at Ross. ‘Do we know anything about Mr Alan Springer?’
‘No police record. I haven’t got much beyond that. The phone company only got back to us half an hour ago.’
‘That’s something else for tomorrow then. Let’s see what there is to know about him. Find out if he can account for his movements. And even if we can rule him out as a suspect, he might be able to give us some information about Walden. I’m still curious about how a married man, running his own restaurant, ended up sleeping rough and throwing himself on the mercy of the Church.’
‘He killed a child,’ Jen said. ‘That would do terrible things to you.’
‘You’re right. Of course it would.’ A moment of silence. ‘How did the child’s parents react at the time of the accident? Did they swear revenge? Demand compensation? It might be a possible motive.’
‘No,’ said Ross. ‘I’ve looked the story up online.’ He paused. ‘They said they forgave him. The papers made a big deal of it.’
‘Perhaps that was their reaction immediately after the child’s death,’ Matthew said, ‘but things change over time. Families break up under the stress of bereavement. Resentment grows. I’d like to know if the family is still together.’ He looked sharply at Ross. ‘I suppose their name wasn’t Springer?’
‘No!’ He looked at his notes. ‘Sally and James Thorne. I think we can dismiss them from our enquiries. They emigrated, moved to Australia to be close to her family. She grew up there. I’ve checked and they’re at home in Adelaide.’
‘You spoke to them?’
‘They were at work. I spoke to Sally’s mother. She was going to tell them about Walden’s death, but she seemed unfazed by the news, as if somehow it wasn’t a big deal for them. She said they’d all moved on.’
Jen thought that was a weird thing to say. How could you move on so easily after the death of a child? But perhaps people survived in different ways.
Venn considered this for a moment, then he nodded. It was dark outside now. One of the strip lights in the room was faulty and flickered, but nobody moved to switch it off. ‘Jen, fill in the rest of the team on Walden’s housemates. We know a bit more about them now and about how he fitted in there.’
Jen stood up again. She’d never minded being the centre of attention; she just didn’t crave it like Ross. She tried to capture the atmosphere of the house in Ilfracombe, described the two close friends who’d found a way of living together despite their differences. ‘They’re bright women, confident, good at what they do. Then Walden came in and threw the household out of balance. They thought he’d be leaving at Easter, but his boss at Kingsley House told me there’d be no way they’d have him back. So, unless he’d found another job, they were stuck with him.’
‘Why wouldn’t the hotel employ Walden again?’
‘The chef didn’t like him. I don’t think there was any more to it than that. And Walden was a moody bastard, not prepared to play their games.’
‘He got on well enough with the chef at the Woodyard,’ Matthew said. ‘They seem to have confided in each other. And I spoke to Christopher Preece, Caroline’s dad and one of the trustees at the Woodyard. He used to work in hospitality and said he’d have employed him.’
‘There’d be less pressure at the Woodyard, perhaps. It’s high-end dining at the Kingsley. The sort of place where they charge you an arm and a leg and you still come out starving.’
The room was quiet for a moment. They were waiting for Venn to speak. ‘Our Mr Walden seems a complicated character,’ he said at last. ‘Moody and aggressive, according to some witnesses, yet when he travelled to Lovacott he sat next to Lucy Braddick on the bus and made her laugh. Made her day. Even Gaby Henry, who took against him, admits there was something about him that attracted her. She painted him in the hope of understanding him better.’
‘Any idea what he was doing in Lovacott, boss?’ The question bordered on rudeness. Ross wanted to make it clear that he didn’t see the point in the character analysis, couldn’t understand how it could help them to find the killer. He wanted them to move on and to stick to the facts.
‘According to the landlady of The Golden Fleece, he was waiting for a woman,’ Matthew said. ‘But that was just guesswork. It sounds as