The Sister(84)

His eyebrows jerked up involuntarily at her; she mirrored him, and he looked away quickly, aware that if anyone noticed the little exchange, the jungle drums would rumble, and the gossip would begin.

He continued with the notes, reading them whilst outside, leaning against Kennedy’s wall. He didn’t know what was up with him, but there was no way he’d sit through and listen to the entire transcript. He decided to condense the story for the DCI’s benefit.





At the hospital the day before, when the nurse showed them down to her room, Natasha Stone was sitting in a chair beside her bed. The bed was unmade. She’d clearly just risen from it. He introduced himself and the WPC with him. He asked if she felt able to answer a few questions. She was located in a side room all to herself. She looked weary and hollow eyed, she fiddled nervously with the belt of her dressing gown, winding it round her fingers tightly, as if to tie her hands, to stifle the story they might tell.

She began hesitantly at first. ‘I’m supposed to be grieving for my grandmother and this happens.’ She took a deep breath, then the words tumbled out of her in a torrent; she told Tanner the whole sordid story and he listened. He jotted down notes of everything she told him, in case he’d need to refer back to them later.

‘I was working with this guy, Adam Bletchley, at the school in the laboratory prep rooms. I wasn’t too sure about him; he was just a little bit too nice and it didn’t seem natural. He had this plastic smile, if you know what I mean. He hounded me to go out with him and I did a few times, but I wasn’t sure it was working or even right for me. He was a bit odd at times. My granny was sick and I think I just let him in under the radar because I needed someone, you know?’ He’d asked if she could slow down.

She waited for him to catch up writing before she continued, ‘Anyway; I bumped into this girl at the supermarket. Well, not exactly bumped into her, she spotted me and made a beeline, saying, “Hey, you’re Natasha, am I right?”’ Tanner noticed she put on another voice for the other girl. ‘“I’m sorry,” I said. “Do I know you?”’ She watched as he scribbled his notes. When he stopped, she began again.

‘She said to me, “You’re seeing Adam Bletchley, aren’t you?” I asked her again, “Do I know you?” She said, “No, you don’t, but my friend over there works at your school and she just pointed you out to me.” She nods in the direction of her friend. I recognise her and give a little wave. I’m also feeling a bit relieved, because I don’t know what this girl wants.’ She finished the sentence, making it sound like a question, her voice lilting upwards as she spoke the last word. Her eyes had brimmed with tears.

‘Take your time, Natasha,’ the WPC said gently.

‘Anyway, the first thing she tells me is to give Adam a wide berth.’ “I’m warning you as a friend.” At this point, I’m thinking, what? Now her friend comes over to join us, she says “Hi,” but looks a bit embarrassed. She’s one of the chemistry teachers and I always work in the prep room, between her lab and the other one next door. I always prep for her; Adam always preps for the other side. He told me she was a funny woman and that they didn’t get on.’ She pointed to the jug on the bedside cabinet. ‘Excuse me a minute, would you pour me a water? Thank you.’

She gulped a mouthful down. Tanner turned his page over.

‘Well, then she starts to tell me about her and Adam. I mean it’s crazy. I only went out with him a few times! Anyway, the other girl is now giving me her life story. “I was with Adam for a year. Now that I look at it, it was the worst year of my life. It isn’t even over now, but it is getting better.” She stuck her hand out for me to shake. “I’m Rainy, by the way.”’

‘Not even over now. Natasha, what did she mean by that?’ the WPC asked her.

‘Well, Rainy tells me, “There was nothing so noticeable at first, just the little things. He’d niggle about the clothes I was wearing. You know; that don’t suit you; the colours are all wrong, it makes you look big, are you putting on weight? You don’t exercise enough, rah, rah, rah!”’

For Tanner, a picture had begun to emerge from her account of things. He wasn’t sure how much of it was relevant, but she needed to talk and he let her. Bletchley had isolated the other girl from her friends; setting up confrontations based on fictitious accounts of something he’d had a disagreement with them about.

He skipped further into the notes he’d made. There were plenty of allegations concerning Bletchley’s manipulative ways. There was one occasion, she said, when she challenged him, and it resulted in his saying to her, ‘You’re not really going to take their word over mine are you? Not after all I’ve done for you.’ Telling her, ‘You think she’s your best friend, don’t you? Well, I never would have spoiled that for you if you hadn’t have made me do it, but I’m not sure she really is your best friend, you know.’

When she’d asked him why, he’d explained, ‘Oh, it’s just that she tried to arrange to meet with me at some hotel while you were at your uncle’s funeral that time and I wasn’t invited, remember? I never went with her of course, but I thought; poor Rainy thinks that’s her best friend and all the time she just wants to screw her boyfriend the minute her back’s turned.’