Free Buried in Cornwall by Janie Bolitho Page B

definitely. She was there for thedrinks upstairs before the official opening. I didn’t see much of her in the gallery, there were too many other people there, but we managed a few words. I left before she did and came straight home. About forty-five minutes later, possibly more, she knocked on the door and I let her in. I was on the phone at the time to Rose Trevelyan.’
    Jack flinched. He could have hit the man but he listened carefully as Pascoe went over the events of that evening.
    ‘That’s it. It’s exactly as I said before on the phone. Oh, then Maddy rang. Madeleine Duke.’
    ‘For any specific reason?’
    ‘Out of concern for Jenny. She knows Jenny can be a bit highly strung, if that phrase is still in fashion. She also wanted to invite me to supper the next night.’
    Jack nodded. The man was certainly in demand and he wondered if Rose knew. But he would not lower himself to ask if he had accepted the invitation. ‘And yesterday morning?’
    ‘Yesterday morning I began to worry about what Maddy had said. Jenny’s impetuous, the sort of girl who is capable of doing something stupid to draw attention to herself, but I didn’t know where she was staying. I asked around and when her three – what shall we say, room-mates?– said they hadn’t seen her either I decided I ought to call the police.’
    ‘You went out of your way to find her?’
    ‘Naturally. I wouldn’t waste your time if I thought I could locate her myself.’ Nick had felt the right thing to do was to report Jenny missing but he had not expected any action to be taken. Now he asked himself why an inspector was involved. It worried him.
    ‘And who did you ask?’
    ‘Everyone who was at the exhibition. The people I know, that is.’
    ‘Including Mrs Trevelyan?’ He couldn’t help it even though he knew the answer.
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Why?’
    Nick’s frown deepened but did not detract from his good looks. ‘Just in case she’d seen Jenny.’
    ‘Mrs Trevelyan lives in Newlyn. What made you think she might have done?’
    ‘Nothing made me think so, Inspector. It was just that she was there and, well, Jenny knew that we’d been seeing each other.’
    ‘But your affair with Jennifer Manders was over. Why should it concern her who you’re seeing now?’
    ‘Look, I don’t really know. I’ve already explained she wanted to come back here to live. If she was jealous, I thought she might have gone to Rose’s to cause a scene. Really, I’m not a mind reader, it was only a guess.’
    He has a temper, Jack thought, as Nick got up and strode around the room, sweeping back his hair impatiently as he did so. And what had caused Pascoe to think Jenny had been to see Rose? He sighed, knowing there was little more he could do. But as he stood he thought it worth a try to ask, ‘Did Mrs Trevelyan tell you she called us recently? She—’
    ‘When she was out at the old engine house? Yes.’
    ‘Was anyone aware she’d be there that day?’
    ‘How on earth should I know?’ Nick stopped pacing. He picked up a paintbrush and slapped the bristles against the palm of his hand. ‘Actually, now I think about it, quite a lot of people. It was Stella who suggested it as a starting place. There was a crowd of us there one night when the subject came up.’
    ‘By which you mean?’
    ‘Rose has gone back to working in oils, and not before time if what I’ve seen of her work’s anything to go by. Stella thought it’d be a testfor her. So many artists have painted just that type of scenery but if Rose could do it, and do it well, or better, it would prove that she wasn’t run-of-the-mill. Stella thought it would give her the confidence to carry on.’
    ‘I’ll need the names of the guests that night, if you don’t mind.’
    Nick provided them and Jack left, more puzzled than when he had arrived. Had those screams had anything to do with Jenny’s disappearance even if she had been seen afterwards? There was one way of settling something which