Dead Guilty

by Michelle Davies

  ‘Exactly that,’ she said, giving him a reassuring smile. ‘So, let’s start at the beginning: when did you fly out to Majorca?’

  For the next twenty minutes Jade’s parents gave Maggie chapter and verse on their holiday so far: how they’d set off at four a.m. from their home in Barnet to catch an early flight from Southend airport because it was the cheapest deal to Palma; how a hen party group on the flight had annoyed everyone with their lairy drinking games; how the car-hire concession at Palma airport had upgraded them to a bigger vehicle; how well Clive had taken to driving on the right; and so on. Both were entertaining talkers, furnishing their anecdotes with throwaway lines that made Maggie smile, and she could see that talking about their trip was doing a good job of distracting them from worrying about their daughter, but it didn’t make her job easier. She needed to elicit details that were pertinent to the search for Jade and trying to get Mandy and Clive to focus on facts was a bit like trying to prise open a walnut with a pair of eyebrow tweezers.

  Nor did it help that the heat was making them all listless. It seemed another reason the manager had been happy to let them use the suite was because the air con was broken and it couldn’t be let to paying guests. The balcony doors were open and every now and then a gentle breeze lifted the bottom of the delicate voile curtains pulled across them, but for the most part it was baking hot inside.

  After a few more minutes, Maggie proposed they take a break.

  ‘Why don’t I call down to reception and see if that nice manager will bring us some drinks?’ suggested Mandy.

  ‘And some grub,’ said Clive, reaching for the room service menu.

  While Maggie was declining their entreaties that she should order some food too ‘because you may as well while it’s free’, Mason quietly rose from the sofa and slipped outside onto the balcony. Maggie left the parents to their ordering and went after him. She found him leaning against the metal railings, staring down at the walkway below.

  ‘How are you holding up?’ she asked.

  The muscle in his cheek twitched as he ground his teeth together to stop himself from crying.

  ‘I just need to know she’s okay,’ he eventually managed to say.

  ‘I understand, I’d be feeling the same. But everything is being done to find her.’ Maggie paused then, realizing that while at home she could say that with confidence, because she knew the protocol for a missing person’s search in the UK, here it might be different.

  ‘You didn’t say much when I was asking about Jade’s movements since you arrived in Saros. Is there anything you want to add, that her parents might have missed?’

  His jaw clenched again.

  ‘Mason? Is there anything you want to tell me?’

  He shook his head, his reluctance weighing heavy on his face. Maggie couldn’t let it slide though.

  ‘Even if you think it might not be that important, it’s still worth telling me,’ she said. ‘Just in case.’

  ‘It’s not just to do with Jade though. It was something that happened with both of us.’

  ‘Since you got here?’

  ‘Yeah. It was on our fourth night here, when we were out having a drink.’

  Maggie did a quick calculation. ‘You mean last Tuesday?’

  He nodded. ‘We’d all been out for dinner, then me and Jade decided to go for a drink on our own. It was still really warm, even though it was gone midnight, so we sat at a table outside this bar. That’s when we saw this bloke.’

  Maggie stilled. ‘Go on.’

  ‘There was another bar across the street and he was sat out the front, really knocking them back. He must’ve had about three pints in an hour. Jade finds it funny to make up stories about what strangers are up to – she likes to pretend they’re spies and stuff – so we were coming up with all these mad reasons for why he’d hit the booze. He couldn’t hear us,’ Mason added hastily, ‘so we weren’t being rude. Anyhow, at one point Jade goes off to the toilet and then he comes over to me and starts saying stuff.’

  ‘Such as?’

  ‘That I should take care of Jade, because a girl like her was special. I laughed it off at first, thinking he was pissed but harmless, but then he started getting a bit ranty, if you know what I mean, saying I should take him seriously because jealousy makes people do nasty things and I wouldn’t want anything nasty to happen to her.’

  ‘He knew her name?’ asked Maggie, scribbling fast in her notebook to keep up.

  ‘No. He kept calling her the blushing bride-to-be. He must’ve clocked her engagement ring.’

  ‘How did the conversation end?’

  ‘That was the weird bit. I thought he was leaning over to nick my drink, but instead he puts something on the table next to my glass and tells me I might need it. I thought he was being a bit muggy when I saw what it was, like he was saying my breath was rank or something, so I told him to fuck off or else, and he went after that.’

  ‘What did he give you?’

  ‘A piece of chewing gum.’

  ‘Gum?’

  ‘Yeah. Like the stick kind, wrapped in paper. Cinnamon flavoured.’

  ‘Did you see where he went after?’

  ‘No, Jade came back then and I forgot all about it.’ He gave Maggie a searching look. ‘Do you think it’s important?’

  ‘I don’t know. Do you think you’d recognize him again?’

  ‘Maybe. He might’ve gone home by now though.’

  Maggie frowned. ‘What makes you say that?’

  ‘He sounded British, like us.’

  35

  Declan and George decided to call it a day after their third pint and returned to their respective accommodation to doze off its effects. Johnnie pushed for a final drink so, out of politeness, Philip agreed to stay for one more to keep him company, but switched to sparkling water. There was no prospect of the memorial service going ahead now, given the creeping time, but he needed a clear head to cope with Patricia when he went back.

  Heaven knew his thoughts were jumbled enough without them being lubricated by more alcohol, churning around his head so violently that he couldn’t hear what Johnnie was saying, let alone pay attention to him.

  Another young British woman was missing in Saros, just like his darling Katy. Was she the same age? Did she look the same? What was her name? He was also desperate to know how her poor parents were faring, because he knew exactly how they would be feeling – panicked, confused and terrified that their daughter had disappeared from right under their noses.

  As Johnnie prattled on, Philip was transported back ten years to that heart-sinking moment when it dawned on him and Patricia that Katy hadn’t gone for a stroll to clear her head and something was seriously amiss. At first he’d dismissed Patricia’s concern that she’d been gone too long and could remember vividly his exasperation as his wife bullied him into packing up their bags so they could go and look for her. He’d been absorbed in a book he’d waited months to read and hadn’t taken kindly to being forced to put it down. Now he couldn’t remember the name of it, or what it was about. Everything before the moment they realized their daughter was missing now paled into insignificance.

  The local police had been marvellous at first, offering assistance as soon as Patricia called them. Philip wondered afterwards whether it was because they’d mistakenly thought Katy was much younger – Patricia had used the phrase ‘my child’ during the emergency call to report her missing.

  Certainly they seemed to give up looking for her far quicker than they might’ve done if she had been primary-school age. Only a few hours had passed before they’d started asking questions about whether she had gone off on her own before, did she like to party, did she take drugs recreationally? Philip found the questions highly offensive. Couldn’t they see that a seventeen-year-old going missing during the daytime while wearing just a bikini top and shorts and having no other belongings upon her person was unlikely to be off on ‘a bender’? (Philip had never heard that phrase until Declan had
used it that day.)

  Now he was worried this woman’s parents were being subjected to the same treatment. He wished he could help them. Being abroad had exacerbated the terror and helplessness he and Patricia felt and these parents had no idea what they were up against, the obstacles they’d have to navigate, the crushing blows they might face. Even being able to speak Spanish to a decent level hadn’t helped him and Patricia as they fought to keep the police engaged in looking for their daughter.

  Actually, he could help the parents, Philip thought with a start. He sat upright as the idea began to germinate in his mind. He could use his experience to guide them through theirs; who better to understand what they were going through than the father of the girl who went missing first?

  Feeling a sense of purpose he hadn’t felt for a long time, Philip looked across the table at Johnnie and was pleased to see he’d almost finished his pint.

  ‘Why don’t I walk you back to your boat?’ he said. ‘I could do with stretching my legs.’

  ‘’S’no bother,’ said Johnnie, but as he tried to get to his feet it was patently clear he wasn’t capable of walking unaided on a pavement, much less down a gangway onto a boat. Philip decided that once Johnnie was safely on board he would go in search of Maggie. From what she’d said to George during their earlier phone conversation, she, Walker and the other two chaps were helping with the search, so it was highly probable they were still on the front somewhere, near the beach.

  As he helped Johnnie along, he wondered if he should buzz up to Patricia in the apartment and let her know his plans. But in the same heartbeat he decided no, this was something he needed to do alone. For far too long he had taken a back seat with regards to Katy’s murder, allowing others to relegate him to the position of passive observer in deference to his wife’s leadership. Now it was his turn to take charge of matters – and in doing so he might save another family from the hell his was still in.

  36

  Maggie chose the moment Clive and Mandy’s room service order arrived to go downstairs to reception to find a quiet corner in which she could call Walker and tell him about the man who’d approached Mason. He’d given her a fairly decent description: around six foot tall, somewhere in his early thirties, average build and wearing plain black shorts, a white T-shirt and a scruffy red baseball cap that, combined with how dark it was, unfortunately meant Mason hadn’t seen what colour his hair was. He did sound British but he was so drunk and slurring his words so much that Mason couldn’t say for certain which part he came from.

  To Maggie’s frustration, Walker didn’t pick up. She was about to call Paulson’s number, in case the boss was with him, when her phone began to ring. It was Umpire.

  They’d spoken every day since she’d arrived in Majorca but she suspected the purpose of his call now, which he was making from his office, was not just to see how she was.

  ‘Has the news broken then?’ she asked upon answering.

  ‘It’s everywhere. Someone who was on the beach tweeted it and now it’s snowballed because of the Pope anniversary. Is there a connection though? Someone’s also tweeted there’s been a sighting of Jade in the next town.’

  Maggie bristled. It was becoming harder and harder for police to stay ahead in investigations when social media users broke new leads before they had a chance to.

  ‘What’s Walker’s take on it?’ Umpire asked.

  Not wanting their conversation to be overheard, Maggie left the hotel reception and crossed the walkway to sit on a bench next to the beach, hidden behind the spreading branches of a tree. Only a handful of families were on the beach compared to the usual hoard: news of Jade’s disappearance must’ve sent the tourists running for the safety of their holiday lets.

  ‘He’s taking the same view, that until we have concrete proof of a link it should be treated as a separate incident. There are a few dissimilarities,’ said Maggie, and she told Umpire about Jade having money and her phone on her.

  She held back from mentioning the chewing-gum man, though. Much as she liked discussing cases with Umpire and thrashing out theories, and however much she trusted him never to impart information she shared, she felt it would be disloyal to DCI Walker to disclose it when she hadn’t told him about it yet.

  ‘I’m with the family at the moment,’ she finished. ‘We aren’t officially involved, but the police here are happy to let me liaise for the time being. The parents don’t understand a word of Spanish and it’s causing friction.’

  ‘They’re lucky to have you. Is it still hot out there?’

  ‘Boiling. What’s it like where you are?’

  ‘Damp. It’s been drizzling all day.’ Umpire paused. ‘What do you reckon the chances are of you coming home on Friday?’

  The Operation Pivot team was booked on a mid-evening flight back to the UK.

  ‘If Jade Reynolds turns up safe and well, I’ll be back no question. If she isn’t found before then and we find out she hasn’t disappeared of her own free will, I suppose we could be asked to stay on. It makes sense because we’re already here, but even more so if –’ she put emphasis on the word ‘if’ – ‘it does turn out that there’s a connection to Katy Pope’s murder.’ Suddenly she remembered the significance of the weekend. ‘Shit, Lou and the kids are meant to be coming up on Saturday. Shall I put them off?’

  ‘No, let’s leave it. As you say, Jade could turn up before then and if we cancel we’ll be disappointing the kids for nothing.’

  ‘Maybe I should call Lou and warn her,’ Maggie fretted. ‘Then she can decide if she wants to make other plans. She might be cross if I don’t give her the option.’ Previously, when they’d both lived in Mansell, Lou had been used to Maggie’s job interrupting their arrangements and put up with it, but Maggie wasn’t confident she’d be the same now, not after things had been so rocky between them.

  ‘Leave it another day,’ Umpire counselled. ‘Tomorrow’s Wednesday so that would still give her time to make new plans.’

  He was right. ‘Okay,’ Maggie agreed.

  ‘How were the Pope family after the service was cancelled? A reporter who was there tweeted a picture of Katy’s brother looking upset. You’re in the picture too, by the way, but only from the back.’

  Hearing Umpire mention George made Maggie feel edgy, as though he was testing her.

  ‘I do love you, you know,’ she blurted out.

  ‘I love you too,’ he reciprocated, sounding amused. ‘I have to go; someone wants me. Call me later if you can.’

  ‘I’ll do my best.’

  Maggie smiled as she hung up. She was being silly, reading too much into his comment about George. There was absolutely no reason for Umpire to doubt her.

  So, why, a little voice rang in her head, are you feeling guilty?

  37

  Paula McCall couldn’t control her giggles as her husband, Stephen, tried to manhandle the enormous inflatable unicorn they’d just bought along the pavement. The pool toy was three times the size of their daughter, Macy, who’d begged them to buy it after seeing it in the window of a charity shop. The assistant who’d served them said another tourist who didn’t fancy deflating it and lugging it back to Britain had donated it, and as it was forty euros cheaper than the brand-new ones being sold on the seafront, it seemed silly not to buy it for the week they were in Saros, then donate it back again when it was their turn to go home.

  ‘Honestly, Macy, I don’t know how we’re going to get this back to the apartment in one piece,’ said Stephen, as he almost sent a male pedestrian flying off the pavement with the unicorn’s massive wings. ‘Sorry, mate, I didn’t see you there,’ he called out.

  The man raised his hand in acknowledgement and smiled. He was trying to lift a suitcase into the boot of a hire car parked next to where Stephen had come to a halt.

  ‘I know, it’s big, isn’t it! We must look so daft,’ said Paula, as though the man had made a comment to that effect. She regarded him for a moment, head at a tilt. ‘I don’t
suppose you could take our picture with it, just in case it doesn’t survive the walk back?’

  The man hesitated, then released his grip on the suitcase handle.

  ‘Sure.’

  Paula handed him her smartphone with the camera function set up ready to use. Naturally gregarious by nature, she noted how awkward he was being as she chattered away to him, and that she could barely see his face hidden beneath the peak of his red baseball cap. He must be shy, she decided.

  Paula dashed back to where her husband and daughter and the unicorn were standing and struck a ‘ta-da’ pose, arms out to her sides.

  ‘Say cheese,’ the man instructed. He took a few images, then handed Paula’s phone back to her.

  ‘Ah, thank you,’ she said.

  She watched as he returned his attention to the suitcase. It was huge, one of the biggest she’d ever seen.

  ‘Here, Stephen can help you with that.’

  Before the man could decline her offer of help, she called her husband over. Stephen groaned as he lifted the case.

  ‘Someone’s going to get clobbered for excess baggage on the way home,’ he grinned. ‘This weighs a tonne.’

  ‘Blame my wife,’ said the man. ‘It’s all the stoneware she’s bought.’

  ‘You off to the airport now?’ asked Paula.

  ‘I’m afraid so.’

  ‘We’re here until Saturday.’

  ‘You lucky things,’ the man smiled.

  Stephen had already gone on ahead with Macy, dragging the unicorn with him.

  ‘I’d best catch them up,’ said Paula. ‘Have a safe trip home.’

  The man slammed the boot down, the suitcase safely ensconced.

  ‘Oh, don’t worry, I shall.’

  38

  Philip decided he needed Maggie’s help to introduce himself to the family of the missing woman but he was unsuccessful in his quest to locate her after he’d deposited Johnnie safely onto his boat. He’d walked back and forth along the seafront for half an hour but the only police he saw were two local uniformed officers and he was reluctant to approach them, wary of the reaction he might receive when they discovered who he was.