‘I’m sorry,’ she repeated, ‘I can’t, I just can’t.’
I waited a while before I spoke again. I felt clumsy but whatever her emotional state I needed to make my position plain to her. ‘Agnes, apart from checking those tablets there’s nothing else I can do to help Lily. You and Charles will have to arrange the best care for her. There’s no point in my visiting again. She needs friends, people she knows, not me. It’s up to you whether you can face it or not. After all, they may move her out into a nursing home.’
‘I’ve been so foolish,’ she said, ‘so cowardly. Will you come with me tomorrow, please? You’re right. It’s my place to go. If you could help me, this first time..
I couldn’t say no.
Rachel caught me at home that afternoon.
‘Sal, I got back late last night. Weekend in Derbyshire.’
‘Not camping?’ I was aghast.
‘No,’ she laughed, ‘residential training. Exhausting. You wouldn’t believe what goes on and Social Services fork out for it all-’
‘Rachel,’ I cut in before she launched into a blow-by-blow account, ‘when you rang me about the room, what day was it?’
She hummed and hawed a bit. ‘Wednesday? No, Thursday.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes. Wednesday I was in court all day and Friday I went straight off to Derbyshire, it must have been Thursday. Why?’
‘Oh, I’d other messages, I needed to work out when they were left.’
‘So is it free?’
‘What?’
‘The room! Honestly, Sal.’
‘Sorry, miles away. No, it’s gone, we’ve got someone already.’
‘Well, if you hear of anywhere else. This poor woman’s getting desperate. Turns out that the cousin is into the Internet in a big way, Worldwide Web, keeps her up till two in the morning enthusing and cruising, or whatever they do.’
I rang the police and got through to Sergeant Bell. I told her it had been Thursday when Jimmy Achebe rang me and left his message. It was an alibi, wasn’t it? It was exactly the same time as the attack on Tina. There was no way he could have made it to work all the way over in Swinton in time to ring me if he’d done it. She wouldn’t commit herself. Was he still being held? He was. Was there any other evidence to contradict the alibi? She couldn’t divulge any information. I felt like throttling her. Why couldn’t she bring herself to admit that the tape was pretty watertight proof that Jimmy was innocent? Did the truth not suit the case they’d been building? If she wouldn’t tell me anything now I’d make a point of ringing her regularly until she did. If only to remind her that I knew about the alibi and that I expected them to release Jimmy as a result.