The Locked Room (Ruth Galloway #14)(87)

Despite the Nurofen, Nelson’s headache gets worse. Cloughie seems to have re-joined the team and even sends out for pizza at lunchtime. This reminds Nelson of women ordering pizza in a coded cry for help against domestic violence. He googles it and finds that it’s only an urban myth. There is, however, a scheme in bars and restaurants called ‘Ask Angela’ where, if women use the name Angela, it alerts staff to abuse or to a date that is going dangerously wrong. There ought to be more, thinks Nelson, picturing Leah’s face when he’d appeared at her house last night. If she hadn’t had the courage to text him, what would be happening to her now?

In the afternoon, Nelson drives back into Norwich. He parks outside the cathedral and crosses the road to Steward’s House. It looks even less stable in the daylight, as if the whole edifice would topple over with one push. Nelson leans on the doorbell, trying his luck.

Janet Meadows opens the door. Nelson remembers her telling him that she’d heard crashing and banging in the night but had turned over and gone back to sleep. I’m always hearing suspicious things. This is a haunted house, you know. Presumably the noise had been Zoe Hilton being imprisoned in the room downstairs. If only Janet had called the police rather than assuming paranormal activity, it might have saved a lot of trouble. But Janet isn’t charged with any crime. Tanya seems satisfied with her answers. And, if Janet hadn’t left her phone lying around, to be picked up by Hugh Baxter, Zoe wouldn’t have been able to call for help. Nelson gives Janet a curt nod. ‘Afternoon. Is Joe McMahon still with you?’

‘Yes. He and Eileen are staying until they find somewhere else. I’ve got plenty of room.’

‘Can I have a word with Joe?’

‘Yes. Do you want to come in?’

‘I’d better not.’ Nelson gestures to his mask thinking that Janet might be up to date on the plague but she seems to have forgotten the more recent health crisis. ‘Could Joe join me out here?’

The young man looks rather scared when he sees Nelson on the doorstep. He doesn’t look any less wary when Nelson suggests a walk in the cathedral grounds. They walk past the church and across a green bordered by hundreds of archways. Cloisters, he thinks they’re called. There are private houses here too, smugly looking out across the smooth lawns. Who lives here? Bishops? Priests? Well, none of the residents are in evidence today. Nelson and Joe walk in silence until Nelson says, ‘You know I could charge you for assault?’

‘I didn’t mean to hit you,’ says Joe. ‘I thought . . .’

‘I know what you thought. You thought you were protecting Ruth. Dr Galloway.’

‘I’d heard a woman crying. I knew she was locked in somewhere. I thought you’d locked her in.’

‘Is that what you normally do? Hit first and ask questions later?’

‘No. I’m morally opposed to violence.’

‘I’m glad to hear it. Dr Galloway is one of your lecturers, isn’t she?’

‘Yes.’ They are walking two metres apart, but Nelson catches the quick, sidelong glance. ‘She’s the best in her field.’

‘Is that why your room is full of pictures of her?’

Joe is silent for a moment and then he says, ‘It was the body.’

‘What?’ says Nelson. Is he going to have to hit Joe after all?

‘The body we found in Tombland,’ says Joe. ‘The medieval woman. Ruth said she had dark hair and blue eyes like my mum. That’s why I wanted to call her Martha. After my mother.’

‘Let me get this straight,’ says Nelson. ‘The body that was excavated in Tombland, that reminded you of your mother, so that’s why you’re obsessed with Ruth?’

‘Sort of,’ says Joe, looking down at his feet. He’s wearing black DMs. ‘Bovver boy shoes,’ Nelson’s mum would call them. ‘But I already admired her.’

Nelson thinks the young man’s feelings go way beyond admiration. ‘Did you send Ruth those emails telling her to beware the Grey Lady?’ he asks, trying to keep his tone neutral.

‘I just wanted her to be careful,’ says Joe. ‘Tombland is a dark place. I knew she was friends with Janet, but I wanted her to stay away.’

‘Yes,’ says Nelson. ‘Janet said she saw you sneaking around her house.’

‘I wasn’t sneaking,’ says Joe. ‘I was keeping watch. Like the Watchers in plague times.’

‘Whatever you call it,’ says Nelson, ‘it has to stop. You can’t keep prowling around, sending sinister messages to your lecturers. You have to change universities.’

‘But I like it at UNN.’

‘I don’t care if you do,’ says Nelson. ‘I’ll be checking up and, if I don’t hear that you’ve switched courses, I might just remember that you hit me over the head with a large torch.’

‘I’d never harm Ruth,’ says Joe. ‘I think she’s wonderful.’

‘We all do, son. We don’t all cover our walls with pictures of her.’

Joe gives him another quizzical look but doesn’t say anything more until they are back at Steward’s House.

‘Well, goodbye and good luck,’ says Nelson. ‘I hope our paths don’t cross again. Can you send Eileen out to me?’

Eileen appears, looking slightly more cheerful than when Nelson last saw her. Their discussion is brief.