and Jojo. Perhaps he ought to be talking to some of the partners of his suspects.
It was something that should always be done during an investigation in his opinion. Talking to people alone was like examining them in a vacuum. There was a lot more to all of those six than that one night in the forest, and how they accounted for their movements. He wanted to have as full a picture as he could, about all of them. Whatever complex series of events had occurred to lead to Aurora’s death, it had been based on the kids who had gathered there—perhaps on their teacher’s presence or on the baggage each of them had brought with them that night.
He checked the time on his phone. It was almost five, and he realized he had forgotten lunch again. He checked for any spare food in his desk, but came up with nothing.
He headed out into CID again, where all three of his team were at their desks. He avoided making eye contact with Hanson, though he could feel her level gaze on him.
“OK. I’m going to see Anna Parker, and probably Mary Benham after that. Ben, you’re with me. Domnall, I’d like you to get on with the phone records. Hanson, I’d like you to go and stake out Stavely and find out if he visits anyone. And please be careful,” he added, thinking back to the fire, and the feeling of being watched. However worried he was about his own future, that threat was still there. “Take a uniform along.”
“OK,” Hanson said. “And could I…have a quick word before you go?”
“Sure,” Jonah said, keeping it light.
He let Hanson into his office, and perched on the desk instead of sitting. He felt like he was waiting for a verdict.
“I had a call with Zofia, and I thought you’d like to know what she had to say,” she said.
“I would,” Jonah said, not quite sure that was true.
“Nothing happened between you,” Hanson said in a tight tone. “Zofia says that she was trying to talk you into it, and kept trying to get undressed, but you stopped her, tucked her into the bed, and then left.”
“Jesus,” Jonah said.
He felt suddenly weak, and very much aware of the perspiration that was all over his face. It was all OK. It was all OK.
Hanson was still standing stiffly in front of him, not entering into his relief at all.
“There is a little more to it, though,” she went on, with a trace of censure still in her voice. “It may well have no bearing on our case, but someone else did attack Zofia. She woke to find herself facedown with someone on top of her. She never got to see who it was.” Hanson looked away from him, and folded her arms across herself. She looked as awkward as he felt. “I did ask if she was sure it wasn’t you, and she was very clear on it. She says she remembers it all in absolute detail. She remembers that his arms were covered by a shirt, and you’d been in a short-sleeved T-shirt. She’d had to clean blood off it earlier in the evening. He’d hissed in her ear that if she tried to move, he’d kill her, and once he was done, he left. She didn’t dare look round for a long time.”
Jonah’s relief turned into a cold feeling. The same cold feeling he’d had about Aurora having been raped.
“Did she report it?”
Hanson shook her head. “Her mother wouldn’t believe that she hadn’t been willing. And then she sent her away.”
“Fuck,” Jonah said. “So the big question is, do we now start investigating a thirty-year-old rape at a party, too?”
“I’ll have to leave that to you, sir,” Hanson said.
Jonah could see that she was still angry. The fact that he could easily have done it himself was still with her. He understood the anger more than he wanted to.
“I’m glad you spoke to her.”
“Let’s hope I don’t have to do anything like that again, shall we?” the constable said acidly.
She was turning to go as Jonah said to her quietly, “Thank you, Juliette.”
“For what?”
“For waiting to find out the truth before you reported it,” he said. “And for finding it out.”
She nodded, but there was still that anger running through her.
He hoped the anger would go in time. In the midst of his own fear, it was still clear to him that she was a huge asset to his team.