The Long Call (Two Rivers #1) - Ann Cleeves Page 0,115
boss?’ That was Ross, at his desk. A little subdued, but resentful because he was still here, in the police station, waiting.
‘I need to speak to a witness.’ He still thought it was too soon to tell the team about his suspicion. There was someone who had far too much to lose.
* * *
The Rosebank Care Home was two storeys high, purpose-built with a narrow strip of garden in the front. Parking for staff and visitors was at the back, most of the spaces empty now. All but a few rooms were in darkness. It was only nine o’clock but it seemed that most of the residents were already in bed.
The door was locked and he rang the bell. A buzz and a crackly voice through the intercom. ‘Who is it?’
‘Inspector Venn for Mrs Janet Holsworthy.’
A brief silence. ‘You’ll find me in the office at the end of the corridor.’ The door clicked open and he went in.
Through open bedroom doors, he saw carers in pink tunics helping the last remaining residents still up to prepare for bed. Matthew imagined his father in a place like this – because surely his hospital ward hadn’t been very different – and he thought there were worse things than death. One woman was sitting on a commode. He turned away and hurried on before she saw him. Rosa’s mother sat in a small office, a plate on the desk in front of her, with a half-eaten sandwich and a banana skin. A mug of coffee in her hand.
‘I haven’t got long,’ she said. ‘I’m just on a break.’ But it seemed that there was no fight left in her. She waited while he took the chair on the other side of the desk.
‘I need to know about Rosa,’ he said. ‘One man’s dead and her friend, Lucy Braddick, is missing.’
She nodded. He thought she was very tired. She must scarcely sleep, working all night and looking after her husband and daughter during the day.
‘Why don’t you tell me what really happened? Why Rosa doesn’t go to the Woodyard any more.’
‘You met her,’ the woman said. ‘That’s how she’s always been. Affectionate. Loving. She’ll hold the hand of a stranger. When she was a girl she’d climb onto the knee of anyone who smiled at her. We tried to teach her that wasn’t a good thing to do, that she should sit with her legs together if she was wearing a skirt, that not everyone wanted to be cuddled, but she didn’t understand. How could she? She was innocent.’
Matthew didn’t speak.
‘When the day centre moved to the Woodyard we thought she’d be safe. The same staff went with them. We liked Jonathan. He wasn’t so hands-on but he was still in charge.’ Another period of silence. ‘There was a visitor. Someone who came and took advantage of her. Took advantage of her because she was so trusting.’
‘Did Rosa tell you what happened?’
‘Not at first. I could tell that something had happened when she came in that afternoon. She said she was feeling poorly, that she needed to stay at home the next day. We thought the move had unsettled her. That it was nothing serious.’
In the distance one of the home’s residents started shouting. ‘Help! Mummy! Please help me!’
‘Do you need to go to her?’ Matthew asked.
Janet Holsworthy shook her head. ‘That’s Eunice. She shouts every night just before she goes to sleep. She’ll settle now.’
There was one more scream, low and plaintive, and the home was quiet again.
‘When did you realize that Rosa had been abused?’
‘I thought a bath might calm her. I saw that her underwear was torn. There were bruises.’
‘She’d been raped?’
Janet shrugged. ‘She couldn’t say in any detail what had happened. She wouldn’t know the words. But she’d been assaulted.’
‘Why didn’t you go to the police? To a doctor?’ But Matthew knew the answer. This was delicate, personal. They wouldn’t want to tell the story to a stranger. ‘You could have told Jonathan. You knew him.’ Matthew tried to keep the emotion out of his voice.
‘Jonathan wasn’t there. He’d been away for three weeks on honeymoon. I went to the big boss. Something had to be done.’
‘The big boss?’
‘The head of the trustees. Christopher Preece.’ She paused. ‘I phoned him first. He asked me to his house, he said it would be best to talk there.’
Matthew pictured her standing outside the house by the park, nervous, but expecting sympathy, that something would be done.