Topher scooped me up his arms, placed me in the car, strapped me in and drove at top speed to the local emergency room. When we got there, he yelled for help, and I was put on a trolley. I was almost faint from the pain. A mask was put over my face and I smelt the sweet, cool oxygen and then the gas and then, blessed oblivion.
I realised that my eyes were closed throughout the retelling of the whole story. When I opened them again, my father sat in front of me, tears rolling down his face.
‘I want to kill him,’ he said, ‘I’m going to do everything in my power to help you.’
Chapter Fifty
Lily
After I told my father the story, he went to his room to unpack. When he came down again he wanted to take a walk, so I gave him directions to the hill and the code for the gate. I picked up his wad of letters and began to read. The first one I opened had been opened and resealed with Sellotape.
Darling Lily,
I’m so proud of you. Of course, I knew that you’d get an A star for music but in English Lit and Geography too!! Well done, enclosed is twenty pounds so you can buy yourself something nice.
Much love
Dad xx
I looked in the envelope, there was no sign of any money. The letter had been sent to mummy’s address. At least that explained the Sellotape. The next envelope I picked up was stiffer. A card. More Sellotape.
Darling Lily,
Happy eighteenth birthday. I hope to hear from you soon.
Lots and lots of love
Dad xx
Dad had kept the envelopes in order of when he’d sent them. It built a picture of my past life that mummy had taken from me. None of the letters were long, but each one had gone unanswered and still he kept trying. All along she’d told me he didn’t care.
Unbidden tears tracked down my cheeks and the words blurred in front of me. Congratulations on A levels, getting into a good university, getting my degree, the job with the orchestra. He’d missed nothing, forgotten nothing. There was a card for every birthday, sometimes mentioning how much money he’d enclosed, sometimes not, but regardless there was never any money in the envelope. Mummy must have taken it all.
There was even a card for mine and Topher’s wedding and a letter afterwards.
Darling Lily,
I am so sorry about what happened at the wedding. I had hoped your mother would be able to let bygones be bygones, but I was mistaken. I left early so that we would not ruin the rest of your day. I can only apologise that it meant I could not say goodbye to you.
I hope you and Topher will be very happy, happier than your mother and I at least.
Lots and lots of love
And all the very best for the future,
Dad xxx
I stared up at the ceiling blinking. Topher and Dad had taken an instant dislike to each other which had not helped matters at all. Mum just created an even worse atmosphere, especially when she started calling him names before we’d even sat down for the wedding breakfast.
I’d fled to the toilet and Stephanie came to comfort me. It was the worst and most embarrassing day of my life. Up until that point.
Chapter Fifty-One
Denise
Hard as I tried, I couldn’t rid my mind of the bleak look Lily gave me as she’d left the interview room. I knew I deserved it. I’d let her down. Nothing which proved her story had come to light yet, but I was still hoping on something from the mobile phone investigations.
Even though I’d seen her with her phone when she came to report Stephanie missing, DI Blaine refused to accept it as evidence. She was convinced the phone Lily had with her was the clone and the one we found at the flat was Lily’s real phone.
‘She’s playing you for a fool, DJ,’ she told me frequently. ‘Don’t make me think I made a mistake allowing you to stay on the case.’
Part of me thought Anita Blaine was right but then there was something nagging away at me that told me Lily wasn’t a liar. Stephanie thought the world of her and I knew Steph wouldn’t put up with a liar.
Now I had another mystery to solve though – how and why was Stephanie’s phone at Lily’s house in a safe, she said, she said she didn’t know existed.
There were too many things that didn’t make sense and I found I couldn’t see my way through the wood clearly. It was late, I needed some downtime, and I was starving.
On the way home I stopped at the takeaway and picked up my usual: korma, pilau and a naan. I grabbed a couple of Kingfisher beers to wash it down and headed for my flat.
I ate out of the cartons; it saved on washing up and swigged the beer from the bottle whilst I studied my personal case board. There were some loose ends I hadn’t tracked down yet. I didn’t know if I’ll have time or even if they were relevant any longer, but I made a note to see the headmaster at Lily’s old school and check if I can find out how the lorry driver from the accident is faring. I had a hunch that everything was connected but I couldn’t see how. Or at least not so far.
The following morning, I headed onto the North Circular to Lily’s old school. I thought back to the accident and how frail she’d looked when I first met her. I wondered if it had been a suicide attempt. A suspicion which became stronger once I’d met her husband. Despite his undoubted good looks, I wasn’t blind, there was something about him which reminded me of my mother’s third husband.
I flashed my identity card at the school secretary. She sniffed in a manner I found irritating and offered to find out if David Jacobs, the headmaster, was free.
‘This is a police matter,’ I told her. ‘He needs to make time to see me or I shall arrest him for wasting police time.’
My threat worked. She gave me a horrified stare before scuttling to his office. He followed her back to reception and took me into his inner sanctum.
‘How can I help you, Miss Jones?’ he said. I shook his hand and instantly regretted it. His was the damp, limp handshake reminiscent of a dead jellyfish.
‘It’s Detective Constable Jones, not Miss,’ I replied. I hated men who tried to demean me, but I needed information from him and I kept my temper under control. ‘I need to talk to you about Lily Gundersen.’
‘Oh dear, yes, Lily. We were all very sad to hear what happened to her,’ he said. ‘She was a good teacher, on those occasions she chose to turn up, of course.’
‘How do you mean?’ I sat in the armchair by his desk, watching him leave finger marks on the manila folder bearing Lily’s name. Why was he so nervous?
‘Well her husband often phoned up or she’d email to say she wasn’t fit for work. It had become quite a problem. I think we would have had to let her go in the end.’ He brought a handkerchief to his mouth and dabbed at his moist lips.
I tried not to squirm in my chair. It was all I could do to stay in the same room as him. ‘You sacked Lily in the morning,’ I said.
‘Err, yes,’ he began. I saw he had become very uncomfortable in his own chair.
‘I know we spoke about this over the phone in June, but can you take me through that conversation one more time?’
‘I had been advised she had slapped one of the older boys,’ he told me.
‘Which boy? Can I interview him?’
‘No.’ He sat forward in his chair. ‘That won’t be necessary. The charges were dropped.’
‘Yes, you mentioned that in our phone conversation. How soon were the charges dropped? As soon as they were made or after Lily’s accident?’
‘I… I can’t quite remember,’ he said, twisting his handkerchief in his hands.
‘Try,’ I demanded.
‘Later that week,’ he said finally. ‘We discovered the accusations were groundless. The boy had been bribed to make the whole tale up. It was a pack of lies.’
‘When did you tell Lily this?’
‘I’m not sure,’ he said. ‘A little while after the accident I think.’
‘Let me help you out,’ I said. ‘You and I had a telephone conversation shortly after
the accident. You told me the charges were being dropped and I asked you to come into the station to make a statement. You’ve never bothered to make the statement. I also asked for the name of the boy. You’ve failed to provide that too. May I also presume that you’ve not undertaken any investigation into the bribery allegations either?’ I glared at him but, since he could not or would not meet my eyes the effort was wasted.
‘Mr Jacobs,’ I continued, ‘if you fail to cooperate with me now, I really will arrest you for perverting the course of justice.’
‘There’s no need to take that tone, young lady,’ he told me.
I stood, forced myself to step closer and towered over him in his chair. ‘I think there’s every need, Mr Jacobs. Now, the boy’s name?’
Once I had extracted the information I needed, I called the boy’s parents and explained the situation to them. The school secretary arranged a room for us to meet.
When the boy’s mother arrived, the fumes from her cloud of expensive perfume performed an effective choke hold. I grabbed a tissue from my pocket, to cover my nose and listened to her exclamations that her son was entirely innocent. ‘He’s the victim here,’ she screeched.
‘Mrs Wilson,’ I said sternly. ‘Your son has made false accusations against a teacher. All I want to do is get to the bottom of it. I need to know who asked your son to make the accusations and why. It’s not hard.’
It didn’t take long to crack the boy’s story.
‘I don’t know who he was,’ Simon muttered mulishly. ‘He just gave me a wad of cash and told me what to say. Mrs Gundersen said I couldn’t be in the concert, so I was pretty pissed off with her.’
‘Simon, language,’ his mother said.
Simon glowered at her but gave me a good description of the man and I made Mrs Wilson promise to bring her son to the police station to look through some mug shots.
When Simon Wilson and his mother arrived to look at the photographs it didn’t take them long to pick out one of our local frequent fliers. A petty thief called Mark Brown.
Simon told me he had been approached in the café after school and given one hundred pounds in cash to make up the story to get Lily Gundersen sacked. He said he regretted it afterwards but only told the truth after his mother found the money in his sock drawer.
I tried not to laugh at his pathetic hiding place, especially since his mother was probably still putting his socks away for him. However, I agreed with DI Blaine to let him off with a caution. It was not his fault she’d crashed on the way home after her conversation with the head.
But although I had the next clue in the trail, I had no idea why a petty thief would get involved.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Lily
My father and I spent some time in the afternoon finding and moving the cameras. There were some that were too high to reach, so we left them where they were.
Naturally when he arrived home, Topher wasn’t surprised that my father was there. No doubt his cameras had prewarned him. The two men greeted each other sullenly and dinner was a quiet, stilted affair. I went to bed early, sleeping in the guest room and carried on reading my father’s letters.
Topher came and rattled on the door at midnight, but with my father in the next room, he soon left.
Dad came with me the next morning to visit Cerys at her offices. Topher’s solicitor had contacted her. He was considering divorcing me and applying for full custody of the children.
‘He can’t,’ I hissed at Cerys.
‘No he can’t,’ she assured me. ‘He can apply of course, but the family court usually finds in favour of the mother. The one time misogyny works in the woman’s favour.’
‘Great,’ I said. ‘Do you have any good news for me?’
‘I do actually,’ she said. ‘DC Jones let me know that the assault charges have been dropped. Apparently your accuser was bribed to accuse you.’
‘Yes, they told me the charges had been dropped, but bribery? What the hell? Who would do that?’ I jumped out of my chair and began pacing the office.
‘DC Jones has got a lead on someone,’ she said. ‘His name is Mark Brown, but she can’t work out why he’d be involved. He’s just a petty thief.’
I laughed out loud. ‘He might be, but do you know who his defence barrister is?’ I said with glee. I glanced down at my father with a grim smile. ‘Topher is his barrister. He’s got a file on this Mark Brown in his office. Apparently Mr Brown is good at cyber-security. It might even be him who fixed up the cameras in my house.’
Cerys sat with her mouth open. ‘I must call DC Jones and let her know as soon as you leave,’ she said. ‘She’s working hard for you. I’ve not seen her do this for anyone else. She’s got a reputation for being a good copper, but usually she pulls together the evidence and hands it to the Crown Prosecution Service. I’ve never seen her go above and beyond like this. It’s rare. Make the most of it.’
‘She believes I’m innocent?’ I said. I was surprised myself. I thought she’d blame me for Stephanie’s death. Perhaps I did have a guardian angel after all?
‘It certainly looks to me as if she’s on your side. She was waiting on the lorry driver regaining consciousness. He’s back home now and when Denise speaks to him we hope to get him to testify on your behalf, we might even be able to get them to focus on another suspect,’ Cerys gave me a tight smile. ‘Don’t give up hope Lily, we are fighting for you.’
‘Any news on the CCTV?’ I said.
Cerys shook her head. ‘The systems have been wiped. It’s as if that day never existed.’
‘That doesn’t make sense,’ my father said, folding his arms. ‘Were the cameras down?’
‘No,’ said Cerys.
‘And what about the cameras on the other side of the carriageway? Did they record anything?’ he said.
Cerys shook her head. ‘They were out of action too.’
‘That’s very convenient for someone isn’t it,’ he said. ‘Lily, think about it.’ He turned to me. ‘You were accused of assaulting a student, and now you find out that someone bribed the kid, that someone being known to your husband. What are the chances Topher could suppress evidence?’
‘But how would he do that,’ said Cerys. ‘In any case he’s a barrister. He’s sworn to uphold the law.’
‘There was a list,’ I said. ‘A list of names. I took a photo. It was stuffed into the Mark Brown folder that Topher had in his office. The folder could still be there or the photo could still be on my phone. Turning to Cerys I said. ‘You need to get Denise to check.’
Cerys nodded. ‘As far as I know both your phones are still with forensics. I’ll get Denise up to speed.’
‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘Sorry, you said “both my phones”? I only have one.’
‘The police found two,’ Cerys assured me. ‘One at Stephanie’s flat and one at your home.’
‘That’s impossible,’ I said. I turned to my father.
‘Have you lost your phone for any period of time?’ he said.
I sat shaking my head at how stupid I’d been. ‘I lost it back in the summer. It was in my handbag in the evening. After Topher got home.’
‘That’s when he could have had it cloned,’ said Cerys.
‘I see,’ I said. ‘So Topher cloned my phone and that’s how he’s been hacking my emails. It’s also the only way it can have been in two places at once. What about tracking the phone? That can be done nowadays, can’t it?’
‘There are, but it takes time,’ she said.
‘Well at least I won’t be kicking my heels in prison,’ I sighed.
I trailed after my father to the underground station. My mind was racing. Cloned phones, missing CCTV, cameras in the house. Could Topher be behind all of this? On one level, it made no sense. Topher made a fuss about programming the Sky box, but on another level it did. If he knew what he wanted done, he could pay someone to do it for him.
‘Lily!’ I whirled around. Was that Topher? How had he found me? I pulled
my coat collar up around my neck, but it wasn’t the weather causing my chills.
I turned in the direction of the underground station to see my father waving at me. ‘I thought I’d lost you,’ he said, when I caught him up. He raised his gloved hand to my cheek and I flinched. ‘I hate him for what he’s done to my girl.’ He tucked my arm in the crook of his elbow and escorted me down the stairs to the trains.
Dad agreed to attend Stephanie’s funeral with me. Stephanie was estranged from her parents and her sister lived in America, but she needed family at her funeral. We’d always been as close as sisters. I dressed in dark clothing, hearing Stephanie’s voice tease me about how washed out black made me look. I dabbed at the tears and checked my make-up.
Downstairs Topher hooted the horn of his BMW. It was time to go. I thought about Stephanie during the journey. I had no desire to talk to Topher and my father was silent on the back seat. Of all my friends Stephanie was the only one who’d stayed close. Everyone else from university days had eventually abandoned me. And look how I had repaid her loyalty? By getting her killed. I blinked away the tears which were threatening to form. I raised my head, partly to look at the pale grey sky through the car window and partly to ensure Topher didn’t see me cry. I knew he would have something sarcastic to say.
Eventually we arrived and Dad held the door open for me. Topher came around the car towards us and I flinched as, unexpectedly, he kissed me on the cheek.
The Love Trap: an unputdownable psychological thriller Page 19