Page 261 of The Hallmarked Man
‘OK, fine, I misheard,’ said Kim dismissively. ‘But we know where she’s living now, so when she comes back from Sardinia—’
‘Thanks to you not taking that bit of surveillance seriously, we’ve missed an opportunity to speak face to face with one of the people who was closest to Rupert Fleetwood before he disappeared. She was our best lead.’
‘I always take surveillance seriously,’ snapped Kim, ‘but that pub was very noisy, and I’m not the only one who’s made a mistake late—’
‘Did you tell Strike you might not have heard correctly?’ asked Robin.
‘I thought Ihadheard correctly, so why would I tell him I hadn’t? Sorry, but I think you’re making a really big deal out of this, for some reason. You can email her, can’t you?’
‘I’d have thought a woman of your experience would know that it’s far harder for witnesses to refuse to talk in person,’ said Robin.
‘“Witnesses”,’ scoffed Kim. ‘We don’t even know that she knows anything!’
‘So you only put in effort when you’ve decided it’s worth it?’
‘No,’ said Kim, with yet another of her little laughs, ‘but—’
‘You know I’m a partner in this agency, right?’ said Robin.
‘Yes, obviously I—’
‘Then you might want to watch your tone.’
‘I’m just pointing out—’
‘An apology would be great,’ said Robin.
‘OK, fine, I’m sorry!’
Robin hung up.
Her outburst of anger hadn’t provided the catharsis she’d beenseeking.
She looked down at her mobile to check whether Wynn Jones had texted again, but he hadn’t, so instead she switched on her computer and went to the missing persons’ website where Sapphire Neagle was listed. The girl still hadn’t been found.
After sitting in thought for a couple of minutes, Robin brought up the interior footage of Ramsay Silver she’d saved.
The existence of a blonde who’d driven the Peugeot 208 had reminded Robin of something to which she’d previously attached no importance. She fast forwarded, then pressed play as the blurry figure of the blonde customer entered Ramsay Silver.
Her face was impossible to make out, but her build was discernible: short, slim yet curvy. Definitely not, as Robin had wanted to check, a girl who might credibly have been nicknamed ‘Olive Oyl’. Yet she looked young from the way she moved between cabinets. Her hair, which was wavy and fairly short, was a whitish blur. She was wearing a dress, rather than Medina’s pink top and jeans, but carrying a fairly large tote bag over her shoulder. Could it contain a change of clothes?
Robin watched her speaking to Pamela. Pamela donned her white gloves to open a cabinet. Wright came upstairs and heaved one of the medium-sized crates off into the vault.
Todd arrived, but Robin was still watching the blonde. It did seem an odd place for a young woman to shop… of course, she might have a masonic relative…
Now Wright and Todd lifted the largest crate and disappeared from view again, while the blonde, still being attended to by Pamela, pored over something small from the very same glass cabinet from which Kenneth Ramsay had extracted the triangular pocket watch and the orb charm to show Robin.
Pamela opened the cabinet. Something undistinguishable was chosen by the blonde and Pamela moved to the till while Wright reappeared, followed a while later by Todd.
The blonde customer left, now holding a little black bag containing her purchase. Pamela descended the stairs to the vault.
Robin let the footage continue playing while thinking about the blonde and the brunette who’d both driven the Peugeot 208. Two young women, or one young woman swapping clothes and wigs? She strongly suspected the latter, and that the woman in question had been Sofia Medina.
Onscreen, the blurry figures of Wright and Todd were gesticulating at each other, Todd clearly indicating that he wanted to leave, and Wright, from his agitated hand movements, protesting. Todd departed. Wright now stood alone, back to the camera. At 17.55, he crossed the shop to use the crank and began to lower the metal blinds over the shop windows.
Robin reached out and pressed pause. She’d just noticed something she hadn’t registered before. She rewound.
It was almost imperceptible, but Wright had tripped slightly on his walk towards the window. Robin was instantly reminded of a murder victim in a previous case who’d been seen to turn her heel as she’d left work. In that instance, the explanation had been that she’d been drugged, but that seemed most unlikely in Wright’s case. Perhaps he was just tired; he’d done a lot of lifting and carrying. Nevertheless, Robin rewound and watched his slight stumble again, squinting in an effort to make the figure clearer, to no avail.
