Tim was seething as he descended the stairs to the open-plan area. He’d wanted to bemoan Thornton’s insensitivity to Juliet under the pretext of asking to look at the photographs again, but as he approached he saw that she was deep in conversation with someone on the phone. Ricky was seated at his own work station, to her left, and Juliet, looking uncomfortable, had moved her chair as far away from his as she could. She was holding her left hand against her face, evidently to shield her words from Ricky, and she’d flushed a brilliant scarlet. Ricky, for his part, was stolidly leafing through some files, apparently unaware of the embarrassment he was causing – though there was no guarantee he wasn’t listening. Recently Tim had come to appreciate Ricky more. There was more subtlety concealed within his blubbery exterior than he was generally given credit for. Tim himself was mightily curious; Juliet rarely took personal calls at work. To whom could she be speaking? He sat down on a spare chair some distance away from her and took out his mobile, pretending to check his emails.
‘Yes… no,’ Juliet was saying. ‘No, not tonight, I can’t – there’s a new case I have to work on. Yes, it is. I can’t tell you that. Yes, of course. No, I really do want to. What about the weekend? I can’t promise – it depends on how this case pans out, but I should be able to take some time off on Saturday. No, I don’t mind – I understand your job is demanding, too.’ She glanced up and saw Tim. He had his head bent over his mobile, but she knew him too well not to believe that he wasn’t drinking in her every word. ‘Look, I’ve got to go now. I’ll call you later.’
‘Everything all right?’ said Tim as soon as she’d put down the phone.
‘Yes,’ she said curtly. ‘Why do you ask?’
‘No reason. You just seem a bit… flustered, that’s all.’
‘I don’t do flustered.’ Juliet’s voice was cold. ‘How did you get on with Superintendent Thornton?’
Ricky raised his head from the folder. So he probably had been listening, Tim thought.
Tim glanced up the stairs. Thornton’s door was closed. Tim could see him through the glass, talking to someone on the phone. Tim knew therefore he could get away with being pretty indiscreet to Juliet about Thornton’s briefing, but there was still Ricky to consider. Tim fondly believed that Juliet was the only one of his subordinates who understood the tensions of his relationship with Thornton.
‘It was a short briefing, but to the point. You’ll know as much about what’s happened as I do – more, since you’ve been studying those photographs.’ He looked across at Ricky, to include him in the conversation. ‘They have found two more bodies, but apparently they died in different circumstances. One, another woman’s, is headless and decomposing. The other’s that of a young girl. It appears to have entered the water after the first body was discovered yesterday. Not necessarily murdered, as the Superintendent points out, but probably. No identities known of any of them.’
‘How old was the girl?’
‘We’re waiting for Forensics to tell us.’ Tim turned to Juliet. ‘How old would you say she was, from the photographs?’
‘Not more than fourteen or fifteen. Unless she’s very small for her age.’
‘Superintendent Thornton says DI Robinson thinks she was a schoolgirl.’
‘If she was murdered,’ said Ricky slowly, turning the idea over in his mind, ‘why dump her in a spot where there’s major police activity going on? The killer would know that the body would likely be discovered very quickly.’
‘Precisely my own thoughts. It’s possible that he – or she – was unaware that the other body had been found, though I doubt that. Whether it was the same killer or somebody different, I think they chose that place deliberately. With the intention, as you say, of the girl’s body being discovered almost immediately.’
Superintendent Thornton came clattering down the stairs.
‘I’ve already told you, Yates, we don’t know yet whether that girl was murdered. It doesn’t do to make wild conjectures. Now, are you ready for this briefing? You only have forty minutes or so before you need to get off.’
Juliet caught Tim’s eye and smiled sympathetically. It was a small gesture, but he appreciated it. He was very fond of Juliet – to him she was like a little sister (sometimes also a big sister) as well as being the most dependable and loyal colleague he’d ever had. He wondered again about the awkward conversation she’d been engaged in a few minutes before and hoped she was taking proper care of herself. He’d hate her to get seriously hurt.