The Long Call

Jen heads to Kingsley House, a luxurious Victorian hotel where Simon once worked. The manager reveals that in addition to having an alcohol use disorder, Simon was a difficult man who had a contentious relationship with the chef, Danny Clarkson. Clarkson tells Jen that although Simon was a good baker, he was terrible to work with and was not receptive to instruction.

Afterward, Jen receives a call from Ross telling her to return to Caroline’s and to check the voicemail there. When she does, she discovers a voicemail from a self-proclaimed “old buddy” of Simon’s who found out where he lived and wanted to speak to him. Jen records the voicemail on her phone. On her way out of the house, she runs into an unhoused man who knew Simon. He tells her that Simon used to drink at a bar called The Anchor. Jen asks about Simon at The Anchor, but the bartender says that when he came in, he kept to himself, reading and drinking in a corner for an hour before leaving.

Matthew questions Bob, the head cook at Woodyard, with whom Simon worked. Bob tells Matthew that Simon was an excellent baker and was easy to work with. Book took Simon on because Christopher Preece, Caroline’s father, had instructed him to. Matthew also discovers that Simon worked in the kitchen with Lucy. This confuses him because it means that Lucy knew Simon outside of their bus rides together. Matthew tracks down Christopher Preece, who tells Matthew that he initially resisted the idea of his daughter taking Simon into her house. Though he thought that Simon was a good worker and an excellent cook, he found that “there was an intensity about him” that was unnerving (107). Christopher last saw Simon at a dinner at Caroline’s house, where they ate with Gaby and Caroline’s boyfriend, Edward Craven.

Matthew decides to take the same bus route that Simon and Lucy used to take together. When he gets off at Lucy’s stop, a group of teens confirm that they often saw Simon get off at this stop. Matthew goes to a nearby upscale bar, The Golden Fleece. The owner tells him that Simon used to come here but would never drink alcohol. Instead, he would drink Cokes in the corner and sit alone, as if waiting for someone.

Jen returns to the police station. She, Ross, and Matthew debrief on what they have learned. Ross has two leads. An elderly couple claims to own one of the cars that Colin Marston saw on the beach on the day of the murder. The second lead involves a woman named Angela Bale, who claims to have seen Simon talking to a woman in a café on the day of the murder, in a town near the beach where his body was found. Jen plays the recording she made of the voicemail, and Ross divulges that he has already tracked down the caller—a man named Alan Springer, who comes from Bristol, Simon’s hometown. The detectives discuss the seeming contradictions of Simon, who was liked at Woodyard and loathed at the Kingsley. Matthew sends Jen and Ross to Bristol to speak to Simon’s ex-wife and Alan Springer.

In the morning, Matthew calls Angela Bale and sets up a time to talk with her on her lunch break. In the meantime, he visits Sharon Winstone, the woman who found Simon’s body, and discovers that she was meeting a man on the beach that day. She is having an affair with this man, and their cars match Colin Marston’s description of the two cars on the beach. Sharon and her lover, Dave, found the body on their way back to their cars; she left the body to phone the police while Dave went to a work meeting.

Matthew then speaks with Angela Bale, who tells him that on the day of the murder, she saw Simon at a café, speaking to a young woman in a green coat. She says that the woman paid for the meal. Matthew goes to the café and questions the barista but soon realizes that the woman in the green coat must have paid cash. When Matthew gets back to the station, he finds a note telling him that his mother urgently needs him.

Matthew arrives at the home of his mother, from whom he has been long estranged due to his rejection of her faith and her eventual discovery that he is gay. One of his mother’s friends, Susan Shapland, is at the house. They have contacted Matthew because Susan’s daughter, Christine, has gone missing. Christine, a woman about Matthew’s age, has Down syndrome. She went missing after Dennis Salter went to pick her up from Woodyard yesterday, and she never arrived. (Dennis Salter is the leader of the church group to which Matthew’s mother and Susan belong.) This information unnerves Matthew, who realizes that he was at Woodyard when Christine went missing. Matthew takes Susan to her home and asks her whether Christine has exhibited any recent changes in mood. Susan reveals that she is not close with her daughter.

Maurice takes Lucy to the Woodyard despite being tempted to keep her home until Simon’s killer is found. He grapples with the question of how best to care for people with Down syndrome while still giving them independence.