Miss Serena Pembroke (26) unmarried, lives at 14 Mossborough Court, Bracknell, a block of flats just off the Easthatnpstead Road, turn left by the pub. Flats built during Bracknell’s new-town expansion, middle-income, business people tenants, keep themselves to themselves. Pretty girl, one of the neighbours said (No 12) but don’t know her name. Miss S. has lived there three months. One bedroom, one sitting-room, kit, bath, all small.
Miss S. works at Deanna’s Dance and Aerobics Studio, High Street, Bracknell, teaching aerobics. Private business, sloppily run (my opinion), owned by Mrs Deanna Richmond (45?) whose mind is on a younger gent with a hairy chest, gold chain showing, rubbish.
Miss S. works mornings Monday to Friday 8.00 to 1.30 pm, taking classes, first office workers, then housewives. Miss S. and another girl (Sammy Higgs) work in rotation, half hour on, half off. Miss S’s times are 8-8.30, 9-9.30, 10- 10.30,11-11.30, 12-12.30, 1-1.30 most days.
Miss S. and Sammy H. are both good workers. Trie clients I spoke to said classes v. good. Continuous, therefore popular. A girl can drop in on way to office, on way home after taking children to school, etc. Sign in, pay on way out. Clients come from all over — large clientele.
Evening classes, Monday to Friday, 7 pm-8.30 only. Miss S. does these alone. (S. Higgs does afternoons 1—30—4 pm.) Evenings quite social — rests for clients’ drinks etc. Well attended.
Miss S. has bad menstrual cramps every month. Can’t dance or exercise. Always two days off. The Tuesday of Newmarket Sales was one of these days - the second. Miss S. called in Monday morning in pain, didn’t work, no one expected her Tuesday, she returned Wednesday. Mrs Deanna Richmond’s daughter stands in on these occasions and also if either girl especially asks for time off otherwise. No records kept of these times.
Miss S. leads sober, hard-working, regulated life.
Likes pretty clothes, a bit immature (my opinion), has few friends. Goes to her brother’s house (Mr Ferdinand) a good deal at weekends, or to her mother’s (Mrs Alicia).
No ascertainable iove life.
Miss S. likes shopping and window-shopping. On the Friday of attack on Mr Pembroke she says she bought food and frilly white blouse at Marks and Spencers, she thinks. (Not sure of die day.) She buys something to wear about four times a week probably -tights, leotards, sweaters, etc. ‘Has to look nice for her clients.’
Miss S. owns two-year-old grey/silver Ford Escort, but usually jogs one mile to work to warm up. Drives only if cold or wet. Car clean from automatic car-wash: Miss S. goes through same car-wash approx every two weeks. Car-wash people corroborate, but can’t remember exact dates.
Miss S. says Mr Ian must have killed Mrs Moira because she (Mrs Moira) took away both Mr Pembroke and his (Mr Ian’s) inheritance, and he hated her. She says Mr Ian must have tried to kill Mr Pembroke for the money. The police are fools not to arrest him, she says. I told her Mr Ian couldn’t have killed Moira or attacked his father as he was seeing round a racehorse training stable forty miles away at both times, with thirty or more witnesses. I said he obviously hadn’t been driving the car which nearly ran him down. She says he could have arranged it. In my opinion, Miss S. doesn’t want to be convinced of Mr Ian’s innocence. She wants the killer to be Mr Ian because she doesn’t want to find any others in her family guilty. If it is Mr Ian, she can bear it, she says, because it would serve him right for being Daddy’s pet. (Muddled thinking!)
End of enquiry.
The three pages of notes on Serena were held together with a paperclip. I shuffled Serena to the bottom of the pack and came to the next paperclip, holding notes on Debs and Ferdinand.
Norman West used grey paperclips, not silver. Most appropriate, I thought.
The first page read:
Mrs Deborah Pembroke (27) second wife of Mr Ferdinand, lives with him at Gables Cottage, Reading Road, Wokingham, Berkshire.
Mrs Deborah works as a photographic model chiefly for mailorder catalogues, and was engaged in London on the Tuesday of Newmarket Sales modelling a succession of swimsuits. There were two other models there, also a photographer and two assistants,also a dresser, a representative of the mail-order firm and a notetaker. The swimsuit session went on until 6 pm. Mrs D. was there until the end. Vouched for without possibility of doubt. Mrs Debs has no firm alibi for the previous