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It’s Lottie’s reaction that’s burned into her memory. Lottie is sitting statue-still, glaring at Jennie. The jealousy she’s feeling seems to have twisted her features into a caricature of herself.
Jennie shudders at the memory.
If looks could kill.
Chapter 20
Zuri clears her throat. Jennie looks up, pulled from the memory of spin the bottle with the darkroom crew all those years ago to see her DS looking at her over the partition between their desks. ‘Yes?’
Zuri looks a little awkward. ‘Robert Marwood arrived while you were in with the DCI. I’ve put him into interview room three.’
‘Great, thanks,’ replies Jennie, anger flaring through her. The only way Campbell could have known that she took the photograph of the darkroom crew, and that Lottie Varney put her hand on Jennie’s during the interview that morning, was for Zuri to have told him. She’s always had a good relationship with Zuri. She’s a smart detective, committed and loyal to the job, and a good laugh when they’ve gone to the cinema or out for dinner together. It hurts that she’s gone behind her back. Why didn’t she talk to her if she was concerned?
Jennie shakes her head, swallowing down her emotion. Who’s she kidding? She knows why Zuri did it. She’s a by-the-book detective and she had a concern that her commanding officer might be compromised. Of course she did what the handbook told her to do – she informed the next in command. Jennie might have done it herself in a reversed situation. But it’s still pissed her off.
Shit.
She’s going to have to have a conversation with Zuri about it, but now isn’t the time. Standing up, she looks across the open plan. ‘Martin?’
DS Wright turns in his chair. ‘Boss?’
‘You can ride shotgun on the Rob Marwood interview. Come on,’ says Jennie, gesturing for him to get up.
As a grin breaks out on Martin’s face, Jennie sees a flicker of disappointment on Zuri’s. She tries not to feel bad. She has to harden herself if she’s going to make it through this investigation still in the lead. Zuri nearly got her thrown off the case, so it’s safest for her to sit things out here in the office. Right now, Jennie needs someone she can rely on in the interview room, and whatever is going on between her detectives, Martin has never been anything but supportive.
Rob Marwood has changed a lot in the past thirty years. Back when they were at school, he was a tall, lanky teenager, full of nervous energy and constantly in motion. The sun-kissed man sitting at the chipped Formica table in interview room three right now looks every inch the medical consultant that Jennie knows him to be. His once long blond hair is cropped neatly, the hippie clothes he once favoured have been traded for a perfectly pressed pin-stripe Paul Smith suit and pale orange open neck shirt. His boyhood kinetic energy has been replaced by an air of professional calm.
His face lights up when he sees her and he gets up from the table, offering his hand. ‘Jennie Whitmore, wow, it’s so good to see you.’
She’s slightly taken aback by his friendliness, but recovers fast and takes his hand, shaking it. ‘Good to see you again, Mr Marwood.’
‘Such awful circumstances,’ Rob says, putting his other hand on top of hers and giving it a squeeze. ‘But it’s so nice to reconnect.’
Removing her hand from his grip, Jennie gestures for Rob to take a seat. ‘This is my colleague, DS Wright, who will be joining us for the interview.’
‘Good to meet you, DS Wright,’ says Rob. His body language is open, his shoulders relaxed and his tone even and calm. He looks from Martin to Jennie. ‘I’m here to help in any way I can. I would have come sooner but I only just flew home from holiday.’
‘Where did you go?’ asks Martin, conversationally as he and Jennie sit down opposite him.
‘St Lucia,’ says Rob, smiling. ‘Was a bit warmer than it is here.’
‘Very nice,’ says Martin.
‘Thanks for coming in to see us now you’re back,’ says Jennie, keen to get going on the interview. ‘I understand you live in London now?’
‘Yes, that’s correct,’ replies Rob, glancing at the recording machine on the end of the table. ‘I have an apartment in Marylebone, although I’ll be renting it out shortly as I’m due to change jobs.’
Jennie glances down at her notes. ‘You’re currently an anaesthesiologist at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital?’
‘Consultant anaesthesiologist, yes,’ corrects Rob with a touch of pompousness. ‘But, as I said, I’m only back in the country briefly as I’m due to start a new clinical role in Dubai.’
‘Congratulations,’ says Jennie, making a note on the notepad in front of her. ‘When are you leaving for Dubai?’
‘Well, I …’ Rob looks away. Fiddles with his cufflinks. ‘We haven’t tied down an exact date as yet but soon, within the next month.’
Jennie says nothing, just keeps her eyes on him.
He speaks to fill the silence as she’d hoped. ‘It’s nothing to worry about, there’s just a few wrinkles that need ironing out beforehand, that’s all.’
