Part Five   "Revelations"

 
 
Tuesday 13th January 2015
 

School had been quiet, almost boring, as nothing appeared to be happening. There was no sign of Yvonne Stewart and the school wasn't paying host to any visitors today. One upside to Tuesday was that Tammy had no classes after lunch so was supposed to be in the school library or the common room.

Instead of that, as everyone was filtering into the refectory, Tammy went to see Mrs Adams, the School Secretary. One of the other office staff was with her so Tammy kept it formal, at first anyway.

"Hello Mrs Adams."

"Ah, Miss Smart, how are you today?"

"It's been a quiet day so I guess that's a good day."

"What can I do for you?"

"I have no classes for the rest of the day so I figured I might check on my case study for the Business Studies A Level I'm doing."

"That sounds like a good idea, I'll write out a pass for you. Do you have any transport arranged?"

"Not yet."

"Well, Julianne is going to get her hair done, I'm sure she'll drop you down there."

"That'll be great, thanks Janet. Hi Julianne, I'm Tammy."

"Hi, I've heard all about you."

"Nothing bad, I hope?"

"Only how you stand up for yourself and your friends."

Tammy blushed.

"I'm parked round the back, let's get going as my appointment is in fifteen minutes."

"Bye Janet."

The ride into town didn't take long and Julianne left her little car in the public carpark as they both walked to the salon. Tammy had spotted Joan's car a few rows away.

"Are you here for an appointment too?"

"No, mine's on Saturday but I arranged for a friend to have the full treatment this morning and I want to check on her."

They walked in just as Joan was finishing at the nail bar.

"Thank you Tammy!"

Joan gave Tammy a hug, careful not to ruin her newly glossed nails.

"Joan, you needed that."

Tammy could see that Julianne was being sent by Sandy into see Joanne in the torture chamber so knew the sound proofing would be adequate in case something unfortunate was said; Sandy now came over to them.

"Tammy, I've been hearing snippets of news and rumours and trying to put a few things together but Joan has managed to shock me with some of the things that have happened to the pair of you."

Tammy knew that Joan had been keeping things back from her but had decided to be patient, Sandy on the other hand had apparently managed to get everything out of her future step-mum.

"I can't say it's been a pleasant experience, Sandy."

"Well, I've now worked out who she is. She made an appointment in December but never showed up, one of the Saturday girls had written it as 'Eve' but we've since worked out that it was Yvonne. Now that Joan's described her I remember that I saw her outside Sarah's shop once, Emily was talking to her."

"Emily was telling her not to bother showing her face in the shop after she had been rude to me in there."

"Rude? You never told me that."

"No Joan, but Dad knew. She refused to be served by me so Emily,Sarah's daughter, told her where to go. She came back a week later so Emily had another go at her, in the street. That was probably when you saw her, Sandy."

"Well, nasty woman, that business in the hotel too."

"Do you mean the Sunday lunch? So much seems to have happened in there recently."

"Yes, all that fuss over a bottle of wine? She's not welcome here, for sure, and I'll speak to a few of the other shopkeepers when they come in."

"Please be careful, I don't want to make it any worse for me or Joan?"

Joan was reaching for her bag. "How much is that Sandy?"

"Nothing Joan, Tammy's paying for it."

"Tammy!"

"Don't have a go at her, Joan, you needed this treatment. You should have seen the stress lines when you walked in."

"I tried not to look in the mirror this morning, I didn't get much sleep."

"I'm not surprised, come on get yourself along the road for lunch."

"Okay, thanks Joan. Come on Tammy, let's go."

They walked out of the salon and started up the road. Joan was about to ask a question when Tammy saw Yvonne Stewart and her friend Fiona up ahead. Tammy indicated to Joan to keep quiet and they slowed down.

Yvonne appeared to have come from the Castletown Hotel and was complaining loudly as the pair headed towards the carpark. Tammy lost sight of the pair and made it to the hotel a minute later.

They were greeted by Frances who suggested a corner table out of sight of the street door. A barman came over to take their order, it was the same barman that Tammy had seen on Saturday afternoon; he winked at her as he left.

"Tammy, is that barman after something?"

"No, I think he's trying to tell me something about Yvonne and Fiona."

They waited for a minute then saw Frances heading back in their direction, carrying a tray with drinks. Once he served the drinks he asked if he could sit with them.

"Mrs Small, Miss Smart, could I speak to you?"

"Of course, Frances." Tammy was better known so took the lead.

"I don't know if you saw but I have just ejected a Miss Stewart and her friend."

"We saw them leaving, they weren't happy."

"They were not. Can I ask, did you have a problem at the weekend?"

"Yes, a Mr Jones told me and Angela Small that we were under-age. We refused to leave and I asked for the police to come here."

"It is unfortunate that I was not here but we have both been been victims it would seem."

"I was told you were on holiday."

"I was not, I had been suspended by the company that owns the hotel."

"On what grounds?"

"That I was serving alcohol to under eighteens."

"Let me guess, they had a phone call?"

"Yes, I was told I was suspended and they brought a temporary manager up from England."

"PC St James spoke to him Saturday lunchtime."

"Yes, PC St James came back here on Sunday. He told me he had phoned the company on Saturday after leaving here and demanded why the police had not been informed of any allegations as it's a requirement of the licensing law. Apparently my employers had taken the word of one woman screaming down the phone! He then told them about his visit here, I had a phone call at five o'clock Saturday and was put back in charge immediately. It was your insistence that the police were called that meant I could sort out my problem, and help you with your's."

"Nasty business, if I can help I will."

"Indeed. Later on Saturday I had a look at the security recordings but someone had tried to wipe Saturday lunchtime. Fortunately I make two recordings at the same time." Frances smiled.

"Did you see something useful?"

"Let me just say that Mr Jones will now being investigated for bribery and corruption."

"Oh!"

"Another police officer, DC Franklin, also came here on Sunday to view the video and take a copy with him."

"Sweet."

"Then today, those ladies came back and demanded to see Mr Jones, they were most upset when I appeared, one of them said that I shouldn't be here as her information was good enough to have me sacked!"

"It gets better!"

"Yes, I threw them out and they are barred permanently, they'll also find it difficult getting into anywhere else in town. Have you heard of the BOBB scheme?"

"No."

"It stands for 'Behave Or Be Barred' and applies to every bar and restaurant in Thurso. If you're barred in one, you're barred from all of them."

"Do you have a video of her telling you this?"

"I was about to check it when you came in but I first called DC Franklin as he's familiar with the problem."

"Excellent, thank you for telling us."

"You needed to know. The drinks are on the house, by the way."

"Thank you, Frances." Tammy knew not to argue with Frances, who was now walking away. Joan kept feeling that Tammy shouldn't be in this position but at the same time was grateful that she'd handled Frances in such a business-like manner.

"Tammy, I think it's fair that I tell you what has been going on."

"You don't have to break any confidences for me, Joan."

"We need to be open with each-other, especially if you are to be my daughter."

"Does that mean.....?"

"Your father proposed to me at the weekend, subject to his divorce of course."

Tammy reached over and gave Joan, her future step-mum, a hug. Frances came back to put their lunch on the table and withdrew quickly.

"It seems that someone told Yvonne yesterday afternoon about the engagement, she called me into her office not long before I was leaving for the day. That was when she accused me of talking to the Head to get you out of that detention and accused me of a conflict of interest as I would be mum or step mum to both girls in the school."

"Who knew?"

"Janet Adams knew, she saw my spring in my step."

"She notices things, she wouldn't tell Yvonne as she hates the woman."

"No she wouldn't, but Julianne was in the room at the time."

"She gave me a lift down here but I hadn't said I was meeting you or that you had an appointment."

"I saw her in the salon. She's dangerous, she hovers and listens then repeats it all to whoever will be grateful."

"I didn't say anything in the car."

"Good, but how come you're in town anyway?"

"I had a free afternoon and I wanted to see Sarah but I thought it might be an idea to make sure you were okay."

"Well, I'm just grateful you're here." She looked up and saw Frances returning with two glasses of sparkling wine.

"I didn't order this."

"Mrs Small, I'd like to help celebrate your good news."

"I'm driving!"

"Joan, we'll sort that out. Thank you Frances, you're too kind."

There was a noise behind Frances and DC Ben Franklin had walked in. Frances apologised and left, leading the CID officer to the office while Joan and Tammy decided to tackle their lunch.

They'd finished lunch when the Detective Constable approached.

"Tammy, Frances tells me that you had a problem on Saturday?"

"Yes, Ben, I came here not long after one o'clock with Angela Small."

Joan added, "my daughter."

"Okay, I've just reviewed the video from that lunchtime but I have also seen the notes PC St James made. Would you be prepared to make a statement?"

"I wouldn't have a problem with it but what are you trying to achieve?"

"It's simply that we might need to show a bigger picture, show that there's a concerted campaign rather than just a one-off incident."

"Okay,I don't suppose Angela would have a issue, Joan?"

Joan shook her head. "There won't be a problem, I'm sure she'll co-operate."

"Do either of you know what might be behind all of this?"

"Our private investigator established that Yvonne Stewart was having an affair with Joan's late husband and blames me for Joan's son realising she should have been a girl."

"I see, we'll need a statement from your investigator too."

"What about this evening?"

"Okay, Tammy, I'll drive up to the house at five and then I can come over to the cottage, Mrs Small?"

"That's fine."

"Great, I hope you're not driving though?" He had seen the empty glasses.

"No, but I haven't worked out the getting home bit yet."

"Joan, I'll ask Dad and Louise to come down, one of them can drive your car back."

Ben Franklin nodded his agreement and went back to speak to Frances briefly before leaving the hotel. Tammy took her phone out of her bag and quickly explained their transport issue to her father. There was an audible groan, followed by mutterings about leading Joan astray.

***

The statements were completed swiftly although DC Franklin then became interested in the video taken by Tammy's secret filming at the hotel as corroboration for the hotel's own backup recording of Saturday lunchtime.

Louise's continued investigations had taken her to interview some of Emily's friends in Aberdeen and a more complete picture of bullying and belittling of colleagues as well as students was forming. She passed on copies of her notes to DC Franklin but warned him to only contact Emily, whom he'd met, in the first instance.

"Some of these girls, and boys, are truly frightened of her, scared she'll force a query into exam results from years ago or have them thrown off their university or college course based on a spurious allegation."

"We will need their testimony, if it's true then that kind of person does not deserve to teach or be anywhere near impressionable youngsters, or adults for that matter."

Elsie, was now very aware that Tammy's concerns had been justified, but had more pressing concerns of her own. She'd returned from seeing her Oncologist an hour earlier and had already arranged for her daughter, Cathy Stewart, to come over to the house to talk it over. She called Cathy a second time and asked that her husband, David, accompanied her. They arrived just after the police officer had left.

"Cathy, dear, have you eaten yet?"

"No, mum, David had only just got in from work."

"In that case, I'll ask the kitchen to include the pair of you. David, it would seem we need to talk about your sister."

"Oh, what's she done now?"

"Now?"

"There's always rumours and sometimes I think many of them may be true but she doesn't even call me so I can't query anything."

"Did you know she has started working at St Andrews?"

"No, how did she get that job?"

"We'd best not have that conversation out here, David. Can you and Richard please join me in the study when I've found Thomas to re-arrange dinner."

"Of course, Elsie."

Cathy meanwhile went in search of Tammy who was in her room. She knocked.

"Come in, oh hi Cathy."

"Hi Tammy, is the world against you again?"

"It sometimes feels that way."

"I'm sure it'll be sorted out."

"That's what everyone is saying. I just had to give another statement to the police, this time about your sister-in-law."

"If it helps you, I've never really liked her."

"But....."

"She might be family but still doesn't mean I have anything to do with her."

"Okay. If you don't mind, I want a shower before dinner."

"I'll see you downstairs."

***

"So, Angela, what did you say to DC Franklin?"

"I just told him what I remembered, that you did all the talking."

Tammy couldn't argue there.

"Did he speak to mum as well?"

"Yes, but they shut the kitchen door as she doesn't want me to get upset, although I don't know what it is I might get upset about."

"She's just trying to keep you safe and sane."

"You fail on both counts!"

"It must be a family trait then, sis!"

"You'd best watch yourself tomorrow, Miss Smart!"

"Really? I won't be at school until late morning."

"Why not?"

"I'm going to the bank with Sarah while she renegotiates her deal with them."

"Do you have permission to do this?"

"Oh ...... merde!"