Chapter 36 Thursday | Evening
Thursday | Evening
Field
Penny opened the door to the three of them. She looked like she’d just stepped out of the shower. Her red hair was still wet, slicked back, and she was dressed in a pair of matching floral pyjamas. She was also wearing perfume.
‘Hi, Penny,’ Zara said. ‘Is Simon still here? We need to talk to you both.’
‘He’s – he popped out.’ Penny glanced between them. ‘Sorry, but can we do this later? I don’t feel up to talking.’
Penny started to close the door, and Field put out a hand to stop her. ‘It’s important, Penny. We need to come in.’
Penny’s resolve crumbled, her shoulders falling forward as she opened the door wide. Zara went first, heading for the kitchen. Penny trailed after her like a scolded child, and Field shut the door behind them.
Time to deliver more bad news over another hot drink.
‘Penny.’ Zara pulled a chair out, the one next to Field, and took a seat. ‘Were you home all night?’
Penny wiped her hands on the legs of her pyjamas. ‘I was here,’ she managed, after a long pause.
Zara leaned forward across the table. ‘Talk me through what you did, please, Penny.’
Field glanced to her left to make sure Wilson was taking notes.
‘I—’ Penny stopped, looked at Zara. ‘You called me, at around ten o’clock last night. Then I turned my phone off, after we hung up. Didn’t want to keep reading the condolences texts. What’s happened?’ Penny demanded. ‘Tell me.’
Zara leaned forward. ‘There’s been another incident. A stabbing.’
Penny pushed her chair back from the table but didn’t stand up. She kept her gaze locked on Zara.
‘It was a young woman involved this time. We have reason to believe it’s linked to what happened to David. It’s possible she was one of the patients who took part in David’s 2010 trial.’
‘One of David’s patients?’ Penny said – and her voice sounded mechanical, emotionless.
‘Her name is Samantha Hughes. Had David ever spoken about her?’ Field said.
Penny shook her head.
‘Unfortunately, she passed away at the scene,’ Zara said, voice grave.
Penny sucked in a breath, and it seemed to catch there. She put a hand to her chest and gripped the front of her pyjama shirt, twisting the silk. Zara moved around the kitchen table, put a hand on Penny’s back.
‘Breathe, Penny. It’s okay.’
Field kept her face blank, but her mind was whirring.
Penny was having a bigger reaction to Sam’s attack, a person she’d apparently never heard of or met, than the one she’d had to the news of her own husband.
Even if they were getting divorced, that seemed unusual.
‘Will Simon be back soon? Was he here last night?’ she asked.
Zara took a step away, and Penny gripped the marble counter. ‘He went home. I told him to go home.’
Penny looked like she was struggling to hold it together.
‘We’ll get in touch with him,’ Field said. ‘And with your permission, we’d like to take your phone for a day or two. It can help confirm where you were.’
Penny turned, scanning the kitchen as if looking for her mobile. ‘I didn’t turn it back on. I don’t even know which room it’s in.’
Wilson wrote several exclamation marks on her pad, which Field acknowledged with a nod.
It could be grief, or delayed shock. For all they knew Penny had spent the time she was alone in paroxysms of sorrow, but she was trying to keep that in, at least in front of them.
But she had no alibi for either attack, and her reactions were odd, to say the least. At the minimum it called for a voluntary interview.
‘Penny, do you think you’d be able to come into the station, tomorrow?’ Field asked. ‘I’d like you to answer some questions, to help us get a better picture of David. Help us understand why someone might—’
‘I need to go.’ Penny was staring out of the patio doors, into the colourful garden, stems waving in the dappled evening light.
They waited.
‘You need to go somewhere tomorrow?’ Zara asked.
But Field already knew what Penny was about to say.
‘No.’ Penny looked down at her pyjamas, put a hand to her cheek. ‘I need to go to the hospital. Now – I need to see David, now.’