Disappointed though not surprised by the answer, Cristy took out her phone and scrolled to Clove’s number. ‘We need to find out,’ she said, ‘why the police didn’t consider Claude Meyer worthy of more attention back in 2005, and with any luck, ex-DC Patten might have given Clove some information on that.’
‘She did,’ Clove confirmed, when Cristy got through to her. ‘His name’s spelled M-e-i-e-r, by the way, not with a y in the middle, the way it sounds, and hewasquestioned at the time of Nicole’s arrest … Just after actually, because he was in Switzerland when it happened and he had alibis to prove he was there the entire time.’
‘Did he give a statement?’ Cristy asked, glancing at Honey.
‘There’s an interesting answer to that,’ Clove replied. ‘Ican call the interview up and play it for you, if you like? There’s no one else on the train, and it shouldn’t take me long to find the most salient points.’
‘Do it and get back to us,’ Cristy instructed and rang off.
‘OK, this is interesting,’ Connor announced. ‘Jacks has just forwarded a DM that came in earlier from someone with the name of Wilhemina – call me Willie – Miller. She’s claiming to be an “ex-disciple” of Claude Meier’s – interestingly, she’s got the right spelling – although it was the ex-disciple thing that prompted the supersleuth to send the message through. Apparently, this woman’s willing to talk to us if we want to take things further, but she doesn’t want us to use her name.’
‘Sounds interesting,’ Cristy remarked. ‘Tell Jacks to set something up.’ And clicking on to take Clove’s call, she switched it straight to speaker.
‘OK, I’m not alone any more,’ Clove announced, ‘so I’ve sent a link that’ll take you to where I’ve just asked Lizzie Patten about Lauren Hawkes. Playback starts with her answer.’
Calling it up, Cristy held out her phone so everyone could hear.
ELIZABETH PATTEN: ‘I remember her as a slightly chubby, auburn-haired girl with bright-green eyes and a slight lisp when she spoke – quite cute, actually. Younger than Nicole, I think, by a year or two. Anyway, she was keen to be helpful, and certain her cousin couldn’t have harmed the babies. She cried a lot when we talked to her – obviously upset about the twins and desperate for us to find them.’
CLOVE: ‘Do you recall anything in particular about her statement that you can share with us?’
ELIZABETH PATTEN: ‘Not after all these years, but she must have told us where she was at the time of thekillings and it bore out, or we’d obviously have pulled her in again – and I’m pretty sure we only spoke to her the once.’
CLOVE: ‘Anything else you can tell us about her?’
ELIZABETH PATTEN: ‘Only that when it came to the trial, she seemed to have changed towards her cousin. I’ve no way of knowing what might have gone on between them during the intervening months – Nicole was in custody, of course – but when Lauren took the stand, she was … awkward, couldn’t bring herself to look anyone in the eye … She carried on saying Nicole would never have hurt the twins, but she came over as a lot less sincere than she had when we’d first spoken to her. It could have been nerves – people often don’t perform well in front of juries – but it stood out for me at the time.’
CLOVE: ‘Did anyone else remark on it?’
ELIZABETH PATTEN: ‘Not that I recall. I think we were all just glad when it was over and we could put the whole thing behind us. It was a horrible case, two tiny kids vanishing like that, and the mother still wouldn’t tell us what she’d done with them.’
CLOVE: ‘So you agreed with the verdict, that she’d killed them.’
ELIZABETH PATTEN: ‘I wouldn’t go as far as to say I agreed with it, but it was out of my hands by then, and from what I hear, she’s finally confessed?’
CLOVE: ‘She has, but tell me this, did you carry on looking for the bodies after Nicole was imprisoned?’
ELIZABETH PATTEN: ‘Not me personally – I was reassigned – but yes, the search continued for a while.To be honest, I don’t think any of it was well-handled from a police perspective. You’re no doubt aware the twins disappeared just before the 7/7 attacks and after the knee-jerk following all that I can’t, hand on heart, say that we ever properly got back on track with it. Really sad that the bodies have never been found – unless you’re about to tell me they have.’
CLOVE: ‘Not as far as we know.’
ELIZABETH PATTEN: ‘So she got parole based on a confession that didn’t include telling anyone where to find her kids?’
CLOVE: ‘Maybe she doesn’t know where they are?’
ELIZABETH PATTEN: ‘Well, she always claimed not to, so that obviously hasn’t changed. But now it sounds as though someone in authority has decided it’s time to let her start the long haul back into the community, regardless of what happened to her children. Pretty shameful, huh, but with the state the legal system’s in these days, all sorts of decisions are being taken that never would have been twenty, even ten years ago.’
CLOVE: ‘Were there any theories at the time of the investigation as to what shemighthave done with the children?’
ELIZABETH PATTEN: ‘Well, the woods were dug up, as you know. No dead cat was found – no bodies either. It was rumoured that she’d given them up for some sort of ritual, but there was never any evidence of that, only of youngsters frolicking about in the woods some nights, getting up to all sorts, but nothing kids don’t normally do when drunk or stoned.’
CLOVE: ‘So you dismissed the ritual thing?’
ELIZABETH PATTEN: ‘Not out of hand – we just couldn’t find anyone or anything to back it up. If it had been up to me I’d have dug a bit deeper on it, because I always had a feeling it should have been explored. But I was a lowly DC at the time, no one was listening to me, and then it turned out she was lying about the cat, and when one of the babies’ blood was found in the house … Someone at the top obviously decided it was an open and shut case.’
CLOVE: ‘Do you recall anyone by the name of Claude Major being interviewed in connection with the disappearance?’
ELIZABETH PATTEN: ‘No, I don’t … Oh, hang on, there was a Claude Meier, I think his name was, not Major. Swiss, I believe. That’s right. It’s coming back to me now, how Nicole was really keen for us to speak to him at the time of her arrest, but it turned out he wasn’t in the country. So a couple of officers, Ruby Trott and Pete Taylor flew to Geneva, I think it was, not Zurich, to interview him. I remember Ruby coming back declaring she was in love, and with that accent, he could have talked her straight into anything indecent or otherwise if only he’d asked.’
