‘Was he pleased?’

‘Well, I was there, so he just seemed awkward. But I could tell that he knew her.’ Sarah paused. ‘He lied to me. He said he’d never met her and that she must have mistaken him for someone else.’

‘And that was why you set up the petition to get Anna out of the school?’ Perez thought how childish Sarah was. She’d been hurt, so she’d wanted to lash out. She’d wanted to make the young woman pay. Again he thought how unfair life had been to Anna.

‘I looked at her daughter in that waiting room and it was like looking at one of my own children,’ Sarah cried suddenly. ‘Lucy had the same dark hair. The same smile. She looked so like Tom that I thought everyone in the village would see the likeness.’

‘You think Tom was Lucy’s father?’ Now Perez understood Sarah’s anger towards the young teacher. Perhaps anyone would have responded in the same way.

‘I can’t see that there’s any other explanation,’ she said.

‘And what did Tom say?’

Sarah set her mug carefully on the windowsill. ‘I’ve never talked to him about it. I was scared that he might tell me the truth.’ She looked up. ‘What will you do now?’

‘What you asked me to do,’ Perez said. ‘I’ll try to find out if Anna Blackwell committed suicide or if someone killed her.’ He met her eyes. ‘Do you think that Tom could have murdered her? Is that why you’re so frightened?’

She didn’t answer.

‘Where was he the night Anna died?’ Perez asked.

‘He was out on a call. He didn’t get back until late.’ Her voice was quiet. ‘But Tom’s a doctor. He wouldn’t kill anyone. And he often has emergency calls at night.’ She paused again. ‘I wondered if Anna was blackmailing him. I thought she might have asked him to help her keep her job at the school.’

‘And threatened to make their affair public if he didn’t?’

She nodded. ‘In the middle of the night, when things are going round and round in my head, I start having crazy ideas like that. I think I’m going mad. That’s why I called you. I have to know what’s been going on, even if I find out that Tom’s a killer.’ She stood up. ‘I must go. I told Tom I was just calling in to the village to drop a letter in the post.’ She slipped out of the room.

From the window, Perez watched her run from the hotel to her car. The shadow had returned to his post under the street light, and he was watching Sarah too. Perez tried to work out where he might have seen the man before, but the memory slid away.

10

The Parents

The next morning Perez got up early and was the first person into the dining room for breakfast. The nosy landlady, Elspeth, wasn’t on duty, so he was spared her questions and could eat in peace. Today he was going to visit Anna’s parents at Berwick. He cleaned the ice and snow from the windscreen of his car and then headed off towards the coast. Again he felt a sense of relief and escape as he left the village. He looked out for the dark watcher from the night before but there was no sign of him.