The Woman In Blue: The Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries 8 by Elly Griffiths

Hilary seems rather confused to be receiving so much respect from the elderly clergyman. She puts her hand up to her clerical collar, as if surprised to find it there.
    ‘We’re just going for a cup of tea,’ says Ruth. ‘Would you like to come?’
    ‘Thank you, no,’ says Father Hennessey. ‘I’ve only got a few minutes before Mass. Just time for a quick look at the snowdrops. I’m sure we’ll meet again.’ And he raises his hat again and disappears through the archway like the White Rabbit.
    *
    Nelson is preparing for the morning team meeting. Sometimes these briefings can be fairly perfunctory affairs – Nelson reading through the logbook while Clough eats a McDonald’s breakfast – but, with a major incident under way, the team meeting is crucial. Nelson will need to make sure everyone is up to speed on all developments, assign lines of enquiry and answer idiotic questions from Roy (Rocky) Taylor, the slowest policeman in the country. So, when there’s a knock on his door, Nelson makes his most discouraging noise and hopes that the visitor is going to go away.
    To his annoyance, the caller mistakes the sound for ‘Please come in’.
    ‘Boss, can I have a word?’
    It’s Tim. For one moment, Nelson thinks that he’s come to tell him to forget the whole transfer conversation, that he’s reconsidered and is happy to stay in Norfolk. This thought makes him sound unusually welcoming.
    ‘Of course. What is it?’
    ‘It’s about Chloe Jenkins.’
    ‘What about her?’
    ‘It was something her mother said. That, when she was little, Chloe’s childminder had said that she was like an angel.’
    ‘Everyone seems to be talking about angels. Chloe was seeing angels here, there and everywhere, going on courses to feel their vibrations and what have you.’
    ‘The same thought struck me,’ says Tim seriously. ‘Anyway, I thought it might be worth talking to the childminder, especially if she’s local. So I rang the parents last night and asked for her number.’
    ‘Good thinking. Are you going to go and see her?’
    ‘That would be difficult,’ said Tim. ‘She died in 2002. She’s buried in the graveyard at St Simeon’s.’
    He looks at Nelson, who slowly gets the message.
    ‘Good God. So Chloe’s childminder was . . .’
    ‘Doreen Westmondham. Julie, Chloe’s mother, says that Chloe was devoted to Doreen. She was devastated when the family left Norfolk, and they had to say goodbye. She never forgot her.’
    ‘You can say that again,’ says Nelson, ‘if she was sneaking out at night to clean the woman’s grave. Fiona McAllister said that Chloe had been in a family therapy session on the day before she died. Maybe that’s what put Doreen into her mind.’
    ‘I looked up the Westmondhams,’ says Tim. ‘Doreen had three sons, as well as lots of foster children. They all still live locally.’
    ‘What do they do?’
    ‘Steven’s a plumber, lives in Fakenham. Married with two daughters. Kevin’s divorced and lives in Holt with his new partner. But Larry, the youngest son, is the interesting one.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘He’s the vicar at St Simeon’s.’
    Nelson thinks of the church which didn’t provide sanctuary to Chloe Jenkins, of the overgrown graveyard and the one white stone, so lovingly tended.
    ‘You’d better go and see him,’ he says.
    *
    Ruth and Hilary are back in the Blue Lady tea rooms. Ruth has virtuously refused a brownie, but accepts half of Hilary’s scone. It’s a well-known fact that shared food doesn’t contain calories.
    Hilary chats brightly about her course.
    ‘Everyone’s so friendly. It’s a real tonic. We went to a service at St Simeon’s last night. It was really beautiful. And then Larry, the vicar, invited us back to his house for lasagne.’
    ‘Did the vicar cook for you all?’
    ‘Well, his wife did. She was charming.’
    Ruth reflects that vicars still have charming wives who do the cooking. She wonders whether Hilary’s husband could rustle up