Simone smiled, remembering; it was a small, wrenching thing, and her eyes flicked away from us. “I was worried about whether she would be healthy enough for the training—dancers can’t afford to miss many classes through illness. When Katy was accepted again this year, I kept her after class one day and warned her that she would have to keep seeing a doctor, to find out what was wrong. Katy listened, and then she shook her head and said—very solemnly, like a vow—‘I’m not going to get sick any more.’ I tried to impress upon her that this wasn’t something she could ignore, that her career might depend on this, but that was all she would say. And, in fact, she hasn’t been ill since. I thought perhaps she had simply outgrown whatever it was; but the will can be a powerful thing, and Katy is—was—strong-willed.”

The other class was letting out; I heard parents’ voices on the landing, another rush of small feet and chatter. “You taught Jessica as well?” Cassie said. “Did she audition for the Royal Ballet School?”

In the early stages of an investigation, unless you have an obvious suspect, all you can do is find out as much about the victim’s life as possible 62

Tana French

and hope something sets off alarm bells; and I was pretty sure Cassie was right, we needed to know more about the Devlin family. And Simone Cameron wanted to talk. We see this a lot, people desperate to keep talking because when they stop we will leave and they will be left alone with what has happened. We listen and nod and sympathize, and file away everything they say.

“I taught all three of the sisters, at one time or another,” Simone said.

“Jessica seemed quite competent when she was younger, and she worked hard, but as she grew she became cripplingly self-conscious, to the point where any individual exercises seemed to be a painful ordeal for her. I told her parents I thought it would be better if she didn’t have to go through this any more.”

“And Rosalind?” Cassie asked.

“Rosalind had some talent, but she lacked application and wanted instant results. After a few months she switched to, I believe, violin lessons. She said it was by her parents’ choice, but I thought it was because she was bored. We see this quite often with young children: when they aren’t immediately proficient, and when they realize how much hard work is involved, they become frustrated and leave. Frankly, neither of them would ever have been Royal Ballet School material in any case.”

“But Katy . . .” Cassie said, leaning forward.

Simone looked at her for a long time. “Katy was . . . sérieuse.”

That was what gave her voice some of its distinctive quality: somewhere, far back, there was a touch of French shaping the intonations. “Serious,” I said.