by NC Marshall
“You should go home and get some rest, Mark. You look like shit,” she says as she takes a seat opposite me. “There's not much you can do here, we are waiting for Ali to return to Sandbroke before we can question her and I’m sure they have things under control up in Newcastle.”
“Thanks for not mincing your words as usual, Chrissy,” I reply.
She half-smiles, a look of genuine concern on her face. “Well, it's true, you look absolutely terrible.”
I take a sip of tea and do my best not to let the mention of Ali’s name set my heart racing. I've tried not to get personally involved with this case, to remain professional. I’m lucky I've still got my job and I know that the only reason I do is Chrissy. If it hadn’t been for her holding everything together recently, I have no doubt I would have broken down.
The truth is I’ve not only lied to the police about my involvement with Ali, but I've also lied to myself over how I really feel about her. The thought that something could have happened to her has taken its toll on me these past couple of weeks.
“You spoke to Emily again yet?” Chrissy asks, breaking my trail of thought.
“No, she’s with the police now. They are looking for her daughter as we speak.”
“Did you even know she had a daughter?”
“Not till twenty minutes ago when she told me.”
Chrissy leans back in the seat and stares at the ceiling, the ultra-bright fluorescent lighting makes her skin look even paler than usual.
She brings her eyes back to me. “I hope they find her.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“Who would want to do this?”
“It seemed logical that it was Jake,” I reply.
“I agree, Mark. Now we know all the facts. It seemed the most plausible option. He uses Ali to get Emily to come back to Sandbroke, because he knew that she would never come back without a good reason,” Chrissy admits. “And Ali was the best reason, he could use. She clearly thinks a lot of her old friend.”
I nod. “Emily gets back here, and he spends time playing games to keep her here a bit longer—”
“Then he unexpectedly finds out he has a daughter he knew nothing about and tracked her down,” Chrissy interrupts.
“But Jake has been locked up for a while now.”
“So then who…”
“Your guess is as good as mine, Chrissy. Do me a favour and have a closer look into the death of Jake’s daughter. Maybe there’s more to it.”
Chrissy gets up and rubs her eyes, she looks as wrecked as I feel.
“On it.” She smiles and squeezes my shoulders as she passes and leaves the office. A few minutes later there’s a knock on my door.
“What's up Rach?” I ask, as one of the station receptionists pops her head around the door.
“Sorry to bother you, Mark, you have a visitor waiting in reception, she says she wants to speak to you.” I don’t need to ask who it is. I stretch in my seat and stand to follow Rachael through to the station entrance.
Ali stands alone in the corner with a nervous smile on her face. She’s wearing a patterned summer dress that falls to her knees. Her dark hair has lightened since I saw her last and cascades over her bare shoulders. She looks as beautiful as ever. I feel an invisible pull to her that I haven’t felt in the months since we last saw one another.
“Ali, hi, how are you?” Instinct makes me lean towards her as if to kiss her, I stop myself as soon as I realise what I’m doing.
“Hi, Mark, I’m good thanks.” I can hear the nerves lacing her voice. She takes a step back, a small flush of pink emerging on her sun-kissed cheeks.
“I just wanted to see how everything is going. Your officers briefed me on what happened when I returned home from my trip this morning. I am so sorry about everything.”
I bury my hands deep into my pockets and make more space between us. If I don’t I fear I will reach out and take her in my arms. I shouldn’t have let her go.
“Not your fault, you weren’t to know,” I say. My voice comes out harsher than I intended it to.
“How's Emily?” she asks.
“Justifiably, not great.”
“Do you have any idea who it could have been, who set everything up to make it look like I’d disappeared?” Her voice trails off and she visibly shudders.
“We were hoping that you could help us on that one.”
“I really have no idea, Mark. I've told your officers everything I know.” She reaches to push her long hair behind her ear. “Whoever it is has a sick sense of humor.”
“They certainly have.”
“Why would they want to get Emily back here?”
“We believe it has something to do with her daughter.”
“Daughter?”
“Yeah, Em has a daughter, Lucy. She’s fifteen apparently.”
Ali looks clearly confused. “But that would have made Emily…”
“Nineteen when she had her. Lucy is Jake’s daughter,” I cut in.
“That’s the reason she and her family left Sandbroke so suddenly?”
“Yeah, turns out Jake wasn’t exactly what you would class as a good role model as a father. Currently in prison up north.” I don’t elaborate on his crimes; I've already said more than I should.
Ali nods. “I never liked him from the get-go, but there was no telling her back then,” she whispers. “Poor Em.”
“Look, can you come through? We need to interview you. Emily’s daughter could be in danger. We need any further info at all that you have.”
“There is something,” she says suddenly.
“What's that?”
“It just occurred to me on the way over here. It’s probably nothing. I could be totally wrong.”
“Wrong about what, Ali?”
“The book. The one you said was found at the beach.”
“What about it?”
“Well, I think I got mixed up. All the other stuff that was found in the bag was from the jumble sale, but that book that Chrissy mentioned was the one I had signed by my favourite author. I stood for almost two hours at a bookstore in London waiting to get it signed.”
“So, what are you saying?”
“There were other books amongst the things in the jumble sale, but I don’t think that one was with them. I would never have given that book away. It meant too much to me.”
“So you are saying it was taken?”
Ali bows her head, when she looks back up at me, her brown eyes are filled with worry.
“I think the book must have been taken from the shelf in my bedroom.” Her shoulders are trembling, and I resist the overpowering urge to reach out and pull her into a tight embrace and tell her that everything will be alright. That over my dead body would I let anything bad happen to her. Instead, I move my hands to rest lightly on her shoulders.
“Ali, I need you to think, is there any way anyone could have had access to your home?”
“You mean anyone that could have broken into my house?”
“Not necessarily. Is there anyone you let in willingly?”
“That’s easy,” she replies. “There were only ever two people I had that sort of relationship with since I’ve been back here, you and my friend that I met at the hospital.”
“Your friend you met at the hospital?”
“Yeah, you remember, don’t you? I’m sure I would have mentioned her to you. I met her at a hospital volunteer day. We ran the Tombola together at the kids fair in Cranley. I found out she went to the same psychotherapist as me when I lost my mum.”
I honestly don’t remember her ever mentioning anything when we had been seeing one another. If she did, it must have only been in passing. It obviously hadn’t been enough for me to remember.
I rush Ali through to my office and yell at Chrissy to come and join us, whilst trying my best not to look at Ali. I can smell the perfume she is wearing and it brings back memories of the time we spent together. Sweet, like vanilla.
“Chrissy, I
think we might have a lead,” I yell.
Chrissy jogs from the back of the room and joins me at the office door. She pauses as she sees Ali and gives her a warm smile. Ali returns the gesture, looking a little uncomfortable and now thoroughly confused.
“I think I might have a lead too,” says Chrissy. She nods down at a manila folder she holds, then she looks back at Ali, unsure of whether to continue to tell me her discovery in her presence.
“It's okay, go on, Chrissy,” I urge.
Chrissy nods, and takes a step further into the office.
“I’ve found out who the mother of Jake’s daughter, Mia was.” She passes me an enlarged photo from the file she’s grasping. It’s from a Yorkshire-based newspaper dated just over a year ago. Before I have a chance to take it, Ali jumps up from her seat and moves to my side, snatching the piece of paper from Chrissy’s hand.
“That’s her,” she announces loudly.
“Who?” asks Chrissy, undoubtedly perplexed.
“That’s my friend, the one I've just been talking about.” She looks at me, her eyes wide. “Why do you have a photograph of her?”
I take the paper from Ali and inspect it myself. Something about the girl in the picture looks familiar; petite, small black-framed glasses hiding pretty, large, green eyes. Her hair is a different colour in this photo, dyed dark brown, but it's obvious to me almost instantaneously who this woman is. I remember her from back at school and see her around town occasionally now.
“Shit,” I say angrily, as my phone starts to ring, I reach into my pocket to answer the call from the police in Newcastle.
“Who is she Mark?” asks Chrissy urgently.
I slam my fist against the desk making both Ali and Chrissy jump. I’m annoyed that I’ve been so blinded by the situation with Ali; I’d failed to see something I should have picked up on well before now. “It’s Rose Donnelly,” I reply. “It’s been Rose Donnelly all along.”
Chapter 36
Rose
The first thing that you need to know about me is that I’m not really a bad person. A little messed up; probably, a little screwed in the head most definitely, but not really what I would categorize as bad. I didn’t want it to come to this, it’s just the way things worked out. You understand, right Emily?
I would watch you all the time back when we were at school. You were always so confident and positive, talented too. Everything you did, you seemed to excel in. You had so much ahead of you and could have picked any path that you wanted.
Jake was a good man, and yes, he made mistakes, but then haven’t we all? He doesn’t deserve the future he has been given and will now be in prison until he is an old man. He will be lucky to ever see the light of day again. But who are you to care? You moved on with your life, just like I have tried to do. But I can’t.
We started to see each other when you were still together, Jake and I. We met at the building firm he worked for in Cranley, where I was temping at the time. I knew I wasn’t the only one, there were a couple of other women in his life and that didn’t matter back then. I was glad when you left him and the two of you finally split up for good. However, I also knew you were the one that he would never forget and he hasn’t. To this day, I’m sure he still wonders what it would have been like to still be with you. The one that got away.
We had only been together a short time when we moved away from Sandbroke and had a reasonably good life together for a while. We had a child together and I hoped to one day be Jake’s wife, but things soon started to get bumpy and he kept getting himself into trouble.
Then, the car crash happened and he was sent down for causing the death of our daughter. He had been riding the wrong path for years by then. He had been in and out of prison for numerous reasons and was a consistently heavy drinker. One day he took it too far, resulting in him killing Mia.
My whole world suddenly came crashing down around me that day. I struggled to cope alone. I moved back to my old home town and for a while I got on with my life. I endeavored to put Jake behind me, and slowly started to succeed. I tried with all my might to get over losing Mia too. I couldn’t.
I met Ali at a charity event at the hospital in Cranley soon after I had returned to Sandbroke. She was in a real mess back then, wracked by grief from losing her mother so suddenly. She was seeing a bereavement counselor and so was I, to help me with the loss of my daughter, the same one in fact. What are the chances?
We started talking and soon found we had quite a bit in common. Of course, she didn’t know who I was. She didn’t remember me from school, as I knew she wouldn’t. Soon I began to hatch a plan—to use her to get you back to Sandbroke.
We saw each quite a few times. She kindly let me into her life and her home, as I anticipated she would. Her relationship with Mark Logan hadn’t worked out in the way she had hoped. I honestly felt sorry for her. She was heartbroken and I’m ashamed to say I used her state to my advantage. I set everything up to make it appear that Ali had gone missing. I knew she had gone to stay with Jenna for a couple of weeks, so it was a perfect opportunity to get you back to Sandbroke. Everything worked exactly as I planned. Congratulations, Emily, you fell into every trap I set.
I was in the perfect position to make your life hell, which I admit is all I intended to do. Why should you get to live a perfect life after being with Jake, when I couldn't? I was also intrigued to see what the woman Jake had never really gotten over looked like now.
When I discovered you had a daughter and that Jake was her father everything changed. I was shocked that Jake had never found out about her, but I never told him. Instead, I went to find her. Once I did, I had full intentions of telling her all about her dad. I took a picture of her shopping and sent it to you. I got the gun from an old contact of Jake’s, the same person who also showed me how to hack into a personal e-mail account. Just one of the many non-law abiding citizens that he is well acquainted with. I took the gun with me, not to harm anybody, but I admit I wanted to scare you.
I pray for your forgiveness one day, Emily. I understand that it’s a big ask, but until you have been in my position you will never know how it feels. What more can I say?
See you soon.
Chapter 37
I sit in the kitchen of my home staring at a space in the middle of the table I have polished more than ten times since I returned home an hour ago. It's strange to think that it was only five days ago that this whole thing started. This is the same place I sat when I spoke to Chrissy on the telephone and learnt of Ali’s supposed disappearance. Where this story began is also where it will end.
Lucy is now in the hospital getting checked over by the doctors, but I’ve been assured she is fine. In fact, I think at this moment in time she is handling things better than I am. Mum and Dad have gone with her and left me to have some time alone. Although I declined their offer profusely, they insisted that I would be better off coming home rather than going to the hospital after I had spoken to the police earlier. In the end, I agreed.
I told the police everything I know and I am no closer to justifying the reasons behind what Rose did. I can only imagine it was done through the pain of losing her daughter and the torture that Jake must have put her through. Now Rose is dead, and I won’t ever get answers to the questions I have. I hope that one day I will be able to forgive her for what she did. Right now, though, it seems impossible. They say time is a great healer and I’m hoping that in this case, it is.
Mark called me earlier and filled me in on the final missing puzzle pieces after speaking with Ali further, which has made me see how incredibly simple Rose’s whole plan was.
The car that tried to run me over was found stored in a garage at Rose’s mum’s home where Rose started living when she returned from Yorkshire and took over managing the holiday park a year ago, just after Mia had died. The car was a red mini cooper registered to Rose. Along with the car, during a search of the property, the police also found a black wig and more of Ali’s clothes, amo
ng them a pale blue shirt. The person I thought I saw and that Claudia thought she saw at the holiday park was never Ali at all, just Rose cleverly disguised to look like her. She’d been playing games as she had been since the start when she sent me the e-mail, toying with us all to get to what she really wanted all along—me.
Rose had taken a spare key from Ali’s home on one of the occasions she had been invited in for a coffee and got copies made, one of which she gave to me, before replacing it so Ali was none the wiser. The other, she kept herself, enabling her access into Ali’s house whenever she wanted. They will never know if Rose was ever in the house at the same time as Ali without Ali knowing. From all angles it seemed Rose was a chancer, so the possibility is high that this may have happened at some point. She had also stolen personal items some with Ali’s handwriting, making it easy for her to forge the notes to me. It’s all so clear now. The e-mail was used to get me back to Sandbroke, and using Ali was an easy way to do this because she knew how close we once were. The notes, messages, and fake sightings of Ali were all to make sure I stayed in Sandbroke. What her eventual plans were for me I’ll never know. Her original plans changed the moment she found a photo of Lucy in my purse at the cabin, and discovered Jake had another daughter.
I honestly don’t believe that she came here to harm Lucy. I think she couldn’t bear the fact that my daughter was alive and hers wasn’t. She wanted to see her in the flesh, and when she did, she became jealous of me, which is why she sent the photo and held my daughter at gunpoint, not to harm Lucy, but to put me through pain too. I saw the photo of Mia; her resemblance to Lucy was uncanny. Two beautiful young girls, one of whom was sadly robbed of a future by the one person who should have gone out of his way to protect her. In my eyes, Jake is the one who deserves to be dead.
When Lucy returns from the hospital, she heads straight to bed, exhausted by the day’s events. I tuck her in and lightly kiss her on the forehead, something I have done since she was a baby. I continue to clean the house using any excuse to preoccupy my mind.