His children are coming at the weekend and it’s time to make the place look like a home for them. He calls up the stairs to herand she calls back: ‘In the kids’ bedroom! I’ll be down in a minute.’
But she hears his steps coming up the stairs and then he is there. He sees that she has dressed the beds in fresh sheets, the same bedding that had adorned their beds in his spare bedroom in Lewisham. He sees that she has hung the prints on the wall, that she has folded towels on to the feet of the beds, plugged in bedside lamps and thrown down sheepskin rugs. His demeanour softens at the sight of it.
‘Oh, God, Soph, thank you so much. This has been hanging over my head. I was going to do it … I was going to …I don’t know. I don’t know when I was going to do it. I’m so grateful to you. You really didn’t need to.’
‘It’s nothing,’ she says. ‘I’m all over the place right now and I can’t get into work so it’s good to have something mindless to focus on.’ She rises to her feet and surveys the room. It looks lovely.
‘Shall we go to the pub?’ he says, pulling her to him. ‘For dinner?’
She thinks of the crisps and chocolate she had for lunch and realises that she would love a proper meal, a glass of wine, some time away from this place, just her and Shaun.
‘Give me a minute,’ she says. ‘I’ll put something warmer on.’
‘This is where they were,’ she says to Shaun as they settle themselves at a table in the small lounge area just to the left of the bar. ‘Zach and Tallulah. They were in here, with the kids from Maypole House. They all ended up back at a girl’s house just outside the village. Liam Bailey was with them. Kerryanne’s daughter, too.’
Shaun nods. ‘I’m starting to get the full picture. It’s all a bit unsettling.’
‘Have you spoken to Peter Doody about it?’
‘Yeah, I called him earlier when the police were here. He was very dismissive. Very blasé. It’s clearly not a topic he wants to give any oxygen to.’
‘But was he involved with the school? At the time? Did he know about the connection?’
‘Yes, was very much part of it at the time. He dealt with the press, the PR side of things, kept the parents happy. I mean, really it’s nothing to do with the school or our children or their families. The students involved had already left the school by the time the couple disappeared, and Liam and Lexie had returned to the school that night way before anything untoward happened. The woods aren’t technically school property and as far as Peter’s concerned it’s nothing to do with us. And he’d like it to stay that way.’
‘And what about the previous head, Jacinta What’s-her-name? Was she here when this was all going on?’
‘Yes, she was right in the thick of it. It was a nightmare, by all accounts.’
A waiter appears then; it’s the same guy who’d been behind the bar with Kim when Sophie came in earlier in the week for a coffee. He smiles a brilliant white smile and says, ‘Hi, guys! How are you both doing tonight?’
Sophie returns his smile and says, ‘We’re great, thank you. How are you?’
‘Knackered,’ he replies. ‘They work me like a dog in here.’ He rolls his eyes. ‘Have you had a chance to look at the menu yet?’
‘No,’ they both reply apologetically.
‘Could we order some wine?’ Shaun asks.
‘Absolutely. And who would blame you? The day it’s been today. Police all over the place. Again.’
‘Oh,’ says Sophie. ‘Were they in here?’
‘Yes. You know those two kids who disappeared from the village last summer? Looks like it’s all being raked up again. On the plus side, the hot detective is back.’ He flashes his white teeth at them again. ‘Sorry. Anyway. Wine, you say?’
They order the wine and then wait until the waiter is back behind the bar before Shaun looks at Sophie and says, ‘Well, there you go, the cat is well and truly amongst the pigeons. What would Tiger and Susie do?’
She smiles at Shaun’s joke and shrugs. But inside she’s thinking, she knows what Tiger and Susie would do. They would talk to the woman who was running the school when Zach and Tallulah disappeared.
They would talk to Jacinta Croft.
30
February 2017
Scarlett messages Tallulah later that night. The phone chirrups in her hand as she sits next to Zach on the sofa and she feels his eyes search out the screen of her phone. She switches it off quickly when she sees Scarlett’s name.
‘Who was that?’