I’ve left Grace with Marie. After all my scruples and a prolonged conversation with Tom Tarrant, Tim’s solution as to who should look after her was the one they chose. Far from resenting being treated like a childminder, Marie seems to have made it her mission to nurture Grace.

I haven’t had an opportunity to talk to Marie yet, but already I know that the stance she’s adopted is going to make relations with Grace more difficult. I’m deeply worried about Grace now, though I can’t quite put my finger on why. Although I have no evidence, I’m convinced she was involved in the death of Sasha the cat. Finn is clearly a very disturbed child, but I don’t believe that his terrifying distress was caused by guilt and remorse, as Jake Fidler seems to think. And I know that there was activity in the flat just before I returned to it, though I’m not even sure what it was I half-glimpsed: did I really see the light go out?

I hardly slept after I returned to the flat once Bill Gilby and I had alerted Jake and I’m weary now. I park on the station forecourt. As I unclip my seat-belt and climb out of the car, I see Verity Tandy approaching. She waits for me at the door. When I catch up with her, I note that she looks as battered as I feel.

“Am I glad to see you!” she exclaims when I’m in earshot. “You’ll be able to do the Wolansky interview instead of me now.”

I’d almost forgotten why I had to make the minding arrangements for Grace.

“Thanks! That’s probably the last thing I need. I take it you’ve been to prime Mrs Wolansky?”

“Yes; and she can be a lot more difficult than you might think.”

“I’m not surprised: the tigress defending her young and all that. I expect she’s had to protect Marek from ridicule and other unpleasantness for his whole life. She’s probably had to fight to get help from social services as well. What did she say? You must have done a good job, if she says we can go ahead with the interview.”

“She’ll let us do it, but she’ll be there holding Marek’s hand and the first sign of panic he shows, she’ll make us stop. She’s firm about that. I went along with what she said, but I guess you could insist on having him interviewed by experts if she’s really obstructive.”

“It may come to that. In some ways, perhaps we should, but we have to save as much time as possible. Thanks for paving the way; I know how hard it must have been.”

“You’re welcome – you’ve got the worst bit.”

“When is she expecting us?”

Verity glances at her watch.

“Any time now. I said you’d be there by about 10.30. He usually attends some kind of day centre today. She’s agreed to keep him back this morning – I was lucky to catch her before the bus arrived for him – but she wants him to go there this afternoon.

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