by K. L. Slater
Zachary looked nervously at his dad for approval – an action that sent a splinter of envy into my heart – and Owen nodded at him.
‘When she dropped me off at school this morning…’
‘Yes?’ I encouraged.
He stared at his hands. ‘I got into the playground and realised I’d left my reading folder in the car. Mr Barry is giving out gold stickers to anyone who remembers it every day for a week.’
‘That’s great,’ I said, my heart rate picking up. ‘What next?’
Zachary bit his lip.
‘So you ran back out the front to catch Aunt Miche before she drove off, right, Zach?’ Owen chipped in to jiffy him along.
Zachary nodded. When he started talking again, his voice emerged quiet as a whisper. ‘Then I saw Aunt Miche talking to the man.’
‘The man?’ I repeated faintly.
‘The man who was standing by the railings.’
The back of my neck prickled again. ‘Have you seen this man before?’
Owen pressed his hands in the air to signal me to let Zachary tell his story.
‘No, I haven’t seen him before, Mum. He’s one of Aunt Miche’s friends, I suppose.’ His attention drifted back to the television again and he scowled when Owen reached for the remote control and turned it off completely. ‘I ran across the school yard to get my folder but she got into the car.’
‘Her car?’
‘No, the man’s!’ Zachary sighed as though I was being purposely obtuse.
‘Did you see Aunt Miche’s car?’
‘Nooo!’ Zachary whined.
‘Let him finish, Esme. You can ask him questions after.’ I felt like snapping at Owen to shut up, but didn’t dare break the atmosphere.
‘I shouted “Aunt Miche!”’ he yelled. ‘Just like that. But she didn’t hear me. She got into the car and closed the door.’
‘Then what did you do?’
‘The car drove off and I had to go into class or I’d have been late.’ His forehead wrinkled. ‘I won’t get a sticker now.’
‘Zachary, I want you to think really, really carefully. What colour was the car? Do you know what make it was?’
‘It was silver,’ Zachary said confidently. ‘It looked like… maybe an Audi or something like that. I’m not really sure.’
‘And the man you saw talking to Aunt Miche, he was driving?’
Zachary nodded. He finally looked up at me. ‘Can I have fish fingers and peas for tea?’
I slipped onto the sofa beside him, half in a daze. Why would Michelle get in a man’s car and drive off somewhere? Did she come back to the school later and pick up her own car? I now knew it wasn’t parked anywhere near the building.
Owen cleared his throat. ‘Tell your mum the other thing too, champ. About last week.’
‘What about last week?’ My heart started to race.
‘She drove off in the same car last week, too. But I didn’t see the man that time.’
My mouth fell open. ‘Are you saying you’ve seen her drive off in that same silver car before?’
Zachary nodded.
‘So why didn’t you tell us that’s what happened?’
Zachary shrugged and reached for the remote control. ‘Because Aunt Miche asked me not to tell you or Dad,’ he said simply. ‘So I didn’t.’
He snapped the TV on, and I looked at Owen over the top of our son’s head. What the hell was going on?
Eighteen
SUNDAY 9.02 a.m.
Her body was dumped there.
I stared at the detective, my throat closing a little more with every second that passed. ‘You’re telling me someone hurt her in another location and then left her in the woods like a sack of rubbish?’
‘We know very few details at the moment,’ DI Sharpe said. ‘That’s why it’s important we start at the beginning and get as much information as we can about how Michelle went missing. We’d like to ask you a few questions.’
I nodded, a wave of something heavy and cloying washing over me. Lewis swiftly produced a rough book and pencil. He took down my contact details at home and at the office.
‘I just wanted to check, Michelle lives here with you and your…’ He checked his notes. ‘Your nine-year-old son. Is that right?’
‘Yes,’ I said.
‘And your husband, Owen Painter. He lives here, too?’
‘No. He doesn’t live here anymore, we’re… separated.’ My throat felt tight and dry. They both watched me, clearly expecting me to elaborate on our situation.
‘When Owen moved out, Michelle moved in for convenience. She works for me, you see, and helps out with the school run, stuff like that. It works well.’ I swallowed and paused. ‘It did work well.’
‘I see,’ DCI Sharpe said softly. ‘Could you let us have your husband’s new address?’
I gave them the details.
‘When can I see Michelle?’
Lewis coughed. ‘We can give you details and you can call the hospital. But first, can we just get through this information? I’m sorry to have to ask but it’s vital we start with an accurate picture of the day Michelle went missing.’
They hadn’t initially seemed that interested when I’d called to report her missing. Had said it was possible she’d decided to make alternative plans to the meeting. For a second or two I could explode with fury at the lost time, the lost opportunity when Michelle still might have been rescued.
‘It’s hard, I know,’ Sharpe says, taking in my expression. ‘But it won’t take long and then we can move on with things.’
We went through the same stuff I gave over the phone when I rang them for advice. I started with the phone call before the important meeting that didn’t seem important at all anymore. I told them how I’d rushed around the Sainsbury’s cashiers showing them her photo on my phone. Sharpe nodded and Lewis scribbled it all down on his neat white notepad.
Then I told them what Zachary had witnessed outside the school. Lewis stopped writing and they both sat up a bit straighter.
‘What exactly did he see?’ Sharpe asked.
I shook my head. ‘He just said… I’m sorry, my head’s just not working right. I can’t seem to think straight… he said—’
‘Don’t worry, it’s the shock. We’d like to speak with Zachary about this though, if possible, Esme. Not now, but perhaps tomorrow. In your company, of course.’
I didn’t like the idea. Zachary was already displaying signs of his old anxiety and his tremor. But I knew it had to be done and it would get them off my back for now because my head felt like it might explode any second.
‘OK but I’ll need to agree a time with you. I’ve got a meeting I can’t get out of in Ashford tomorrow,’ I said, already trying to imagine how I was going to pull it off and failing. How on earth was I going to be able to focus on the interview with Simone in the midst of the terrible news about Michelle?
Lewis cleared his throat. ‘I understand you’re visiting Simone Fischer at HMP Bronzefield for some kind of radio show?’
‘I’m making a podcast about Simone’s case,’ I said. News travelled fast. But the success of the podcast had been well-publicised locally as well as nationally.
Lewis waited, clearly hoping for more. I pressed my lips together and said nothing.
‘Right. Just one more thing before we go, Esme. Did your sister and husband get on? I mean, he might’ve felt like he’s moving out and she’s moving in… was he OK with that?’
‘He was, actually, yes. He knew it worked well for Zachary. Our son was involved in an accident eighteen months ago, a hit and run. He suffered leg and head injuries and he’s had some behavioural problems since then, so a stable environment is key to his wellbeing. Michelle being here provided that and Owen recognised it.’ At least he did in the beginning, until their relationship turned a bit sour. But that’s not the sort of thing I’d tell the police.
Sharpe nodded and they both stood up.
‘You were going to give me det
ails of where Michelle is. Can I visit this morning or will I have to wait until tomorrow now?’
I couldn’t wait to get in there, let her know I was there for her. Owen could come and sit with Zachary and I could sit and hold my sister’s hand. She was alive and that’s what mattered. That’s what I was going to try and focus on.
Lewis took out his phone. ‘I’ll text you the details now but you’ll need to liaise directly with the hospital in terms of visiting. It’s not straightforward I’m afraid.’
My phone pinged and Lewis indicated I should look at my phone. I opened up the text.
ICU, West Block, C Floor, QMC 0115 924…
I let the phone fall into my lap. My sister wasn’t just in hospital. She was in the Intensive Care Unit.
A feeling shot from my chest to my head like a bolt of light. I’d been so foolish… blinkered, even. Refusing to accept the reality that my sister might possibly have secrets she hadn’t shared with me.
At that moment, I made a silent promise to myself to take the blindfold off.
I would not rest until the person that did this to Michelle was brought to justice.
Nineteen
TWO DAYS EARLIER
While Owen sorted out Zachary’s fish finger tea, I rushed upstairs into Michelle’s room. Once in, I pushed the door to and sat on the edge of her unmade bed. I suppose I was hoping just by being there I’d somehow get a hint of what might have happened to her.
My worry had dissipated with Zachary’s revelation and now I just felt like an idiot. I’d been on the brink of reporting her missing to the police. Rushing around Sainsbury’s stores, telling anyone who’d listen that my sister was missing when, in actual fact, she was probably spending the day with some guy she’d never even thought to mention to me. And asking Zachary to lie to us, his parents! What was she playing at?
I bit down on my back teeth to harness the fury.
Had this man suggested a day out somewhere and she simply couldn’t resist the temptation? Michelle had been in long-term relationships before – she’d even been engaged to some childhood sweetheart when she was younger, but that had fallen through. She’d repeatedly said, over the last couple of years, that her life was plenty full as it was. She said she didn’t need the complication of a relationship and I’d never questioned it. Now, I wondered if I’d believed her so willingly simply because it suited me to have her around more.
Despite all this, I couldn’t completely erase the possibility that she’d met a man who she thought was decent and he’d turned out to be a psychopath who’d abducted her. This morning. Outside school.
It sounded ridiculously dramatic and Owen would dismiss it as nonsensical, but you read about these sorts of awful things happening all the time.
Yet she’d willingly got into his car before, Zachary said. She wasn’t stupid enough to do that if she’d felt the least bit unsafe in his company. I started to calm down a bit.
Then I remembered she’d called me and said she was at Sainsbury’s after she’d got back from wherever they’d been, so that disproved the theory. Michelle had sounded perfectly normal and not under duress at all. She said she’d be leaving the shop for the office directly.
Nobody had abducted her. If she’d gone with this guy, she must have gone willingly.
As recently as this morning, I’d have bet my salary that I knew everything about my sister. We spent so much time together at both home and work, we were hardly apart recently. Particularly since Owen had left home.
I found it almost impossible to accept that she’d been having a relationship with someone without ever mentioning him to me. Now that I was essentially single too, we talked about stuff like that all the time and we were always in agreement that Zachary’s wellbeing and The Speaking Fox came first in both our lives for the foreseeable future.
Michelle had seemed as committed to building the business as I was, and that’s why it was such a shock when she hadn’t turned up for a meeting that could have turbo-charged our course so dramatically.
I pushed thoughts of the disastrous meeting from my mind. What was done was done. It was obviously never meant to be. But it was one thing dismissing the lost TrueLife opportunity as unimportant when I faced the possibility my sister might be missing. Another thing entirely if we’d lost out because she’d decided to spend the day with someone she’d just met.
I forced myself to unlock my clenched teeth.
I looked around her bedroom. It was the second biggest in the house and overlooked the street at the front. My own bedroom faced the back garden. I never came in here if Michelle wasn’t home but now it felt right to be in here – to spend a few minutes trying to make sense of what had happened.
I spotted something silver poking out from under the wrinkled sheet on her bed. When I peeled the sheet back, I saw her MacBook laptop and her work diary on top of that.
This wasn’t Michelle’s personal computer; it belonged to the company. She’d definitely have had this with her if she was headed for the office and our meeting. Which meant she must have planned on calling back for it after the supermarket. If in reality she’d ever gone to the supermarket.
I reached for them – just as the bedroom door opened.
‘Bit of a mess in here.’ Owen wrinkled his nose. ‘Thought you said she was tidy.’
‘She is, most of the time,’ I said, slipping the sheet back over her belongings. ‘Is Zachary OK?’
‘He’s OK, bit worried about Michelle. He seems to think he’s done something wrong not telling us before now but like I just told him, a decent adult wouldn’t ask a kid to lie for them.’
‘Owen! That’s not really appropriate, is it?’
He pulled a face. ‘Appropriate or not, that’s what she did.’
I looked away from him before I said something I might regret, and I opened Michelle’s diary.
‘Anything interesting in there?’ Owen craned his neck to try and see, and I closed it again.
‘Can you make sure Zachary’s alright, please? I don’t think Michelle would appreciate coming home and finding you in her bedroom.’
‘Yeah, well, if she hadn’t done a disappearing act with her new boyfriend, we wouldn’t have to be, would we?’ He moved towards the door sulkily, but instead of leaving as I’d hoped he would, he sauntered around the edges of the room, touching and prodding at Michelle’s belongings. He picked up a hairbrush and inspected it before putting it back down; pulled out a litter bin from under her dressing table and poked through the contents.
‘Stop doing that!’ I snapped, and he dropped a ball of screwed-up paper like it was on fire. ‘It’s disrespectful… she might come home at any time.’ And if she saw I’d let Owen snoop around in her bedroom she’d never forgive me. Despite the fact I was looking through her work items, I still felt protective of my sister.
‘Excuse me for breathing, only trying to help,’ Owen muttered, folding his arms.
I forced myself to keep quiet and opened the diary again. There was hardly anything written and I knew she was a big fan of maintaining her online diary. I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d put details of meeting her mystery man in there.
‘It’s not on that she let you down this morning, Esme,’ Owen said. He reached for Michelle’s magnifying mirror and studied his own face in it, despite what I’d said about touching her things. ‘I know how important the TrueLife meeting was to you. Hasn’t she mentioned this guy to you at all?
‘No, but that’s her prerogative, I suppose.’ I wasn’t about to confide in Owen about our informal ‘stay single’ policy.
‘I suppose on the plus side you now know she’s obviously just off gallivanting somewhere with her new fancy man. You must feel a bit sickened about that.’
My conversation with Simone in one of the pre-recorded podcasts came to mind. Clever ways someone can make you feel like they’re on your side when they aren’t at all.
‘I don’t know that’s what happened yet, Owen.’ On occasion,
Michelle and Owen reminded me of two kids trying to one-up each other. He’d have been delighted if I’d told him how irritated and disappointed I was feeling with Michelle, and that was the reason I was putting a brave face on. ‘I’m more worried by the fact she’s been meeting him at school. Seems a strange place for a rendezvous. I wonder if I ought to mention it to the school just in case this guy is dodgy.’
‘Do you want me to take a look at that?’ He nodded to the MacBook. ‘I know you’re a bit of a technophobe.’
I snapped the lid closed again and placed the diary back on top of the computer. ‘I might not be an expert but I can manage to open a laptop and have a scout around,’ I said lightly. ‘Thanks for the offer, though.’
‘You know how to use that word then?’
‘Huh?’
‘Thanks. I thought you might have thanked me for extracting such a vital piece of information from our son. About her fancy man at school, I mean.’
I frowned. ‘Funny you should mention it, because I’ve just been wondering how Zachary came to tell you something like that. He was immersed in the television when I left so it’s not the kind of thing he’d just volunteer, particularly as Michelle had asked him not to mention it.’
‘Asked him to lie to us, you mean?’
‘How did it come up?’ I refused to be waylaid by his pettiness.
‘I just asked Zach a few searching questions, that’s all.’
‘Like…?’
‘Like did Aunt Miche tell you she was planning on going somewhere that Mum didn’t know about this morning.’ He paused. ‘And I asked him if he thought she was a bit sly sometimes.’
‘Owen!’
‘What? It did the trick, didn’t it?’
‘It’s not right. Michelle’s his auntie and he loves her. You shouldn’t put him in a position like that.’
‘Can’t have it both ways and you were hitting a dead end.’ He picked up a small, faded photograph in a frame of Michelle and me, taken when she was seven and I was ten years old. I can still recall the feeling of that hot day in August. No school and a picnic in the garden with Mum’s homemade lemonade.