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swing.
‘So what are we thinking?’ I said.
‘Well, Ben’s parents are thinking that this means that anybody at school might have known about the
regular walks they took, and the route they took, and they’re thinking that there might be something in
that.’
‘But anybody they knew could have known about the walks. People with dogs walk them regularly
and mostly to the same places. There’s only so many routes you can take in the woods.’
‘Point taken, but we do have an obligation to look into this, and I think we should. We’re not
overrun with options at this point and I am not going to miss anything, Jim. I’ll not have that on my
conscience.’
‘So what this actually means is that we can include school staff, or anybody else who might have
had access to this book, in the circle of people who might have known about the dog walks. So what
do we do? Re-interview school staff?’
Fraser was scribbling a note. ‘That’s exactly what we do.’
‘Start with the teacher and teaching assistant?’
‘Yep. And the headmaster. And don’t forget the school secretary too. They always know
everything.’
‘You know they’ve all got alibis don’t you, boss?’
‘Yeah, yeah I do. Teacher having lunch with parents, school secretary at cinema with a friend, TA
shagging his girlfriend, headmaster playing golf. That good enough recall for you? Do you think I’ve
gone senile all of a sudden?’
‘No, I just want to be sure we’re not wasting our time on this.’
‘I’m looking for information here. I want to dig deeper with these people. Maybe the books will
trigger a memory for somebody. And I need to tell you that we’ve had a turn-up on the CCTV as well,’
she added. ‘Confirmation that Ben was with his mother when they drove across the bridge on the way
to the woods. They’re still scouring and cross-checking a final half-hour of footage but we should
have the results later today.’
Other than that, Fraser said we still hadn’t tracked down the man Rachel said she and Ben spoke to
in the woods. She had a DC looking into that, but he was banging his head against a wall because
nobody had come forward. It seemed like Rachel Jenner was the only one who’d seen him. Even the
regular dog walkers weren’t sure who he might be. In the office they’d started to call him Big Foot.
‘Nicky Forbes?’ I said, when we were nearly done. My thoughts had kept returning to her, I
couldn’t deny it.
‘Definitely still of interest, but softly, softly.’
‘Of course.’
‘First job – get Bennett to look through Emma’s work, clear her desk; everything she was doing, I
want to know about.’
‘I can do that, boss.’
‘I think it’s better if somebody else does it, don’t you, Jim?’
This time, the subtext was crystal clear. She knew. I managed to nod an affirmative and got myself
out of her office as quickly as I could.