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Authors: Priscilla Masters
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watching soaps on the television.’ She gave an amused grimace. ‘You don’t know what control is until you’ve met Aaron Sedgewick, sergeant.’
Alice was round-eyed with incredulity at Acantha’s forthrightness but she stayed silent, not defending her husband or contradicting her friend’s opinion.
‘I can hardly wait,’ Talith responded dryly.
He kept his last question back until they had walked outside into the freezing air. ‘Does Aaron Sedgewick have a mobile?’
Again it was Acantha who answered for her friend. ‘Probably. Everyone does these days, don’t they? But I don’t know the number. Alice,’ she said, ‘do you?’
‘Yes,’ Alice answered politely, ‘I’ve got it written down by the telephone in the kitchen but I’m only supposed to ring it in an emergency.’
Talith felt stunned. What on earth constituted an emergency in the mad Sedgewick household?
It struck him then that Alice Sedgewick was bobbing in and out of reality like a boat whose tether is loosened by a gentle but insistent current. At some point she might well drift all the way downstream.
FOUR
Sunday afternoon
M artha had solved the problem of what to do. The day was bitingly cold but bright and the weather quite beautiful. She was fond of photography and Bobby needed a good long walk. She chose her favourite route, knowing that plenty of people would be sledging on Lyth Hill this afternoon. Mary Webb had had a house there and she was one of Martha’s favourite authors. She had studied Precious Bane and had loved the book ever since.
They set out, well wrapped up in gloves, scarves and anoraks, laughing in the sparkling air and the challenging cold and Bobby straining on his lead, barking and panting. Martha had thought they might take their sledge but Sam was worried about making his injury worse and Agnetha and Sukey said they preferred to walk and chat in their easy, friendly way. Martha decided she would cut a lone figure. One needed a child present to justify this juvenile sport. And there was always the chance that she would bump, either literally or metaphorically, into someone she knew professionally. The thought of the coroner whooping with joy and exhilaration as she sledged down Lyth Hill was perhaps not quite ‘the thing’, so reluctantly she’d slammed the garage door on the red plastic sledge.
Talith also had worked out what to do with his afternoon. He decided to visit the staff nurse who had been on duty the previous evening and take a proper statement from her. It would be less traumatic, he had decided, if he went to her house rather than summoning her to the station and he wanted to minimize the impact of the events of last night. She’d had a late night as well as a shock.
Lucy Ramshaw lived with her boyfriend on the Gains Park Estate. It was an area popular with the nurses because it was so close to the hospital – within walking distance. That meant they didn’t even have to battle over the scarce parking spaces and run the gauntlet of the vigilant and quite merciless parking attendants who slapped their fines and warnings on anyone, whether staff or patient. Lucy answered the door herself, looking very different to the harassed and upset nurse he had encountered the night before. She was wearing tight jeans and a low-cut blue sweater, which showed a neat, strong, slim figure, Paul Talith noted approvingly.
She recognized him at once and showed him into a small dining room, passing the sitting from where he could hear football on the television. He wished he could have been watching the Premier League game instead of working.
Lucy made them both a coffee and they sat around the small dining table.
‘I don’t think I’ve anything to add really,’ she said. ‘I mean I saw the woman but she didn’t seem to want anything. We were really busy what with the snow and everything. She just sat there. I mean she could have been waiting for a relative or someone,’ she finished lamely. ‘I
Alice was round-eyed with incredulity at Acantha’s forthrightness but she stayed silent, not defending her husband or contradicting her friend’s opinion.
‘I can hardly wait,’ Talith responded dryly.
He kept his last question back until they had walked outside into the freezing air. ‘Does Aaron Sedgewick have a mobile?’
Again it was Acantha who answered for her friend. ‘Probably. Everyone does these days, don’t they? But I don’t know the number. Alice,’ she said, ‘do you?’
‘Yes,’ Alice answered politely, ‘I’ve got it written down by the telephone in the kitchen but I’m only supposed to ring it in an emergency.’
Talith felt stunned. What on earth constituted an emergency in the mad Sedgewick household?
It struck him then that Alice Sedgewick was bobbing in and out of reality like a boat whose tether is loosened by a gentle but insistent current. At some point she might well drift all the way downstream.
FOUR
Sunday afternoon
M artha had solved the problem of what to do. The day was bitingly cold but bright and the weather quite beautiful. She was fond of photography and Bobby needed a good long walk. She chose her favourite route, knowing that plenty of people would be sledging on Lyth Hill this afternoon. Mary Webb had had a house there and she was one of Martha’s favourite authors. She had studied Precious Bane and had loved the book ever since.
They set out, well wrapped up in gloves, scarves and anoraks, laughing in the sparkling air and the challenging cold and Bobby straining on his lead, barking and panting. Martha had thought they might take their sledge but Sam was worried about making his injury worse and Agnetha and Sukey said they preferred to walk and chat in their easy, friendly way. Martha decided she would cut a lone figure. One needed a child present to justify this juvenile sport. And there was always the chance that she would bump, either literally or metaphorically, into someone she knew professionally. The thought of the coroner whooping with joy and exhilaration as she sledged down Lyth Hill was perhaps not quite ‘the thing’, so reluctantly she’d slammed the garage door on the red plastic sledge.
Talith also had worked out what to do with his afternoon. He decided to visit the staff nurse who had been on duty the previous evening and take a proper statement from her. It would be less traumatic, he had decided, if he went to her house rather than summoning her to the station and he wanted to minimize the impact of the events of last night. She’d had a late night as well as a shock.
Lucy Ramshaw lived with her boyfriend on the Gains Park Estate. It was an area popular with the nurses because it was so close to the hospital – within walking distance. That meant they didn’t even have to battle over the scarce parking spaces and run the gauntlet of the vigilant and quite merciless parking attendants who slapped their fines and warnings on anyone, whether staff or patient. Lucy answered the door herself, looking very different to the harassed and upset nurse he had encountered the night before. She was wearing tight jeans and a low-cut blue sweater, which showed a neat, strong, slim figure, Paul Talith noted approvingly.
She recognized him at once and showed him into a small dining room, passing the sitting from where he could hear football on the television. He wished he could have been watching the Premier League game instead of working.
Lucy made them both a coffee and they sat around the small dining table.
‘I don’t think I’ve anything to add really,’ she said. ‘I mean I saw the woman but she didn’t seem to want anything. We were really busy what with the snow and everything. She just sat there. I mean she could have been waiting for a relative or someone,’ she finished lamely. ‘I
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