NICOLE: ‘No. I didn’t say that. You must have misunderstood me. He doesn’t know. None of us do.’
Nicole stared at the recorder for a hard, tense moment, then got up suddenly and knocked it to the floor. ‘I’ve had enough of this now,’ she sobbed. ‘You have to go. Mum! I don’t want to talk to them any more.’
Realizing there was no point in arguing, and feeling terrible for having brought Nicole to this point, Cristy got to her feet. If only there was a way to make up for the pain they’d caused, but of course there wasn’t.
Minutes later she and Connor were out at the car with Honey. As they started to get in, Maeve came out.
‘I’m sorry,’ Cristy said, ‘we didn’t mean to upset her. Will she be all right?’
Maeve nodded. ‘If there is such a thing for her any more. She needs to see him, but … Well …’
When she didn’t continue, Cristy said, ‘Do you think Claude knows where the twins are?’
Sighing, Maeve said, ‘What I think is that he and Nicole tell themselves a lot of things that they want to believe, but they’re not always true.’
‘So he can’t take her to them?’
‘If she’s given you that impression, it’ll be because it’s what she tells herself as a way to keep going. When there are no bodies, it’s very hard to give up hope.’
Understanding that at least, Cristy said, ‘Has Claude been here to see her since she was released?’
Maeve glanced towards the window where Nicole wasinside, maybe watching through the opaque curtain. ‘He hasn’t come yet,’ she replied, making it sound as though she thought he would eventually.
‘Do you have any idea where he might be?’
‘Maybe in Switzerland?’
‘With the twins?’
Maeve regarded her curiously. ‘Of course we’d like to think so, but it seems unlikely, doesn’t it? How would he explain them when everyone knows what happened back in 2005?’
‘So what do you, in your heart of hearts, believe happened?’ Connor asked.
There was a long moment, before Maeve said, ‘All I can tell you is that I fear we’ll die never knowing for sure where they are or who took them.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
As they drove away from the secluded property, Cristy in the front now, Connor in the back, sending instructions through to Jacks, Cristy said to Honey, ‘Clearly Claude Meyer played a much bigger part in everything than any of us in the press knew about back then.’
‘Or than is showing up in the files so far,’ Honey responded, ‘but I’m not going to try excusing anyone from my office. We already know they didn’t do a good job for Nicole, but if the police had been doing theirs properly … Well, there might have been a very different outcome to the trial.’
‘Maybe there wouldn’t have been one at all,’ Connor muttered under his breath. Then, ‘I think we can now dismiss the Claude Miller who rang in with his French accent and phony contact details, given no one’s ever been able to get hold of him, as a fake. I’ll get Jacks to run a search on Meyer, starting with Bristol Uni circa 2004/5. Interesting that his subject was psychology.’
Agreeing, Cristy said, ‘A handy qualification for someone building a cult. I guess you registered that it was when I asked about him knowing where the twins are that Nicole threw a tantrum and shut us down?’
‘Yes, I did pick up on that,’ Honey responded thoughtfully. ‘What did she actually say to give you the impression he might know?’
‘While you were out of the room, she actually said asmuch,’ Cristy told her. ‘Her actual words were: “he knows where they are”. And apparently, he’s promised to take her to them. I’ve no idea how truthful or fanciful she was being, but as far as I could tell, without really knowing her, she seemed to believe it.’
Honey sighed and took a left towards the motorway. ‘Based on my dealings with her,’ she said soberly, ‘I can tell you that she’s quite good at convincing herself, and others, of something she has going round in her head, before she suddenly changes her mind and starts telling another story altogether.’
‘Such as, she killed the twins, she didn’t kill the twins,’ Connor put in.
Honey nodded. ‘Not helpful, I know, but that’s how she is, I’m afraid.’
Hardly able to imagine just how traumatized Nicole actually was given all she’d been through, Cristy said, ‘Do you think she’ll speak to us again?’
‘I hope so, because I got the sense she was starting to trust you – until she suddenly wasn’t. But maybe, for the time being, let’s not count on it.’
