Free Dancing With the Virgins by Stephen Booth Page A

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    The story was a familiar one. A woman abused, yet reluctant to believe that there wasn't something worth preserving in her marriage; convinced, somehow, that her man did what he did because he loved her. It seemed incredible to Cooper that some women con tinued to expect far too much of marriage. Their beliefs died hard .
    Mr Weston was deputy head teacher of one of the Eden Valley secondary schools. He had that rather weary and worn look that identified middle-aged teachers. His hair was mostly on the back of his head, curly and untidy, and not trimmed on his neck for a long time. He wore a grey suit, but there were shiny patches on the trousers and an indefinable scent that reminded Cooper of his own school days. Chalk and musty text books, school dinners and badly washed schoolboys .
    It seemed that Mr Weston was inclined to blame Martin Stafford for Jenny's death. This was despite the fact that, as far as he was aware, the two of them hadn't seen each other for three years.
    ‘ It would be just like him to have got in touch again, and for Jenny to agree to meet him, without telling us,' he said.
    ‘ Do you know where Mr Stafford lives now?' asked Tailby.
    ‘ No, I don't. I think Jenny knew. But she never told us that, either.'
    ‘ Why?'
    ‘ She thought we would interfere. We were so worried about her. She never seemed to see sense where that man was concerned.'
    ‘ There are no children from the marriage?'
    ‘ No.'
    ‘ That's fortunate, I suppose?'
    ‘ I'm not sure about that,' said Mr Weston .
    Jenny had met Stafford while she was a student at the University of Derby. He had been a journalist then, working at the city's Evening Telegraph — a senior reporter with a flair for off-beat features, or so he had said. According to Mr Weston, Stafford had cultivated a knowing, cynical image, had drunk too much and had cared about little except himself and his career.
    ‘ Jenny was studying to be a radiologist,' he said. 'She was already in the third year of her course, and doing really well. She could have had a good career ahead of her, if it hadn't been for Stafford. She met him in a pub in Derby, and he made a beeline for her. She was an attractive girl. And far too trusting.'
    ‘ What happened?'
    ‘ She became completely besotted with him. She wouldn't listen to us when we told her to put her studies first, that her own career was more important. In the end, she gave up her studies to marry Stafford when he asked her to. She said she wanted to start a family with him. We had to accept it.'
    ‘ But you said there were no children?'
    ‘ No children. Only divorce. ’
    Even the divorce had come only after a series of short- lived reconciliations which were, according to Jenny's father, simply Martin Stafford's demonstrations of his ability to manipulate their daughter. He had some inex plicable power over her, and he was reluctant to give it up. The situation dragged on for a long time, painfully and unsatisfactorily.
    ‘ When it was all over, Jenny managed to get a job with Global Assurance in Derby,' said Mr Weston. 'But then she had to move to their new call centre when it was built in Sheffield. We didn't like it. It meant she was away from us, away from her family. She went to live alone in that little terraced house off the Ecclesall Road. It was too far away. All she had with her was her blessed cat, not even a dog. Her mother was very upset. She worried about what might happen to her. We both did.'
    ‘ You were worried that Mr Stafford might try to get back in touch with her?'
    ‘ Yes, of course. And that we wouldn't know about it. Anything could have happened.'
    ‘ But it didn't.'
    ‘ Well ... not so far as we know. ’
    Mr Weston tried to recall a quick succession of boy friends after Jenny had moved to Sheffield. All of them, he was sure, were men who were completely wrong for her. To Ben Cooper, Jenny sounded as though she had gone through those men like a woman looking for some thing she