They lapsed into silence again.
‘I’ve brought her perfume,’ Julie said, holding up a bottle of J’adore. ‘Mum loves her perfume, and I guess she wouldn’t have had time to bring it when they arrested her.’
‘Will they let us bring it in?’ Janey asked anxiously.
‘I guess we’ll find out,’ said Julie.
They arrived at the detention centre at twenty minutes to two and left as much as possible locked in the car because Ally was aware that there would be a great deal of security. There was avisitors’ area with some chairs and machines which dispensed hot and cold drinks and all manner of chocolate bars. Everyone, including Ally, was now feeling understandably nervous. This was a new experience for her too.
Then, at precisely five minutes to two, a uniformed policewoman appeared and asked, ‘Are you the Armstrong family?’
‘Yes!’ the girls replied in unison, while Ally explained that she was accompanying them in the absence of any relatives.
The policewoman nodded. ‘OK, you may accompany them to see their mother,’ she said, leading them along a corridor to a security point, similar to an airport, where she checked their bodies and their bags. ‘What’s this?’ she asked, withdrawing J’adore from Julie’s pocket.
‘Oh, please!’ Julie begged. ‘I want to take it to Mom because she loves perfume.’
‘And I’ve got her some chocolate,’ Janey added, removing a large bar from her pocket.
The policewoman tested the spray in the air, wrinkling her nose. ‘OK, OK, I’ll overlook the rules this time.’ She gave a faint smile before leading them to the cell, which she opened up with much clicking and clunking and ushered them in with many reminders that she’d be back in half an hour – not one minute later – to let them out.
The cell was probably about ten feet square, with an inbuilt narrow bed, on which a pale, wan Patti was sitting, legs outstretched, staring at the stainless-steel toilet on the wall opposite. She was wearing a regulation sweatshirt and jogging bottoms provided by her current accommodation, her hair was lank and her face was make-up-free.
‘Oh, thank God!’ she muttered as she jumped up to embrace her two daughters, all three of them now in tears.
Ally stood back close to the door, feeling very aware that she shouldn’t really be there. ‘I’m sorry, Patti,’ she said, ‘but I had to accompany them.’
‘No need to apologise, and thanks for getting them here.’ Patti sat down with a girl on each side of her, arms entwined.
‘Auntie Wendy and Joel were supposed to bring us, but they disappeared,’ Janey explained.
‘Oh, did they indeed?’ Patti raised an eyebrow.
Ally remained by the door, relieved that the three of them were now chatting normally, the words tumbling out as they remembered things to tell each other, oblivious to her presence. No, Patti told them, the bed was not particularly comfortable, but then this wasn’t exactly The Ritz and, furthermore, she did not intend to be in this place for much longer. ‘Just believe me, I did not kill your daddy,’ she must have said half a dozen times during the visit. The half hour flew by.
‘I’m going to be out of here real soon,’ she said, ‘but, for now, I’d like five minutes with Ally if that’s OK, girls, because our time is nearly up.’ She pressed a switch, and the policewoman was back at the door. Ally wondered if she’d been there all the time. The door was opened sufficiently to let the girls out after a good few minutes of goodbyes, hugs and tears.
‘I’ll be with you in five minutes,’ Ally assured them, glancing at her watch.
Patti sighed as the door clunked shut behind them. ‘Has Kandahar spoken to Wendy?’ she asked.
Ally nodded.
‘So she knows about Greg and me?’
‘I’m afraid so,’ Ally replied. ‘She was very upset. That’s the reason she couldn’t face bringing the girls here today.’
‘I’m only sorry you’re having to take the brunt of all this,’ Patti said. ‘I just want you to know that I did not kill Archie. That was Greg, along with the caber, of course.’ Her voice wobbled. ‘I loved him, you know. Archie and I hadn’t really got on for years, and when Greg suggested this as a way for us to be together, well…’ She paused. ‘But I never thought he’d really do it.’
Ally decided she might as well be truthful. ‘Actually, I’m quite friendly with Amir Kandahar, and he told me about trying to find some woman who saw you at the toilets, but no luck so far, I’m afraid.’
‘Please, Ally, if you do nothing else, could you try to find this woman?’
As she spoke, the policewoman’s voice boomed, ‘Time’s up!’
Back in the car, both Julie and Janey appeared more cheerful and relaxed, seemingly confident that their mother would soon be released.
Ally wasn’t nearly so confident. Perhaps the woman who held the toilet door open for Patti that day at the games would never be found; perhaps she wasn’t even a local but had just been visiting for the day. In any case, Patti was bound to be charged with conspiracy to commit a murder at the very least. She’d suggest to Amir that perhaps he should get Patti’s photograph printed in the newspapers and put on the TV, to ask this woman to come forward. Surely there must be some other way to prove Patti’s innocence – if she was innocent. Since Greg was no longer around, her story could never be verified.
