SPOILERS!!!
Ivo Sweatman turns up. I have mixed feelings about this character. I didn’t like him in the first novel of this series. I thought that he was the kind of journalist eager to benefit from people’s miseries. Yet, in the second novel he redeemed himself, and I have to reconsider my opinion. In this new novel he continues with his seedy ways, but he is also honest in his own ways. One of the detectives in the original investigation of Ned Chesham, Sam Villiers, comes to him, tipping him about the allegations against Chesham at the time and Scotland Yard opening the investigation again for some possible flaws. Ivo knows that he can’t use this information because his newspaper are running an article about a famous actress who Dr Chesham helped back in her youth. Yet, he thinks that there is some hidden agenda in this new investigation, and when he learns that Grace is heading the investigation, he thinks he can help her. We can see that Ivo is a little in love with her. When he attends Chesham’s lecture, Grace is there, and he tells her about Sam Villiers and about his suspicions that there is some ulterior motive behind this investigation, which is something that Grace has already considered. He thought that this was a strategy from her boss, Colin, who has clear animosity against her, to bring her to ruin. Yet, since she can see that Colin has no idea what she is investigating, this theory goes out of the window. So who is behind all this?
Grace takes Duncan as her wingman, and they start investigating. First, Grace talks to Keith Stalgood, who led the investigation back then. Keith has just retired and was the person who helped Grace to settle in Colchester after she had to leave Kent in disgrace. Keith is amiable and tells her everything he knows. The girl who claimed to have been abused was Trudie Bevan, and even though Keith says that they tried to see how true her allegations were, they couldn’t find any evidence, and the case didn’t go to trial because Trudie was so vulnerable and unstable that she would have been trashed at a trial. Keith tells Grace that since their enquiries were carried out discreetly, Chesham never knew that he was being investigated.
Grace and Duncan go to see Trudie, but she is not welcoming. She wants to leave the past behind it, and she is bitter because not even her parents believed her back then, and she can’t go through the same again.
Then Grace and Duncan learn that some years after Trudie’s case, a cleaner reported to have heard something strange. It was at night, and in a ward he heard panting as if someone was engaged in sexual activity behind some curtains around a patient’s bed. He learnt later that the person who was behind the curtains was Dr Chesham, but the director and Chesham told him that there was nothing untoward going on and he explained that he was there because the patient was having a crisis. The cleaner says that then he was promoted and he accepted the explanation he was given.
Grace and Duncan find out that the patient that Chesham was supposedly treating that night is Karen Wheeler. They go to see her, and the woman admits that Chesham raped her, but her parents dissuaded her from reporting the doctor. It wasn’t that they didn’t believe her, but they wouldn’t have been able to put up with the shame. I like it when Karen says that she had been waiting for years for someone to come to her and ask her. She also tells Grace that she went to one of the summer camps, and she mentions that Grace and Duncan should be on the lookout for red swimsuits as apparently, Chesham liked his special girls to wear a red swimsuit.
Grace’s investigation is interspersed with moments in the Goodwins’ life. I have the hunch that Chesham’s special girl is Meghan. The girl has taken a relapse, and she has started to exercise manically during the night. When her father discovers her, he tries to talk to her, but her mother, Gillian, thinks that they should resort to Chesham. I have to say that I don’t like Gillian very much. Clive tries to stop her from calling Chesham because that is what Meghan doesn’t want, but Gillian calls him anyway, and Chesham appears, intending to spend the night watching over Meghan. That doesn’t bode well for Meghan and her family. The following day Clive comes home and he is told that Helen has been recommended for a better post in Newcastle. Chesham has recommended her, but Helen is not sure to take on the job. What does this mean? Is there a reason why Chesham wants to send her away? I just hope that Helen isn’t the kind of person to turn a blind eye to Chesham abusing young girls. Is Chesham afraid that now that he is keen on Helen’s niece, she might be a risk?
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