The Long Call (Two Rivers #1) - Ann Cleeves Page 0,61

evening here.’

‘And how did she seem?’

‘She has a learning disability,’ Dennis said, ‘and I’m never quite sure how much she understands. Perhaps I’m not sufficiently patient. We didn’t have any real conversation the evening after I got back from the funeral. She loves television so we put it on for her, though we don’t tend to watch much ourselves. She seemed settled enough, didn’t she, Grace? She knows us and she’s spent time with us before.’

‘You’ve known her since she was a baby,’ Matthew said. ‘You’d be able to tell, wouldn’t you, if something wasn’t quite right?’

‘She was missing Susan,’ Grace said.

‘Well, of course she was missing her mother.’ Dennis sounded as if he resented the line of questioning. Perhaps he’d thought he’d be able to control the conversation as he always had with Matthew in the past. Or perhaps guilt at not making sure Christine had arrived back in Lovacott safely had made him defensive. ‘Since Cecil died, there’s just been the two of them. They’re very close. Christine hasn’t stayed overnight here since she was a young child. Susan is very protective.’

‘Was she happy to go to the Woodyard on Tuesday morning?’

‘Oh yes,’ Grace said. ‘She loves the Woodyard. I thought she might not enjoy it so much when her friend Rosa stopped going, but she loves it just the same.’

‘Could Christine have gone to Rosa’s house?’ Matthew asked. ‘If she and Dennis missed each other at the Woodyard and she wasn’t sure where to go?’

There was a silence while Grace thought about that. She shot a quick look at her husband before answering. ‘Oh, I don’t think so. Rosa lives on the other side of Barnstaple from the Woodyard. Christine would never be able to get there by herself.’

Matthew nodded but he thought he’d get Rosa’s address from Jonathan and ask one of his officers to check.

‘She wasn’t reluctant or anxious to go to the centre that morning?’

‘No.’ Grace looked at her husband. ‘I don’t think so. You took her in, didn’t you, Dennis? You didn’t think she was upset?’ It was as if she couldn’t answer even a simple question without her husband’s agreement. But that was the way it was supposed to be within the Brethren. The women always deferred to their men.

Except in our house, Matthew thought. My mother was always the boss there.

‘She seemed perfectly fine to me.’ Dennis appeared to have recovered his composure. Perhaps he no longer felt he was being accused of being responsible for Christine’s disappearance. ‘Really, Matthew, no different from normal.’

‘And the plan was that Dennis would pick her up and bring her back here to the house until later, so that Susan would have an evening to herself?’

‘Well, we thought that was the plan,’ Grace said. ‘But when she didn’t come out Dennis assumed that she’d got the centre minibus back to Susan’s cottage as usual.’

‘You didn’t go in to the Woodyard, Mr Salter? To find her.’

‘Not until later.’ His face was very red now. ‘I lost track of time and when I went to look for her they’d all gone. The day centre was empty.’ There was a silence, the bluster had gone and there was a sudden confession. ‘I was listening to the cricket on the radio in the car. The test match in Barbados. But I was there, parked right outside. I don’t see how she could have missed me. She knew the car. Susan doesn’t drive and I go a couple of evenings a week to take them shopping. Of course I should have been more attentive. I feel terrible that she’s gone missing.’

Matthew almost felt sorry for him. He could understand how that might happen.

There was a rather awkward silence, broken by Grace. ‘When Dennis got home we had to go straight out. A friend, one of the Brethren, needed a lift to A&E. We were there all evening with him. That’s why we didn’t get my sister’s phone call. We didn’t realize Christine was missing until Susan rang again this morning.’

On his way out, shepherded to the door by Salter, Matthew remembered something that Christopher Preece had said. ‘Weren’t you a manager of the Devonshire Building Society before you retired?’

‘I was.’ An obvious matter of pride. ‘Of the branch here in Lovacott.’

‘Are you on the board of the Woodyard?’

‘Yes. I knew Christopher Preece through the business community. He asked if I would join them and I was delighted that he thought my skills would be of use.’ He paused for a