The Locked Room (Ruth Galloway #14)(84)

‘I’m sure he does,’ says Tanya.

‘He’ll put in a plea of temporary insanity if we’re not careful,’ says Nelson, ‘but the way that he kept Zoe locked up, bringing her food and drink – not to mention pills in case she wanted to top herself – shows planning and forethought.’

‘What about the other women?’ says Jo. ‘He didn’t lock them up, did he? It seems he just talked to them about suicide.’

‘That’s what Saffron Evans said,’ says Tanya. ‘Hugh went to Samantha’s slimming club and they became friends. Saffron said he kept making disparaging comments about her weight and talking about ending it all.’

‘Nice,’ says Nelson. ‘Hugh must have been the bearded man the neighbour saw going into the house. The one the son mentioned.’

‘That’s right,’ says Tanya. ‘It’s funny how you don’t notice a beard so much when it’s white.’

‘And he knew Karen Head too,’ says Nelson. ‘That was bright of you to see the connection, Tony.’

Tony looks modest. ‘I remembered that she had a boyfriend with an unsuitable age difference. I thought it might be a younger man, perhaps Joe McMahon, but it turned out to be an older man. Hugh Baxter.’

‘But none of this adds up to anything,’ says Jo. ‘He didn’t imprison those women. He just talked to them.’

‘If his fingerprints are on Avril Flowers’ door, we’ll have some evidence,’ says Nelson. ‘The picture Judy sent Tanya shows that Hugh was at her house that morning.’

‘Why did he do it?’ asks Jo, who always feels offended if criminals don’t act in the way she expects. Nelson expects nothing so is rarely disappointed.

‘I spoke to Madge Hudson earlier,’ he says. He sees Tanya and Tony exchanging looks. They know that the forensic psychologist is not on Nelson’s list of favourite people, though he’d admit it’s not a long list. ‘She said that it might be a form of Munchausen’s by proxy or whatever it’s called these days.’

‘Fabricated or induced illness,’ says Tanya.

‘Hugh’s wife committed suicide,’ says Nelson, ‘and he may have enjoyed the attention he got in the wake of that. He enjoyed comforting women who felt bad about themselves even though he was the one who’d made them feel that way.’

‘It was quite a leap kidnapping Zoe Hilton,’ says Jo.

‘Criminals escalate,’ says Nelson. ‘We know that. It may just have been that he had the means to hand – the underground room – and saw a way to lure Zoe here.’

‘It’s amazing that the woman living there didn’t hear anything,’ says Jo.

‘Tony and I spoke to Janet Meadows this morning,’ says Tanya. ‘She says she heard noises, but she thought it was a poltergeist.’

‘Jesus wept,’ says Nelson.



‘I can’t believe I’m talking to you,’ says Judy.

The iPad seems too small for the joy it contains. Cathbad still has a tube coming out of his nose but his eyes are bright and his voice is the same, just a bit croakier.

‘I can’t believe it either. I’m a medical miracle, Abbas says.’

‘Abbas has been brilliant.’

‘He’s an earth angel,’ says Cathbad. ‘His aura is pure light.’

‘You’re embarrassing me,’ says an offscreen voice.

‘When can you come home?’

‘It’ll be a while, they say. I still need oxygen and antiviral drugs.’

‘We’ve been so worried,’ says Judy. ‘Everyone has. Ruth, Nelson, Tanya, all the team. Clough even came to see me, breaking all the rules, of course.’

‘He’s a good soul.’

‘The boss has been fretting. You know how he hates it when he can’t do anything.’

‘Tell him he did do something,’ says Cathbad. ‘He was in my dream. He guided me back to life.’

The children are clamouring to talk so Judy relinquishes the device. Afterwards, she feels restless. The children are running wildly round the garden, using up their pent-up energy. Thing is barking his accompaniment. Maddie says she’s going to bake a cake. There’s only one thing Judy really wants to do.

‘I’m going into the station,’ she says.

‘Is that allowed?’ says Maddie, squinting at the recipe on her phone.

‘I’ll socially distance,’ says Judy. ‘I’ll wear a mask.’

The desk sergeant greets her with a wave, but Judy isn’t prepared for the reception she gets in the incident room. Tanya and Tony burst into applause. Nelson comes to the door of his office, grinning broadly, and even Super Jo emerges from her inner sanctum, wearing a visor and a rather sinister Joker mask.

‘I wish I could give you a hug,’ says Tony, over-sharing as usual.

‘What news of Cathbad?’ says Tanya. She doesn’t look as if she is disappointed at the lack of physical contact, but Judy can tell that she is smiling broadly underneath her multicoloured mask.

‘It’s incredible,’ says Judy. ‘He’s awake and talking. I was able to FaceTime him this morning. He asked after you all. He said you were in his dream, Nelson.’