The Girls Next Door

by Mel Sherratt

  After the noise and commotion of the day, she was glad to sit in silence. But thoughts of Ashleigh Proctor soon infiltrated her mind. Why did her father think she could have done any more for Ashleigh? It wasn’t her fault that she had died. She had tried her best. She had only been there to listen, to be someone to talk to. But then again, maybe she could have listened more. Guilt pulsed through her as she thought of the night in question.

  At least they had a name for him now, although why he would give out his details was beyond her. They might be able to trace him quicker for sure, so it was good for Jess. Eden said they would find him soon. It was all she could think about. Josie Mellor and her friends had been fantastic today, and she was ashamed of breaking down in front of them and telling them all to leave. Her house had been full of people wanting to help. Everyone had been so generous with their time. Maxine had been out talking to people in the park, as well as making endless cups of tea, despite worrying about Katie. She had been a huge support to Laura. Maxine had far too much to think about with Katie and the trial to be thinking of her family too. Laura must thank her properly soon.

  She glanced at the television again, the image of her daughter smiling back at her. She felt numb, sick, shocked, fearful all at the same time. She couldn’t even cry any more.

  Laura needed to rest too. She had a long day ahead of her and hoped it would be a good outcome. She wrapped her arms around herself. The police would find Jess. She wouldn’t allow herself to think anything else.

  Eden wouldn’t let her down.

  Sunday 11 October 2015

  Chapter Sixty-Two

  It was 6 a.m. Jason Proctor stared at the girl as she slept, the light of the small lamp next to her illuminating her face. Her head lolled to one side, but he didn’t feel any guilt for making her sit in the chair. He wasn’t going to take any chances that she would try and escape again. Not until he had done what he’d set out to do.

  Her mother needed to know what she had done. She had taken Ashleigh away from him. She had no right to do that. She’d let her down. She wasn’t doing her job properly. It was all her fault.

  He groaned loudly. Who was he trying to kid? He’d tried to talk himself into this state of mind several times since Friday night, since he had taken the girl. But still it didn’t sit right with him. He wondered if he should just let her go. Drive her to somewhere and dump her. But she would be able to identify him.

  Maybe he should just do a runner. There wasn’t anything here for him any more. No wife, no daughter, no beautiful home he’d cherished. Everything he held precious had gone within a matter of three years.

  It was Ashleigh’s sixteenth birthday tomorrow. He looked at the image of her on the wall. She had been three in the photo. Vanessa had insisted on taking them all to one of the photographers in the city to have a portrait done. He hadn’t been keen at the time, but it was his most treasured possession now.

  The three of them were lying on their stomachs, cradling their heads in their hands. Ashleigh’s face was a riot of happiness, the biggest smile, and it was captured forever in that photo. Now all he had was the images he carried around in his head. He tried to remember the girl she had been rather than the one she had turned into. Lively, bubbly, smiley.

  No, he had to go through with his plan. He needed to see the mother, tell her she’d taken away the only thing that had been precious to him. Made his life incomplete, not worth living. She had ruined everything. She hadn’t given him time to make amends with Ashleigh. Until he’d read her diary, he had been sure it was grief that had made her do it, but it was more than that. Some of it had shamed him as it was about him, being drunk all the time, not there for her. He’d had no idea she’d been so unhappy and had been saddened that she hadn’t been able to confide in him. But it was too late for that now.

  The girl mumbled in her sleep, her head jerking as if she was having a dream. He stayed silent, hoping she wouldn’t wake yet. He couldn’t stand to see the fear in her eyes. He wondered what she thought he was going to do to her. Did she think he would abuse her?

  Everything had escalated so quickly. He’d thought he’d be able to keep the girl, talk to the mother and then let her go. What had he been thinking? Actually, he hadn’t been thinking at all.

  He’d planned to ring her later today, but now that the police were involved, maybe he should think about bringing things forward. The less time for anyone to find them, the better. Despite all his panic, he had to speak to the girl’s mother. Ashleigh would have wanted that. He wanted to make his daughter proud.

  Chapter Sixty-Three

  Eden was up and dressed and going over things from the day before. She’d had an email from Sean to say he would be taking the team briefing to update everyone on what had come in overnight. It was good of him to give up all his weekend. Time spent with families was so precious.

  Eden was well respected and knew that had gone a long way to people wanting to help her. Several officers had come in on their day off yesterday to help with the house-to-house enquiries. It was the simplest of tasks, and the most tiring and often frustrating, but putting tiny pieces of information together from snippets of conversation, an odd sighting of someone here, a weird coincidence there, often solved the case. Amy was right – something would trigger a reaction, a thought, and the police would have a lead. She hoped this would be the case today. She worked with some of the best people she had ever known.

  Her mission for the day as a police officer was to find her niece alive and well and bring her home. She wouldn’t stop thinking that. The alternative would be damaging to her state of mind. She had to believe in herself, in the people she worked with, in the general public. People wanted to help in situations like this.

  The community spirit was phenomenal. The mums from SWAP were doing an incredible job. Josie Mellor had been putting her organisational and persuasive skills to great use, getting them all working together in some kind of order. Until they’d received the phone call from Proctor, Josie had been in the team asking the kids down at the park if they had seen anything and then relaying the information back to her. Amy had kept a spreadsheet and passed it on to her to action.

  She pushed open Casey’s door. Casey was asleep, the duvet tucked under her chin as she wrapped herself in it like a cocoon. Eden gazed at her daughter. Knowing she was safe and secure was a double-edged sword. She wanted to reach out, touch her, stroke her hair, her face, but she didn’t want to wake her.

  She didn’t want to leave her either, but it was only for a while. Once she was up, Casey was going to Laura’s. Joe would be here for her until then. Right now, Eden needed to be at work and Casey would respect that, despite her thoughts about Joe.

  She went back into her own bedroom. She’d spent the night with Joe’s body wrapped around hers, even though she hadn’t had much sleep. Knowing that her niece was out there somewhere and not tucked up in her own bed, like Casey, hurt too much for her to switch off. She knew she would be better if she got some rest, able to work harder in the morning, but it had proved near impossible.

  Joe yawned and she went to sit beside him on the bed.

  ‘Sorry, was I restless?’ she asked.

  ‘Only to be expected.’ A hand came out of the duvet, stretched into the air and then rested on her thigh. ‘Are you leaving now?’

  ‘Soon.’ At that moment, Eden just wanted to climb under the covers with him and pretend everything was okay. Pretend that Jess was asleep in her bed, that she wasn’t going to work to look into her kidnap. Pretend that she could love Joe as much as he loved her, like she knew he deserved.

  He sat up and pulled her into his arms. ‘I have every faith you will find her,’ he said.

  She squeezed her eyes tight. She needed to keep a level head, no matter how hard it would be.

  He reached for her hand as she was leaving. ‘I love you, Eden. Be careful.’

  She smiled to acknowledge his sentiment, but she didn’t say anything. Joe was a depen
dable man, but she didn’t know if she wanted to settle down with him. She’d thought she’d be with Danny for ever. She had felt safe with him until he’d walked out.

  She hadn’t told him she loved him yet because she wasn’t sure she did. And right now, she just wanted to get her niece back.

  Chapter Sixty-Four

  Maxine arrived at Ashcroft House just after 8.30 a.m. As she went through the usual routine before she could visit, she wondered if Katie would have heard about Jess and if she hadn’t, whether she should tell her. Katie had enough to contend with this weekend, thinking about tomorrow. She must be worried stiff about what was to come. She’d lost so much weight these past few weeks.

  But as soon as she saw her, Katie ran into her arms.

  ‘What’s happened to Jess, Mum?’ she said, teary eyed. ‘Do the police know who has her?’

  ‘Yes, but they don’t know where she is yet.’ Maxine hugged her tightly. She marvelled at how good it was to feel her daughter’s arms around her. ‘I’m sure Eden will do her best to bring her home.’

  A look of shock crossed Katie’s face. ‘I thought the police would have somewhere surrounded and be working on getting her free. She can’t be that far away, can she?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Maxine replied truthfully. They sat silent with their thoughts for a moment. It was strange talking about Jess. It hadn’t been something anyone could have anticipated. But she also needed to talk to Katie about the trial starting in the morning.

  ‘I hope you’re not too nervous about going to court.’

  ‘I’m petrified. I’ll have to see Nathan and Tom and Craig again, and I don’t want to do that. I hate Nathan Lucas.’

  ‘I know it will be tough, but just think about what might happen by the end of it.’

  Katie burst into tears. ‘I don’t want to go to prison,’ she sobbed.

  Maxine held on to her again. ‘I know, I know,’ she soothed.

  Katie gazed at her, tears in her eyes. ‘Mum, I did something terrible.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Maxine went cold.

  ‘I’ve been wanting to tell you for ages, but I just couldn’t find the right words.’ She swallowed. ‘Me and Jess were stealing mobile phones.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘We were getting twenty pounds each for them. That’s why I was going out with Nathan. We were stealing phones, and he was giving us money for them.’

  ‘Oh, Katie,’ said Maxine, furious that she’d always thought her daughter was one of the better girls. But if it was peer pressure and done only the once or twice. . .

  ‘How many times did you do it?’ she asked.

  ‘I lost count, but it was lots.’

  ‘But why? You’ve never gone short. Haven’t we always given you everything we could afford?’

  ‘It wasn’t like that. And that’s not the worst of it.’ Katie looked shamefaced. ‘Cayden, Jess’s boyfriend, stole this one phone. Sometimes we’d have a look through the photos before we sold them on. This phone had photos of a girl.’ Her skin began to turn red. ‘She was really pretty but she was so thin. She’d taken photos of herself in her undies.’

  Maxine could imagine where this was heading as she tried to keep her temper. This wasn’t what she had been expecting today at all.

  ‘Cayden kept looking at them, showing them to all the boys. Jess got really jealous so she shared the photos. The girl got a lot of stick for it on Facebook. Everyone was laughing at them and making horrible comments.’

  ‘Did you know the girl?’ asked Maxine.

  Katie shook her head and burst into tears again. ‘But I read online that she died. I saw a photo of her on the Stockleigh News website. It said she committed suicide.’

  Katie looked at her with so much self-loathing that Maxine fought the urge to hug her again.

  ‘It was because of those photos that she killed herself, wasn’t it?’ she said. ‘I didn’t want Jess to share them. She can be so cruel at times. I should have stopped her. I think that girl would still be alive today.’

  ‘You don’t know that,’ said Maxine, ‘but it wasn’t a very nice thing for Jess to do. She’s probably breaking the law too. You can’t just post photos of people without their consent.’

  ‘But don’t you see, that’s why the judge can’t acquit me. I’ve been sent here for payback because of those photos and that girl dying. I’ve been involved in the deaths of two people.’

  ‘Only indirectly.’ Maxine shook her head. ‘You were easily led, especially over the phones. I thought we’d brought you up better than that.’

  ‘You have! And now I’m never getting out of here, am I?’ she sobbed. ‘I deserve to be locked up here for ever for what I did, but I don’t want to be. I want to come home.’

  Once the visit was over, Maxine went back to her car. The tears that she’d held in fell fast and furious. She sat in the driver’s seat, waiting for her temper to subside. Banging her fists on the steering wheel, she screamed. It didn’t release much tension, but it made her feel better.

  Why had this happened to her daughter? She’d thought Katie wouldn’t do anyone any harm. Before she had been locked up, Maxine had thought she was just timid, but now it seemed she had been easily led. Maxine had always thought that Jess was a good influence on Katie, bringing her out of her shell, but now she was beginning to think that if the two of them hadn’t become close friends then maybe it would be Jess who was in the secure unit and Katie would be home with her. She’d thought about it several times since the murder. What would have happened if they’d both been there?

  Then she admonished herself. She wished she could stop thinking that! What an awful thing, especially when Jess was still missing. Still, she would keep what Katie had told her to herself. It wouldn’t do any good if anyone was to know anyway. She would always protect her daughter.

  Chapter Sixty-Five

  Eden was back at her desk after the early morning team brief. Sean had tasked her and her team with several jobs, the first of which was for her to go over to Laura’s with Amy to set up the volunteers who wanted to help look for Jess.

  Her mobile rang. It was Josie Mellor.

  ‘Josie! Thank you so much for giving up your Saturday,’ she said before letting her speak. ‘It was very kind of you, and your organisational skills came in really handy. I owe you a curry when this is over.’ She stopped, wondering if this would ever be over. Her stomach flipped as she thought of the one outcome that she was dreading. ‘How—’

  ‘Never mind curry, Eden, I have an address for Jason Proctor.’

  ‘What?’ Eden shot out of her chair, her face draining of colour as she stood up.

  ‘Look, I’m not supposed to do this, so you haven’t heard it from me. I couldn’t sleep last night knowing I could access the information you might need. So I went in to the office this morning to look on our system. I know if I’m checked they can tell it was me that logged on, but I’ll sort that out as and when. I’ll just say I got an email from your intelligence unit and wanted to help out. He’s registered on the electoral roll at number twenty-two Shaftesbury Avenue. It’s from last year so I’m not sure how relevant it will be. It’s only two streets away from me, here in Warbury.’

  Eden waved her hand to get Sean’s attention. Several officers had already stopped what they were doing to listen in. Jordan was watching her intently.

  Suddenly the door burst open and Amy came running up the corridor towards them.

  ‘I’ve just had a call from Intel. Ashleigh Proctor’s phone records have come through,’ she cried as Eden disconnected the call. ‘I have an address.’

  They both spoke together. ‘Number twenty-two Shaftesbury Avenue.’

  ‘I’ll radio through to the control room,’ said Jordan, as Sean came rushing from his room, shrugging on his coat.

  ‘We have an address,’ Eden told him breathlessly, grabbing her parka.

  ‘Stay close to me,’ he told her. ‘Jordan, Amy – you two take another car and me
et us there.’

  They ran downstairs and out into the car park. Seconds later, they were racing down the A road, sirens flashing. Shaftesbury Avenue was in the north of the city and part of a patch that Eden had covered with Sean years ago, so they both knew the area well. It was in an affluent area of Stockleigh, consisting mostly of large houses that would look good in any country magazine.

  Eden fought back tears, hoping to hide her emotions, and wondered if Jess was there and what state of mind she would be in.

  ‘If that bastard has harmed her in any way. . .’ She took a deep breath, trying to remain calm.

  ‘He must have used force to get her into the house.’

  She knew Sean was trying to prepare her just in case. ‘Other than that he must have drugged her,’ she replied.

  Voices came over the radio. ‘Uniform are at the house, DI Whittaker.’

  ‘Received,’ said Sean.

  When they rounded the corner into Shaftesbury Avenue, there was already a marked police car parked horizontally across the street, two more in front of it, lights flashing, blocking off access.

  Above her, Eden could see an ambulance. ‘No.’

  Sean parked and reached for the door handle. ‘I know I should have left you back at the station. You need to stay here until I find out what’s happening.’

  Eden nodded and sat on her hands to stop them from reaching for the door handle. Grateful to him for allowing her to come along, she didn’t want to let him down.

  ‘Please let her be okay,’ she whispered.

  She watched Sean go into the house and come back out moments later. But she couldn’t see Jess. Where was she?