by D. S. Butler
I shook my head. Typical police officer. Answering my question with one of her own.
“No. Did you ask those officers you spoke to outside to go and talk to Mrs Taverne.”
“We are following up all leads, Beth. I don’t know what Mrs Taverne has got to do with this case, but we will look into it.”
Sergeant Parker greeted a colleague who walked past us and paused outside an interview room. She pulled keys from her pocket, unlocked the door and opened it, allowing me to enter ahead of her. I was starting to feel I’d been brought here under false pretences.
There was a selection of papers in piles on the desk, which stood in the centre of the small room. An old-fashioned tape recorder sat at one end of the desk. There was only one window in the room — a narrow, long strip, close to the ceiling, showing a glimpse of the blue sky outside.
Sergeant Parker sat down and nodded for me to do the same. She smiled at me.
“This shouldn’t take long, Beth.” She shuffled some of the paperwork and selected a form.
I waited, trying to focus on Sergeant Parker, but my mind kept wandering. Had those officers gone directly to speak to Mrs Taverne? What did an old lady who’d lived in Woodstock all her life have to do with Jenna’s disappearance?
Sergeant Parker brought me back to the present by tapping her pen against the desk. “Before we start, I need to tell you I’m aware of the incident yesterday at Robin Vaughan’s residence.”
“Ah, right. I thought you might have heard about that.”
“It was a reckless thing to do, Beth. I’ve spoken to the officers who attended the incident, and they’re happy to hand things over to me. Robin Vaughan isn’t going to press charges.”
“I should think not!”
“You did trespass onto his property and trick your way into his house, Beth. You’re lucky this isn’t going to go any further.”
I didn’t feel particularly lucky at the moment. I wanted to get to the hospital and talk to Dawn again, but instead, I was listening to Sergeant Parker give me a ticking off.
Arguing my case wasn’t going to get me anywhere, and since it looked as though I was going to get off with a warning, I nodded and tried to look repentant. “I won’t do it again.”
“Okay, well, we’ll leave it at that. I wanted you to come in today to ask you some questions about your relationship with Dawn prior to when Jenna went missing.”
“My relationship with Dawn?”
Sergeant Parker nodded, rested her elbows on the table and looked at me intently. “Yes.”
“I didn’t have any kind of relationship with Dawn. We weren’t friends if that’s what you mean. We went to the same school and travelled on the same school bus when we were in secondary school. That’s all we had in common.”
“We haven’t been able to get Dawn to open up about Jenna, but she has told us about some bullying incidents in the past.”
I rolled my eyes. “Seriously. A five-year-old child is missing. Is Dawn seriously trying to make herself out to be the victim?”
“So, you don’t know anything about this bullying?”
I shook my head, unable to believe we were wasting time on this. “She was bullied at school. Lots of kids are. I didn’t bully her, and neither did Kate if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“I’m just trying to gather information. I’m not ‘getting at’ anything.”
I said nothing. I’d warmed to Sergeant Leanne Parker when we’d met her for the first time. At least, as much as I could under the circumstances. Now, I was starting to change my mind.
I glanced at the clock on the wall, wondering whether the officers would be at Mrs Taverne’s house yet. Dawn had to be at the hospital by now.
“Who was involved in the bullying, Beth?”
“I can’t remember. It was a long time ago, and Dawn wasn’t in the same year as me. Can you tell me what happened to Marjorie?”
“It looks like she took too many sleeping tablets. Luckily, she was found in time.”
“So she’s going to be okay?”
“The doctors are optimistic.”
“The first officers on the scene said there were signs of a break-in.”
Sergeant Parker nodded slowly. “Yes. We are looking at that. Nothing was taken, but when Marjorie came around in the hospital, she was adamant she had never taken sleeping pills in her life.”
I frowned. “Do you think someone tried to poison Marjorie?”
“It’s too early for me to comment on that yet. Let’s finish up here. I think I have all I need to complete the paperwork.”
I raised an eyebrow as I reached for my handbag. “If I were a cynical person, I might think you’d engineered me running into Dawn like that earlier.”
Sergeant Parker’s cheeks coloured, telling me I was right, and I thought that was an unfortunate tendency for a police officer who tried to play her cards close to her chest.
“A coincidence,” she said, and her cheeks were reddened further.
“Timed perfectly.”
Sergeant Parker opened the door, and I followed her out into the corridor.
“Do you think Dawn was involved in taking Jenna?” I asked.
“I can’t say for sure—”
“I’m not asking about the facts. I’m asking you what you believe. Do you think Dawn was involved in a plot to abduct Jenna?”
Sergeant Parker took a deep breath before replying. “I don’t know whether she was involved in a plot or conspired with others.”
The disappointment must have been clear on my face. For once, I wanted one of the police officers involved in this case to tell me their personal opinion, their gut reaction.
“There is one thing I know for sure, though,” she said, locking the door behind us. “I’m convinced Dawn knows what happened that day.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
I took a taxi back to Woodstock. Detective Sergeant Parker offered to arrange transport for me, but I turned her down. I intended to go straight to Mrs Taverne’s house but didn’t want the police to know that.
Unfortunately, when the taxi approached the end of the High Street and pulled up outside Mrs Taverne’s three-bedroom terrace, which was next to Pippa Clarkson’s house, I saw that the marked police car was still there and muttered a curse under my breath. The officers must be still questioning Mrs Taverne.
I thanked the taxi driver and paid him and then stood on the edge of the pavement wondering what to do next. After crossing to the other side of the road, I waited beside the old Barclays Bank. I wanted to know as soon as the officers left so I could talk to Mrs Taverne as soon as possible.
What could she know about Jenna’s disappearance? I couldn’t help thinking Dawn had sent me on a wild goose chase. Perhaps this was her way of avoiding confrontation.
The sun was hot, and I was thankful for the shade from the trees in front of the bank. I leant back against the wall, wondering whether I should wait somewhere less conspicuous. I was considering my options when my mobile phone beeped.
I pulled out my phone, thinking it was probably Mum wondering where I was, but the message was from an unrecognised number. My heart skipped a beat, and I held my breath as I opened the message. Could it be another message from Dawn about Jenna? But wouldn’t the police be watching her closely while she was visiting Marjorie in the hospital?
I soon saw it wasn’t from Dawn.
We need to talk. Meet me by the Churchill statue at Blenheim asap.
Robin Vaughan.
I stared at the message. My gut reaction was to ignore it. Robin Vaughan was the last person I wanted to meet right now. How could I delete the message, though? What if he wanted to confess his involvement in Jenna’s disappearance?
I gritted my teeth. It was no good. I couldn’t ignore it. I would have to meet him.
I typed out a text message, telling him I’d be there soon, and with a last, lingering glance at Mrs Taverne’s house, I turned off the High Street and headed down the ste
ps that would take me out onto the main road.
I passed Robin Vaughan’s house on the way. It would have been much easier to meet him there without all this cloak and dagger stuff. Who knew a music producer would be so dramatic?
When I got to the main road, I pulled out my phone again to call Mum. Although I didn’t want to worry her, there was no way I was going off to meet Robin Vaughan without telling anyone. I’d seen enough episodes of Crimewatch to know that was a terrible idea.
Of course, Mum thought meeting Robin Vaughan was a ridiculous thing to do. At first, she tried to persuade me not to go and to tell the police about the message, and then when she realised I was going to go and meet him anyway, she wanted to come along. It took me a few minutes to convince her that wasn’t a possibility.
“I don’t think he’s a threat,” I said. “I’m going to meet him in public, so I’m sure it will be fine.”
“I really don’t think it’s a good idea, Beth.”
“You’re probably right, but I have to talk to him just in case he wants to tell me something about Jenna.”
I changed the subject then, telling Mum about Marjorie’s suspicious overdose and relaying what Dawn had told me about Mrs Taverne.
Opposite the Black Prince pub was a blue wooden gate, which looked like it led to a private residence, but actually led to the public right of way to Blenheim. I wasn’t planning to visit as a tourist, and so I pushed open the gate with one hand and kept my mobile clamped to my ear with the other.
I turned right when I got to the walkway. Rabbits, disturbed from their foraging, darted to safety as I approached.
“I can’t understand how Mrs Taverne would be involved,” Mum said. “I think Dawn fed you a line. I’d like to get my hands on that girl and shake the truth out of her.”
I knew how she felt. “Well, I’ll try to find out what, if anything, Mrs Taverne knows after I’ve finished with Robin Vaughan.”
“Beth, call me as soon as you finish with this meeting and let me know you’re safe. If I don’t hear from you within twenty minutes, I’m going to call the police.”
“I will. I promise.”
After I had hung up, I walked faster, squinting at the tall column in the distance. I could just make out the statue of John Churchill perched on top of the column, but I was still too far away to see if Robin Vaughan was there already.
As I rounded the corner by the lake, I surprised a flock of geese, which in turn flapped their wings and made an awful racket. I carefully skirted around the group. Geese could be vicious, and an altercation was the last thing I needed today.
I marched on, and when I reached the hill, I was already out of breath. There was a figure beside the column, and I guessed it was Robin Vaughan. It was just my luck that there was nobody else around at the moment. I had a hollow feeling in my stomach, and I started to suspect agreeing to meet him here had been the wrong decision. I kept climbing steadily until I reached the top.
He turned to face me, and I could tell he’d been drinking. He wasn’t clutching a whisky bottle now but was unsteady on his feet, and his bloodshot eyes were wide and staring as I walked up to him.
“What’s all this about?” I asked, trying to sound more confident than I felt.
He licked his lips and moved closer to me, making my skin crawl.
“I told the police I didn’t see your niece that day, but I did.”
A thin smile stretched over his lips, and I felt sick. I imagined myself punching him in the face. Violence was never the answer, so they said, but if I’d been holding a knife right now…
“What did you do?” My voice was barely a whisper.
His smile disappeared and was replaced with a frown. “I told you I didn’t do anything. But I saw her.”
I shook my head and began to turn away. “Is that all you’ve got to tell me? You saw her. So did a hundred other people at the fête. How exactly does that help me?”
“Because I saw her with a woman. It wasn’t you or your sister. I don’t know her name, but—”
I cut him off. “Was it Dawn Parsons?”
“Who?”
“Dark hair, taller than me, about five foot ten, and a large build?”
He shook his head. “I’m not sure, maybe.”
He smiled as though he was enjoying this, and I realised he was wasting my time.
“You’ve made this up, haven’t you?”
He scowled at me and pushed his reddened face close to mine. “I’m trying to help.”
“Of course you are. You’re quite the moral citizen, aren’t you?”
He pulled back as though hurt. “Why are you so nasty?”
I looked at him in disbelief. “Because you’re wasting my time. Even if you didn’t have anything to do with Jenna’s disappearance, you are still an evil, sick man.”
He took a step back away from me and stumbled as he stepped into a rabbit hole. I imagined shoving him and sending him hurtling down the hill. But I just stood there with my arms at my sides.
“I thought you’d want to know about the woman.”
“Some nameless woman, whom you’ve probably invented to take the heat off of yourself. Are you expecting me to go to the police with this? Do you think it will clear your name?”
He shrugged. “It might. I didn’t do it. I never touched her. The police are wasting their time.”
“And you’re wasting mine. What else can you tell me about this woman? Was she taking Jenna off somewhere? Did Jenna look upset?”
“No, she looked happy enough.”
“And the woman? What did she look like?”
“Quite average really. I wasn’t paying much attention. At the time, I didn’t know it was going to be important.”
“So that’s it?”
“What?”
“That’s all you have to tell me?”
He hesitated as though he thought it might be a trick question and then he nodded.
I turned and walked away. He didn’t bother to follow me or call out. I had been an idiot to believe Robin Vaughan was going to tell me anything useful.
When I reached the bottom of the hill, I pulled out my mobile and gave Mum a ring to reassure her I was safe.
“Oh, thank God. Did he tell you anything?”
“Nothing useful. It was a waste of time. He said he saw Jenna at the fête with a woman, but he couldn’t describe her. To be honest, I think he made it up.”
“Nasty man.”
“I’m going to head to Mrs Taverne’s house now and see if she can shed any light on why Dawn told me to speak to her.”
“I’d offer to come with you, but I just had a call from DI Sharp. They are resuming their questioning of Dawn soon, but he got called away when he was on the phone. I don’t want to get your hopes up, but it sounded like there had been a development.”
My fingers tightened around the phone. “Really? What did he say?”
“Nothing concrete. But I could hear a voice in the background. They said something about Dawn’s financial records. Then DI Sharp said he had to go, but he’d call me back soon.”
I sighed and raised my head, looking up at the clear blue sky as the swallows and swifts swooped overhead. Had the police finally made a breakthrough?
“Do you think I should come straight home?” I asked.
“Well, I’m not sure how long it will be before DI Sharp gets back to us. You may as well go and see Mrs Taverne, and I’ll give you a ring if anything happens.”
I agreed and said goodbye to Mum before hanging up. After two years of pain and inertia, feeling like we were never going to get to the bottom of Jenna’s disappearance, it finally seemed things were starting to go our way.
Chapter Forty
It didn’t take me long to get to Mrs Taverne’s house. She lived next door to Pippa Clarkson, and architecturally her house was similar although not as well maintained.
Old net curtains hung in the windows on the ground floor to stop passers-by peering in. I c
limbed the stone steps to her red front door and used the brass knocker.
It seemed as though I waited for ages for Mrs Taverne to open the door. I bit my lip and shuffled from foot to foot. She was in her eighties now, and she’d been hard of hearing twenty years ago, so I wondered whether she even heard me knock. I was contemplating trying again when I saw a shadow move beyond the glass panel in the door.
She finally opened the door but kept the chain on and peered over the top of it, the skin around her eyes wrinkling as she squinted at me.
“Yes?”
“Mrs Taverne, I don’t know if you remember me. I’m Beth Farrow, you used to play the piano when I was at school.”
Mrs Taverne stopped frowning, but she didn’t smile. Her eyes looked sad. “Beth, I was so sorry to hear about the troubles your family has endured over the past couple of years.”
Her words gave me pause. She’d known both Kate and me as children, and of course, would have heard what happened after Jenna went missing.
“Thank you. I wondered if I could come in and ask you a few questions.”
Mrs Taverne blinked in surprise and then she pushed the front door shut. I was stunned. What had I said to upset her?
It wasn’t long before I realised she was just closing the door so she could remove the security chain. She pulled the door open again and stepped back.
“Of course, dear. Come in.”
I followed her inside. The hallway was dark, with no windows. The dim light wasn’t helped by the dark red striped wallpaper. The carpet was thick beneath my feet, but the swirled pattern was old-fashioned, and it was worn in the centre from years of foot traffic.
I wondered when the house had last been decorated. Decades ago, I assumed. But painters and decorators were expensive, and when you got to Mrs Taverne’s age, with her infirmities, it wasn’t possible to do the job yourself.
I felt a pang of guilt as I followed her into the small sitting room. It wouldn’t have hurt me to visit Mrs Taverne now and again and ask if she needed help.
“Can I get you a cup of tea, dear?” Mrs Taverne said. She clasped her hands in front of her chest and looked at me through blue, cloudy eyes.