We watch as Cait listens, nods, and answers with single words. Her pale skin seems to shrink against her skull, and her hand clenches tighter and tighter.
Cait drops her phone to her side and stares blankly ahead. ‘They’ve found a body in the fire. They want me to try to identify the personal effects that didn’t burn to a cinder. The remains of a watch, and...’ She pauses, then looks up at us blankly, ‘a wedding ring.’
Chapter31Hammer
Wednesday, 27 November
I stop by the hairdressers to make an appointment as my roots are already showing. The receptionist with thick make-up and chewing gum manages to look up from her phone, which is commendable for such a young person. We agree on a suitable date and she writes it down for me on an appointment card. Not something I need, but I think all writing practice will help.
I take the card and look down to see that she’s avoided words altogether.
30/11, 4–5pm
As I’m walking home, something in my mind connects. I sit on a bench, take Jason Mercer’s notebook out of my handbag and find the code:
MonkeyWarrior
Panchos
3121314
I rewrite the number underneath:
3/12, 13-14
If I’m right, and this is an appointment, it means Jason Mercer was due to meet MonkeyWarrior at Pancho’s on 3 December, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. That’s in six days’ time. And if they’ve met there before, I know a way to find out where that might be.
I head to the blue Toyota, press the key into the slot and the car wakes up. I find my way into the information system. It takes a bit of searching, but I soon find the tab for ‘recent destinations’. There are forty-two addresses in the car’s memory, but if the car was stolen, it had to be in the three weeks before he died, while he was following me. I scroll through slowly, reading the destinations one by one.
Pancho’sis the seventh entry.
I check my watch. I can’t be late for my appointment at Adams. It has taken the wordsserious safeguarding complaintsimply to get to see the head. She behaves like an archbishop rather than an over-promoted religious studies teacher.
I sit outside the dark wooden door of her study, with its brass nameplate, and can’t help memories appearing like vampires from the graves of yesteryear. I find head teachers reliably triggering.
‘You asked to see me,’ says Mrs Pembury.
‘Yes, I want to discuss your offer,’ I say as I sit in the low chair opposite hers.
‘I understood that this was a safeguarding concern.’
‘It is. Nelly’s well-being has been seriously compromised by your offer.’
‘She didn’t get an offer,’ says Mrs Pembury. ‘We enjoyed meeting her but don’t think Adams is the right school for her.’
‘That’s what I want to discuss. You’ve made an opening offer, I’m here to counter,’ I say.
‘That’s not how admissions work, I’m afraid,’ she says, smiling benignly. ‘And as this isn’t a safeguarding matter, I think you should speak to admissions.’
‘I’d just like you to give this vulnerable child a chance to prove herself, and let her sit the entrance exam,’ I say.
The carefully coiffed headmistress looks at me for a time, thensays, ‘It is in consideration of her vulnerability that we’re suggesting Nelly will be better served by another educational establishment.’
‘And what does that huge mouthful actually mean?’
‘We don’t think Nelly fits in here. She excludes herself from friendship groups, she doesn’t respond to non-verbal cues, and she has difficulty following instructions.’
‘She’s shy, that’s all.’
