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.Maggie nodded.‘And when you called the house, was there any answer?’Maggie’s eyes narrowed, she quivered slightly: irritation or nerves.‘Grace answered.’Ramsey repeated with heavy emphasis, ‘Grace Dearden answered?’ He looked conspicuously at the transcript, but he already knew he wasn’t going to find it there.‘Why didn’t you mention this before, Mrs Dearden?’‘I thought I did.’Ramsey shook his head slowly.‘No.’‘I thought you understood this, when I said I called my son.’ She made a gesture implying a certain lack of intelligence on Ramsey’s part.‘It was Grace who told me Will would be in the car.That is why I called the car.’ She added, in an offended voice, ‘I did not think I had to explain this!’Ramsey stared at her.He couldn’t make out whether she was being purposely obscure, or whether it was simply in her nature to be equivocal.‘Mrs Dearden, if Grace answered the phone she must have been in the house.’Maggie looked for the catch in this statement and found none.‘Of course.’‘And what time did you make this call?’Maggie waved a hand.‘Something like five thirty.’Letting it go for the moment, looking unsettled, Ramsey went back to the typed sheet.‘So then you called your son in his car?’‘Yes.’‘This has when?’‘Well…straight away.’I interrupted, ‘According to the Cellnet records the call was logged at five thirty-six p.m., and the mobile was within range of the Costessey transmitter on the outskirts of Norwich.’There was a pause while Ramsey eyed me coolly.‘Thank you for that information.’ He returned his attention to Maggie.‘And what did you say to your son?’‘Say?’ She searched her memory.‘I said…the sluice was broken, the meadow was flooding.He must come quick.Something like that/‘And then?’‘Then…I tried Frank Yates, at the next farm.He was not there.So then I could do nothing.So then I waited for William.’‘And he arrived at six thirty?’‘Six twenty, six thirty.Some time like that.’Ramsey gestured to Wilson, who picked up his pen again.They began to record the new material, Ramsey checking each sentence with Maggie before Wilson set it down on paper.When the task was done, Ramsey pushed the transcript aside and rocked back in his seat in a conspicuous attempt to set a less intimidating tone.‘Did anyone come to the house during the time you were waiting for your son?’With a quiver of impatience, Maggie stated, ‘Grace, you mean? No.Though I was out some of the time looking at the flood, so it’s possible that she…’ She left the remark hanging in the air.I felt my lips give an involuntary twitch.Uncertainty stole back into Ramsey’s face, he sat forward again.‘You went to look at the flood a second time?’‘I took Charlie, yes.’I was careful to hold on to my expression, to maintain a neutral gaze aimed at a point somewhere over Ramsey’s right shoulder.‘I would like to understand correctly, Mrs Dearden…At some point between telephoning your son in his car and the time he arrived at your cottage, you took your grandson out to the marsh to look at the flood a second time?’‘Yes.’Barely containing his irritation, Ramsey said briskly, ‘Mrs Dearden, why didn’t you tell us this before?’I looked towards Maggie as she replied, ‘You did not ask me.’ She made one of her Italian gestures, a raised shoulder, a spread hand, a widening of the eyes.‘I did not know it was important.’ There was openness in her expression, but also obduracy.Ramsey’s button mouth tightened still further.‘What time was it, then, when you went out to look at the flood?’‘After I spoke to Will.’He asked, ‘So it could have been five forty?’‘It’s possible.I cannot be sure.’‘And you didn’t notice Grace’s car, either when you left or when you returned?’She gave the question consideration.‘No,’ she said, ‘I did not notice any car.But, then, we went out by the kitchen, Charlie and me.We came back the same way.If the car was at the fronts well…’ She shrugged.‘But I think if Grace had come back, she would have come into the house.She would have come to find us.No?’ She looked to me as though for confirmation.‘I think so,’ she stated ingenuously to the room at large.‘I think she would have come in.’‘And later, when your son arrived?’ Ramseyasked.‘You didn’t notice Grace’s car then?’‘I did not look at the front, so…’Ramsey exhaled heavily.He was getting the picture.‘So Grace could have come and gone and you wouldn’t have been the wiser?’Maggie frowned slightly, as though this idea was new to her.‘That’s right.’‘But you were aware of your son arriving?’‘Yes.I heard the horn, I followed Will out to the sluice.’Maggie’s energy was ebbing visibly, her eyelids were dipping, she seemed to be sinking lower into her chair.‘You followed immediately?’‘Yes, I follow his torch along the sea bank.I arrive at the sluice just after him.’Ramsey took a steadying breath.‘Then?’‘I stayed with him,’ she replied, rediscovering the past tense.‘Maybe fifteen minutes, maybe a little more.Until he saw what the problem was, you know.Until he went to bring tools from the barn.’‘This is the barn at Upper Farm?’‘Yes.’‘He went by car, then?’She sighed, making no attempt to hide her weariness.‘Yes, in the Range Rover.’‘How long was your son away?’‘Ten minutes.Fifteen maybe.’‘You saw him return?’‘Oh, yes.’‘Then?’‘Then he worked on the sluice.I helped him.’‘And how long did you help him for, Mrs Dearden?’‘Until he finished.Almost three hours, I think…Though I came back to make sure my grandson was all right
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