Faraday 02 Network Virus by Michael Hillier Page B

were sitting. Is that right?”
    “ I suppose so.”
    The head intervened. “Is it correct or not, Karen?”
    “ I shouldn’t have thought it was as long as ten minutes.”
    “ The time isn’t important,” said Charlotte. “Where did you go in those few minutes?”
    “ What did those girls say?”
    “ They didn’t know. Tracey didn’t tell them.”
    “ Oh.” The girl shrugged. “We just went round the corner - somewhere private.”
    “ I didn’t know there was anywhere private in those leisure break areas,” said the head. “You must tell me where that is.”
    “ I meant somewhere where her friends wouldn’t hear what we were talking about.” Charlotte admired Karen’s self-possession when she was with three senior adults. “I knew if I talked to her in front of them it would soon be all over the school.”
    “ And what was it you talked to her about?”
    “ Oh.” She looked a little uncomfortable for the first time. “I - I had been told she’d been seen with my boyfriend and I wanted to ask her if this was correct.”
    “ And was it correct?”
    “ No, it wasn’t - not according to Tracey.” She shook her head firmly.
    “ Is that all you talked about?”
    “ Yes.”
    “ And that took you ten minutes?”
    Karen looked a little worried. “It took us a bit longer than me just telling you about it. And then, I said I wasn’t sure we were talking for ten minutes. It might have been less.”
    “ I see.” Charlotte nodded. “I suppose you had to tell Tracey who the boy was and when they’d been seen together.”
    “ That’s right.”
    “ And it took some time for Tracey to convince you and explain why the information you had been given was wrong.”
    “ Yes. It did.”
    Charlotte was almost sure by now that the girl was lying but she wasn’t sure what she could do about it. Then she suddenly had an idea. But it would take a more roundabout approach than she could take at this moment.
    “ OK, Karen. I think that’s all we need to know for now. Thank you for answering my questions so readily.”
    The girl was released and Charlotte and Bobbie took their leave of the headmaster after thanking him for his help.
    As she returned Bobbie to the station with instructions to enter all the details they had picked up on to the computer, Charlotte kept to herself the fact that she was almost sure Karen Tilt was lying.
    Why should she lie and what was it about?
    - 13 -
    It took a couple of hours for Stafford Paulson to organise the opening moves of the search for Tracey Bostock. He’d been able to borrow three constables from uniform branch to help with the house-to-house enquiries which Gary was co-ordinating. He had held back John Prendergast to help him with publicity in the local press and posters to be put up wherever people were likely to see them.
    Finally he felt free to telephone Alfred de Billiere at his office in London. After a wait of several minutes he was finally able to talk directly to the big man.
    After he had introduced himself, he began, “I expect you are aware that we have re-opened our enquiry into the death of your first wife, Joanne.”
    “ I certainly wasn’t aware of that.” De Billiere sounded annoyed. “Why on earth should you want to do that?”
    “ In fact no police enquiry was authorised when she died because there were no suspicious injuries discovered during the post mortem.”
    “ I should think not. And what has changed? Surely this is an unwarranted waste of police time.”
    Paulson kept his temper. “Weren’t you told, Mr de Billiere, that during our enquiry into the death of Cynthia Adams which led to the discovery of her killer, queries were raised as to why Joanne should take your large cruiser out to sea in the evening on her own?”
    “ I thought the inquest dealt with that perfectly adequately. If you recall, it was decided that, although she had never done it before, she must have fancied the idea of a trip.” He cleared his throat.