Jess
I was standing in Amy’s kitchen, having walked back with her after the meal at Glenda and Ron’s. I surveyed the neat row of herbs on the windowsill. How did she get hers to live whereas any I ever bought from a supermarket died after a few days?
‘Jess, I have an idea as to how you could track down Roman and Angelica,’ said Amy, back from having put Pawel to bed. ‘I’m due to take a few weeks, leave during the school holidays. Why don’t you take my place as Jonah’s personal assistant on the production?’
Me – on a film set? That would need careful consideration – or not. ‘Yes, please!’
She smiled at my eager tone. ‘Don’t you know what you’d have to do?’
‘Go on.’
‘Deal with admin, do the day-to-day stuff he doesn’t get to – shopping, bill paying, bookings etc – work with the crew so he makes all his calls for hair, makeup and to the set.’
‘Admin?’
‘Nothing complicated. His agent deals with the contracts. Just fan mail, social media and so on.’
That nudged me into raising a subject that I’d been revolving in my mind all evening. ‘Amy, I was wondering: do you think you might need a solicitor?’
‘You’re right. I do, don’t I?’ Amy rubbed her face with her palms.
I’d moved from one of her chorus of accusers to someone she believed was on her side.
‘This firm I’ve just been temping for – they’re nice.’ I noticed the row of medicine bottles on a high shelf and the repeat prescriptions stuck on the fridge with a magnet and wondered about Munchausen’s again.
‘A nice solicitor?’ Amy stacked Pawel’s bowls from supper in the dishwasher.
‘They do exist.’
‘OK, leave me the number and I’ll give them a call in the morning. Who should I ask for?’ She began the wash programme even though to my eyes there would be plenty of space for breakfast things.
‘Renfrew and Jakowitz. Ask for the family division.’
Saying goodnight, I left her to sort out the details of me stepping in as her replacement and headed back to say farewell to Drew’s parents. I meant just to put my head around the door, but Glenda drew me inside.
‘Let me make you a drink before you go.’
I was conscious of the time. ‘Really, I need to catch my train.’
‘Nonsense. Ron’ll drive you back, won’t you, Ron?’
Ron woke up from his doze in front of the TV news. ‘What’s that? Oh, yes. Too late for a girl on her own to be travelling.’
‘I do all the time! I’ll be fine.’
Ron pointed to news that the body of a young woman had been found on Port Meadow. ‘Not with a madman like that on the loose.’
A sickening feeling gathered as I saw that the victim had been found at a business that had once been a boatyard. She had been dumped naked on a jetty. A secluded swimming spot, an inlet of the Thames, the press were speculating that it was a sexual encounter that had gone wrong, but they were also linking it to the Parks murder. They were appealing to the public for witnesses and wanted to speak to her boyfriend, Daniel Peverell, also missing. Police divers were searching the river.
‘Oh my God, I went there earlier this week.’ Warnings flashed as I realised this was the second time I’d been too close to a murder. If I’d been a few moments earlier, or a day or two later, it could’ve so easily been me.
‘To Port Meadow?’ asked Ron.
‘To that exact boatyard.’ I remembered how you couldn’t just walk in but that Jago had the code. Jago had said it was a secret swimming spot but he had been trying to impress me. For all I knew, everyone in that part of Oxford could be aware that it was a good place to go for a private dip. Once one person knew the code to the gate, then everyone potentially did.
That wouldn’t stop me telling DI George when I got back to Oxford.
‘Yes, I’ll take that lift, thank you, Ron.’
On the way home, I got a message from Jago.
Did you see the news? Another body but this time at the boatyard where we went swimming.
Was it good that he was texting me? That was what a normal person would do, wasn’t it? Like I would’ve thought to message him if I hadn’t had a little panicky moment.
Yes, horrible. Poor woman.
I’m going to tell the police that we were there earlier in the week. It will look odd otherwise.
Odd?
Our DNA will be on the jetty. We towelled off there, remember?
And if you wanted to hide that you had returned to kill someone, how better to do so than to go beforehand with a witness.
You’re being ridiculous, Jessica. You’ve watched too many CSI shows on TV. Jago is just doing what an innocent person would do in his shoes.
But he’d been where two bodies had turned up …
I’ll contact the police if you like, I wrote.
Let’s both do it. Then they know we corroborate each other’s story.
That was perhaps not such an innocent thought. What had he been doing earlier tonight? Did he have an alibi?
OK. I’m just heading back home from dinner with friends in Windsor. Will do on my return. You?
He didn’t take my bait to describe what he had been doing.
I’ll call now. Do you still want to go for another swim next week? I can understand if you’re reluctant, what with bodies turning up in your wake.
And yours, I thought grimly.
I’m working for the film crew in your college next week.
That’s great. We can meet up. Maybe make plans for next Saturday?
By then, the police should have more of a handle on the killer. It couldn’t be Jago – could it? – that was just my imagination running wild.
OK. Let’s make plans for that.
I’d certainly make sure the next place we went swimming wasn’t in a river and I’d stipulate that I wanted others around me. I could say to Jago that my recent experiences had spooked me, not that I’d been having bad thoughts about him.
‘Everything all right, love?’ asked Ron. Lovely, sane Ron, sacrificing his Sunday evening to drive me back to Oxford.
‘Yes, fine.’ Just messaging your son’s would-be rival, who may or may not have something to do with these bodies turning up in swimming spots.
‘Just that I can hear the wheels in your brain turning. I’m expecting steam to come out of your ears next.’
‘Nice that you think I belong to the steam age, Ron, not digital.’
Talking to Ron was as good as a valium. I was feeling far less jumpy and able to cope with my suspicions by the time I got home. I kissed his cheek.
‘Look after yourself,’ he said, squeezing my hand in parting.
‘I’ll be careful. I’m working on a film set this week. Filling in for Amy, working her case.’
He waited to see me go inside. Cory must already have been upstairs because I had the kitchen to myself. It was in its ready-for-breakfast state of perfection. I looked in the fridge, intending to make tea, but was sidetracked by an open bottle of white. Cory wouldn’t care, not if she knew what was on my mind. I’d tell her in the morning.
I poured a glass and caressed the smooth bulb. It was like a young child’s cheek – cool to the touch – like Leah when she emerged shivering from the paddling pool. OK, time to call the police. Scrolling through the numbers I found DI George’s. If they’d only found the body tonight there was a good chance that he’d be on duty.
‘George here.’
‘Inspector George, Jess Bridges. You know, she of the inadequate newspaper clothing?’
He coughed to clear his throat. He remembered.
‘Sorry to disturb you – I know you must be busy. I just wanted to tell you that Jago Jackson and I were at that boatyard on Wednesday morning for a wild swim.’
‘You were? How did you get in?’
‘Jago knew the code. He says it belonged to a mate of his.’ What to say next? ‘I just thought it odd that both bodies are found where we’ve been recently.’
I knew what Ron meant about hearing the wheels in someone’s mind turning, though in George’s case I’d bet they were zippy microchips engaged in data analysis. ‘Where will you be tomorrow?’
‘I might be at work – I’m hoping to have a job lined up, not yet confirmed.’
‘Then I’ll come round early or late, how would that suit you?’
‘Could it be late? I’ll probably be working on the film set and they start early.’
‘Film set? You mean …?’
‘At Linton College, yes. I’m working there on the basis that lightning doesn’t strike twice.’
‘Statistically that’s not true.’
Merry soul, aren’t you, Gorgeous George? ‘Still, I think I should be safe. Everyone will be super alert. So after work then?’
‘Seven o’clock, at your home address?’
Someone was planning on pulling a long shift. ‘OK. I’ll warn my …’ not landlady … ‘friend.’
‘One final thing, Miss Bridges: have you and Jackson been anywhere else swimming together?’
‘No, not yet.’
‘And have you had any cause for alarm recently, the feeling of being followed, for example? Have you noticed anyone who seemed out of the ordinary in the places you routinely visit?’
Way to spook me, DI George. ‘No, but I’m not exactly a creature of habit. Anyone would have a hard time working out where I’ll be next.’
‘I suggest you keep it that way. If you do feel unnerved at any point, ring me and I can have a squad car with you in minutes.’
Wow, he was imagining I might be a target. I had just been thinking I might’ve inadvertently been hanging out with the killer.
‘Are you telling Jago this too?’
‘I will – as soon as I get off this call to you.’
I took the hint. ‘I hope you find him before he gets a third.’
‘Fourth. We found another body in the river an hour ago.’
‘Oh my God!’
‘The missing boyfriend, so I hope you understand that you should take my warnings very seriously. We don’t know who this killer is but he might well know who you are by now if he’s watching you and Jackson. Don’t underestimate him.’
It was only when I ended the call that I realised Inspector George hadn’t mentioned Jago having already contacted them.