by D. E. White
Sophie Miles smiled coolly showing very white, even teeth. Throughout the story, she had maintained an impartial, emotionless stance, occasionally prodding for further memories, but she must surely be shocked. ‘You’re right, it won’t be possible. I can’t let you become involved at all, but there is nothing to stop you ringing them before I send someone round. Which will be as soon as we finish our conversation.’
‘It’s okay. My fault, I should have done it years ago.’
‘You should.’ The ice in her voice was noticeable, and Ava felt herself rebuked.
‘You worked the original mispo case, didn’t you?’
‘I did. Ellen Smith’s case was one of the first I worked on, and it’s one that has stayed with me, so now, to find that – as I feared – there is far more to it than a teenage runaway… Let’s just say I wish one of you had come forward a long time ago. You know, of course, that the likelihood of us managing to get a viable suspect, let alone a prosecution, on this, is negligible.’
‘Understood.’ She couldn’t say anything else. No excuses, no promises.
For the first time, warmth coloured the other woman’s voice, and she returned to the facts. ‘And the rest, well, that is a lot to process. Let me just double check a few details. You were fifteen when Ellen was assaulted, or raped, and then murdered. You thought it was an accident, but recently discovered it wasn’t. You had a baby two years later, and went on to marry Paul Jones. You were the only one that night who didn’t realise what really happened to Ellen. And after you left Wales you didn’t have any more than sporadic contact with anyone else who was involved?’
Ava shook her head. ‘No. In fact none at all, until my aunt – she lived in Cadrington for a while – began sending emails with news of Stephen. Eventually, Paul and I would email each other a couple of times a year, just with brief updates. That was it. He… he asked me to stay away from Stephen until he was eighteen. I agreed this was for the best.’ She knew she could have told the truth about Paul’s threats, but a strange remnant of loyalty remained. Or was it guilt? Paul would die soon, and he had been a good dad from what she could see. Let it rest. For now.
‘And whilst you were still in Wales, how did you as a group handle Ellen’s disappearance? It must have put a strain on relationships…’ She turned the heater up, pulling her ski jacket tighter around her shoulders. ‘This bloody weather. You’d think I would be used to it after all these years.’
‘It did. We were so bloody scared. Of course, now I see that the others were far more so than me, knowing Ellen didn’t die in an accident. Leo and I fought a lot anyway. He was going to uni, I wasn’t sure what the hell I was going to do. Penny and Paul broke up. She started to see some boy who worked in the factories at Cadrington.’ Ava remembered the needless arguments, the fretting about the police investigation, all mixed with the usual teenage stresses of exams and parental relationships.
It was to spite Leo, and because they were both lonely and afraid, that she had slept with Paul. Their stuttering relationship had infuriated Leo, and Rhodri had expressed surprise at the pairing. As Paul went off to do work experience on another farm she saw less of him, but they continued to refer to each other as boyfriend and girlfriend. One night, meeting Leo off the coach from Cardiff, where he had been to a university interview, they had slept together one last time.
That fatal mistake had resulted in her pregnancy. There could be no chance Paul was the father, as she’d had her period right before her night with Leo, then had felt so guilty she’d dodged Paul for the next month, telling him she needed time to sort her head out. With Leo leaving Aberdyth, and Paul and his family offering a home she had felt there was no choice but to lie. Where Leo was wild, not likely to settle down, and would have been horrified (she felt) at the prospect of a child, Paul was delighted. He’d proposed, and his dad talked couldn’t stop talking about another generation for the farm.
It was a huge mistake, and yet another secret simmering under the surface. Now as a teenager, Stephen looked just like his dad. His dark-blue eyes and bone structure were all Leo’s, yet at no time had anyone pointed it out. At least to her knowledge. Had Paul or Penny guessed?
‘Are you all right, Ava?’ Sophie’s voice pierced her thoughts, skewering the sadness that now threatened to overwhelm her.
‘I think it’s just reliving the past. There so many memories I have tried to bury. Oh, not about Ellen,’ she said quickly. ‘More about screwing up motherhood.’
‘Your son is taking part in Tough Love, you said?’
‘Yeah. I arrived, and he disappeared off to the camp in the hills,’ Ava said, trying to smile.
For the first time, she detected a real warmth in Sophie’s expression. ‘If it’s any consolation, my teenage daughters won’t speak to me at all at the moment.’ It was almost like she had been reserving judgement on Ava.
‘Are you from round here originally?’ Exhausted, Ava felt the need for some small talk, and a quick breather before she delved back into the past, dragging her memories out like a line of blood-stained washing flapping in the breeze.
Sophie took out a packet of chewing gum and offered some to Ava. ‘My parents moved out to Wales when I was twelve. It was a bit of a culture shock, but I was used to moving around. My father was in the RAF, and he moved into training.’
‘The Mach Loop?’ Ava ventured.
‘Yes. I’m surprised you remember that.’
‘One of the guys I share a house with is crazy on RAF stuff, and military aircraft in general. There is a forum where you can watch all the low-level flight training videos between Dolgellau and Machynlleth. I’ll admit, when he showed me, it was kind of weird. I spent years trying to forget Wales, and suddenly I’m sharing a home with a guy who keeps trying to remind me of the place.’ Ava smiled, and took her time unwrapping the gum, twisting the silver paper into a ball as she thought. ‘You know, after that night everyone was terrified. It was the opposite of huddling together. We hardly spoke to each other except to argue. I think everyone put it down to the fact that we were so shocked by Ellen’s disappearance. Can I ask you something?’
‘You can, but if it’s about the case, I may not be able to answer.’
‘When you investigated Ellen’s disappearance, did you have any potential perps? Any real leads?’
Sophie looked away, apparently studying the bleak landscape out the window. When she looked back she shrugged. ‘There were a couple, but nothing I can share at this stage.’
‘Fair enough.’ Ava was thinking that she could look up the press reports from the time, and perhaps as Sophie got to know her, prove she was trustworthy.
‘It was one of those cases that doesn’t ever really go away. It’s like having something stuck in your back teeth, and all the niggling in the world can’t shift it.’ Sophie smiled thinly. ‘I always did think there was more to Ellen’s disappearance than just a teenager running away.’
‘I don’t remember you.’
‘It was a long time ago, wasn’t it? We probably didn’t even meet. I was busy doing all the legwork with a couple of other uniforms.’ She glanced back at her notes, ignoring her phone, which was buzzing. ‘Going back to Ellen’s body. You say she was originally buried on Paul’s farm? Can I ask who suggested that?’
‘Huw. He said that if the police did suspect anything else other than a runaway, they might get search dogs out. He said he’d seen a movie where a body was hidden under a cattle shed to put the dogs off the scent. We had a picnic blanket that we’d hidden in the woods. We used it for our Friday night parties. It was easy for the boys to wrap Ellen’s body in that and transport it across the field to the sheep pen below Paul’s farm. Once she was wrapped up, they seemed to find it easier. I tried to pretend it wasn’t Ellen inside at all…’ She wiped tears crossly from her face.
The DI shoved a tissue in her direction. ‘But the body was moved. Why was that?’
‘It was. That was just before I left. I suppose you could
say it was the final stressor that drove me to run. There was a lot of new housing going up on land between Aberdyth and Cadrington, and one of the developers approached Paul’s dad about the farm. His mum had passed away a few years before, so it was just Paul and his dad. Anyway, the outline of the proposed development went as far as the local planning department, and Paul showed us all. Fifteen hundred houses right across the old sheep pen where Ellen was buried.’ Exhausted, Ava yawned. ‘Sorry.’
Sophie turned the car heater down. ‘Who suggested the move?’
‘It was Leo and Paul really. Paul was desperate, because of course it was his land, and Leo was always his best friend. He would back him in anything. Huw and Jesse agreed in the end, and Penny and I weren’t given any option to vote.’
‘Jesse is the boy who died in the road accident?’
‘Yes. Here actually.’ Ava indicated the road in front of them.
‘I’ll get the files on the accident. So Ellen’s body was moved to East Wood?’
‘Yes. I wasn’t supposed to be there, but I sneaked out. Stephen was sleeping, and Paul’s dad was just across the landing anyway. I… I just couldn’t think about anything but seeing Ellen. It sounds mad, but I’d almost convinced myself that maybe it wasn’t her, that maybe she really had run away.’
Sophie flicked her a sidelong glance and made another note.
‘I know, but my mental state by then, was just this side of sanity.’ Ava hesitated for a moment, and then added, ‘Leo was pressuring me to leave Paul and get back with him. We were just teenagers, far too young to be married with a baby.’
‘I understand. You don’t have to explain your reasons for running away. We all know that the human mind is an incredibly strong tool, but it has limits. You had reached yours. Getting back to Ellen, did you actually see them move the body?’
‘Yes. I don’t remember whether she had the hair band and bracelet on though. I would imagine whoever took them did it when she died. The fabric doesn’t look degraded enough to have been stored in the ground for a few years.’ Ava put the objects on the palm of her hand and offered them to Sophie.
The other woman took them gently, holding them up to the light. ‘Trophies, then?’
‘That’s what I concluded,’ Ava said.
‘And yet they were given to you. Interesting. I’ll be in touch. Naturally you realise this makes it difficult for any of your evidence to be admissible, just because of your involvement. Can I keep these for a while?’ Sophie was frowning again. ‘In essence we have a mispo cold case, and this new mispo with the two girls from the film set, both connected to you. It doesn’t look good. But you know that.’
‘Of course, and I do realise that this is a weird situation. At the moment, I am most concerned for Bethan and the other girl. It seems perfectly clear to me that they were taken as an escalation of the warnings left for me. I will call you as soon as I have any contact from the perp, because, as you say, this is a game to them.’
‘But are these connections with you warnings, or are they just to lure you into going along with whatever they are planning? I agree it seems very possible you were supposed to be scared into silence… but if the original suspect killed Ellen, and left her for your friends to find, or one of your friends killed Ellen and has now taken these other girls, either way the outlook doesn’t look good. You say the messages started before you even left LA?’
‘Yes, I noted the dates and times, and I gave them to DS Sharon yesterday.’ Ava frowned. ‘I did wonder why I should be warned off before I even returned to Aberdyth, but it would have been common knowledge that Paul was terminally ill, and he and Penny would have mentioned I had been invited to come back. Word would have got round very quickly.’
‘It could be just the fact you are now with the police that rattled the suspect, but I would say it goes deeper. This has the hallmarks of a control freak. They like to keep us jumping, and they are arrogant enough to assume we will keep following them. It’s a challenge, to keep stringing you along. These objects left, the photographs posted online, the message sending you down to Big Water this morning to find the body… it’s almost like—’
‘A treasure hunt, with Bethan as the prize? Shit, I hope not.’ Ava rubbed her forehead, feeling a niggling soreness lurking behind her temples. She hadn’t had migraines for years.
‘Did you tell anyone apart from Leo about the photographs, and the fact you felt it was going to be necessary to come clean about Ellen’s death?’
‘No. Since I’ve been back, I’ve spoken to everyone who was in the woods that night, apart from Jesse of course, and I would say most of them were fairly convinced that I was coming back to, as you say, come clean. I tried to make it clear I wasn’t, until now.’
Sophie gave her one of those hard looks, and Ava felt like a kid kept back after recess. Just like that she’d made her decision and torn their lives apart, after stressing that was exactly what she wasn’t going to do. ‘You know, the photographs are nothing compared to the fact that Ellen was murdered, that these girls are now missing, the fact that history seems to be repeating itself.’ A chill, that had nothing to do with the weather, swept over her body, and the ice settled in her chest, because she couldn’t ignore the timing. This was about her, and nothing was going to stop her from finding those girls and bringing them home. The windscreen was patterned with condensation, and Ava was surprised to see Ellen’s face outside, dark hair flying in the wind, eyes serious for once, her pretty mouth set in a worried frown.
Sophie nodded briskly, banishing the ghosts of the past. ‘Right. You have all my numbers, and we’ve already got the search and rescue teams out looking for Bethan. Can you send me copies of any more texts? Keep your phone on all the time in case the suspect tries to contact you again. If you remember anything else at all, either about the more recent issues, or about the night Ellen was killed, ring me straight away.’
Perceptive and smart, Ava thought. This woman was a winner, no mistake. ‘I’ll update you as soon as anything comes in. Oh, and Jack, my boss, is emailing over the file connected to the photographs. Here, I’ve got one of his cards, so you can get him direct if you need to.’ She met Sophie’s cool eyes. ‘Just let me call him first.’
‘I’ll drop you back at the B&B. You get anything else, you contact me direct. I’ve got a colleague, DI Hevis, coming down to take over the mispo case. He’s a top bloke, so Bethan will be in safe hands, but I’ll remain in overall charge.’ She scowled briefly. ‘Which as you know just means I get all the flak from the DCI, but make no mistake, my top priority is getting these teenagers home alive. Stay safe, Ava, and don’t do anything stupid, will you?’
Chapter 22
The afternoon was filled with savage snow flurries, and Ava could easily imagine the trouble the teams down by Big Water were having, trying to salvage any crime scene evidence.
‘Ava, you’re very good at your job, and I’ll fight your corner, but depending on what happens with the Welsh cops, there will have to be an investigation over here too.’ Jack took a breath down the phone, and she could hear the flick of a lighter, seabirds screaming and the background crash and hiss of waves on the beach. ‘It’s a fucking shame you didn’t come clean about it on the night it happened though.’
She wanted to scream that she knew that, and yes, she had made mistake after mistake, but now was the time to make things right. Ava forced herself to respond coolly, calmly. ‘I’m aware of that, and thank you for your understanding.’
He rang off, clearly pissed with her, and rightly so. Fucking hell, it had begun already. Next thing would probably be a procession of her childhood friends coming up the road to lynch her. Ava reminded herself she was a fighter, and just now nothing in the future mattered as much as bringing those girls home safe.
She had trudged down to Ellen’s parents’ bungalow as soon as Sophie dropped her off, and nearly cried with frustration when she found they were out for the day. Mrs Dressin, who lived next door, told he
r they were visiting an estate agent in Cadrington, and had only left half an hour ago.
Oh, Christ, could she really do this by phone? By the time the Smiths got back, half the Cadrington force, including Sophie herself, would be waiting for them.
Ava tapped out the mobile phone number Jackie had given her on her visit the other day. It went straight to answer phone. What could she do? Short of driving into Cadrington and stalking around the estate agents herself… She rang one more time, holding her breath, praying that Jackie would answer. She didn’t, ‘Hi Jackie. There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you about Ellen. Please call me as soon as you get this, and… I’m so, so sorry.’
That was it. It was all she could do – the ultimate anti-climax of years of secrecy and guilt, and the ultimate betrayal of trust. Ellen was everywhere suddenly, as though by exposing her secrets, Ava had released a genie from a bottle. She only had to sit and relax her mind for a moment and the memories flooded back. This was the bend in the road where she had been sick, and Ellen had held her hair back, that field was where they had played football, endlessly arguing about who was in goal. That was the tree they had scrawled their initials on. Even the local store still had sweets laid out on display, just as they had been when she and Ellen each stole a handful of dolly mixtures…
Ava sat cross-legged on her bed, iPad open and a neat pile of notepads and pens beside her. Sophie would investigate officially, and Ava had no doubt she would do everything in her power. But, she, Ava would also work the mispo case. This was what Ellen had wanted, she realised suddenly, admitting once again to herself that she had failed last time. This time would be different.
Making a rough timeline, from when Leo said the girls first went missing, she worked up to Alex’s murder. Every text message she had ever been sent by the perp was dissected yet again. She must have missed something. If Alex had found a lead, then so could she. Remembering the names he had been querying, she quickly Googled Andrew Menzies, her old primary school headmaster.