At school I can’t concentrate. I don’t hear what the teachers are saying. All I can think is, Why would the Patersons have those newspapers? Was Jonesy right? Did the police get the wrong man, and the real killer wasn’t Peter Montrose, but Mr Paterson? Is that why he kept the clippings, so he could gloat that he’d gotten away with it? Maybe Mrs Paterson doesn’t know about the clippings, doesn’t know she’s living with a killer? Or maybe she does know, and she’s in on it, too?
Jonesy must have found the newspapers; she always was nosey. That terrible, terrible man; all that time being nicer to me and he knew what he’d done to her.
I borrow some money from Clara and at first break I go to the phone booth to call Detective Walker. He isn’t there so I say I will call again at dinnertime, but I don’t give my name.
He still isn’t there when I call back. This time I say it’s very important that I speak to him, but again I don’t give my name.
All afternoon I carry on worrying. I have to go back to the cottage and face them.
During maths I say I’m feeling ill and ask to go see the nurse. I never miss maths, but I have to speak to the detective. I sneak to the phone booth and dial the number again. This time he picks up the phone on the second ring.
‘Detective Walker, I need to speak to you.’
‘Ahh … Lesley, I imagine?’
‘Yes, yes, I need to speak to you.’
‘And what is it this time?’
‘Mr Paterson, it’s Mr Paterson, you know, our house-father at Cottage 5, I think he could be involved in it, perhaps Mrs Paterson too, but I think Mr Paterson might have done it.’
‘All riiight …’ he says, stretching it out. ‘So why do you say that?’
‘Well, he had the opportunity to kill Jonesy, and he probably did Jonesy because she found out it was him, and she found out it was him because she thought that they got the wrong fella for the Montrose murders, and I was in their living room last night and I found lots and lots of newspaper clippings about the Montrose murders. I mean, why would they collect all that stuff? It’s obvious, it wasn’t Peter Montrose who did the murders, it was Mr Paterson. They hanged the wrong man. I cannae go back there, Detective, I cannae, he’ll see in my eyes that I know and he’ll do to me what he did to Jonesy.’
There’s a long pause, then Detective Walker responds. ‘Lesley, where are you?’
‘I’m at school.’
‘And what time do you finish?’
‘Three-thirty.’
‘And what time do you get back to the Homes?’
‘Six o’ clock.’
‘Right, here’s what is going to happen, Lesley. I am going to meet you back at the Homes, out the front of the executive building. When you get off the bus, do not go back to your cottage, and do not, I repeat, do not, speak to anyone else about this. Do you understand?’
‘I understand.’
I knew it was the right thing to call him. He had said before to call if I knew anything and that is what I have done. I know I was wrong about Mr Sharples, but you have to keep asking questions and then you finally work it out.
I think about going to the nurse’s office and following through with the lie. There’s still twenty minutes of my lesson left, but I decide to go back to the classroom instead. When Mr Sanders asks why I’m back I say I don’t feel so bad any more.
I go back to my desk, thinking about what the police will do when they arrest Mr Paterson. Will they arrest Mrs Paterson too? Will I have to move cottages? Will the others in Cottage 5 hate me for getting rid of them? They shouldn’t, I might have saved their lives.