Chapter 6 #2
‘Fliss? Fliss?’ I knocked on her bedroom door and then, with Clare snapping at my heels like a wayward terrier, pushed it open.
Her room was, as always, totally immaculate, the single bed made, its corners tucked sternly as if in thrall to a critical hospital matron, the three red cushions all at exactly forty-five degrees and the same distance apart.
Her make-up and perfume – some very expensive Clarins and Clinique as well as a large, brand-new bottle of Chanel No.
5 – were displayed in height order, her many books arranged by the colours of the rainbow on the shelf adjacent to the window.
‘God, she really is over the top with her neatness,’ Clare said, gazing at the books. ‘Look in her wardrobe.’ She prodded me in the ribs. ‘Go on.’
‘Why, you think she’s in there?’
Clare tutted and walked across the room, pulling back the cupboard doors to reveal rows of expensive-looking cashmere sweaters as well as designer shirts, trousers and dresses, some with their labels still attached.
All I could think was, if Fliss could afford this lot, why not a hot water bottle of her own?
‘Bloody hell!’ Clare’s jaw had dropped and she stood open-mouthed, reaching in to read the labels on a couple of dresses.
‘Max Mara? That’s expensive, isn’t it?’
‘I wouldn’t know.’
‘Well, these must be,’ Clare breathed, her fingers stroking the fine gabardine of a pair of black trousers.
‘All that guff about having to get a cleaning job to be able to buy a cider in the union bar? Do you know, I bet she knew all along that Theo Mandeville was living up there at Bodington Hall. That’s why she got you to go up there to clean with her. She didn’t need the money at all.’
‘No,’ I said hotly. ‘She’s not like that.’
‘Like what?’ Katy’s head was round the door.
‘Fliss is a law unto herself. How many students do you know with a car of their own? Who have a wardrobe of designer clothes – some still untouched? And Chanel No. 5, for God’s sake?
’ Katy sprayed a liberal amount onto her wrist, sniffing and pulling a face.
‘Never understood why everyone raves on about this stuff.’
‘Look, Fliss is my friend, our housemate,’ I said crossly.
‘Just because she happens to have very wealthy parents who keep her supplied with all this…’ I waved a hand around the room ‘…it doesn’t make her a bad person.
Has she flaunted it in our face? No! She’s obviously embarrassed she’s got all this material wealth… ’
‘Not like you, Anna,’ Katy interrupted. ‘I thought the socialist in you was always on the side of the have-nots, the underdog, the working classes?’
‘Oh, don’t bring politics into it,’ I snapped.
‘Fliss is my friend, even if she’s not yours.
She’s fallen in love and hooked up with Theo Mandeville and must have used her dad’s bank account to kit herself out to impress Theo.
Don’t be so down on her.’ I glared at Katy.
‘She’s obviously not here, obviously moved into Theo’s room with him for a while until she sorts her car out.
Clare reckons it’s been out of action for a few days, so she’s not been able to get back here all the time.
Theo will have been driving her in to college.
Come on, she’s happy, she’s having a good time. Leave her alone and let’s eat.’
‘Letter for you, Anna.’ A couple of days later, Clare frisbeed a brown official-looking envelope in my direction, and I caught it with one hand.
‘Thought you said you were no good at netball.’ Clare grinned through a mouthful of Nutella, her habit of eating peanut butter from the jar obviously superseded by a new chocolate spread addiction.
‘Hope that’s not the communal jar,’ I said crossly, eyeing the red, black and white NUM logo on the envelope. ‘I don’t want your germs.’
‘Germ free!’ Clare grinned. ‘What’s up with you anyway?’
‘I just think that’s a particularly disgusting habit,’ I went on, not looking up to see her reaction, but reading the letter, once I’d taken it from its envelope.
‘Oh, well, looks like I’m going to be back in Rothersley next year,’ I went on, disappointment at my not being able to secure a place at Westminster making my words to Clare harsher than I’d intended.
‘What, they’ve offered you a job without seeing you? Is it just work experience? You’ll end up being a right dogsbody, Anna. Turn it down. You don’t have to accept it.’ Clare put down the Nutella, pulling a vomit-inducing face. ‘Shit, I feel sick now.’
I reread the letter. ‘Dad’s obviously pleaded my case: they’re going to put me on the books and give me a small salary.
Well, that’s something, I suppose. I mean, it’ll probably be just filing, photocopying and stuffing envelopes.
Oh, hang on… an opportunity to do some policy-focused research… ? What do you think that means?’
‘An opportunity to do some policy-focused research?’ Clare said drily, knocking back a glass of water. ‘Right, I’m off to the library later on. Are you coming?’
‘I’ve only just got in. Need to ring Dad and tell him about this.’ I waved the letter somewhat despondently in Clare’s direction. ‘Don’t suppose Fliss is back?’
‘I saw the back of her walking down Cavendish Road this lunchtime,’ Clare said. ‘She was linking arms with some bloke, reaching up and kissing him, totally involved with him.’
‘Well, didn’t you call after her?’ I asked irritably. ‘Tell her she’s got a parking ticket? That her car’s still at the Co-op with a flat tyre?’
‘She obviously knows that,’ Clare said, equally irritably. ‘I’m not her minder, Anna. I was late enough to my lecture as it was.’
‘Well, was it Theo Mandeville she was with?’
‘I don’t know. They were on the other side of the road and then she went into the English department, and he carried on by himself.’
‘Well, you saw him up at Bodington Hall when you went to clean with Fliss. You know what he looks like.’
‘I was looking at his lovely legs when I saw him in his squash gear,’ Clare said. ‘He had jeans on today. You know? Jeans? Covering up the lovely tanned muscled legs?’ Clare laughed somewhat lasciviously.
‘Blond hair then?’
‘He had a hat on.’
‘A hat?’
‘Yes, a hat. A sort of baseball cap thing that Americans wear. You know, he is a bit preppy, isn’t he?’ When I didn’t say anything, Clare went on, ‘I don’t know, Anna. I’m assuming it was him.’
‘You know what assume does!’ I grinned, relieved that Fliss appeared to be in the land of the living, even though she’d not been back to the house for two or three days now. I’d begun to worry about her.
‘Yeah, yeah, makes an ass out of you and me. Right, I’m off to the library.
Are you coming?’ She glanced at her watch.
‘There’s a bus in fifteen minutes…’ She trailed off as there was a loud knock at the front door.
‘That’ll be her now, I bet. She’ll have lost her key again.
’ Clare walked along the passageway to the front door shouting, ‘You dirty stop-out, Felicity Sutherland. We know what you’ve been doing…
’ She sang the words as she opened the door.
I followed in Clare’s wake, eager to have Fliss back home.
‘Hello. I’m DI Crowther.’ The man on the doorstep flashed his warrant card. ‘And this is DS Sonya Bamford. Can we come in?’