All the Rage

Adam Fawley
4 April 2018
07.50

Harrison is halfway out of his office when I get there. He looks distracted.

`˜I don't have much time,' he says. `˜Meeting with Martin Dempster.'

The Police Commissioner. Just my luck.

`˜Can we go into your office for a moment, sir?'

He gives me a look at that. I have his attention now.

As the door closes behind us, he turns to me. `˜This is about Gavin Parrie, I take it?'

Sometimes, just sometimes, I underestimate Harrison.

* * *

When the news comes on at 8.00 Fiona Blake switches on the kettle and gets two mugs out of the cupboard. She checks her watch for the fifth time in as many minutes. It's not like Sasha to be this late back. If she sleeps over at Patsie's she always comes home early, so she can change for school. Fiona reaches into the fridge for milk and pours granola into a bowl. Any minute now, she thinks, I'll hear the key in the door. Any minute now she'll be in here like a whirlwind, slurping her tea, downing her food far too fast, out of the door again before Fiona can draw breath.

She's worrying about nothing. Sash will be back.

Any minute now.

* * *

It's the morning meeting. Gislingham is leaning against the one functioning radiator (sergeant's privilege). As for Fawley, he's leading from the front `“ both literally and metaphorically. Just as he's done ever since they started this bloody investigation. Gislingham isn't about to complain, but this is supposed to be one of his jobs and, to be honest, it's just a bit humiliating, especially in front of Asante. It's not that he thinks Fawley doesn't trust him, but for some reason he just can't let this case rest. Quinn still reckons he's in the middle of a domestic, and says so loudly to anyone who'll listen, but Gis has his own reasons for discounting that one. His wife saw Alex Fawley in the mother-and-baby boutique in Summertown a couple of weekends ago and was convinced she looked pregnant. Which, with the Fawleys' history, would account for any amount of anxiety displacement activity on the DI's part. Not to mention the stopping smoking and the endless Polo mints. He's got through three in the last half-hour alone.

`˜Did you ask this Kenneth Ashwin if he'd be prepared to give us his prints?' Fawley asks.

`˜Nothing doing,' says Quinn. `˜Started getting bolshie about not being under arrest and infringing his right to privacy so I backed off.'

`˜What about the other vans?'

`˜So far I've managed to rule out the carpet cleaners and the locksmith. Both have solid alibis.'

Fawley turns to Everett. He's starting to look irritable. `˜Anything from the FE college?'

Everett shakes her head. `˜As far as we can tell, no one else apart from the principal has any idea Faith is trans. And to be honest, I don't think it would be an issue even if they did. One of the lecturers we spoke to was wearing blue lipstick and a dress.'

`˜I take it you mean a bloke,' says Quinn.

`˜Yes, I do mean a bloke,' she says, over the laughter. `˜But that's the point. He didn't give a toss and no one else was batting an eyelid either. This generation `“ they can't see what all the bloody fuss is about. And as for what happened to Faith, I really can't see anyone who knows her doing that. She's just a really nice kid, trying to get on with her life.'

`˜What about the Basingstoke angle?' asks Fawley. Who wasn't laughing.

`˜I spoke to her old head teacher,' says Ev, `˜and she clearly had absolutely no idea Daniel wasn't still Daniel.'

`˜That's a bit odd, isn't it? Don't trans kids have to live as their new gender for a while before they can be eligible for treatment?'

Ev shrugs. `˜Perhaps she just didn't want to start doing that until she could make a completely new start. Either way, I think Basingstoke is a dead end.'

Baxter mutters something about `˜dead end' being the nicest thing anyone's probably ever said about Basingstoke, which raises more laughter.

Meanwhile Fawley is trying to get eye contact with Somer but after the car crash between them yesterday she's avoiding looking at him. Gis glances at Ev and she gives a tiny shrug: she clearly thinks the DI's made his own bed on that one.

`˜Look,' says Fawley, `˜I buy everything you say about this generation not caring which gender people are, or even if they have one at all, but the fact remains that Faith herself does care. She's going out of her way to keep her private life private, and that could give someone a motive. Either a motive to out her or `“'

`˜I'm sorry, sir,' says Somer, cutting across. There's a flush to her cheeks now. `˜But I just don't think this is getting us anywhere. I know Faith is incredibly wary about coming out as trans, but so what? We don't all exhibit our personal lives on Facebook for the world to see. People keep all sorts of things secret for all sorts of perfectly good reasons `“ not just their sexuality but where they come from, whether they're in a relationship, or religious, or pregnant `“'

There's an awkward pause. An intake of breath. Gis has a moment of panic `“ no one else knows about that, do they? And in any case, he knows he didn't let it slip. But if anything it's Asante Fawley is looking at.

`˜So,' says Fawley icily. `˜What do you suggest we do instead?'

Somer flushes again. `˜I'm not saying we rule out a possible link `“ of course not, we can't.' She stares him in the eye and her chin lifts. `˜But if you're asking for my opinion, I think we should start looking back through our old cases. Because I'm prepared to bet this isn't the first time this man has done something like this.'

Gis glances back at Fawley, and for the tiniest moment there's something on his face Gis has never seen before. Not anger now, something else. Something that, in another man, you might even call fear.

The others must have seen it too, because the room is suddenly falling silent.

Fawley takes a deep breath. `˜There's something I need to tell you. About the Appleford case.'

* * *

`˜Denise? It's Fiona. I just wanted to check `“ Sasha did stay over with Patsie at yours last night, didn't she?'

She's gripping the phone so tight she can feel her own heartbeat against the plastic. As long as she answers straight away it's OK `“ as long as she answers straight away `“

There's a silence `“ an intake of breath. Please `“ please `“

`˜I'm sorry, Fiona, but I haven't seen her. Patsie got back about 10.15 but she didn't have Sasha with her.'

Fiona can hear it in her voice. That toxic combination of sympathy and relief. That it's not her daughter who's not where she should be `“ it's not her world tipping into disaster.

`˜Do you want to speak to Patsie?'

Fiona grasps at the offer like a drowning woman. `˜Yes, yes `“ could I? Is she there?'

`˜I was just about to drive her in `“'

`˜Could I just speak to her?'

`˜Sorry, of course. Hold on a minute.'

The phone goes mute and Fiona imagines the woman going out to the bottom of the stairs and calling up. Imagines Patsie coming slowly down, looking confused, wondering what Fiona is doing calling her this early `“ calling her at all `“

The sound comes on again. `˜Yes?' The girl is slightly out of breath.

`˜Hi, Patsie,' she says, forcing casualness into her voice. `˜I'm sure it's nothing, but Sasha isn't here. I thought she said she was staying over with you last night?'

`˜She was going to but then she changed her mind.'

Fiona's breath is so shallow she has to sit down. She can't afford to lose it `“ she has to think clearly `“

`˜So when did you last see her?'

`˜On the bus. She was still on it when I got off.'

`˜What time was that?'

`˜Dunno `“ about 10.00?'

The fist tightens another notch. It's only a ten-minute walk from the bus stop `“ she should have been home by 10.15 `“ 10.30 at the latest `“

`˜Have you tried calling her mobile?'

Of course she's tried calling her bloody mobile, she's been calling and texting every five minutes `“ she must have left a dozen messages `“ two dozen `“

`˜It's just going straight to voicemail.'

`˜I'm so sorry, Mrs Blake `“ I really really want to help but I just don't know anything.'

Fiona feels the tears come into her eyes. She's always liked Patsie `“ ever since she was a little girl with her hair in plaits and scratches on her knees. And these days she seems to spend more time at their house than she does at her own.

`˜You will call me, won't you, if you hear from Sash? Just get her to ring me? Tell her I'm really worried.'

Suddenly she hears the girl's breathing change `“ hears the gasp of real fear. `˜But she is all right, isn't she?'

`˜I'm sure she is,' says Fiona firmly. `˜It's probably just a silly mix-up. I bet she's already at school and will give me a right talking-to later for embarrassing her like this.'

But when she puts down the phone there's a fist of ice around her lungs.

* * *