Cristy nodded. ‘We know, thanks to Honey,’ she said, ‘that he did go to see Nicole yesterday, so let’s find out if Nicole, or Maeve, have contacted Honey since.’ She pressed in Honey’s number and was preparing to leave a message when Honey answered.
‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘Phone in the kitchen. I’m guessing you’ve heard from Meier?’
‘Not yet,’ Cristy confessed, ‘but the last time I tried Bryn Helyg, I was told he was there and would get back to me. How about you? Has Nicole been in touch since his visit?’
‘No. I only know it happened because someone at the prison told me. Something’s going on, I can feel it – just wish I knew what it was.’
Sharing the suspicion and frustration, Cristy said, ‘We’ve heard from Lauren. I’ll talk you through it, but basically, she admitted that crimes have been committed – didn’t name any – and apparently Meier’s told her he wants to speak tous himself. If he hasn’t by the end of the week, she says we can call her back. No idea if that means she’ll give us frank answers then, but we got the impression she’s being advised by a lawyer, so I’m guessing she’ll eventually end up pleading the Fifth.’
‘That doesn’t exist in UK law,’ Honey told her, ‘but I get your meaning. She’ll retain her right to silence.’
‘Here’s what I think,’ Connor said, ‘if we haven’t heard from Meier by the time we upload on Tuesday, we jump in the car and take a drive over to Wales.’
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
CRISTY: ‘It’s Tuesday morning, and Connor and I are in the car on our way to talk to Jean-Claude Meier.’
CONNOR: ‘We received a call from him about an hour ago, asking us to come, and apparently he’s OK with us recording whatever he’s planning to tell us.’
Hitting pause, Cristy said, ‘By the time this goes out, they’ll already have heard the interviews with him and Nicole, so we don’t need to explain any more about who he is. I’m just wondering whether we saywherewe’re going to meet him. He didn’t ask us not to, but maybe we should hold back for the moment?’
‘Or we can edit it in later.’
Of course. Where was her head?She didn’t seem to be thinking very clearly this morning, although, distractingly, she was having no problem with feeling anxious about what might lie ahead –or with feeling bad about leaving Clove and Jacks to complete today’s episode, especially when it was so nuanced in tone as well as content. However, it couldn’t be helped; she and Connor had had to respond to Meier’s call when it came, and it wasn’t as if Clove and Jacks were incapable of fine-tuning what was mostly already there.
Apparently sharing at least some of her concerns, Connor said, ‘If the guys need us, they’ll be in touch, and if necessary,we can record any links they might be short of and whizz them over.’
He was right, of course, and wishing tonight’s upload was the only reason she felt so on edge, she turned to stare out at the passing countryside, trying to gather her thoughts. It was hard to imagine what Meier might have in store for when they arrived at Bryn Helyg, but whatever it was, she couldn’t shake the sense that it wasn’t going to be good.
Unless he was planning to tell them where to find the twins.
That would be beyond good, sensational in fact.
Provided they were alive and had, all this time, been living perfectly normal lives – if anything could be described as normal in these circumstances.
Could it be possible they were already at the farm? Maybe he’d had to fly them in from somewhere or go to fetch them or send someone else …
‘Do you have the children’s age-progressed images on your phone?’ she asked Connor, as they finally began the steep, meandering drive up to Bryn Helyg.
‘We both have,’ he reminded her. ‘Although I’m not planning to whip them out if the twins are there to make sure they match,’ he added dryly.
She turned to him sharply. ‘Do you think they might be?’ she asked, surprised that he was sharing her hopes and suspicions.
He shrugged. ‘Let’s just say something major must be afoot given what he said to you while you were in Vevey, and one way or another, it has to be about them, doesn’t it?’
Agreeing, she opened up the app on her phone and sat staring at the movingly lifelike faces for a while, so tender and similar to each other that she wanted to imprint the lovely features on her mind so that if they were confronted by the real thing, it might not be such a shock.
Connor leaned over to switch the recorder back on.
CONNOR: ‘We’re just turning into the place now, going past the massive hay barn where Cristy and I thought we were about to be savaged by a cow …’
CRISTY: ‘It wasn’t even two weeks ago, but it feels like a lifetime, so much has happened in that time.’
She looked around, taking everything in: horses in the top field, a thin trail of smoke from one of the farmhouse chimneys, goats roaming freely …
CRISTY: ‘Is it just me, or does the place feel different to you?’
CONNOR: ‘I guess it seems pretty quiet for a working farm, kind of … abandoned? Do I mean that? The animals are here so …’
