OLINDA BLES left Geug Place at 1:32, and Sholto started the car thirty seconds later. It was an awkward drive because of her competence relative to Sholto’s. While she was aggressive and quick on the road, as you have to be if you want to get anywhere in this city, Sholto still couldn’t bring himself to put his foot down for fear of hurting the accelerator. Darian gave him a couple of looks but chose silence over arguments.
Bles drove south through Barton and into Cnocaid, heading down toward Gleann Fuilteach, the valley that leads out of the city. She had almost reached down to the university but turned instead into a quiet residential street. She pulled into a narrow driveway and went into a neat semi-detached home, the sort that in Cnocaid would set you back a couple of hundred grand.
Sholto said, “Well, that’s the nicest home I’ve ever seen a housekeeper call her own.”
“I’m not sure looking after Simon Sutherland counts as normal housekeeping. I’d bet the family pay her very well for her babysitting.”
“Maybe he pays her well for her silence as well.”
With that they made their way to the front door and rang the bell. Olinda Bles opened it and, with the least possible surprise in her voice, said, “I don’t know why you had to follow me all the way from Simon’s house like this is a spy story. Come in, I’ll talk to you.”
Sholto did his best to look sheepish because it’s what she wanted to see but he didn’t really care. They were getting to talk to her away from the Sutherland house and that was the aim of all this. Olinda led them through to the kitchen at the back of the house, a large and bright room. She started making three cups of tea while they sat at the table and waited politely, guests in another person’s house and that meant conducting themselves with a certain decorum. They weren’t cops, they couldn’t assume a right to be there so they had to keep themselves welcome for as long as possible. They didn’t start talking until she put their cups and a plate with chocolate digestives on the table in front of them. Darian took one and Sholto took three so Darian spoke first.
“How well did you know William Dent?”
She sighed and there was true sadness in it. “I didn’t know him well. He was a friend of Simon’s, so he was at the house now and again. I spoke with him, not that much. At first, you know, Will would come to the house and I don’t think he wanted to be there. It was Harold’s idea, to have someone else at the house, a man of around Simon’s own age. I could get the shopping every time but his uncle wants him to see more people, to make the isolation less. I agree with that. We have to be careful not to make it too obvious to Simon, but getting him to interact with more people is important. It wasn’t easy at first but eventually they would speak and then they would have proper conversations and then they were friends. Not friends in the way that a young man like you has friends, Mr. Ross, but in the only way that Simon can have friends, where every word he says to a person counts. For Will, I suppose, it was a way of doing work that involved no work, if you understand, so he liked hanging around the house.”
“It doesn’t look good for Will. The evidence the police have found suggests an interest in Ruby-Mae Short.”
“I heard. I don’t know what to say. Will, I think he was the sort of man who would do things in the moment, without thinking. He was reckless, he teased, he liked to play games, I think. Murder? It would be cruel to think that of him.”
“But he was breaking into our office.”
“And you chased him onto the railway tracks. I don’t know why he tried to steal things from you, he was an unpredictable boy, I suppose. He must have had his reasons.”
Sholto took a loud slurp from his cup and asked, “How did you end up working for Simon Sutherland?”
“I’ve been in Challaid since I was eighteen. Nearly thirty-five years since I came over. I was one of the lucky few because I had older family that had come before me, a brother and a cousin, and they were able to help me get a job looking after children. I was a childminder for a family in Barton for a while because I was cheap and rich people often pick the cheapest option, even to care for their own children. That’s how they get rich and stay rich. After Simon’s mother died his uncle Harold wanted someone to keep the house, but mostly to look after Simon. He was vulnerable, struggling a lot at the time, much worse even than now, so I cared for him. The family I had been working for knew Harold, their child was older by then, so they recommended me to him.”
“He didn’t just take Simon to live with him and his staff?”
“I do believe that Mr. Sutherland cares very deeply for Simon. I know that he was very close to Simon’s father, his brother Beathan. He cared for him, but he didn’t want a son of his own, not with the responsibilities he has at the bank. That came first. It always does for them.”
Darian said, “You’ve been with them a long time. You must feel a lot of loyalty toward the Sutherland family.”
“I am close to them and I care for them because while a lot of people see only the money I see the people. They have suffered like all God’s children do, they have lost people and things that mattered very much to them, they have struggled like we all do in this life. All of this, it is more suffering, and it needs to come to an end. I hope that the police will find a way. Not you because you are not real police. I know how much use you will be.”
Sholto smiled a little but Darian couldn’t help his defiance when he said, “You know well enough the influence the family have over the police. The family will get what they want there. We might not be much use to you, but we’re just trying to find Freya Dempsey.”
“And I hope very much that you do find her.”
Sholto grabbed the last biscuit off the plate and they got up to leave. He thanked Olinda at the door and her look told him exactly how much that was worth.
Back in the car Sholto said, “That was a funny one, that. She picked her words carefully. I don’t know, something’s troubling her good little Christian soul, but I don’t think there’s any way in hell she’s going to tell us about it.”