Acid Row by Minette Walters Page A

needling her about crawling into a hole because she didn't have any friends."
    “Did she react?”
    “Just said we'd be jealous if we knew.”
    Relatives of Laura Biddulph and Martin Rogerson had been interviewed overnight to no effect. Rogerson's parents were living in a retirement home in Brighton and hadn't seen their granddaughter for almost two years. "She only came the once. Martin wanted to mend fences .. . we hadn't spoken since his divorce .. . but Amy was very trying .. . cried all the time. We think she was ill .. . kept going to the loo with stomach ache but wouldn't be helped. Strange child .. . very irritating .. . takes after her mother, we think .. . She certainly irritated Martin. We asked him not to bring her again. No, we had no idea he and Laura were separated? His sons from his previous marriage had never met her. We warned him before he married that we'd take Ma's side .. .“ What sort of father was he? ”Distant.. . uninterested ..
    . We never had the feeling he liked us very much .. ." Did he beat you if you were disobedient? "Hardly .. . he never came home till late ..
    . that was Ma's job .. ."
    Biddulph's parents, retired and living in Oxfordshire, near their eldest daughter, had also seen Amy only once, when Laura had brought her on a surprise visit during the summer of the previous year. Like the Rogerson family they presented a picture of alienation from the child that had disappointed them in marriage. Mr. Biddulph did most of the talking.
    Did Laura mention any problems in the marriage? "She wouldn't .. . too afraid of hearing “we told you so”.. ." They didn't approve of Martin? "Of course not .. . little better than a paedophile .. .
    taking a child-bride as a trophy.. ." Did they know Laura was planning to leave him? l No ... it came out of the blue when she phoned to say she was with someone else .. ." Did they ever meet Townsend? “No .. .” Did Laura talk about him? "I think she said he was a builder .. ." Did Amy talk about Martin while she was staying with them? “No .. . it wasn't encouraged .. .” Was Laura's relationship with her daughter a loving one? "If 'you mean, were they all over each other all the time, then no .. . We're not a demonstrative family .. ." Did they see anything to suggest Amy was being physically abused? '5y whom .. . Martin or Laura? Either.
    "Certainly not Laura .. . she wouldn't harm a fly ... As for Martin ..
    . the man's capable of anything .. ."
    Laura's sister put a different gloss on the answers. "My mother was forty-eight when Laura was born. She assumed she was going through the menopause and out pops a bouncing baby daughter. I was eighteen and my brother was sixteen. We thought it was a spare tyre .. . you know, fat moves south after forty-five .. . and instead we get presented with Shirley Temple. All-singing, all-dancing and three times as cute as we ever were. She was spoilt rotten. Dad was approaching retirement and suddenly discovered the joys of fatherhood, while poor old Mum got relegated to second place. Dad's only himself to blame that she married Martin. He taught her how easy it is for pretty girls to wind old men round their little fingers."
    “Do you get on with her?”
    “I hardly know her. She's more like a distant cousin.”
    “Are you jealous of her?”
    The sister was a stocky farmer's wife with wind-blistered cheeks and work-hardened hands. “Used to be,” she admitted, 'not any more. She lost her glitter when she married Martin."
    “Did you meet Amy when they came up?”
    “Oh, yes. Laura brought her over one evening.”
    “What did you think of her?”
    She smiled rather cynically. "She's her mother's clone. All-singing all-dancing, if she thought the routine would get her something .. .
    quiet as a mouse if she didn't. She seduced my husband in two seconds flat for a 50p tip. He thought she was the most adorable child he'd ever met."
    “And you? Were you seduced?”
    She considered for a moment. "In a funny