‘Right, I’m off,’ announced Ottey as she poked her head round Cross’s office door. ‘Did you see Warner? He just left, tail stuck firmly up his arse.’
‘I did not,’ replied Cross who was studying his phone.
‘What are you doing?’ she asked.
‘Checking train times.’
‘Where are you off to?’ she said looking at her watch.
‘Gloucester.’
‘Now?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
‘I called Raymond. He’s up there with Christine. I thought about what you said and told him I’d go up.’
‘He must’ve been pleased.’
‘On the contrary. Christine insisted that I didn’t.’
‘So why are you still going?’ she asked.
He flicked through his personal notebook until he found what he was looking for.
‘You told me on the seventh of August 2021 that,’ he began to read from the book, ‘“in emotionally charged situations people will often lie about what they want and what they don’t want.” Christine was lying in response to my question,’ he said, rather pleased that on this occasion he could demonstrate that he did pay attention to Ottey and was constantly trying to learn. She thought for a moment.
‘Come on, I’ll take you. It’ll be a lot quicker.’
‘Yes, it will,’ he agreed.
‘Let me just call my mum.’ She then stopped and turned to him.
‘You should probably make a note of this as well, George. When someone makes an offer which will obviously inconvenience them, or cost them in some way, not necessarily financially, the polite and usual response is to insist there is no need, even if you don’t believe it,’ she said as he busily scribbled it down. ‘George, now would be that time.’
He thought for a moment, looked up and nodded before quickly writing down what she’d said in his notebook. Exactly. Word for word.
She sighed and went to call her mother and endure the polite unspoken reprimand that would inevitably come her way. At the same time consoling herself that the need for her not going home for dinner had come from the fact that George did actually listen to her.
*
‘Richard Brook. Should we be paying him a visit?’ she asked, as she drove them to Gloucester.
‘I think so. I’m not sure we have any other leads currently.’
‘Do you believe Montgomery?’
‘I’m not sure what there is to believe or not believe. Brook did have a brother who did indeed take his own life at eighteen. Montgomery has no need to lie to us.’
‘It seems out of character for a lifelong civil servant, though, don’t you think?’ Ottey asked.
‘Dennis Nilsen was a civil servant,’ Cross pointed out.
‘That’s different. You know what I mean,’ Ottey insisted.
‘I can assure you I don’t,’ he replied.