Free The Disappeared by M.R. Hall Page A

I'd at least ask you to accept my word that he would never have done
anything wrong.'
    Alison
had a history of putting men other than her husband on a pedestal - Harry
Marshall, the previous coroner, eight months dead, had been one of them. Jenny
didn't doubt that Dave Pironi could be perfectly charming, but she was equally
aware that when it came to men she found attractive, her officer had no
judgement.
    Jenny
said, 'I'm sure you're right, but I'd be grateful if you sent the letter
anyway.' She grabbed a legal pad and dropped it into her briefcase. 'I'll see
you later. I've got a meeting at the university.'
     
    Rhydian
Brightman was a tall, fidgety man with a permanently distracted expression. He
could only have been a year or two older than Jenny, but had already embraced
middle age and wore thick glasses that balanced in a groove halfway down his
nose. They met in a busy canteen on the physics department's ground floor,
Brightman claiming his office was being used by a colleague for a meeting. She
assumed the real reason was that her presence had unnerved him. He looked to
her like a highly strung man who was comfortable only in his own world among
his own kind. That did not include prying coroners.
    They
sat at a small, sticky table and drank foul-tasting cups of tea purchased from
a vending machine. At the next table several boisterous undergraduates were
exchanging lurid stories of drunken sexual exploits, but the professor didn't
seem to notice. He had one eye on Jenny and the other on the door.
    'You
remember Nazim Jamal - he started as an undergraduate in the autumn of 2001,'
Jenny said.
    'A
little. He would have been to my lectures. We probably met in the seminar room
once or twice.'
    'You
do remember his disappearance?'
    'Yes,
of course. We all remember that. Terrible.'
    'I
assume the police must have asked you a lot of questions at the time.'
    'They
were very busy here for a week or two. I didn't get the impression they found
much to enlighten them. It all seemed to remain rather mysterious.' He gave an
awkward, apologetic smile. 'The thing is, there's not that much connection
between staff and undergraduates, not on a personal level. I could recognize
most of our first years, but I couldn't tell you what they got up to outside
the department.'
    'Who
was the main point of contact for the police while they were investigating?'
    'Me,
I suppose. I was technically responsible for our undergraduates at the time. We
had a number of meetings. As I say, not a lot transpired.' He became aware of
his restless fingers drumming on the table and thrust his hands selfconsciously
into his lap.
    ' Technically ?'
    'In
an academic sense. Of course, if they wanted to come to me with a personal
problem . . . But we do have other avenues for those sorts of things.'
    'What
I really want to know at this stage is what was being said amongst the students
or staff. There must have been endless speculation; others who were closer to
him must have had theories.'
    'Surprisingly
few, actually. That's what seemed so odd. The police spoke to a lot of
undergraduates, but the other chap — '
    'Hassan.'
    'Yes.
He seemed to be the only one Jamal was really close to. Even those in his
seminar group knew very little about him.'
    'His
mother gave me the impression he was sociable - came from Clifton College,
played tennis — '
    'You
would have thought there would have been more to go on, wouldn't you?'
    Jenny
recalled the student noticeboards she had parsed on the way in covered with
flyers and announcements for societies and political meetings. There were
several from Muslim groups organizing speaker meetings, and debates on US
foreign policy and the future of Palestine.
    'Was
there much in the way of Islamic activity on campus at the time?'
    'So
the police said, but I can't say that I was aware of it as a live issue.
Science students tend to be rather less politicized than others - too busy
working, I assume.' He let out a burst of nervous