‘She’s very pretty.’
‘Thank you. Yes, she was.’
‘Was?’ Alexi asked as she helped clear a space on the coffee table for the tea tray.
‘She disappeared, a long time ago now, but I still miss her every single day. I half-hoped, when you said you were an investigator, that you might have news of her.’ Tyler slowly shook his head, and saw the anticipation fade from Mrs Seaton’s eyes. ‘I’ve never given up wondering what happened to her, you see. She’s still alive somewhere; I’m absolutely sure of it. But what drove her away from home, I’ve never been able to fathom. She had everything she could possibly wish for, and two parents who loved her absolutely.’
Can she really have no idea, or is there nothing for her to know?
‘It must be hard,’ Alexi replied sympathetically, seating herself across from their hostess and nodding her thanks for the cup of tea, handed to her in a bone china cup and saucer.
‘It is. I blame myself. I obviously did something wrong.’
‘I doubt that,’ Alexi replied, briefly touching the older woman’s hand.
‘Would you like a biscuit?’ Mrs Seaton proffered a plate. ‘I baked them myself.’
‘Well, in that case.’
Alexi selected a biscuit, took a bite and probably wasn’t feigning pleasure when she closed her eyes and sighed.
‘Delicious!’ she said.
The older lady preened at the compliment. Based on what they knew of her husband’s persona, Tyler figured they had to be polar opposites, which didn’t surprise him. He’d seen it more times than enough, and was already starting to understand why Natalie hadn’t felt able to tell her mother what had been done to her, always assuming something had been done and that she didn’t actually try to talk about it. Mrs Seaton saw good in everyone and would have trouble believing the man she married capable of such an iniquity. But she was devastated by the loss of her daughter, as evidenced by the photographic shrine in her living room. If she’d had to choose between them, Tyler wondered which way she would have jumped.
One of life’s victims, was Fay Seaton. That’s why they appealed to strong men like the one she’d married, who would find her easy to manipulate and control. Perhaps she even came from a moneyed background, giving Seaton the financial wherewithal to get his business off the ground. Tyler hadn’t met Seaton yet. They only had Athena’s unsubstantiated word for what Seaton had done to his daughter. They might be jumping to erroneous conclusions.
But there again, they might not.
‘We were just admiring your garden,’ Alexi said.
‘Why thank you.’
‘It must be a lot of work.’
‘It is, but I get help with the heavy stuff, which leaves me free to lose myself in the things I most enjoy doing. It’s my passion, you know.’
‘It shows.’
‘I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t have a lot of time. There’s a gardening club meeting I need to attend very shortly. I’m the chairman so I can’t be late.’
‘Well then, I’d best come clean.’ Tyler flashed another of his winning smiles. ‘I wasn’t entirely honest with you earlier, Mrs Seaton, for which I apologise.’
‘Oh,’ she said, blinking in confusion. ‘Then what—’
‘I am an investigator, but Alexi isn’t my assistant. She’s a reporter with the Sentinel.’
Mrs Seaton cast Alexi a considering look. ‘I knew I recognised your face. I enjoy your articles very much. I try never to miss them.’
‘Thank you. It’s kind of you to say so.’
‘But, I don’t understand—’
‘Alexi is working on an article about children who go missing.’ Mrs Seaton gasped. ‘We don’t mean to upset you, but your name came up during the course of her investigation and we wondered if you would be willing to talk about it.’
‘Well, I…’ Mrs Seaton fell into momentary contemplation but, fortunately, didn’t ask how a PI came to be working with a reporter. ‘I’m not sure what I can tell you after all this time. Besides, my husband says we shouldn’t talk about Natalie. It upsets us both too much. We have to accept she’ll never come back and put her behind us.’
Tyler glanced at the gallery of pictures, suspecting that keeping them on display was one of the few areas in which Mrs Seaton had found the courage to defy her husband.
‘From what our research threw up, it seems Natalie had the best of everything,’ Alexi said softly. ‘Did something change to make her want to leave home? Teenagers aren’t always easy, are they?’
‘Natalie never gave us a moment’s bother.’ Mrs Seaton frowned, suddenly looking decades older. ‘That’s why I’ve never been able to understand why she left.’
‘Was she a good student?’ Alexi asked.
‘Oh yes, up until that point she was very diligent when it came to her studies. She wanted to be a Vet, specialising in large animals, specifically horses, and she would have made it, too. Natalie could do whatever she set her mind to.’
‘But she got herself arrested,’ Alexi said, her voice soft and sympathetic, inviting Mrs Seaton’s confidence.
‘Oh, that was a misunderstanding. She was cross with us about something and tried to punish us by running off. She’d been to that hotel for an awards do with her father a week or two before. It was familiar to her, which is why she must have gone back there, but the police jumped to the wrong conclusion.’
‘Yes,’ Alexi said gently. ‘I expect they did.’
‘I thought she’d got in with the wrong crowd at school and that they’d had a bad influence on her. It happens at that age, no matter how hard you try to steer them on the right path.’ Yes, Tyler thought, she would believe that. ‘They have bad apples, even in good schools like the one we sent Natalie to. Anyway, we thought we’d set her straight. She promised us, but she hadn’t been home for two days before she took off again, and this time she didn’t come back.’ She wiped a tear from her wrinkled cheek. ‘I’m still hoping that she will.’
‘What did she like to do?’ Tyler asked.
‘Oh, she loved horses, just like most girls do.’ Tyler shot Alexi an I-told-you-so sideways glance. The admission also put Natalie’s choice of Lambourn into perspective. If the love of horses had never left her, perhaps she genuinely wanted a share in a racehorse, explaining her need to shout about it on Facebook. ‘She had her own pony, you know. ‘Mrs Seaton sighed. ‘We eventually sold Dandy Kim, when it became apparent she would never return to ride him.’
‘That must have been very hard for you.’
‘For both of us. Natalie adored her father. They were so close I sometimes felt excluded.’ She shook her head. ‘That’s ridiculous, I know, but we can’t help the way we feel, can we?’
‘No, we can’t.’
Alexi leaned forward to touch Mrs Seaton’s hand, her empathy for the woman’s plight effortlessly seeming to communicate itself. Tyler was starting to understand how she managed to get people to overcome their suspicion of reporters and open up to her. Hell, he had more reason than most to mistrust her profession, but she could probably get him to reveal his innermost secrets without too much trouble. It was the way she turned huge eyes, moist with sympathy, upon her subject and gave that subject her complete attention. There was an absolute stillness about Alexi in this mood that simply invited confidence.
‘And then, of course, there was Perry.’ Mrs Seaton reached across to the sideboard and picked up the picture of four-year-old Natalie with the puppy that Tyler had examined earlier. She didn’t have to look to know where it was, indicating just how frequently she studied her pictorial shrine. ‘Natalie and that dog were joined at the hip. It broke his heart almost as much as it did ours when Natalie disappeared. He sat at the gate every day waiting for her to come home from school but, of course, she never did. The dog was quite old by then and I think he just gave up when he decided she’d abandoned him.’ Mrs Seaton sighed. ‘I felt like giving up myself. I still don’t know how I got through that
terrible time.’
‘You had your husband to lean on.’
‘He was grieving too. It’s funny, we ought to have been able to talk about it to each other, comfort one another, but we just seemed to skirt around the issue. Gerry buried himself in his work and I had…I wasn’t very well. But I had my garden, which was a passion Natalie shared with me. It was unusual, I always thought, for a young girl but she had naturally green fingers and didn’t mind getting them dirty.’
‘She got that from you,’ Tyler said.
‘Actually, no. Natalie was adopted. I wasn’t able to have any of my own.’
‘Oh, I see.’
‘How thorough was the police investigation when Natalie went missing?’ Tyler asked.
Mrs Seaton shook her head. ‘They were in and out of here for days, weeks…I don’t really know. Like I said, I wasn’t well. I had a bit of a breakdown, couldn’t handle it, and my doctor kept me medicated. My husband handled it all and tried to protect me from it.’
The sound of a key in the front door had Mrs Seaton almost leaping from her chair. Her reaction confirmed Tyler’s suspicion that she was afraid of her husband, dominated by him, which is why the marriage had endured. Seaton was in complete control of it. ‘And that will be my husband now. He’s back from golf early.’
The man who strode into the room was tall, ramrod straight with not an ounce of spare flesh on his frame and a headful of silver hair. He wore expensive casual clothes and the air of a man used to getting his own way. His gaze passed briefly over Tyler and lingered a little too long on Alexi—a mixture of politeness, irritation and very obvious appreciation of the female form. Definitely the sort arrogant enough to take what he wanted if it wasn’t volunteered. He hadn’t opened his mouth yet and Tyler already disliked him. Mrs Seaton seemed too flustered to say anything so Tyler took over, standing to introduce himself and Alexi.
‘Investigators,’ he said jovially, turning on the charm. ‘What have we done?’
‘They were asking about Natalie, dear,’ Mrs Seaton explained in a timid voice.
Seaton’s smile faded. ‘That was years ago. Do you have news of her?’
‘Not exactly,’ Tyler replied, ‘but there are a few—’
‘Then why bring it up and upset my wife?’
‘I’m not upset, dear. I like talking about Natalie. But I do need to leave now or I’ll be late for my meeting. Perhaps you could answer any more questions our guests might have?’
‘Of course.’ He patted his wife’s shoulder. ‘You get along now.’
‘Thank you for your time, Mrs Seaton,’ Tyler said, standing and taking her hand in both of his. ‘It was very nice to meet you and I do hope you find out what happened to your daughter.’
‘Oh, you’re very welcome but I doubt that we ever will ever know, not after all this time. Still, it was nice talking about her again. I don’t often get the chance.’
Chapter Twelve
Left alone with Seaton, Alexi half expected the charm to fade and his true character to show itself. A reporter and a PI asking questions about Natalie? If he was the reason for her disappearance and had kept it secret all these years, he had good reason to be worried, which would make him defensive. She was disappointed when instead of turning into a raging bull, he focused the full force of his smile upon her. Much to her annoyance she felt herself reacting to it and doubts about his guilt wormed their way into her head.
‘Well now,’ he said. ‘Perhaps I can interest you in something stronger than tea.’
‘Not for me, thanks,’ Tyler replied, even though the question had been directed to Alexi.
‘Nor me,’ she said.
‘I hope you don’t mind if I do.’
Without waiting for a response, he went to a well-stocked drinks cabinet and poured himself a substantial measure of single malt. With his back turned towards them, he took a long swig and then faced them, his smile more neutral this time.
‘You didn’t explain why you were asking about Natalie,’ he said.
‘You’ve seen what an effect your daughter’s disappearance has had on your wife,’ Tyler replied. ‘How it eats away at her, even after all this time. Why haven’t you done the decent thing and told her she’s still alive and well?’
‘I’m sorry.’ Seaton blinked at Tyler, his face a study of innocent bewilderment. ‘I don’t understand what you’re getting at.’
He seemed so confused that Alexi was almost certain he must be innocent. But it seemed Tyler didn’t share that view.
‘We both know that isn’t true,’ he said, his voice tight with controlled anger.
‘Look, we’ve tried to put this mess behind us. It was a terrible time when the child we both loved absconded but we’ve finally come to the conclusion that she must be dead. At least that gives us some sort of closure.’
‘Dead?’ Alexi asked. ‘Why do you think she’s dead?’
‘It’s the only explanation that makes any sense. She was a good kid, and we hadn’t had any sort of falling out.’ He shrugged, feigning a casualness that might or might not be genuine. ‘She had absolutely no reason to turn her back on all of this,’ he added, gesturing around the opulent room. ‘Besides, if she was still alive, she would have contacted us long before now. She knew how much we both adored her. Fay especially.’
‘But there is another explanation, isn’t there?’ Tyler said.
Finally…finally, cracks showed in the megawatt media smile. ‘What explanation?’ he asked, deep grooves appearing in his forehead when he frowned. ‘Have you ever lost a child? Do you know what agony it is? No, I don’t suppose you do, otherwise you wouldn’t be asking such damned fool questions.’ He knocked back the remains of his drink and turned to refill his glass. ‘Now, unless you have any specific knowledge of Natalie’s last movements, I don’t think there’s anything else I can tell you, especially since you’ve avoided telling me why you’re asking.’
‘When did she first contact you again?’ Tyler asked, surprising Alexi probably as much as he shocked Seaton with the bluntness of the question.
‘What the devil are you talking about?’
His bluster was almost convincing. Almost. A tic working beneath his left eye and the slightest of tremors in his hands gave him away. As did the fact that he glanced away to his left when he made his feeble attempt to deflect Tyler’s question.
‘You raped her at the Park Lane Hotel when she was fourteen.’
‘What the devil do you think you’re—’
‘Pretty as a picture, wasn’t she? All that young, nubile flesh on display every day must have been a real temptation. All the laughter you shared, the come-ons she gave you, the way she idolised you. She was asking for it. She was adopted so it wouldn’t technically be incest. Besides, girls nowadays, they grow up so quickly and know it all. Fourteen is the new twenty-five.’
Seaton’s expression was set in granite. ‘I don’t have to listen to this slander.’
‘You raped her and thought she’d be grateful because you’d made a woman out of her,’ Tyler said, his voice silk on steel. ‘Instead she ran, and tried for years to get over what you’d done to her. When she couldn’t, she came back for her revenge and hit you where it hurt you the most. In your wallet. She made you pay for her silence, didn’t she?’
‘You’re deluded. Get out of my house!’
‘Fine, but if we go, we’ll be back, with the police.’
‘And I’ll sue for harassment.’
‘Good,’ Alexi said contemptuously. ‘A courtroom is precisely where we want to get you. Even if you win, the publicity will ruin your reputation, to say nothing of your marriage. Mud sticks in these cases. People will always wonder. Tell one another they always thought there was something a bit off about you. I’m betting your reputation, and appearances,’ she added, taking her turn to spread her arms to embrace the elegant room, ‘are all that really matter to you. You’ll go to any lengths to protect them.’
‘Even if Natalie
did come back, making up some absurd story, why would I pay her to go away again?’
Alexi was wondering the exact same thing.
‘Natalie was encouraged by a shrink to put down in writing what had happened to her.’ Alexi watched Seaton carefully as Tyler spoke. His face was tanned, presumably from all those hours slaving away on the golf course, but she was sure it paled beneath that tan as he absorbed Tyler’s words. ‘We’ve seen what she wrote and know what she had on you.’
Alexi crossed her fingers behind her back, praying he wouldn’t ask what it was.
‘You’re bluffing.’
‘She told you she wanted a one-off payment, but like all blackmailers, she came back again. And again. She was bleeding you dry, but part of you was willing to pay, if only for the pleasure of seeing her again. You still wanted her. Haven’t been able to stop thinking about her all these years. But it got too much. She became increasingly greedy. Threatened to tell your wife the truth, perhaps, even though you’d paid up.’ Tyler paused. ‘Is that why you killed her?’
Seaton’s head shot up. ‘Now just a minute! One moment I’m a rapist, then a murderer. Make up your minds.’
‘I think you’re very likely both,’ Tyler replied indolently.
Seaton remained silent, standing rooted to the spot like a deer blinded by headlights, his empty glass clutched in the slack fingers of one hand.
‘You’re deluded,’ he eventually said with a casual wave of one hand. ‘If you really thought this was true and could prove it, the police would be here.’
‘Oh, they will be, once Natalie’s body is found. It’s only a matter of time.’
‘And even if it isn’t,’ Alexi added. ‘We have her written account of what happened to her, as well as the diaries she wrote at the time of the rape.’
Tyler shot Alexi a warning glance, probably thinking that she’d overstepped the mark. They had no way of knowing if Natalie actually kept a diary, but Alexi thought it was highly probable. Most girls of that age wrote down every single thought, feeling and aspiration. Alexi certainly had.
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