The Missing Wife

by Sam Carrington

  ‘How long have you known Oliver Dunmore?’

  ‘I knew him when I was at college, so a long time ago. In fact, my party was the first time I’d set eyes on him since he left for university in, well, must’ve been 1997?’

  DS Farley sucked air through her teeth. ‘That’s a long gap. Any reason for that?’

  Louisa’s face flushed. Yes, there was a reason. He left her.

  ‘Look, I’ve just had a baby, I’m struggling to remember my own name at the moment, let alone the reasons I lost contact with people over twenty years ago.’

  ‘How did Oliver come to be at your party then?’ DS Farley continued without so much as a mention about Louisa’s current post-baby state.

  ‘Oh,’ Louisa snorted. ‘That would be thanks to my best friend, Tiff. She decided it was a brilliant idea to go through my Facebook account and invite anyone and everyone who was on my friends list. While she was delving into my account, she accepted a request for me to join my old college group. And that’s how she invited Oliver. And just about everyone else who was there on Friday night.’

  ‘You don’t seem too happy about that.’

  ‘I’m not really in a great place right now – and I certainly was not in a partying mood when this was sprung on me. Tiff had the best intentions – she and my husband arranged it – but those she invited weren’t exactly “friends”. As I said to her, how many real friends are on your Facebook? I rarely see anyone other than Tiff, DS Farley. To me, most of those at my party were relative strangers.’

  ‘Whoever they are, we’re going to need the invitation list from you. It seems your party might be the last place Melissa was seen so we’d like to chat to your friends … sorry, guests. Can you put us in touch with your friend Tiff?’

  Louisa gave them Tiff’s details. Before they left, DS Farley told Louisa they’d need to speak with her again at some point. She may need to be interviewed at the station as the investigation was escalating now that it’d been five days since Melissa was last seen, and they’d been unable to find proof of life. The thought that this was going to go further horrified Louisa.

  After she’d closed the door on the police, and with Noah still quiet, Louisa took the rare opportunity to have a nap on the sofa. Her eyelids were just dropping when the doorbell rang again.

  ‘For God’s sake, now what?’ She swung her legs off the sofa and stormed to the door. The dark figure visible through the glass was unmistakable this time.

  ‘Why were they here?’ Oliver asked before Louisa had even opened the door fully. ‘What were they saying, Lou? Did they ask about me?’ Oliver’s voice rasped. His face was drained of colour and he looked as though he’d had even less sleep than Louisa.

  ‘Calm down, Oliver.’ Louisa stepped forwards, putting her hand on his shoulder. ‘How long have you been outside?’

  ‘I was just walking up your path when I caught sight of a police car turning into your road, so I nipped around the side entrance of your house—’

  ‘God, really?’ Louisa hissed as she pulled Oliver inside. ‘You were hiding around the back of my house the whole time the police were here?’

  ‘I didn’t have much choice.’ His face took on a panicked expression. ‘I didn’t want them to catch me on your doorstep.’

  ‘Why bloody not? You’re not doing anything wrong.’

  ‘It would look bad, wouldn’t it – my wife missing and me visiting someone else’s wife. An old girlfriend at that.’

  ‘Have you told them that?’ Louisa was suddenly worried. She hadn’t mentioned to the police officers that she and Oliver had been going out at college. If they already knew, they’d have found it odd that Louisa didn’t also tell them.

  ‘No, I don’t think so.’

  ‘Good. So, I assume by their visit that Melissa is still missing?’

  ‘Yes,’ Oliver said, his eyes downcast. Louisa wrestled with what her head was telling her – to get Oliver out of the house as quickly as possible – and with what her heart was saying – to keep him there and offer comfort. Her heart won. She took him into the lounge and they sat side by side on the sofa.

  ‘They want the names of everyone at the party. Like you said,’ Louisa told him.

  ‘Oh, I see. I just hope they find someone who saw her leave with another person or something.’

  ‘That might be good for you, Oliver, but aren’t you worried that if that’s the case, then harm could have come to your wife?’ Louisa frowned at the broken man beside her. Broken because his wife was missing, or broken because he knew he’d be implicated if they didn’t find out she left with someone else? It seemed selfish for him to think that way.

  ‘Of course I don’t want to think anything bad has happened to Melissa. But I don’t want to be under suspicion! I know they are looking to find something, anything to pin this on me, Lou. I know it. They want it to be me.’

  ‘Want what to be you? She’s missing. Not dead. There’s nothing to suggest she’s dead, is there?’

  ‘I don’t know, Lou. But if she doesn’t come back soon, that’s the only possible conclusion, isn’t it?’

  ‘God, Oliver.’ Louisa shuffled up even closer to him, placing her hand on his thigh. ‘Don’t think like that. You have to stay positive. You said she’s disappeared for days at a time before. She’ll come back.’

  ‘I don’t think she will, Lou-Lou.’ His gaze found hers, and for a moment the sadness within them made her want to hug him. But something shifted behind those dark-brown eyes. Something that made Louisa’s insides shaky.

  It was the second time he’d made a comment like that. Like he knew something had happened to Melissa.

  Louisa stared at the man beside her. She’d known him well once. She’d loved him. And apart from the fact that he’d deserted her, she’d trusted him. Twenty-two years was a long time, though. People could change.

  18

  THE FAVOUR

  Wednesday p.m.

  With the comings and goings from the police and Oliver, Louisa had forgotten to make up enough bottles for Noah. He’d awoken with hungry cries, demanding to be fed, and she couldn’t make one quick enough. Powdered milk puffed up in the air as she scooped it too vigorously from the tin to the bottle, her fingers fumbling with the pressure of time. Tears of frustration bubbled at her lower lids.

  Calm yourself.

  Take your time.

  It was times like this she became distraught. Overwhelmed by all of it, even the simple tasks. That’s when she forgot things. She had to slow down. She didn’t want to give Brian any more reason not to trust her capabilities. She hummed a tune to Noah as she continued to make up the bottle, louder and louder until her own voice expelled from her, drowning out Noah’s cries – singing some lines from a song she didn’t even realise she knew. She must have heard it recently and it’d stuck in her head. But the line about not caring what you did, as long as you still love me, resonated with her; it made her feel strange, like it meant something important.

  As she thought about it, she remembered it was an old song by the Backstreet Boys from when she was at college. Well, it’d done the trick anyway – Noah had hushed.

  ‘There we go,’ she said as finally the bottle was ready and she lifted her baby from the basket and laid him on her lap. He sucked from the bottle eagerly, gulping quickly, milk dribbling from the sides of his mouth down into the folds of his neck.

  Quiet.

  Thank goodness. Louisa relaxed back in the chair. Noah’s tiny hands gripped the bottle, his eyes gazing up at her, contentment on his face.

  The lounge door swung open and Emily flounced in, dropping her bag before collapsing full-length on the sofa.

  ‘Hi, love. Hard day?’ Louisa wouldn’t mention the dirty washing incident; it was best to move on from that.

  Emily gave a grunt, but didn’t offer an answer.

  Louisa tried again: ‘You had a tiring day too?’

  ‘Mum. You have no idea,’ Emily retorted without looking up. ‘You
get to sit there all day and don’t have to use a single brain cell.’

  Louisa was taken aback. ‘Oh, so that’s what you think, is it?’ She tried to sound jokey, but her daughter’s harsh words had cut her.

  ‘Well, it is what you do. Although Dad said you weren’t even doing that right.’

  ‘Emily!’ Noah stirred in her arms at her raised voice. ‘Don’t speak to me like that.’

  ‘Well, sorry for repeating what he said.’ She sat up then, and faced Louisa. ‘I’m not being mean, Mum. Just stating facts.’ She shrugged.

  ‘I realise this has been a hard time for you; it’s difficult having a new baby in your life when you’re a teenager, I’m sure. It is for me too. It’s not what I expected at forty.’

  ‘You’ve heard of contraception, right?’

  Louisa was too stunned by Emily’s outburst to respond. She’d never spoken to her in such a way before, never been rude and nasty. This couldn’t be as a result of Louisa forgetting to wash her uniform. There had to be something else bothering her daughter.

  ‘Why are you being so unpleasant? Has something happened at school today?’

  ‘No. And like I said, I’m not trying to be horrible. I heard Dad talking on the phone last night, saying you’d forgotten to even feed Noah. And it’s not like you’ve anything else to do in your day – you haven’t even been doing any laundry – so you shouldn’t be forgetting something so important. There must be something wrong with you.’

  ‘He said this? On the phone?’ Louisa’s jaw tightened. She couldn’t imagine Brian speaking about her like that. ‘Who was he talking to?’

  ‘Tiff, obvs. She’s the only person he speaks to lately isn’t she?’ She got up from the sofa, not making eye contact with Louisa. The door slammed closed as Emily left the room. Louisa heard her running up the stairs. She didn’t know what to think. Emily’s abrupt and hurtful manner was so unlike her. She was obviously worried, though whether her concern related to Louisa’s own behaviour, or Brian’s, Louisa didn’t know.

  ‘The police came today,’ Louisa told Brian as soon as he walked through the front door just after 5.30 p.m. She wanted to ask him about the phone call Emily had overheard, but thought she should begin with a less direct approach. She didn’t want to start an argument.

  ‘What for?’ He slipped his shoes from his feet and kicked them under the stairs, then took off his belt, the keychain clinking as he chucked that underneath the stairs too. It was his routine to discard half of his officer gear after coming home from the prison. Louisa watched him as she continued to tell him about her visit.

  ‘Melissa’s still missing, so they wanted a list of everyone who was at my fortieth party. I had to give them Tiff’s name, obviously, seeing as she was the one who sorted it all through my Facebook.’

  ‘Are you still mad at me for allowing her to do that?’ Brian reached for Louisa’s hands, taking them in his.

  ‘Not mad, no. I wish she hadn’t, but what’s done is done.’ Louisa drew him towards her and hugged him. She was afraid to see into his eyes when she asked the next question.

  ‘Did you tell Tiff I was forgetting to feed Noah?’

  ‘What? No, of course not.’ He pulled out of the hug and stared at her. ‘Why would you think that?’

  ‘Something Emily said. She was in a really strange mood when she got home from school.’ Louisa tried to make light of it now, not wanting to land Emily in it for eavesdropping.

  ‘Well, I didn’t say anything like that.’ He dropped his gaze from hers now. Had she caught him out in a lie?

  If Emily had also noted that he’d been spending increasingly more time talking to Tiff, maybe her own insecurities weren’t as misplaced as she’d first thought. The fact that the party had been what they’d been discussing before didn’t mean their frequent chats were over. And if Emily was right, they were still talking even after the surprise was done with. Brian wasn’t saying he hadn’t talked to Tiff, just that he hadn’t said what she’d accused him of. Emily could be upset because of the other things they’d been chatting about. It must be disconcerting for a teenager to witness her mother’s mental decline as well as hear her father talking to another woman. Perhaps she was scared her family was falling apart. Louisa could relate to that fear.

  ‘How’s my little man been today?’ Brian changed the subject and walked away from her, making his way to the Moses basket.

  ‘He’s been all right, actually. Got a bit vocal earlier while he was waiting for me to make up a bottle, but then he took it really well and fell asleep straight after.’

  ‘He’s in his cot, is he?’ Brian looked from the basket to Louisa. Her mind blanked as she approached the basket and saw it was empty.

  ‘Um …’ Louisa felt flustered. She’d put him in the Moses basket; she remembered doing it.

  ‘Louisa? How can you forget where you put him?’ Brian stormed past her and she heard him taking the stairs at speed. Her breaths came fast, a darkness clouding her vision. She was going to faint. Then she heard cries. Thank God. At least he was in the house. She turned to the door as Brian flung it open.

  ‘Emily’s got him. Didn’t you know?’

  A part of her felt relieved. She knew she’d left Noah in the Moses basket, so she hadn’t forgotten. But why had Emily taken him without mentioning it? Her mind whirred. It was as if she wanted to make Louisa panic, wanted her to look bad – to confirm Brian’s worries about her not being able to look after the baby.

  The ding of a notification sounding on her mobile gave her an excuse to walk away from Brian. From his accusing question. He wouldn’t believe whatever she said anyway.

  Her pulse skipped as she read a message from Oliver.

  The police want me to make a personal appeal for Melissa to come home. Tomorrow at lunchtime. Come with me? I can’t face it alone. Please? I need you. O xxx

  Louisa tried to breath through her panic. Going with Oliver to an appeal was the absolute last thing she was comfortable doing. She reread the message, its begging tone even more pronounced the second time. This neediness wasn’t something she remembered from her time with Oliver; however, his tendency to exaggerate things was. It had always been a tactic of his to get her to do what he wanted. Maybe the ‘I need you’ part of the message was one such over-exaggeration. He didn’t need her with him. He just wanted her there, for whatever reason.

  ‘You okay? You’ve gone really pale.’

  ‘It’s Oliver,’ she said. ‘He wants me to go with him to make an appeal. I don’t see how I can help.’

  ‘Perhaps he wants moral support. It must be terrible going through something like that when you’re away from your family.’

  ‘How do you know where his family is?’ Louisa’s brow furrowed. As far as she remembered, Oliver’s family lived locally.

  ‘He told me. At the party. Said he’d left his family behind in York to come to Devon for a while to head up a new project to grow the business – and of course, then we got onto the conversation of all the old haunts we’d both frequented in York. I’m surprised I didn’t ever bump into him, given that at one point we’d have been in the same area at the same time.’

  The thought that they might’ve met years ago was a strange one, but she didn’t dwell on that. ‘Oh, I didn’t realise they’d all moved there. I assumed it was just him, when he left for uni,’ she said. It was still surprising to Louisa that her ex-boyfriend and husband had chatted so openly the first time they’d ever met. ‘Did he also tell you how long he intends to stay here?’

  Brian shrugged. It appeared that was all Louisa was going to glean for now.

  ‘Are you going to go with him?’ Brian asked.

  ‘I don’t know. I don’t want to, if I’m honest.’ Louisa stared down at her phone screen, a fluttering of nerves beginning to swirl inside her.

  ‘I think you should.’

  ‘Really?’ Louisa’s head snapped up with the shock of hearing Brian’s statement. ‘Why?’

  ‘I
t would look bad if you didn’t.’

  ‘How on earth do you come to that conclusion?’

  ‘It was your party, Lou. And it’s the last place she was seen. If you don’t show any interest in helping find her, won’t the police question why?’

  ‘No! Why would they? Christ, Brian, I’m just the person whose party it was – I didn’t even invite her. And neither did Tiff, by the way. Oliver just showed up with her. Not that anyone even bloody saw her …’

  ‘Still, I think it would look bad. Especially if they found out he was your ex, and that he was also the last person to see you before you disappeared from your own party.’ The intensity of Brian’s stare bore through Louisa’s skull into her brain.

  What the hell was he implying?

  19

  THE APPEAL

  Thursday – Day 6 post-party

  Louisa fidgeted – her fingers relentlessly twisting her gold wedding ring while her right leg bounced. Oliver placed a hand on her knee.

  ‘You’re making me nervous,’ he said.

  ‘I’m sorry. I can’t stop it.’ Even with his hand resting on her leg, it still bobbed beneath it. She gently pushed his hand away. What would people think if they saw that?

  ‘Why are you so nervy?’ he said, his eyes widening.

  It was a good question. The bubbling noises her tummy was making, the sick feeling consuming her, were products of anxiety – she knew that. Taking some of her tablets to combat it might have helped, but since the party, and because of her continued forgetfulness, she’d been afraid they were making her worse, not better, so she’d decided not to take any more. The initial worrying she’d been doing prior to arriving at Newton police station had increased twofold the second she walked through the large glass doors and had been greeted with a curious look from DS Mack. He too was clearly questioning why she’d turned up with Oliver Dunmore.

  Louisa reran the conversation with Brian in her mind. He’d been adamant she should accompany Oliver to the appeal. When she’d said she couldn’t go, couldn’t possibly take a baby to it, Brian had called Tiff. Of course he had. She was his go-to for everything these days it seemed. Tiff was more than happy to oblige, saying she’d take Noah out for the entire day to give Louisa a break. Once she was back from the appeal, she could ‘just sleep’, Brian had stated.