The Locked Room (Ruth Galloway #14)(43)

‘I’ll be OK,’ says Eileen. ‘There’s a lock on my door.’

Nelson remembers how easily he was able to break into Joe’s room. The young really are astonishingly stupid sometimes. If Michelle were home, he’d be tempted to offer Eileen a bed for the night. But she isn’t and he can’t. Besides, they are in the middle of a pandemic. And he’s planning to slope off to Ruth’s as soon as he’s collected Bruno.

‘I’ll speak to the university,’ he says. ‘They’ve got a duty of care.’

‘They did send me a food parcel,’ says Eileen. ‘It had a Cup-a-Soup and two cans of baked beans in it.’



‘Pictures of me?’ says Ruth. She looks round the room. Kate is constructing the tower containing Dumbledore’s study. Ruth remembers that the spiral staircase is very tricky. Flint is stretched out in a patch of sunlight. He seems to like having them both at home all day. They are all safe, Ruth tells herself.

‘It was like a bloody shrine,’ says Nelson. ‘Newspaper cuttings, stuff from the internet. Even some photos that look as if he took them himself. One had Katie in it.’

‘Kate?’ Ruth can’t stop her voice sounding sharp and anxious. Kate looks up and even Flint twitches in his sleep.

‘What do you know about this lad?’ Nelson is asking.

‘He’s one of my first years. He seems keen. Intelligent.’ Ruth sees the dark-bearded face. Lytton Strachey. She thinks about Joe going to see Janet to talk about the Grey Lady. Beware the Grey Lady.

‘Have you got a home address for him?’ asks Nelson.

‘There’ll be one on the files. I’ll check.’

‘There was a Post-it note too. It said: “Stone walls do not a prison make. Nor iron bars a cage.” Do you know what that’s all about?’

‘It sounds like a poem.’

‘It is. I googled it. By someone called Richard Lovelace.’

‘I’ve never heard of him. I’ll ask Shona.’

‘Don’t tell her too much.’ Nelson is not the greatest fan of Shona, Ruth’s friend in the English department. Ruth is fond of Shona but has to admit that discretion is not her strongest suit.

‘I spoke to the campus security,’ says Nelson, ‘but they were bloody useless. There’s a warden but it turns out he doesn’t even live on site.’

‘Most wardens don’t.’

‘I spoke to him too. I’m a bit worried about the girl. Eileen.’

‘Me too.’

‘I spoke to some of the other students in the halls. There are only a few of them. One of them, a nice Chinese girl, offered to keep an eye on Eileen. As well as she can from two metres away.’

‘I’ll check in with her regularly too,’ says Ruth. ‘I wish she could go home but she says she doesn’t get on with her mother. I don’t think the government have thought about students like Eileen. They think everyone has a nice safe home to go back to.’

‘Home isn’t always safe,’ says Nelson. ‘I’d better get back to the station now. Text me Joe McMahon’s address. He’s not necessarily a danger to you but I’d like to have a word with him.’

Not necessarily. It’s not the most reassuring phrase, thinks Ruth. But Nelson’s next remark is better.

‘See you later,’ he says.



After lunch, Ruth and Kate go for a windy walk across the Saltmarsh. Kate finds some crab claws and is ghoulishly pleased at the thought that a bird must have dropped them after feasting on the creature’s insides. Back at home, she goes to give them pride of place on her nature table. Ruth takes the opportunity to ring Shona.

‘Hi. How are you?’ She’s guiltily aware that she hasn’t contacted her friend since the start of lockdown.

‘OK. I’m going mad trying to keep Louis and Phil entertained. When you think we should have been halfway across Thailand by now.’

Shona and her partner Phil – Ruth’s ex-boss – had been planning to take a year off and go around the world with their ten-year-old son, Louis. Phil had taken early retirement after a heart attack two years ago and Shona had managed to secure a sabbatical. Strictly speaking, they weren’t planning to leave until July, but Ruth forgives Shona the slight exaggeration.

‘It’s awful the way everything’s on hold now,’ she says.

‘It’s the not knowing,’ says Shona. ‘Will everything be back to normal by the summer? Phil says not but he’s being very gloomy.’

Shona sounds thoroughly fed up and Ruth doesn’t blame her. Being locked down with Phil must constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Louis is not exactly easy company either.

‘Maybe Louis and Kate could do something on Zoom one day,’ she says, although she knows that the two do not always see eye to eye.

‘That would be lovely,’ says Shona. ‘And the English department are having an online quiz tomorrow. Perhaps you could join in with that?’

‘Perhaps,’ says Ruth. She needs to think of an excuse, but she can hardly say that she’s out that evening. She’s not keen on quizzes at the best of times and doesn’t fancy the idea of listening to the English department one-upping each other on Shakespeare quotations. Still, it reminds her of the purpose of her call.