The Woman In Blue: The Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries 8 by Elly Griffiths Page B

seventeen and Lauren twenty.’
    ‘It’s beautiful.’ Tim’s no expert but he doesn’t think the artist will be winning any prizes – the style is painting-by-numbers crossed with Athena poster – but there is no doubt that the girls themselves are lovely.
    ‘Yes. They were very close.’ Julie catches herself using the past tense and her mouth wobbles as the tears begin to flow again.
    ‘Where’s Lauren now?’ asks Tim, as Alan silently passes his wife a tissue.
    ‘She’s a flight attendant,’ says Alan. ‘Working long-haul. She came home as soon as she heard, but she’s with her boyfriend today. I don’t think she likes being here.’ He gestures at the luxurious room with the flowers and the angels and the messages of condolence.
    ‘Are you in the aviation business too, Mr Jenkins?’ Tim knows the answer already but, even if he hadn’t, the room would have given him a clue. Apart from the one of the girls over the fireplace, most of the pictures are of planes: biplanes coasting over grey seas, modern jumbos on the runway, uniformed men with wings and gold braid on their caps. But he meant to give the bereaved father something else to think about, and it works. Alan straightens up immediately.
    ‘Yes. I used to be in the RAF, but now I’m a commercial pilot.’
    ‘The whole family are mad about planes,’ says Julie. ‘Both girls have amateur pilots’ licences.’
    ‘Really?’ It’s hard to imagine Chloe, the glamorous model, flying a plane, but, of course, that’s what this interview is for. To see the whole person, not just the murder victim.
    ‘It started when they were young,’ says Julie. ‘When we were still living on the base. At RAF Skulthorpe.’
    This name rings a faint bell with Tim. A bell that seems to speak in the voice of his sat nav.
    ‘Skulthorpe. Is that in Norfolk?’
    ‘Yes.’ Julie holds the tissue to her eyes. ‘It’s very near where she was . . . It’s near the Sanctuary.’
    This is interesting. As far as he knows, the investigating team have no idea that Chloe was originally from Norfolk.
    ‘When did you leave Norfolk?’ he asks.
    ‘When Chloe was eight. She was sad to go. She loved it there. But Alan left the RAF and we needed to be near the big airports.’
    ‘Tell me something about Chloe,’ says Tim. ‘What sort of a child was she?’
    ‘Very happy,’ says Julie. ‘Always smiling. Everybody loved her. She was an angel, that’s what her childminder said. Her problems . . . well, they didn’t start until later.’
    Tim waits. ‘She was too pretty for her own good,’ says Alan. ‘She was scouted by a model agency when she was only fourteen. I didn’t want her to take it up. I wanted her to have a proper career. She was a very bright girl. She just didn’t try at school.’
    ‘I made her wait until she was sixteen,’ says Julie, with a flash of spirit. ‘But I couldn’t stop her. She wanted to be a model. Her head was quite turned by it all, and no wonder really.’
    ‘At the age of sixteen she was travelling all over the world on assignments,’ says Alan. ‘Drugs were everywhere. Chloe always found it hard to say no. By the time she was eighteen she had a real problem.’
    ‘That must have been hard for you as parents,’ says Tim.
    ‘It was awful,’ says Julie. ‘At first we didn’t realise. We didn’t know the signs. But then I actually saw her taking the drugs. Here in her bedroom. Snorting them with a fifty-pound note! I confronted her, Alan confronted her, even Lauren begged her to get help. And, eventually, she agreed.’
    ‘She went to this special rehabilitation place for teenagers,’ says Alan. ‘It was tough but it worked. She got clean. She was our little girl again. She even started studying for her A-levels.’
    ‘What happened next?’ asks Tim.
    ‘She met him,’ says Alan. ‘Thom Novak.’
    This time there is real anger in his voice. Julie looks at her husband apprehensively. ‘She went back to modelling,’