‘Are you okay?’ She put her hand on his shoulder. His whole body was shaking, and when he looked up at her, his eyes were bloodshot.
‘Sorry.’ He wiped his face and straightened his back. ‘Jesus. It’s the shock, you know?’
‘Come and sit down,’ Dee said. ‘I’ll get you some water.’
She and Ed waited while Tom sipped water from the glass Dee had filled. Gradually his face regained some colour, and after a few minutes he started to speak.
‘Ella and I split up years ago,’ he said. ‘I was heartbroken at the time. Really devastated. I thought we’d be together forever, you know? We were planning to move to Australia. But she… she was complicated.’ He looked at Ed. ‘Do you know about Katie’s father?’
‘Gus Hope was killed in a fight that broke out in his pub one night,’ Ed said. ‘Ella Tate, your ex, was a prosecution witness in the trial that found Shane Gilbert guilty of manslaughter.’
‘That’s right.’ Tom nodded. ‘Well, the whole thing caused a rift between us.’
‘Why?’ Ed asked.
Because she’d told him, Dee realised. She’d told Tom she’d lied and he couldn’t handle it.
‘Lots of reasons,’ Tom said. ‘Personal stuff that I don’t want to talk about. The point is, we split up. Soon after that, I started dating Katie. That was a mistake. Classic rebound stuff. Anyway, things were already pretty bad between me and Ella. When she found out I was seeing Katie, that was the end of anything left between us. I moved to London soon afterwards. She stayed in Bristol.
‘We might never have seen each other again, except I had to go to Bristol for a friend’s wedding. We bumped into each other and went for a drink. Ended up sleeping together. The timing was crap because I was moving back to Ireland two days later. I thought we’d stay in touch. I begged her to, but she disappeared and I never saw her again.’
‘When was that?’ Dee asked, already knowing the answer.
‘Three years ago,’ Tom said. ‘It was only one night. Like I said, I never heard from her again. But Jake – the boy – he’s about the right age. Do you think… I mean, is there any chance he’s mine?’
Dee thought of Jake, with his light brown hair, freckled skin and eyes just like Tom’s.
‘I think there’s a pretty good chance.’
‘We’ve had several people contact us over the last couple of weeks,’ Ed said. ‘All of them wanting to tell us that the woman in the photo we’ve been circulating is Ella Tate, not Katie Hope. For reasons we don’t yet understand, Ella has been living in Eastbourne for the last two and a half years pretending to be Katie.’
‘You already knew?’ Tom said. He rubbed his hand up and down his face. ‘Jesus. What the hell is she playing at?’
‘At the moment, we think we’re looking at a very clever case of identity theft.’
Dee waited for Tom to protest, to stand up and insist that the Ella he knew would never do something like that. But he sat silently, his face blank. She guessed it was too much for him to process in one go. Or else he knew more about the sort of person Ella really was than he was letting on.
‘Ella was hiding,’ she said. ‘She was a witness at Shane Gilbert’s trial. He was released from prison a few months before she moved here. Something must have happened after that. Something that scared her enough to pretend to be someone else.’
Her body was pumping with adrenaline. She was getting closer to finding them. She could feel it.
‘How did she get away with it, though?’ she wondered. ‘How could she steal Katie’s ID without Katie knowing anything about it?’
‘I can’t answer that,’ Ed said. ‘But I think that when Katie found out what she had done, she confronted her.’
‘And then Ella killed her,’ Dee said. ‘Oh God. So the dead woman is Katie?’
‘That’s why we’ve been trying to contact you,’ Ed told Tom. ‘You, Roxanne Reed and Shane Gilbert are the only people we can find who knew both girls. Roxanne hasn’t seen either of them for years. Shane Gilbert claimed he hadn’t been in contact with them either. Which leaves you.’
‘I’ve got a photo,’ Tom said. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and started scrolling through it. ‘I don’t have any photos of Ella. I deleted them all one evening after I’d had too much to drink. But this is Katie. She sometimes sent me photos of herself when she emailed. I think she wanted to prove to me what a great time she was having in Australia. Here.’
He held the phone out so Dee and Ed could both see what was on the screen. The photo showed an attractive young woman standing on a beach in a bikini. Tanned skin, dark hair tied in a single plait that she wore over her left shoulder. Laughing and looking so alive that Dee’s stomach hurt. Because she recognised her right away.
‘Poor girl,’ Ed said.
His voice startled her; she’d forgotten he was here. She’d forgotten everything except that moment she’d first seen the same woman lying face down in the dirt outside her house, the lower half of her body twisted away from the upper half and her glossy hair spread out across the dusty track.
Part Two
Forty-Three
Ella
Three weeks earlier
Chugga-chugga-chugga, chugga-chugga-chugga. The sound drilled through Ella’s head. She pressed her forehead against the glass, watching the world outside blur into flashes of green and blue as the train sped through the Sussex countryside.
Chugga-chugga-chugga, chugga-chugga-chugga.
‘Jake!’
It came out harsher than she’d intended, and he looked up from his toy train, his little face crumpled up, ready to cry.
‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry. Try not to be too noisy. It’s not fair on the other passengers.’
She leaned into him, kissed his face and stared into his hazel eyes. He smiled, and Ella’s insides somersaulted with love. Protecting him was the only thing that mattered.
‘We’re on a train, Mamma,’ he said.
‘Yes we are, darling.’
In the seat behind them, a man coughed. Ella tensed. She imagined Shane, watching her, waiting. No. She knew the man wasn’t Shane. Shane wasn’t on the train. She’d moved through every carriage when they’d first got on, scanning the faces of all the passengers, checking and double-checking he wasn’t amongst them.
But knowing it and feeling it were two different things.
She shouldn’t have run. She should have stayed in Eastbourne, faced up to what had happened and to hell with the consequences. Instead, she’d taken one look at Katie’s dead body and panicked. Thrown a few things into an overnight bag, grabbed Jake and run. After that, the memories had got mixed up. Jake crying as she carried him out the back door. Sometime later, getting out of a taxi at the train station, handing a ten-pound note to the driver. Holding Jake’s hand as the two of them ran across the station forecourt. Jumping on the next train to London. Her only thought to get away.
Because Shane had found her. Three years had passed. Ella had let her guard down, started to believe she was safe. And then two days ago, Katie had turned up out of the blue.
‘Surprise, surprise,’ she had said. Smiling at Ella like this was all one big adventure, then stepping past her into the house before she could stop her.
As she watched her crouch down to say hello to Jake, Ella knew Katie would have to go. Because she had promised there’d be no contact. They’d both agreed it was the only way to make this thing work. They’d kept in touch by email, which was just about okay. Although if it had been up to Ella, she’d have stopped that too. But she’d always felt sorry for Katie. More than anything, she knew how much she owed her, and if a few emails went some way to repaying that debt, then what right did she have to complain?
Another image. Katie pushing the buggy, wearing Ella’s blue T-shirt. The shock on her face as the car hit her, the empty buggy flying out of her grasp and careering down the lane. And even though Jake hadn’t been in the buggy, Ella imagined it as if he had bee
n. His voice crying out in shock and fear as his little body crashed into the tree.
Stop it!
But she couldn’t stop it. The memories kept coming. More and more of them, until they were the only thing she could see and feel and hear. Shane’s face as he stood too close to her in the pub that night. His tongue inside her mouth. A flash of blinding light and the sudden splash of warm liquid on her face and hands and arms. Looking down and seeing blood. Lots of blood.
Chugga-chugga-chugga, chugga-chugga-chugga.
Glastonbury 2014. In the silent-disco tent with Tom. Everyone was listening to music through headphones instead of a traditional speaker system. If you didn’t wear headphones, you didn’t hear any music. Ella couldn’t remember what she’d been listening to, but she could remember Tom dancing to the music playing through his headphones. Different music to Ella’s. Dancing to a different beat. His body moving wildly and with abandon. He’d never cared what anyone thought of him. It was one of the many reasons she’d loved him.
Their eyes met. Tom smiled, and Ella, who until then hadn’t been sure about Glastonbury, who had found the noise and crowds and dirt and chaos all too much, experienced a moment of such pure, perfect happiness that she would happily have spent the rest of her life in that tent if only she could make that feeling last forever.
Tears burned her eyes. She wiped them away, but more came. Running down her cheeks, pooling in the hollow spot at the bottom of her throat.
‘Mamma.’ Jake’s hand on her arm. His little face scrunched with worry. His voice dragging her away from Tom and everything else. ‘Look.’
He pointed a chubby finger at the window. At some point, the Sussex countryside had disappeared, replaced by the suburban edges of south London. Ella looked at the houses and the roads lined with cars and the tiny green parks and the church spires, without really seeing them. Instead, all she could see was Katie’s body on the road after she’d been run over. Someone would have found her by now. It was only a matter of time before the police worked out who Ella really was. And when that happened, she would have to face up to what she’d done. Finally.
All these years spent hiding the truth, pretending – even to herself – that she hadn’t done a terrible thing. And now here she was, possibly only days away from being arrested anyway. It was almost funny. Except there was nothing funny about two people killed for nothing more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Forty-Four
Dee
When Alex showed up that evening, he was the last person Dee wanted to spend time with.
‘Can we take a rain check?’ she said. ‘I really need an early night.’
Alex ignored her. ‘Noticed your pal Ed was here earlier.’
There was no balance in their friendship. Alex knew where she lived, and he came to see her whenever he felt like it. While she didn’t have a clue what part of town he lived in, what times he might be at home or when was the best time to visit. The only thing she could control was whether to let him in. And tonight, she was determined not to.
‘He’s not my pal,’ she said.
‘Did he have any news on Katie?’ Alex asked.
It would be so easy to invite him in. Open the bottle of wine he was carrying and tell him everything over a few drinks. She’d spent the afternoon on her laptop, researching ID theft. It was a growing problem, apparently. Criminals got hold of someone’s personal information and used it for their own gain. The many different ways someone could take your name, date of birth and address and pretend to be you was frankly scary as shit.
She might have given in and said he could stay. Except right then he put the bottle of wine on the table and sat down, crossing his legs as if he was settling in for the evening.
‘I told you,’ she said. ‘Not tonight, Alex. Okay?’
‘Fine.’ He grabbed the bottle and pulled open the back door. ‘Thanks for nothing, Dee.’
As he walked away, his feet crunching across the shingle, Dee wasn’t sure if she felt relief or disappointment that he was gone. Because now she was on her own, the rest of the evening stretching ahead – an empty space she didn’t know how to fill.
Twenty minutes later, her phone rang. When she saw Ed’s name on the screen, she didn’t pick up. She was still angry with him for withholding so much information from her. It turned out the police had known the victim’s identity for over a week. Once they’d discovered the ID fraud, they’d gone back and checked old dental records for Katie Hope, confirming what Tom had told them today. The dead woman was Katie.
So far, they had kept this information to themselves. Unsure who else might be involved in the fraud, they didn’t want to reveal what they knew to the wider public. Now that Dee and Tom both knew the victim’s real identity, Ed told Dee that the situation had changed and she should keep an eye on the news over the next few days.
When her phone rang again, she answered without checking the caller ID.
‘I don’t want to speak to you right now,’ she said.
‘Dee? It’s Tom. Ella’s ex?’ He said it like a question. As if she might not remember who he was.
‘Sorry,’ Dee said. ‘I thought you were someone else. You okay?’
‘I’m not sure. I can’t stop thinking about Ella and Katie. I didn’t know who else I could talk to.’
‘It’s fine,’ Dee said. ‘I can’t think about anything else either.’
They had talked the whole thing to death earlier and she’d thought there was nothing else to say. Turned out she was wrong.
‘Ed said he’d spoken to Roxanne Reed,’ Tom said. ‘Do you remember that? She told him she hadn’t seen Katie or Ella in years. But that doesn’t make sense. Ella and Roxanne were really close. They were always emailing and phoning each other.’
Roxanne Reed. The pub landlady who had made a liar out of Leonard Mann.
‘You think Roxanne knows where Ella is?’ Dee said.
‘Maybe. I should be telling this to Ed, not you, I guess.’
‘I get the feeling you don’t want to. Otherwise you wouldn’t have called me.’
‘I’d like the chance to see them first,’ Tom said. ‘Ella and Jake. If he’s my son, I need to know. The thing is, all I have is Roxanne’s name. I’ve no idea where she lives or how to find her. Will you help me, Dee?’
‘If you agree that we tell the police right after you’ve spoken to her. And you have to tell them everything, Tom.’
Silence on the other end, stretching out so long, Dee thought maybe he’d hung up.
‘Of course,’ he said eventually. ‘I only want to see them. That’s all.’
After she’d hung up, Dee called Trevor. ‘I need to speak to you about Leonard Mann,’ she said, when she got his voicemail. ‘Call me as soon as you get this.’
She was starting to piece together everything that had happened, although there were still too many gaps. She knew who had killed Gus Hope, but she didn’t know why. She knew why Ella had pretended to be someone else, but she still had no clue how she had managed to steal Katie’s ID and get away with it for so long.
At some point, Katie had found out about the ID theft and had come to Eastbourne to confront Ella. Ed thought Ella had killed Katie to keep her secret safe. But whatever lies Ella had told, Dee couldn’t believe that.
Something about the physical similarities between the two girls was still bugging her. It was possible, wasn’t it, that Shane Gilbert had also found out where Ella was hiding. He’d come to Eastbourne to kill her, seen Katie and thought she was Ella, and killed her instead.
Except the coincidence of Katie and Shane both turning up in Eastbourne at the same time didn’t make any sense. Unless they were working together. The more Dee thought about, the more she realised it was the only possibility that made any sense. Katie and Shane had been dating when Katie’s father was killed. Maybe their relationship had continued after he went to prison. Dee couldn’t imagine ever wanting to date someone accused of killing her father, b
ut that didn’t mean anything. Nowt as queer as folk, and all that.
Her head hurt from trying to make sense of it all. She went into the kitchen to make herself a camomile tea. Midway through filling the kettle, she turned off the tap and poured herself a glass of wine instead. She drank it quickly and refilled the glass. Acid burned her stomach. If she was going to continue drinking, she should eat something. She threw a couple of slices of processed cheese between two pieces of white bread and ate it in the sitting room, watching the sky darken as night drew in.
A sudden smattering of hailstones against the window made her jump. The plate fell off her lap, the remaining bits of sandwich spilling onto the ground. Cursing, she cleared it up and threw the mess into the bin.
As she opened the fridge to get more wine, she saw something flash past outside the window. She tensed, half expecting to see Shane Gilbert’s face loom up against the glass. Then she remembered the foxes she’d seen recently and realised that was all it was.
She opened the back door and stepped onto the deck. The hail had stopped but the wood was covered in melting white balls of ice, making it slippery. Carefully, so she didn’t fall on her backside, she walked across the deck and onto the shingle.
The beach was vast and dark and silent. And very beautiful. She walked down the slope until she reached the water. She stood very still, her body relaxing as her breathing fell into the same rhythm as the sea as it rolled in and out over the shingle.
Across to her left, the lights of Bexhill and Hastings twinkled on the edge of the black ocean. The silver slice of a new moon curved above the sea. Flashes of white foam crested the surface of the water.
There was no sign of any foxes.
A flash of lightning split open the dark sky. Dee had a snapshot view of sea and shingle before the world was plunged into darkness again. And then the thunder came, a single explosion of sound that shook right through her. It started to rain, sheets of water pouring out of the sky.
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