The Long Call (Two Rivers #1) - Ann Cleeves Page 0,112

the Woodyard.’ She shivered, although the room was very warm.

Susan came up and put her arm around her. ‘She’s been shivering all day. It must be the shock after all she’s been through. Here you are, my lover, let me get you a cardie. We’ll keep you cosy.’ She pulled a knitted jacket from the back of her chair and wrapped it around her daughter as if it was a blanket.

Jen looked at the cardigan. It was purple. Maurice had said Lucy had been wearing a purple cardigan when she’d gone missing. ‘Doesn’t Lucy Braddick have a cardigan a bit like this?’

‘Yes,’ Susan said. ‘Exactly the same! We all went on an outing to Plymouth with the Woodyard just before Christmas to do a bit of shopping, and they both got one.’

‘Did Christine have it on when she was snatched from the centre?’ Jen tried to remember what the woman had been wearing when they’d found her at Lovacott pond. Her clothes had been wet then, patched with mud, almost unrecognizable, but surely she’d been wearing this.

‘Yes. I was going to bin it, but Chrissie loves it so much. They said they were like twins, her and Lucy. So, in the end I put it straight in the machine and it came out like new. It’s not real wool, see, so no damage in a hottish wash.’

Jen left them sitting together, warm and snug, and went to sit in her car to phone Matthew.

* * *

‘I think it could have been a case of mistaken identity. The car driver had been told to pick up a woman with Down’s syndrome wearing a purple cardigan from the centre and got Christine, not Lucy. He said to Christine that he’d been told to give her a lift back to Lovacott. Both women would have been going there.’

‘But Christine doesn’t look much like Lucy. Lucy’s hair is longer.’

‘From behind, though, wrapped up in the purple cardigan, it might not be possible to tell them apart. Then Christine was sitting in the back of the car and the driver would just have glimpsed her in the mirror. And once he’d got her to the flat, what could he do? Just say it had been a dreadful mistake and drop her back at the Woodyard where anyone could see him? Perhaps he thought she’d have the same information as Lucy, and he asked his questions anyway.’ It was quite dark outside now. No moon. No street lights.

‘Then he got frustrated, took her to Lovacott where she was heading originally and dumped her by the pond,’ said Matthew. ‘I suppose it makes a kind of sense. But that implies that more than one person is involved in this. Someone giving the orders and someone carrying them out.’

‘I asked Christine about Lucy’s friendship with Walden. Lucy told her that together they were going to save the Woodyard.’

Matthew didn’t answer immediately. ‘I’m going to withdraw from the case. I should have done that from the beginning. There was always a conflict of interest and the Woodyard is obviously at the heart of it. I’ll contact management in the morning. From tomorrow you’ll be in charge. Temporarily at least, until they decide what to do next.’

Jen didn’t know what to say. She had mixed feelings. She’d never headed up such an important case and it had been her ambition since she’d joined the service. But this was Matthew. A good man and a good detective. ‘We’d better crack it tonight then, hadn’t we, boss. I’m coming in to the station and I’ll see you there.’

Chapter Thirty-Six

ROSS AND JEN ARRIVED BACK AT the station at about the same time. The day had been so full of events that it felt late to Matthew, as if it could be nearly midnight. In fact, Saturday night had just started in Barnstaple and from the police station, he heard music and voices, revellers on their way to the restaurants and bars.

Jonathan phoned. ‘We’ve searched every inch of the Woodyard. No sign of Lucy.’

Matthew wanted to talk to him about what Lucy had said regarding Walden’s secret plan to save the centre. Do you know what this is about? Why does the Woodyard need saving? But he thought he’d already involved Jonathan too much in the case. Matthew had always seen the point of rules, the need for order. That was why he’d joined the police. The decision had been his own small attempt to save the world from the chaos that he’d felt