“DS Brennan. She’s down at the scene. I’ll let her know you’re here.”
“Inspector King,” Pete Diamond shouted across, his voice hoarse, “what the hell is going on here? First they paint obscenities on our fence. Now this.”
His wife took his arm, her eyes shining with tears. “It’s like a nightmare. Celeste isn’t answering her phone.”
“Where was she this evening?” Elise said.
“In her room,” Pete Diamond said. “She’s been spending a lot of time up there—we’ve hardly seen her since Friday.”
“But we couldn’t find her when we realized my fitness studio was on fire,” Millie Diamond sobbed. “We don’t know where she is.”
Caro Brennan appeared while they were talking, wiping soot smuts from her face.
“I heard you were here,” she said, and pulled Elise aside. “The Diamonds say their daughter is missing.”
“Could she have been in the gym?”
“We don’t think so but we don’t know for sure. It’d taken hold before the alarm was raised but no one can get in until the fire’s out. They’re almost there.”
“Okay. I’ll leave you to get on,” Elise said. It was the right thing to do. This was someone else’s job.
Caro nodded and led the Diamonds back toward the house.
In the twenty minutes Elise had been there, Ebbing had turned out in force to witness the latest show at the Old Vicarage. Rumors were swirling and darkening.
“It’s an insurance job,” someone behind her said. “Just the kind of thing his sort would pull.”
“The daughter’s missing,” another voice stated. “Maybe she was in there, burned alive.”
A woman beside Elise started crying.
“This is outsiders,” someone growled. “The police should be looking at those foreigners at the building site. The papers are always talking about violent criminals coming here on the run from their own countries. Who knows who we’re harboring . . . ?”
Two police vehicles pulled up and officers started getting out and pulling on high-vis jackets.
“I’m going home,” Elise said. “I can’t be here and just watch.”
Ronnie stayed, her eyes shining in the lights.
* * *
—
Elise came downstairs in the morning to find Ronnie with her nose pressed against the window, trying to see in.
“Have you been there all night?” Elise said as she unlocked the door.
“Don’t be daft. The Diamond girl has turned up. I’ve heard she was bunked up in one of the static caravans—bit embarrassing for her dad. He’s been campaigning to get the site cleared. It spoils the view from his back bedrooms.”
“Come in, come in,” Elise said. “Tell me what you’ve heard and who from.”
“Just that. And I heard it from the window cleaner just now. He heard it from someone in the launderette.”
“So it’s thirdhand hearsay.”
“Top information, if you don’t mind. You could always ring your sergeant and confirm it.”
Elise should have told her to get lost but Ronnie’s excitement was infectious. And Elise hadn’t had anything to get excited about for too long.
Caro picked up and hissed: “Bit busy at the moment. Can it wait?”
“Quick one. Did you find Celeste Diamond?”
“Yes, she walked back in about six a.m. Wouldn’t say where she’d been.”
“Right. I’ve heard she was up at the workers’ village.”
“Really? Well, have you heard we’ve arrested Ade Harman?”
“No! What for?”
“Hold on. . . .”
Caro put her hand over the phone and Elise could hear a muffled exchange before she came back at full volume.
“For supplying ecstasy at the festival. He woke up over the weekend and I went to talk to him first thing this morning. He was in pieces about how ill Tracy had been. I sat holding his hand while he cried and he just came out with it. He confessed to giving her the drugs.”
“Wow! Where did he get them? Who else was involved?”
“We don’t know yet. He won’t say. You should have seen his dad’s face when he walked in with the coffees.”
“I bet. Poor old Dave Harman—it was his son, not outsiders, who brought drugs to Ebbing.”
“Got to get on. Wish me luck.”
Ronnie was leaning so far forward in her chair, she was practically falling on her face.