At least Johnny was asleep and the girls were quietly watching the television in the playroom upstairs. Edgar hadn’t wanted to get a set but he wasn’t the one stuck at home with three children wanting his attention all the time. Look at my picture. Listen to my song. Read me a story. How do aeroplanes stay in the air? Why is the sky blue? I hate her. I hate you. I love you. It was all so wearing, even the love part, and then you add a baby who literally wants to be part of your body, feeding off you, clinging to you with those tiny limpet hands. Emma had never told anyone how she had felt when she realised that she was pregnant again. She had just regained her figure and her energy after Marianne and Sophie. She was beginning to wonder if maybe, perhaps, in a few years’ time, she might be able to get a part-time job. And then that familiar queasiness in the mornings, the visit to the doctor for the ominous-sounding ‘frog test’, the announcement to Edgar who was, predictably, delighted. Well, Edgar had always wanted a son, an heir that he could name after his dead brother, but Emma had been quite content with her girls. Oh, she loved Jonathan, who wouldn’t love him with his little round face and merry eyes? It was just that, sometimes, she felt that Jonathan was slowing her down, the way children sometimes cling onto a parent’s leg to stop them moving away.
The kitchen was a semi-basement so all she could see was feet going past: brogues, boots, the occasional clattering pair of high heels. She liked to imagine where they were all going. Some of them were probably going home to cook shepherd’s pie but some might be off on adventures, meeting a lover, solving a crime. Or committing one. As she watched, stirring the meat with one hand, a pair of gym shoes stopped at her top step. She watched the feet and their owner descend the area steps: capri pants, a fisherman’s sweater, short brown hair, jaunty beret. Sam Collins.
‘Sam!’ Emma opened the door.
‘Hi, Em. Something smells good. What are you making?’
‘Shepherd’s pie. You’re welcome to stay and have some. It probably won’t taste as good as it smells.’
‘You make it sounds so appetising. How can I resist?’
Sam Collins, a reporter on the local paper, the Evening Argus, had become a close friend in recent years. Emma still kept in touch with some girls from school but they were scattered around the country now, all with children and husbands with Hon. before their names. Vera lived nearby in Rottingdean but she only really cared about her horses. Sometimes it surprised Emma to think that now her only real friends were Sam and a mystic called Madame Astarte. They were also the only people who talked to her as if she was still Emma Holmes and not Mrs Stephens, the superintendent’s wife.
They chatted while Emma finished assembling the shepherd’s pie and put it in the oven. Then she made them both a cup of tea. They sat at the round kitchen table and, suddenly, the grey evening and the feet walking past seemed cosy rather than oppressive.
‘How’s work?’ Emma asked Sam.
‘Awful,’ said Sam. ‘They’ve brought in a new chief reporter. A man, of course. That job should have been mine.’
Sam claimed that, when she’d been hired by post, the editor had thought that she was a man. When he found out the awful truth, he had tried to condemn her to a lifetime of making tea and tidying up the news room.
‘At least you’ve still got a job,’ said Emma.
‘Yes. But I haven’t got a husband. My mother’s becoming more desperate by the minute. I visited Lewes Prison the other day and she asked if any of the inmates were good-looking.’
Emma laughed. ‘My mother was the same. I got married at twenty-five but she acted like it was my last chance. I’m never going to pressure my girls to get married. I want them to have a career first.’
‘Why first? Why not after they’re married too?’
‘It’s hard,’ said Emma. She could hear the girls moving about upstairs. She prayed that they weren’t going to come down. ‘It’s hard to have a job and a marriage. Especially if you have children.’
‘I hear Max Mephisto is back in England,’ said Sam.
Emma thought that it was rather interesting that Sam mentioned Max straight after the conversation about marriage and good-looking men. ‘Yes. I saw him yesterday. He came over for Diablo’s funeral. You know, his army friend. The magician. The Great Diablo.’
‘I saw him in panto once. Is Max still married to Lydia Lamont?’
‘He seemed very married. Showed me pictures of their children.’
‘Pity. Anyway, that’s not why I wanted to talk to you.’
‘This isn’t just a social visit then?’
‘No,’ said Sam. ‘This is work.’ She was carrying a bag like a postman’s sack and, from it, she produced a sheaf of papers. ‘Is Edgar investigating the Rhonda Miles case?’
‘How do you know about that?’
‘I have my contacts. Bob Willis was at Roedean this morning, apparently accompanied by an enormously tall female police constable.’
‘That must be Meg Connolly,’ said Emma. ‘I met her at the Christmas party the year before last.’
‘Well, apparently Rhonda has disappeared and the theory is that she’s gone to London to see Bobby Hambro. She’s a Bobby Soxer.’
‘A what?’
‘A diehard Hambro fan. There are lots of them about. Screaming teenage girls with raging hormones. The thing is, though, I think this is part of something bigger.’
Emma’s heart, which had soared when Sam mentioned the word ‘work’, now began to beat faster.
Sam put three newspaper cuttings on the table. One showed a girl grinning by a chessboard, the second a group of nurses outside the Royal Sussex Hospital and the third a young girl wearing what Emma had recently learnt were ‘mod clothes’: short black-and-white dress and knee-length boots. She had backcombed peroxide hair and was glaring defiantly into the camera.
‘That’s Rhonda Miles.’ Sam pointed to the chess player.
‘And the others?’
‘Louise Dawkins, student nurse. She went missing last month. The modette is Sara Henratty. She disappeared two weeks ago. They both left notes.’
‘And you think they’re linked to Rhonda’s disappearance?’
‘There are similarities. Louise’s note said that she was going back to her family in the Caribbean. As far as I know, no one bothered to check but her friends at the nurses’ hostel said that Louise didn’t have any close family. Sara was in and out of foster care. I don’t think anyone cared enough to make a fuss about her.’
‘Were the stories in the papers?’
‘No. I found out about Louise from one of my friends, a houseman at the hospital. Sara was living in a children’s home in Moulsecoomb. I went there because we’d had a report that conditions were bad. One of the cleaners told me about Sara. This picture was in her room. You know how photographers are always taking snaps of the mods and rockers on the seafront.’
The photograph was entitled ‘Mod Style’ and showed Sara leaning against a Vespa adorned with multiple wing mirrors. Two boys in parkas lounged in the background.
‘Sara’s note said that she’d run away with a boy known as Peanuts. I tracked him down and he lives with his parents in Southwick. He’d gone out with Sara a few times but clearly had no idea where she was now. I’ve got the note here.’
She held out a piece of pink notepaper. The writing was round and childish.
To whom it may concern. I’ve gone off with Peanuts. Don’t try to find me. See you in the next life. Sara.
There was a heart next to her name. Emma felt her throat contract. To whom it may concern (i.e. no one).
‘Was this her handwriting?’
‘Apparently so. As I say, no one at the home seemed that worried. They were quite happy to let me have the note. Hadn’t even reported it to the police.’
‘What about Louise’s disappearance? Was that reported?’
‘No. The matron at the hospital accepted the Caribbean explanation. She said that she always thought Louise would “go back home” a
s she put it. This was her home! She was born in Hackney. Her friends thought it was odd though. That’s why Pete, my doctor friend, contacted me.’
‘And you think something suspicious is going on?’
‘Well, don’t you? Three girls disappearing in six weeks. The difference is that, unlike Louise and Sara, Rhonda has parents who will make a fuss.’
‘You have to tell Edgar,’ said Emma.
‘I’ll leave that to you,’ said Sam. But at that moment Marianne and Sophie came flying into the room in the middle of an argument about ballet shoes. They stopped when they saw Sam but, as she was an old friend, soon started up again. And, from upstairs, came the angry sound of the baby crying.
Edgar greeted Sam warmly but Emma knew that he was constrained by her presence. They didn’t talk about the case but, helped by a bottle of red wine that Sam produced from her postman’s sack, discussed the new tower block at Black Rock, the chances of a fight between mods and rockers at the forthcoming bank holiday weekend and the odds of Brighton and Hove Albion making it to the first division. The shepherd’s pie was actually quite good and the girls cleared the dishes without complaining too much. When Emma got up to put Jonathan to bed, Sam said that she’d better be off. ‘The news never sleeps.’
‘Nor does Jonathan,’ said Emma.
But Johnny went down quite quickly that evening. Emma oversaw the girls having their baths and getting into bed and went back downstairs. Edgar had done the washing up and was sitting at the table reading the Evening Argus. There was a picture of Ruby on the front page, emerging from the church after Diablo’s funeral: white jacket, black dress, white skin, black hair. She looked lovely even in monochrome.
‘Sam says not to believe everything you read in there,’ said Emma, putting the kettle on for tea.
‘I won’t,’ said Edgar.
‘How’s the Rhonda Miles case going?’
‘It’s not going anywhere,’ said Edgar, putting the paper down. ‘There’s no sign of the girl and no real leads either. Her father is demanding my head on a plate.’
‘Sir Crispian Miles?’
‘Yes. How did you know his name?’
‘I looked him up in Who’s Who. Apparently he made his money out of a chain of butchers’ shops before the war. Then he sold them to one of the new supermarkets, made a ton of money and became a Conservative MP. He got his knighthood two years ago.’
‘You know everything, Em.’
‘I’m just good at research,’ said Emma. ‘Sam’s got a theory about the Rhonda Miles case.’
Edgar looked slightly wary at the mention of Sam. ‘Tell me,’ he said.
He didn’t immediately spring into action, as Emma had hoped, but he did take it seriously and looked at the newspaper cuttings before writing Louise and Sara’s names in his notebook.
‘What if someone has abducted them?’ said Emma. ‘What if there’s this madman out there and no one’s looking for him?’
‘Rhonda’s father said that she was abducted when she was ten,’ said Edgar. ‘Someone snatched her on her way home from ballet class. The man’s in prison now. The whole thing gave Rhonda’s mother a nervous breakdown.’
‘But if he’s in prison he can’t have had anything to do with this disappearance.’
‘It doesn’t seem like it but what are the chances of being abducted twice? I don’t like it. I’ve asked Bob to follow it up.’
‘What did Bob think of Roedean?’ asked Emma.
‘I think he found it terrifying,’ said Edgar, ‘but he seemed to do a thorough job. Actually, I think he left a lot of it to WPC Connolly. She’s a bright girl.’
Emma thought of Roedean: of the chapel with the naval flags hanging from the rafters, of playing hide-and-seek in the rough ground they called Spiders, of the ‘bunny runs’ between the houses. For the second time that evening she felt near to tears. It didn’t help to hear Meg Connolly described as bright either.
‘Did they look in the tunnel?’ she asked.
Edgar looked up. ‘What tunnel?’
‘There’s a secret tunnel inside the school leading down to the beach.’
‘A secret tunnel?’
‘Well, not exactly secret but it’s only opened once or twice a year. We used to be made to scrub the steps as a punishment.’
‘That sounds positively Dickensian.’
Emma waved this away, annoyed at the teasing note in Edgar’s voice. ‘Maybe Rhonda got away that way. She could have gone through the tunnel and into Brighton on the undercliff walk. Ed!’ Emma grasped his arm, all tears forgotten. ‘Let’s go there now! You could get the keys from the caretaker. I know the way. We could be there in ten minutes.’
Edgar smiled. ‘How could we leave the children? I’ll tell Bob to send a couple of PCs in the morning.’
Upstairs, Jonathan started to cry again.
Eight
Meg was surprised, and rather pleased, to be asked to lead the second expedition to Roedean.
‘You seemed to get on well with Miss Browning,’ said the DI.
‘Did I?’ Meg had thought that the housemistress had disapproved of her. She was too big and too common, with her Whitehawk vowels and her chat about princesses. But, then again, there were a couple of moments when Miss Browning looked like betraying the fact that there was a sense of humour hidden under the twinset and academic gown. Meg doubted whether she would be laughing today though.
A young PC called Danny Black drove them to Roedean in one of the new two-tone Morris Minors. People turned to stare as they drove through Kemp Town and Meg had to resist the temptation to turn and wave like the Queen.
‘I feel ridiculous,’ said PC Black, grinding the gears.
‘Let me drive then. My dad’s got a Morris Minor.’
‘You’re not allowed,’ said Danny.
Meg sighed. It was going to be a long morning.
Miss Browning was not delighted to see them.
‘The tunnel? Why would you want to see the tunnel? It’s only opened once or twice a year on special occasions. And on Roedean Day, of course.’
‘Who has the key?’
‘Richards the caretaker.’
‘Is it possible that Rhonda could have got hold of a key and escaped that way?’ asked Meg.
‘Escaped? This isn’t a prison.’
‘Could have fooled me,’ muttered Danny to Meg. Miss Browning eventually consented to get the key from Richards and they walked in single file back down to the main entrance gates. Even Miss Browning’s back looked outraged.
The entrance to the tunnel was a wooden door next to the gates. Even from a distance they could see that it was padlocked but, as they got closer, they saw something else. The padlock was open and the door wedged ajar by a large pebble.
‘Someone’s been here recently,’ said Meg. Stating the obvious, of course, but isn’t that what the police are meant to do?
‘That’s impossible,’ said Miss Browning.
In answer, Meg pushed open the wooden door. They were immediately met by the harsh, briny smell of the sea. They could hear it too, the hiss of the waves over the shingle beach. In front of them was a steep flight of concrete stairs. Danny turned on his torch.
A rope handrail was attached to the wall and Meg held on tight as they made their way downwards. She felt both excited and slightly scared. What would they find when they reached the bottom? Apart from her late grandfather, she had never seen a dead body. She didn’t want to start with a sixteen-year-old girl. She could hear Miss Browning’s sensible brogues behind her. What would the housemistress say if Rhonda’s lifeless corpse awaited them? Would she weep? Shout? Rend her garments? Blame the police for incompetence?
The door at the foot of the stairs was also propped open by a stone. Through the gap, Meg could see the sea, grey and inhospitable. Slowly and carefully, Danny shone his torch up and around, showing the tunnel’s low ceiling and the pebble-strewn floor.
‘This stuff must have blown in from the sea,’ he sa
id, kicking aside a piece of seaweed.
‘There’s nothing here,’ said Miss Browning, her voice echoing against the concrete walls. Meg thought that she sounded very relieved.
‘Hang on,’ said Meg. ‘What’s this?’
In the corner by the door she had spotted something blue. She picked it up. It was a broad-brimmed school hat. She hardly needed to read the nametape.
Rhonda Miles.
‘The tunnel couldn’t have been open,’ said the caretaker. ‘It’s impossible.’
‘Well, clearly not, Richards,’ said Miss Browning. She was rattled, Meg could see. The discovery of the hat had cast a different light on Rhonda’s disappearance. There was no more talk of a schoolgirl prank. Wherever Rhonda had gone, whether to London in search of Bobby Hambro or for a more sinister rendezvous, it was clear that her escape had been deliberate. Miss Browning hadn’t even objected when Meg asked to speak to Richards, the caretaker. They were in his house now, a neat bungalow in the school grounds. Richards, a grey-haired man with watery blue eyes, seemed very put out by their presence. Mind you, it could just be because Meg and Miss Browning towered over him. The front room seemed uncomfortably crowded.
Richards said that he’d last checked the tunnel entrance a few weeks ago. ‘But it’s always kept locked,’ he said.
‘It wasn’t locked today,’ said Miss Browning. ‘The door was propped open by a stone.’
‘Where do you keep the keys?’ asked Meg.
‘In the key safe.’
‘Can I look at it?’
The metal safe was next to the front door.
Now You See Them Page 5