‘Did you see the friend?’ asked Meera.
‘No, I was a bit angry that she’d run off again, but we were late for her optician’s appointment, so I let it go.’
‘Would it be possible to talk to her later today?’
‘I’m picking her up from school at four because she needs to go back to have her glasses adjusted. Could I leave you to take her and do the interview afterwards? I’ve got a lot of work on this afternoon.’
‘No, Mr Mansfield,’ said Meera firmly. ‘You have to pick up your own daughter. I don’t think she’d want to be met at the school by a complete stranger.’
‘All right,’ said Mansfield finally, ‘but it’s just adding to my problems today.’
Meera scowled back at the offices as they left. ‘When Mansfield keels over and dies on the job, leaving his children without a father, I wonder if his bosses will show their appreciation for all the hard work he put in,’ she said.
‘Divorced working parents competing over the kids.’ Colin gave a shrug. ‘I bet little Lucy gets a lot of terrific presents.’
Colin checked the name he had written in his notepad. The boy, Tom Penry, attended the same school as Lucy Mansfield, but was in a lower year.
‘Don’t take this the wrong way, Meera, but I don’t think you should interview the girl.’
‘What, you think I’m going to scare her or something?’
‘Sometimes you scare me. Get Janice to do it – she’s brilliant with kids.’
‘But I’m younger, I’m closer to the kid’s age than her. Plus I’m a lot shorter, which kids like.’
‘Yeah, but she’s … you know, more patient.’
Meera finally agreed to the idea, but Colin could tell he had hurt her feelings.
‘There was somebody out there in the garden, I swear to you,’ said Sabira Kasavian. ‘He was staring up at me, watching my room, but when I looked again he was gone. Believe me, I know exactly how that sounds but he was there. Go and look at the ground if you don’t believe me. It was wet; he must have left footprints.’
Longbright had looked in on Sabira because the Cedar Tree Clinic was just up the road from Lucy Mansfield’s school, where she had arranged to meet the girl with her father. She had been instructed to break the news about Jeff Waters before Sabira had a chance to find out accidentally. It was rare for someone to be killed in one of London’s public parks, and reports of the murder had started to hit the press, although details were vague.
Sabira was seated in one of the clinic’s empty afternoon lounges. Her mood had changed to one of tetchy anxiety. It was as if she was coming down from a night of drug-bingeing. Longbright sensed she would have to go easy with her.
‘Why would someone come here just to watch you?’ she asked gently.
‘They want me to know that I’m always being watched, that I’ll always be watched until …’
‘Until what?’
‘Until I kill myself.’
‘What makes you think these people want you to kill yourself?’
‘They leave notes telling me to.’ There was something sinister about the way in which Sabira seemed resigned to her persecution.
‘Do you have any of these notes that I could look at?’
‘No, I threw them all away.’
‘Where? At home, in the kitchen bin?’
‘Oh, in the street somewhere.’
‘Do you ever have suicidal thoughts, Sabira?’
‘Suicide is for people who can’t see a way out of their situation. Even when we had terrible problems at home, I would always try to find a solution.’
‘And now?’
‘Now there really is no way out. I suppose I could run away, go back to Albania, but I would not even be safe there.’
Longbright rubbed her arms. The room had grown suddenly cold. ‘Sabira, I’m trying to think about this logically. What do you know that could make someone reach out and try to kill you in another country?’
‘It’s too big to talk about. As big as the world itself. A global conspiracy. They have people everywhere. They will track me down and kill me, then make it look as if I killed myself.’ The sudden clatter of teacups in the next room made them both start. ‘I had proof – I swear I did – but it disappeared without ever leaving my hands, just as if it never existed. They came and took it from me while I slept.’
This was textbook paranoid delusion, Longbright realized. Sabira didn’t think one particular person was out to kill her, she thought the world meant her harm. ‘If you don’t tell us why people want to hurt you, it’s very hard for us to help you,’ she pointed out.