All the Rage

Adam Fawley
9 April 2018
13.13

`˜But the OUP didn't have anything?'

To her credit, Gallagher looked neither surprised nor wary when Somer turned up at her office with me in tow. I'm not sure I'd have been so sanguine about it, if the roles were reversed.

Somer shakes her head. `˜It's too long ago `“ they don't keep their CCTV footage that long. And they're not even sure the camera would have been pointing the right way anyway.'

Gallagher sits back and her shoulders sag a little. `˜So we've no way of knowing what that woman saw, barring tracking her down. And even if we could find her it could be nothing `“ someone on a unicycle, that duck that got into last week's Oxford Mail `“ any bloody thing.'

It's that sort of town; I saw a bloke dressed as a giraffe on the Woodstock Road last week. #OnlyinOxford even has its own bloody hashtag. So yes, this could all be a complete wild goose chase. But something tells me it isn't. That woman on Walton Street saw something `“ something that shocked her enough to stop her in her tracks. And I suddenly have a cold feeling in my gut about what it might be.

Somer makes a despairing face. `˜I don't think there's anything else we can do.'

I look at her and then turn to Gallagher. `˜Yes,' I say. `˜There is.'

* * *

Interview with Graeme Scott, conducted at St Aldate's Police Station, Oxford

9 April 2018, 2.05 p.m.

In attendance, DI R. Gallagher, DC E. Somer, Mrs D. Owen (solicitor)

RG: For the purposes of the tape, DI Ruth Gallagher and DC Erica Somer will now be conducting this interview. I hope you enjoyed your lunch break, Mr Scott; perhaps we could now return to the subject you were discussing with DC Quinn. Since you were last in this room we have obtained CCTV from the Blavatnik School of Government from the morning in question, and you are quite clearly visible on camera.DO: I trust you will make this footage available?RG: Of course. So, Mr Scott, do you remember that morning now?GS: If you say I was there, I suppose I must have been.ES: There was a talk at the Blavatnik that we believe Sasha was going to. A talk about Renaissance Florence `“ is that ringing a bell?GS: Now you mention it, I think I did point that out to Sasha. I'm on their mailing list.ES: So you knew she'd be there.GS: I didn't know she'd be there. I just mentioned it to her. My pupils don't keep me informed about their social lives, Inspector.RG: But you knew there was a good chance she'd go, didn't you? Good enough for you to arrange to be there yourself. Just in case.GS: Like I said, I often shop in Jericho.ES: Only you didn't. You didn't even get out of your car. You just sat there. Watching.GS: I wasn't watching. I'm not some sort of pervert `“RG: That's as may be. But you were watching her, all the same. And what I want to know now, Mr Scott, is what exactly it was that you saw.* * *