‘Because if anyone deserves a little bit of TLC, it’s you.’ He looked at her earnestly. ‘I saw you joined the Facebook group. What do you think?’
‘Everyone seems nice …’ Sarah brushed past him to the sink. ‘If a little obsessed.’ She washed her hands robotically, even though she hadn’t used the loo.
‘You know there are officers in Blackhall Manor now, searching?’ He looked at her curiously. ‘The crawlspace … there’s more than one.’
‘They’re not on the plans.’ Sarah pulled down two paper towels to dry her hands. ‘Grandad used to talk about them when I was little. He forbade me and Robin from looking. Apparently our ancestors were not very nice people. I think Grandad was scared of what we might find there.’
‘And you’ve never been tempted to check them out?’
Sarah threw the scrunched-up paper towels in the bin. ‘Would you be tempted to revisit the place where your family was blown to bits?’
‘Sorry. Stupid question,’ Richie replied.
‘Seems like it’s the day for them. I’ve got to get back to work.’
Richie touched her forearm. ‘If you have a hunch then don’t ignore it. Just come to me, not Yvonne. She’ll step on anything you have to say.’
‘Thanks.’ Sarah opened the door. ‘After you.’ At least she had one friend to talk to. But was he a friend she could trust?
37
Sarah sat, head down, at her desk. Her world was closing in and she needed a second to catch her breath. Search teams were out hunting for Jahmelia and local appeals were underway. Statements had been taken from the family by the night shift who’d been covering when the call came in.Think of a word,she told herself, something to distract her from this mess. Yvonne had left the office for a meeting with DI Lee, and she prayed her name would not be raised.Advokate, she thought, from her police training days. Mnemonics had featured heavily during her college days in Police HQ.
The letter A stood for amount – to question the amount of time the suspect was under observation by the witness. D was for distance between witness and suspect. V was for visibility conditions … With each recall, Sarah gathered herself together. It would be OK. Yvonne was just being Yvonne. The senior investigating officer would see sense. She brought up Elsie’s statement on the system. Statements were written in five parts and she went straight to the meat of the interview. Yvonne was known for writing MG11 statements in the witnesses’ voices, which was rare in the general scheme of things. It was a nice touch, and she had certainly captured Elsie, which made it all the more poignant. With a rising sense of gloom, she read.
At this point I would like to talk about Christian’s father. I have signed a gagging order but I am willing to break this to provide some background to the police. I have provided Detective Constable Yvonne Townsend with a copy of this order to show that I am telling the truth. I met Christian’s father in July 1994. I was fourteen years old. My parents were very strict. I wasn’t allowed out on my own. But that night I was allowed to attend the screening ofJurassic Parkin Slayton’s outdoor cinema. I told my mother I was going with my friends, Maggie and Sarah, but in truth they hadn’t invited me. I wasn’t part of their gang.
‘No,’ Sarah said quietly as she took in Elsie’s words. She was right. Sarah’s gang of four had been watertight. Her heart melted for Elsie, the awkward young girl desperate to fit in. Sighing, she scanned the rest of the page.
I didn’t realise then that my date had only met me as part of a dare. He said he liked me. He drove me somewhere we could be alone. I cried myself stupid when he later told me why he’d taken my virginity. Slayton is a small town, and every summer the privileged kids would make up a dare. This wasn’t a twenty-four-hour thing – they took it real serious. They played the long game. The summer Christian was conceived, the dare was to see how many cherries they could pop over the course of six weeks. I was a prime candidate as the pretty girls were wary of their games. Out of all the girls he’d slept with, I was the only one to get pregnant.
Sarah’s jaw stiffened. It was all slotting into place. Simon Irving. She recalled both Irving and Elsie in the photographs at Slayton’s outdoor cinema event.
‘Arrogant bastard,’ she muttered beneath her breath. Always in the background, always lurking. Slayton’s so-called saviour was nothing but a predator. He thought he was untouchable. She remembered how he had flirted with her, how she’d pulled away as he tried to drag her into his car. Anger rising, she forced herself to read on.
I told the father before I told my parents. It was too late to have an abortion by then. There was a meeting between the parents. An illegitimate child had not been factored into their son’s life plans. A pay-out was offered, and a monthly amount for the rest of Christian’s life. All I’d wanted was for someone to rescue me, but I hadn’t the sense that God gave a goose. As Mom once said, ‘If you can’t play with the big dogs, stay under the porch,’ and that’s just what I did.
So my baby was born, and my parents used the hush money from the baby’s grandparents to buy what would become my home. But my father was an abuser. DC Townsend has asked me if I would like to go into detail and I have declined. Just to say that what he called his ‘blessings’ ended when my son was four. Unknown to us, Christian became a witness to what my papa forced me to do. That’s when I gained the courage to stand up and sayno more.
Christian’s father is Simon Irving. What a life he has made for himself. He has never missed a payment. I cannot fault him for that. But he’s the same mean son of a bitch that he always was. Christian is a good boy. I will always stand by that. He had nothing to do with these murders, or this Midnight Game business. He has cared for me as soon as he was old enough to run and fetch. He is a quiet, loving boy. All he’s ever done is try to help. I would also like to add that DC Townsend has offered to refer me to victim support which I have declined.
‘Oh Elsie,’ Sarah said beneath her breath. If only she had known. But she was barely fourteen years of age – how could she have understood? Sitting at her desk, Sarah knocked back the last of the coffee that Richie had kindly made her. No wonder Christian was at Angelica’s funeral – he was Simon Irving’s son. She recalled him throwing the picture of Elsie’s father into the rubbish bin and the haunted expression that seemed to be part of him. But didn’t Elliott carry a similar expression, and perhaps at times, even herself?
Christian wasn’t the result of incest and Angelica was his half-sister. Had she been suspecting the wrong person all this time? But if Christian wasn’t the Midnight Man – then who was?
38
Elliott sat in the middle of the school bus. The back was where all the noisy kids sat, and the front was too busy. He liked sitting in the middle on his own. The other kids teased him for not listening when they were talking, and when he did join in, he never said the right thing. His hands felt empty without his daddy’s medal but he wasn’t allowed to bring it to school. Not since Tommy Young tried to take it and Elliott screamed the classroom down. He got into trouble and Miss Grogan said his daddy was a hero, but the medal was too special and Elliott wasn’t to bring it to school again.
As the bus chugged along, Elliott looked out the window. Lucy Mayweather slipped into the seat behind him. Elliott didn’t like Lucy. Sometimes when Miss Grogan wasn’t looking, Lucy stuck out her tongue. Lucy Mayweather and Tommy Young were best friends. Elliott hunched in his seat, feeling the thump, thump, thump of Lucy Mayweather’s shoes as she kicked from behind. Tommy Young was laughing, but Elliott just sat forward in his seat, pretending she wasn’t there. As the bus trundled along, his heart lifted at the sight of the small red car parked up outside his house. He wondered if Jahmelia had been found. Everybody was talking about her. They said a prayer in assembly and later they made new yellow ribbons to be tied around town. He wasn’t sure how the ribbons were supposed to help but Miss Grogan said they would ‘keep her in people’s minds’.
Jahmelia was in Elliott’s mind every hour of the day. Sarah had already phoned to ask if Elliott knew anything, but Elliott didn’t like speaking on the phone. He wasn’t sure if other people could listen in. He rose from his seat, taking care not to forget his schoolbag. Lucy Mayweather took the gum from her mouth and stuck it to the side of his bag. But all Elliott could think about was Jahmelia, as he felt her in the air. She was somewhere as black as night in a place that smelled like the school toilets the time they broke and wouldn’t flush. He reached into his bag and took a sip of water from his refillable bottle. But the thirst he felt was Jahmelia’s thirst, and not easily quenched.
He walked down his short driveway, his stomach clenched as he remembered Libby’s words. ‘If you tell, you’ll go to hell.’
Maggie opened the door to let him in, taking his schoolbag as he kicked off his shoes. ‘There’s chewing gum on your bag,’ she said, tutting as she raised it in the air. ‘How did that get there?’ Elliott shrugged as Maggie pulled some tissue from beneath her sleeve and took it off.
‘Did you learn anything new in school today?’ She asked him that every day.
