The Innocent: A Coroner Jenny Cooper Crime Short Read Free Page B

We’ll go to the meeting room.’
    Jenny followed her between the cluttered workstations. Heads turned and looked at her as she passed. Jenny avoided their gazes, but sensed their accusation. She had committed the cardinal sin: she had got too close.
    Elaine sat behind the glass conference table and gestured Jenny to a seat opposite. She already had Natasha’s files spread out and had been making notes.
    ‘How was it?’ Elaine inquired. ‘Not too shaken up, I hope?’
    ‘I don’t think I’ll know for a while.’
    Elaine made an attempt at a sympathetic smile. ‘I’m sorry to have to do this to you, Jenny, but there will be an inquest. The coroner will go through her history with a fine toothcomb.’
    Jenny had scarcely given a thought to the coroner. Of course. He would trawl Natasha’s files for evidence of mishandling. She would have to make a sworn statement and give evidence in court. She had never been inside a witness box.
    ‘That’s presuming the police don’t take an interest first,’ Elaine continued.
    ‘The police? Why would they be involved? She went under a train – there’ll be video from the platform.’
    ‘I’m sure, but they’ll still want to look into the background.’
    ‘It’s all in the files. There are no secrets.’
    Elaine pulled on a pair of reading glasses. ‘I see this last care order was made following the discovery that she was sexually active.’
    ‘That’s right. She had a pregnancy scare. She confessed it to Judy on a home visit.’
    ‘Why would she do that?’
    ‘Isn’t Judy meant to inspire that sort of confidence?’
    ‘Who was the potential father?’
    ‘Some boy at school. I don’t think she ever specified.’
    ‘We’re sure it wasn’t someone older? One of the mother’s partners, perhaps? It looks as if she’s had a lot of them.’
    ‘I was never told that, but it’s always a fear, of course. Especially with the kind of men Karen brings home.’
    ‘A vulnerable, sexually active fourteen-year-old girl with a history of running away from foster placements. And you didn’t consider her a suitable candidate for a secure home?’
    ‘I considered her a candidate for a stable and loving family. That’s what we found her.’
    Elaine turned over more pages in the file and extracted a report on the foster parents. It was the standard profile document the team maintained on all the carers on their books. ‘Frank Bartlett, forty-eight, married twenty-five years, works as a garage mechanic. He and his wife seem to have fostered a disproportionate number of teenage girls.’
    ‘His wife’s a nurse. She’s good with them.’
    ‘Are we sure their interest is completely healthy?’
    ‘Please. These are some of the most dedicated people we’ve got.’
    ‘Even angels fall, Jenny.’
    ‘Not these ones. They’ve got two grown-up daughters of their own. I’ve met them. They’re both lovely, well-adjusted young women.’
    ‘All right. The police will talk to them, I’m sure.’ Elaine moved on in the file. ‘I was looking for any suggestion that Natasha might have had a history of self-harming or suicidal thoughts. I couldn’t find anything.’
    ‘I don’t think those were her problems. She had plenty of others.’
    Elaine stared at her over the rims of her glasses. ‘Why do you think she killed herself, Jenny? She was in our care. We’re going to have to come up with an answer.’
    ‘Sometimes there isn’t one,’ Jenny said. ‘We’ve all known people who—’
    Elaine interrupted. ‘I don’t think you understand.’
    ‘I think I do.’
    ‘Listen to me, Jenny. We have to come up with a reason. You know what will happen if we don’t.’
    Jenny didn’t answer her.
    ‘Moments before she jumped, she called your number. It may not seem obvious to you, but from here it looks as if you had become very special to her. You’re a lawyer, not a social worker, so it looks odd, to say the least. Suspiciously odd.’
    ‘What are you