Tuesday 30 October, 9 p.m.
Even Matthew had stopped asking her how the case was going, and that rubbed it in even more. Though he wasn’t usually interested, he made some show of asking about her cases as he shared the more interesting parts of his work with her.
The baby was growing fast, kicking with energy, and as it thrived she felt that it was sucking her own energy. She seemed to want to sleep for most of the time. She still had weeks to go but even Matthew appeared impressed at her size. One night he’d asked her if she was sure of her dates.
‘You think it’ll come early?’
He palpated what he called the fundal height and nodded. ‘I wouldn’t be surprised, Jo.’
She felt a sudden panic. ‘It’s not twins is it?’
‘No.’ He smiled. ‘Just a bonny bouncing, beautiful boy.’
And this time she was too tired to argue.
The night was warm, the room cosy with the log burner blazing away. Joanna lay on the sofa, her mind working. Matthew was reading a magazine, or rather the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine. She watched him deep in concentration. At times his lips moved or he frowned. Once or twice he shook his head, as though disagreeing with the content. Then he looked up and saw her watching him. Somehow he sensed she wanted to say something and, carefully marking his place, he placed the magazine down. ‘Jo?’
‘Matt.’ She began tentatively. He was all attention now. All smiles. He knew she wanted his opinion on something. ‘Can I run something past you?’
He nodded, still smiling.
‘I daren’t even mention this to the guys at work.’ She patted her expanding abdomen. ‘They’ll think it’s complete madness.’
‘But,’ he prompted.
‘We-ell. My missing man is worthless. We’ve established that no one would pay to get him back but I don’t see how else he would have escaped and evaded discovery.’ She managed a smile but it was accompanied by a deeply troubled frown. Sometimes it was hard to detach yourself from a case even when you were in such a cosy environment. ‘Oh, God,’ she said. ‘Stop me if I’m sounding insane.’ His eyes were gleaming as he moved from the chair to her side in one easy movement. ‘Jo?’
‘What if it wasn’t the old man who was the target?’
Now he was frowning too. ‘Sorry?’
‘But the teddy bear?’ She held up a finger to prevent him interrupting. ‘That was what went first.’
And her husband asked the obvious question. ‘If what they wanted was the teddy bear, why abduct the old man at all? I take it that’s your suggestion – that he was abducted.’
She shrugged. ‘It’s the only explanation.’
‘I take it then you’re pointing the finger at a member of staff.’
She nodded.
‘That’s a serious allegation, Jo.’
‘I know it is. It’s also pretty far-fetched, but I can’t think of any other way or reason all this happened. He couldn’t have gone very far on his own and he’s definitely not within the search area.’
‘Well … there are old toys that are worth a fortune like, presumably, the original Pooh Bear – the original.’ He couldn’t resist teasing her. ‘I don’t suppose your old man’s name was Christopher Robin?’
She was tempted to throw a cushion at him, but her back was comfortably resting on it so she simply shook her head and Matthew gave the matter further thought.
‘I suggest that really valuable old toys are few and far between and I can’t imagine something worth a lot ending up with an old man with no particular connection to wealth who’d lived in Leek all his life.’
She nodded. ‘It might be far-fetched but it’s not impossible. At least not as impossible as a vanishing act.’
‘Hmm. Well, if I were you I’d go back to the residential home and do a bit more digging around.’
‘Residential home,’ she corrected.
‘Residential home, and see if you can verify your theory.’
Her raised eyebrows asked the question.
‘By finding out what you can about the missing teddy bear.’
She nodded. ‘Thank you.’ And having registered that his eyes were drifting back towards the magazine, she smiled mischievously. ‘And now you can return to your studies.’
Her reward for perception was a wide, warm, Matthew grin and she settled back. At least now she had a focus for an enquiry. But this time she would work alone.