Where the Memories Lie (26 page)

‘We spoke to Rose, who denied any knowledge of any abuse

going on.’

‘Well, I suppose she would, wouldn’t she?’

‘We have no DNA of Jack’s to compare any sample to. And the

only two people who know for certain whether any abuse happened

are dead. But we think if it was Jack’s baby, Katie would’ve more

than likely had a termination.’

I nodded vaguely. ‘Yes, I suppose.’

DS Khan said, ‘Chris has admitted he was working on the barn

renovation with Tom at the time so he had access to the site.’

I opened my mouth to speak but my mouth felt rubbery.

‘But he saw her walking towards the barn and then he got on

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the bus to go to the gym. And lots of people must’ve had access

to the site.’

‘That’s what he said, but we have no proof he went there or

not. We spoke to his trainer, who still works there, but he can’t

remember after all this time whether Chris actually showed up that

day or not. They don’t keep any clocking in and out records there.

And we don’t know for certain she was even killed then. It could’ve happened any time after she was seen apparently walking towards

the barn.’

‘Or maybe she never did walk towards the barn like Chris said,’

DS Khan threw in. ‘Maybe something else happened later.’ Her

words hung in the air for a moment before I grasped the meaning.

‘You think Chris is lying?!’

DS Khan shrugged. ‘We’re not sure of anything at the moment.

That’s why we need to investigate. We’re trying to trace anyone else who remembers seeing her that day.’

I stared out of the window at a couple walking past with their

dog, oblivious to the macabre conversation going on in the car.
Oh,
yes, don’t mind us. We’re just talking about a dead body here. Carry on
about your business, folks.

‘Do you happen to remember seeing Tom the day Katie wrote

the letter and left home?’ DI Spencer asked.

I shook my head. ‘No. After PC Cook came and asked me if I

knew anything about where Katie had gone, I thought I’d try and

look for her myself. I checked the pub, but she wasn’t there, and I borrowed Mum’s car and drove to Abbotsbury because she was last

seen by Chris heading in that direction. Then I went to Dorchester.

We used to like hanging out in one of the parks there when the

weather was nice. Just lying on the ground and staring at the sky,

chatting, you know. Well, this was before she got upset about Chris breaking up with her. After that she didn’t want to hang out at

all, really. But anyway, she wasn’t there, of course, so I drove to 194

Where the Memories Lie

some other places that were our usual haunts over the years. Here,’

I pointed out to the beach, ‘and then on to Weymouth. It was get-

ting dark by the time I got back and I went to Tom’s house to see

Ethan. The other house, I mean, their old one on the other side of

the village. At that time I just thought she’d come back in a few

days’ time. I didn’t think she was serious about running away, even though PC Cook told me about the letter, so I wasn’t that worried at first. But . . .’ I trailed off, remembering how I’d followed Ethan up the stairs to go to his room and seen Chris coming out

of the bathroom, obviously upset, with a flushed face and tear-

stained cheeks.

‘She’s gone. Katie’s gone.’ Chris had gripped my arm so tight his
fingernails had dug into my flesh. ‘PC Cook told me.’

‘I’m sure she’ll turn up soon. She’s probably had another row with
Jack and Rose and she’s just gone to cool off. She’ll be back in a few days.’

I pulled my arm away. ‘Chris, that’s hurting.’

‘What?’ He looked at my arm with confusion. ‘Oh, sorry.’ He let go.

‘She’s just looking for attention.’ Ethan was sitting on the top step,
folding his arms. ‘She’s a drama queen. She’s probably only done it so
you go running back to her.’

Chris shook his head adamantly. ‘She’s gone. She’s gone and she’s
not coming back.’

DS Khan’s voice brought me back to the present. ‘But, what?’

‘Pardon?’

She watched me carefully, her eyebrows pinched together. ‘You

said you weren’t worried at first “but”.’

‘Oh, Ethan thought the same as me – that it would blow over

and she’d come back soon. Chris was adamant she was already gone

for good.’

DI Spencer caught DS Khan’s eye.

‘What did the rest of the family think when they heard Katie

had run away?’ DI Spencer took a sip of coffee.

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I stared into my drink, trying to remember. ‘Well, Nadia wasn’t

there that night when I got back, I don’t think. She was probably

with Lucas. And I don’t remember seeing Tom, either. I stayed at

their house that night but Ethan and I were watching a film or

something in his bedroom, and I don’t think I saw Tom until the

next morning when Ethan and I got up for uni.’ What an awful

friend I was. I’d been watching TV or having sex with Ethan while

she’d probably been dying.

‘What happened as the time went on and Katie didn’t come

back? How did Tom and Chris react?’ DI Spencer finished his cof-

fee and placed the cup in a circular holder between the front seats.

‘Chris was just really upset all the time and kept wanting to

talk to me about it because I was her friend. He said he felt guilty.

That it was his fault she’d run off. It took him a long time to get over Katie. Even though he was the one who ended things with her,

he was clearly still in love with her. I think it took about four years for him to start seeing Abby − that was who he married, eventually.

Tom . . .’ I shrugged. ‘I don’t really remember. I don’t remember

him saying very much about it, although Ethan thinks Tom was

happy they’d split up.’

‘We’ve just spoken to Lucas but he doesn’t remember anything

helpful. We’ll need to speak to Ethan again, although he wasn’t

answering his mobile phone earlier.’

‘No, he’s off walking somewhere again. He’s very upset about

everything that’s happened.’

‘I appreciated this is very raw for you all.’ DI Spencer was silent for a moment. He glanced at a seagull that landed briefly on the

side mirror before flying off again with a piercing screech. ‘Did Tom pressure Chris to end his relationship with her?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘Do you think Tom was having an affair with Katie?’ DS Khan

asked.

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I swallowed back the lump in my throat. ‘It’s possible.’

There was silence for a moment before DS Khan asked, ‘Do

you have any other ideas of who could be the father of Katie’s baby?’

I stared out of the window again. That was the million-dollar

question, wasn’t it?

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Chapter Twenty-Two

I was torn between going to Chris’s and asking him again

whether he’d slept with Katie and going home for Anna. Anna

was my priority. He’d already told me twice he hadn’t slept

with Katie in the seven months after they’d split up, which meant

he couldn’t be the father − even if his sperm had started out life as Olympic swimmers − so there was no point asking again. But Tom?

Was it really possible he’d got her pregnant? Was Katie using that

as leverage to get money from him? Had she, in fact, planned the

pregnancy to trap one of them all along? When it didn’t work with

Chris because he was infertile, she tried to sleep with Ethan, and

when that didn’t work, either, because he turned her down, had she

then resorted to Tom?

I had always defended her over the years, but had Katie been

more conniving and sly than I’d ever realised before?

When I got to the barn, it looked like Anna hadn’t budged from

the TV all day. An empty bowl sat on the floor by her feet with the remnants of one of those packet cheesy pasta dishes that take five

minutes in the microwave.

‘It stinks in here.’ I opened the French doors that faced the front garden to let in some air. I was about to tell her off for not putting
Where the Memories Lie

the bowl in the dishwasher but had second thoughts. I didn’t want

to upset her and start off a crying fit again. I picked up the bowl, along with an empty glass of orange juice.

She turned the TV off with the remote control and looked

at me, her mouth turned down in a serious expression. ‘Do you

believe in reincarnation?’

‘No.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because I think it’s impossible. And if you were reincarnated

as someone else or something else, how would you even know you

used to be someone else in the first place?’

‘Huh?’ She frowned.

I shrugged. I didn’t know what I meant, either, but I knew she

wouldn’t let it lie until we’d talked about it. ‘If you came back as a tree, for example, trees don’t have brains, do they? So they won’t

remember they used to be you before, so how would you actually

know you were reincarnated? If you were a tree. Or something

equally brainless.’

She ignored me and drew her knees up to her chest. ‘I’ve

been thinking about it a lot, though,’ she carried on. ‘And I think it’s a really nice idea. Poppy could really be someone we know,

couldn’t she? She could actually be Granny Tate. I mean, how

do you know her spirit didn’t come back inside Poppy when

she died?’

I bit back a remark about how crazy that sounded. But

if Anna wanted to believe in reincarnation, maybe it was

a good thing. Anything that helped her get over Tom’s death was a

good thing, especially since Ethan and I would now have to break

the even worse news about the skeleton being Katie. Anyway, Poppy

hadn’t even been born when Eve died.

‘Yes, maybe she is,’ I agreed, hoping to make her feel better

about things.

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‘Which means that Granddad could come back as something

else or someone else, too. Which means he’s not
really
dead, is he?

He’s just kind of . . . in limbo, waiting to return.’

‘Well, when you look at it like that, I suppose so, yes.’ I tried to raise a smile in agreement.

‘And the people on death row, they’ll come back as something

else, won’t they?’

‘Hopefully not as psychotic murderers again,’ I said.

‘They’d have to come back as an animal or an insect if they’d

done something wrong, because I think the Buddhists believe that

only people who do good things come back as humans. If you com-

mitted a crime then you’d come back as, like, a goat or a snail, or a mosquito or something. I’m not a hundred per cent sure, though.

I need to do some more research.’

‘Oh, well, that makes sense. Karma and all that. Who wants to

be a mosquito?’

‘So, say for example, you got pregnant again right now, my

baby brother or sister could actually be Granddad. It’s weird, when you think about it, isn’t it?’

According to what she’d just said, Tom would more likely come

back as an ant or a flea,
I thought.

She grabbed the laptop from the floor and opened it. ‘I’m going

to google it some more.’

I kissed the top of her head, thankful the conversation was over

and worrying about how to broach the next one.

As I put the bowl and glass in the dishwasher my gaze strayed

to the garage again. What had really happened here twenty-five

years ago?

I tried Ethan’s mobile phone but it was still switched off. He’d

done this every day since Tom’s death but he was usually back when

I got home from work so I was starting to get worried.

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I went into my bedroom, shut the door and phoned Nadia,

but I didn’t even have to ask her the question because as soon as she heard my voice, she said, ‘He’s here.’

‘Oh.’ I tried to hide the disappointment that my husband had

turned to Nadia for comfort rather than me. I felt excluded. But

then I told myself I was being petty and ridiculous. If he needed to talk to his sister to help him cope, who was I to stop him? Still,

what about me? I needed comforting, too. I was being left to answer Anna’s questions and deal with the police and my own conflicting

feelings about what had really happened to Katie while he just dis-

tanced himself from me. From us.

‘Do you want to talk to him?’

‘Yes, please, if it’s not too much trouble.’ I really tried not to

sound snarky, but it didn’t work.

‘What’s the matter?’ she asked.

‘We’ve got to tell Anna and Charlotte now,’ I whispered down

the phone. ‘The police told me that it was definitely Katie in the

garage.’

‘Well, they haven’t bothered to phone me and let me know!

What if Charlotte saw Rose in the village and she got nasty with her?’

‘I don’t think they planned on seeing me today, I just caught

them leaving Chris’s house and they wanted to talk to me. No doubt

they’ll want to speak to you again, too. There’s something else, as well, as if it isn’t already bad enough. Katie was pregnant.’

She was silent on the other end for so long I thought we’d been

cut off.

‘Nadia? Are you still there?’