Wexford 19 - The Babes In The Woods Read Online Free PDF Page A

Giles did actually go there on Sunday, don’t you think?’
       ‘Oh, possibly.’ Dade was a man who liked to provide ideas, not receive them from some other source. He glanced at his watch, frowning. All this is making me late,’ he said.
       ‘Shall we hear about the rest of the weekend?’ Wexford glanced from Dade to his wife and back again.
       This time, Katrina Dade was silent, making only a petulant gesture and sniffing. Roger said, ‘We didn’t phone on the Sunday because we were going back in the evening.’
       ‘That night, rather,’ said Vine. ‘You were very late.’ He probably didn’t mean to sound severe.
       ‘Are you trying to insinuate something? Because if you are I’d like to know what it is. May I remind you that you’re to find my missing children, not find fault with my conduct.’
       Soothingly, Wexford said, ‘No one is insinuating anything, Mr Dade. Will you go on, please?’
       Dade looked at him, curling his lip. ‘The flight was delayed nearly three hours. Something to do with water on the runways at Gatwick. And then they took half an hour getting the bags off. It was just after midnight when we got home.’
       ‘And you took it for granted everyone was in bed and asleep?’
       ‘Not everyone,’ said Katrina. ‘Joanna wasn’t staying that night. She was due to go home on Sunday evening. They could be alone for a little while. Giles is nearly sixteen. We all thought - everyone thought - we’d be home by nine.’
       ‘But you didn’t phone home from the airport?’
       ‘I’d have told you if we had,’ snapped Dade. ‘It would have been after ten thirty and I like my children to be in bed at a reasonable hour. They need their sleep if they’re to do their school work.’
       ‘What difference would it have made if we had phoned?’ This was Katrina, sniffling. ‘The answerphone was still on. Roger checked yesterday morning.’
       ‘You went straight to bed?’
       ‘We were exhausted. The children’s bedroom doors were shut. We didn’t look inside if that’s what you mean. They’re not babies to be checked up on every moment. In the morning I had a lie-in. My husband went off to the office at the crack of dawn, of course. I woke up and it was gone nine. It was unbelievable, I haven’t overslept like that for years, not since I was a teenager myself, it was incredible.’ Katrina’s speech quickened in pace, the words tumbling over one another. ‘Of course, my first thought was that the children had to go to school. I hadn’t heard them, I’d been so deeply asleep. I thought, they’ll have got up, they’ll have gone, but as soon as I got up myself I knew they hadn’t. You could tell no one had used the bathroom, their beds were made, something they never do, and it looked as if someone who knew what she was doing had made them. Joanna, obviously. There was no mess, everything was tidy - I mean, it was unknown.’
       ‘You must have tried to find out where they were,’ Wexford said. ‘Phoned round friends and relatives? Did you phone the school?’
       ‘I phoned my husband and he did, though we knew they weren’t there. And they weren’t. Of course they weren’t. Then he phoned his mother. God knows why. For some unaccountable reason that’s quite beyond me the children seem fond of her. But he drew a complete blank. The same with the children’s friends’ parents - those we could get hold of, that is. So many mothers aren’t content to be homemakers, are they? They must have careers as well. Anyway, none of them knew a thing.’
       Vine said, ‘Did you try to get in touch with Ms Troy?’
       Katrina Dade stared at him as if he’d uttered some extreme obscenity ‘Well, of course we did. Of course. That was the first thing we did. Before we even phoned the school. There was no answer - well, her answer-phone was on.’
       ‘I was obliged to come home,’ Dade said, implying it was the last