Dead Ahead by Paul Pilkington

Author:Paul Pilkington [Pilkington, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Paul Pilkington

18

Tuesday afternoon

* * *

‘We need to tread carefully here,’ Cullen said, as they waited in Chris Barrington’s office for Poppy Jones to arrive.

‘Totally,’ Marianne agreed. ‘Sounds like the poor girl has gone through a lot. First her mum dying and then her teacher.’

‘Yes.’ He thought about Michael Gossage. Maybe the relationship between him and Poppy was innocent, and it was just a case of a kind hearted teacher going that extra mile for a student in difficulty.

But his instincts told him otherwise.

Whether this had any connection to Michael’s death though was a different question entirely.

One step at a time...

‘Good idea of yours,’ Marianne said, ‘to let her bring a teacher of her choice into the discussion.’

Cullen had settled upon the idea before they’d arrived at the school. It was the least they could do, to help Poppy through the experience.

She’d chosen Libby Taylor, an English teacher who Chris Barrington had explained was also Poppy’s form tutor.

The door opened and Chris introduced Cullen and Marianne to Poppy and Miss Taylor. Poppy hardly looked at them, while Libby Taylor shook hands with both officers.

‘I’ll leave you to it then,’ Chris said, pulling the door to.

The four of them settled in the confined space of the office. All eyes were on Poppy, while she looked down towards her lap.

‘I’m really sorry that we have to do this,’ Marianne began. ‘We’ll be as quick as we can.’

Cullen and Marianne had decided that Marianne would lead the questioning of the young, vulnerable girl. It felt like the right and sensible thing for him to back off and play the role of observer.

Libby turned to Poppy. ‘It will be alright,’ she said, placing a hand on the schoolgirl’s shoulder.

Poppy nodded and for the first time looked up and engaged with the room.

She was an attractive girl, with deep brown eyes, a neat chestnut brown bob and lightly freckled skin. As she was a sixth former, she wasn’t in uniform - instead wearing a jumper with jeans.

‘What would you like to know?’ she asked, her nervousness evident.

‘How are you feeling?’ Marianne replied, dodging the girl’s question. They wouldn’t start with the heavy questioning yet.

She shrugged. ‘Okay.’

Cullen sat back, thinking that she looked anything but okay.

‘I hear you and Mr Gossage worked closely together,’ Marianne continued. ‘His death must be upsetting for you.’

Poppy looked away briefly then back at DI McGuire. ‘He was really good to me’, she said. ‘He helped me with my studies, went out of his way.’

‘History, wasn’t it?’

She nodded. ‘Yes. I needed to catch up on my work, it was really stressing me out. I’d missed a lot of class, you see, because of my...well...my mum...’

‘It’s okay,’ Marianne said. ‘I’m really sorry to hear about your mum.’

Poppy nodded, as if she had heard this sort of comment a thousand times before.

‘So Mr Gossage tutored you?’

‘Yes. At lunchtimes. Sometimes after school.’

‘For how long has he been tutoring you?’

‘A few months.’

‘Is Mr Gossage also your history teacher?’

‘No.’

‘But he offered to tutor you history, not your own history teacher.

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