“Friend of yours?” she asked after she’d left, before she could stop the sarcastic remark slipping off her tongue.
He raised his eyebrows, looking amused. “You do know that the entire police department has been looking for her since she disappeared, don’t you? We haven’t given up.”
“I know, and I’m truly grateful for all the efforts that have been put in. It’s just that it’s become a bit more imperative that we find out once and for all what happened to her.” She went on to explain about the will. “So, you see why I need to find her.”
“I’m still confused. What do you think you can do that we haven’t?”
She sighed and, wrapping her hands around her cup, decided to just be honest. “I don’t know, I really don’t. But I do know I have to try. I was a lousy sister, and I’ve been a lousy aunt. I owe them this.”
“Okay. I get that.” He nodded “But I still don’t know where I fit in.”
“You have the contacts. I’ve been gone for twenty years and I don’t know people around here anymore. And you were here when she disappeared, and afterwards. You’ll be able to give me a lot more than I’ll get just looking at the paperwork, presuming the chief will even let me see it.”
He was quiet for a long time, just sipping his coffee, before he finally looked up and met her eyes. “Okay, I’ll help. But just to be clear, I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing it because it’s the right thing to do and I’ve always thought there was something odd about the way she vanished.” He drained his cup. “I’ll go and clear it with the chief. I’ve been pushing to look at the case again so, I’m sure he’ll agree if only to shut me up. I’ll meet you back here tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. sharp. Don’t be late.” And without another word, he stood up and left, without looking back.
She spent what was left of the afternoon at the lawyer’s office signing all the papers, effectively giving her control of the business and the family assets with immediate effect. She hadn’t anticipated this when she’d come back, and the responsibility weighed heavily on her as she got in her car to drive home.
It was dusk when she finally turned the rental car onto the drive leading up to the house. It still felt strange, despite having been back a couple of days now, driving up to the house again. She been born here, had grown up here with her sister, and this was the last place that she’d ever seen her parents. And would now be the last place she’d ever seen her sister.
After she’d left, her sister had told her that her parents had completely cut her out of their will so, when they’d died, the house and the business had passed to her, though the running of it was left to her husband. Beth had had no issue with that. This house, this town, held only bad memories for her and she’d wanted no part of it.
As a trustee of the estate now though, she had a legal responsibility to look after it and the business until Andrew was found. The sooner you find her, the sooner you can pack up and get out of here, she thought to herself as she pulled her car to a stop outside the front door.
Letting herself in, she could hear Neil and Marrie arguing in the living room through the closed door. Since she’d arrived, that’s all they’d done. They certainly didn’t seem to like each other very much for a couple that were only recently married, she thought to herself.
Not sure she was feeling up to getting caught in the middle of an argument, she debated going straight upstairs to her room and leaving them to it, but she couldn’t. She had a feeling that Neil could probably use her support. As she went to open the living room door, it was flung open and Marrie stormed out, nearly knocking her over.
Concerned, Beth poked her head around the door. “Everything okay?” Neil stood by the fire with his hands in his pockets, looking thoroughly miserable.
“Yeah. She’s just a bit highly-strung.” He shrugged and looked at her apologetically.
That’s not quite how I would describe her, she thought, but kept it to herself, instead saying, “How are you coping?”
He sighed. “I’m okay, I guess. What hurts the most is that we didn’t find Andrew before they died.” He looked over at her, and Beth could see he was tormented. “You know that Dad and I never really got along, but even so I wouldn’t have wished this on anyone.”
Going to him, she placed her hand on his arm. “I know that. And I’m so sorry I didn’t come sooner. I should have. I’ll never forgive myself for that.” She felt tears fill her eyes and then spill down her cheeks.
Neil took a step towards her and pulled her to him in a bear hug and she allowed herself to cry. “You’re here now, that’s all that matters.”
Reluctantly pulling away, she wiped her eyes. She reminded herself that she had a job to do. “Well, we can’t give up. We can still bring her home.” Turning, she walked to the couch and sat down, indicating that he should do the same. “I spoke to a friend of mine in town today, and he’s going to help me look.” She saw the doubtful expression on his face, but before he could say anything she held up her hand. “I know, I know, the police have already looked. But they might have missed something.”
He still didn’t look convinced. “Aunt Beth, they spent months looking for her, I doubt you’ll be able to find her, much as I’d like to think you could.”
Beth refused to consider failure as an option, so she wasn’t about to let Neil see that she had exactly the same doubts. Smiling brightly, she told him, “The difference between us and the police is that we’re much more motivated.” Reaching for a glass decanter and matching glasses that sat on the coffee table, she poured them both a drink. “So, tell me everything you can remember about that day, however unimportant you think it is.”
He hated lying to Beth, but he couldn’t tell her everything. The police had never found out about Andrew’s visit to Marrie and that they’d had a fight and she’d left there very upset. They’d decided there was no need to tell them, it wasn’t relevant to her disappearance. He’d wanted to initially, but Marrie had convinced him that opening that particular door would have led to increased scrutiny and he couldn’t risk them finding out about Ted. It was yet another thing that just the two of them were aware of, and it had to stay that way.
Recounting the events of the day now, though, brought it all back. When Andrew had first vanished, he’d thought that she’d simply run off for a few days, upset by what she’d found out. But when she’d failed to return, he hadn’t known what to think.
As the days turned to weeks, and then months, and he saw what it was doing to his parents, he was ashamed. Ashamed of how badly he’d treated them. Watching their pain, and feeling his own, they’d developed a new closeness, one that had never been there before.
Rather than fade with time, what he had done to Ted increasingly preyed on his mind and the knowledge that it was all due to his greed made him sick.
20
Slamming the bedroom door behind her after storming out of the living room and going upstairs, Marrie threw herself on their bed. She was furious. She had worked so damned hard to get here and now it could all be snatched away from her! And Neil couldn’t understand what she was so upset about. He didn’t seem remotely bothered that he couldn’t claim his inheritance until his damned sister showed up. She tried to make herself breathe slowly while she stared at the ceiling, hoping it would help her calm down.
His parents had taken a lot of convincing when he’d told them that they wanted to get married. They didn’t like her, but it was the fact that they wanted to go ahead even though Andrew was missing that they’d seemed to find so offensive.
She’d wanted to get that ring on her finger as soon as she could, though, so she’d pushed Neil continuously, until he’d agreed that they would go ahead with or without his parents’ permission. What choice did he have? He knew that she could, and would, have told the police about his involvement in Ted’s death if he didn’t. Luckily, the mere threat that they would go ahead anyway had been enough to get them to agree. So, six months
after Andrew’s disappearance, they’d finally tied the knot.
She had to admit, she’d expected to be in for a much longer wait before she saw the benefit of marrying him but his parents getting killed like that had been a stroke of luck. Neil was devastated, of course, and she was playing the part of the bereaved daughter-in-law, but secretly she was elated. At last, she was lady of the manor. People would have to look up to her now, show her the proper respect.
But now everything was spoiled. It could be years before she got her hands on any money.
They’d just had another argument about it. He’d changed since Andrew had gone. She’d thought he had more backbone, wanted the same things she did, but he was soft, kept whining about how much he missed his sister. It was all she could do to stop herself blurting out the truth, that his precious sister was gone for good. But she knew that even Neil wouldn’t let that slide, even though he’d end up in prison himself for what he had done to Ted.
She’d known what she needed to do as soon as the will had been read. Andrew needed to be found. Dead or alive.
21
Letting himself into his house on the outskirts of town, he slammed the front door harder than he should have, making a picture fall off the wall and smash on the floor. Cursing, he picked it up and married it to the kitchen, dumping it in the kitchen sink. He was angry at himself. And her. How dare she just waltz back into town and then act as if nothing had happened? And more to the point, how the hell had he just let her?
He’d known it was her standing outside the station the moment he’d spotted her. He hadn’t known whether she would come back for her sister’s funeral as she’d missed her own parents, but it had always been a possibility.
She was still stunning, even after all these years. She’d always been slim and he could see that she’d kept her figure and she still kept her gorgeous, dark hair long, hanging half way down her back.
The anger he still felt towards her had surprised him. It had been years since she’d so unceremoniously walked out of his life and he’d thought that he’d forgiven her, if not forgotten. It had taken a bit of time, but he’d moved on and met someone else. They were long divorced now but he’d believed that that episode of his life had been firmly left in the past.
Sitting across from her in the coffee shop, he’d wanted to demand answers, but he had his pride so he’d kept quiet. Being close to her again was going to be hard but he’d committed to helping her now and he would be true to his word. Besides, what he’d told her had been true. He had always thought there was something odd about Andrew’s disappearance, coming so soon as it did after the murder of her fiancé.
The whole department had been involved in the search, but no trace of her had ever been found. Her abandoned car had been forensically examined, but it had revealed nothing.
Deciding that he needed to work off some of this frustration, he went upstairs and changed into a pair of dark blue overalls before heading out to the garage. As always, he got a thrill when he switched on the bright overhead lights that revealed his pride and joy: a sea green, 1967 Pontiac GTO.
He’d discovered it abandoned in a barn during a case a few years before. When he’d contacted the owner of the barn, he’d been happy to sell it to him for a few hundred dollars. When he’d bought it, it had been hardly more than a shell, but over the past few years he had been painstakingly restoring it to its former glory. He’d found that when he was working on it he was able to focus entirely and put all other thoughts from his mind. He needed that oblivion now so, after switching the radio on to the local country and western channel, he closed the door and got to work.
22
She’d pretended to be asleep that morning when Neil left, not at all in the mood to deal with him. Once she was sure he was gone, she’d jumped out of bed wanting to get an early start. She needed to dress appropriately for what she had planned so she threw on an old pair of blue jeans, a plain navy blue t-shirt, and some hiking boots.
Avoiding Beth, she headed downstairs and straight out the front door without even stopping for breakfast. There was a gas station on the way out of town, she would stop there and grab a coffee. Apart from anything else, the task ahead was likely to be quite gruesome and she thought it would probably be best tackled on an empty stomach.
She’d left her deep in the woods, in the middle of nowhere, so no one was likely to just stumble upon her bones. Even she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to remember exactly where. She’d better remember though, and quick; she had no intention of waiting any longer than she had to for what was rightfully hers.
After grabbing a coffee, it took her nearly an hour of driving around until she spotted a familiar dirt track. She followed it as far as she could in her car and then stopped when she could go no further.
Getting out, she went to the trunk and removed the roll of industrial garbage bags and thick gardening gloves she had gathered the night before and slammed the trunk shut. With a quick look around to make sure she was alone, she followed the track further into the forest.
She remembered that night as if it were yesterday. After finding Andrew by the side of the road near her broken down car, she’d offered her a lift. Despite the argument they’d just had, Andrew had known that if she didn’t accept she could have been stuck there for hours so, reluctantly, she’d gotten in.
She hadn’t been expecting Marrie to strike her with a blow to the head with the tire iron she kept under the driver’s seat. She’d still been conscious, so she’d hit her again and she’d gone still. It hadn’t been planned, so she’d had to drive for miles until she’d found the dirt track that had led to these woods.
Andrew had started to come around as she’d dragged her out of the car, so she’d had to hit her a few more times to make sure she wouldn’t wake up again, ever. It had been incredibly hard, backbreaking work dragging her through the forest by her arms until she’d found a spot where she’d been happy that no one would ever find her.
She’d never expected to have to come back here, but now she had no choice. If she wanted to get her hands on the money, Andrew’s body needed to be found and it wouldn’t be found out here. That’s what the bags were for. She planned on gathering up her bones and then moving them to somewhere where they would quickly be found.
It took a while, but eventually she started getting her bearings and recognizing landmarks: the big stone shaped like a saucer, and the tree that looked like a fork. It had been dark when she’d left her here and she’d made a note of these things so she’d be able to make her way back to the car.
Finally she came to the place where she’d left her. She didn’t feel squeamish at all. After all this time, the only thing left would be bones. She was sure of that.
She’d been searching for a quarter of an hour before she started panicking. Where the hell was she? She should have found her by now. Even allowing for the passage of time and interference by wild animals, she should have found some remains.
Eyes glued to the ground, she kicked long-fallen leaves aside with her boots, stopping occasionally to get a closer look at something that looked promising, but turned out to be nothing. Expanding her search in ever widening circles, her actions became increasingly frantic when she still found no trace of Andrew. She didn’t stop until the sweat on her skin started to cool and she looked up through the tree canopy, and realizing that the sun was going down. Not wanting to get lost out here at night, she reluctantly headed back to her car.
Marrie’s mind was racing as she sat, catching her breath, trying not to let the panic overwhelm her. Andrew had been dead when she left her there, she was sure of it. And besides, if she’d still been alive she would have made her way home, and her ass would be in jail right now not here searching the woods. So, that left two explanations. One, she’d not been dead and had managed to somehow move away from where she’d left her and died somewhere else, or the animals had scattered her bones so thoroughly that none remained. N
either scenario was good news for her. How the hell was she going to get her hands on the money now?
23
Not again. Belle’s heart sank as she rounded the corner and saw the blue and red flashing lights. There were so many and they reflected in the puddles of water on the streets left after the earlier rain shower, making it appear that the whole street was awash with them. As she drew closer, she could see the yellow police tape cordoning off an alley between two buildings and the press clamoring as they tried to get closer, angry at being held back.
Seeing a small group of the regular girls standing to one side, she pulled her coat tight around her and hurried over.
“Another one?” She knew the answer before anyone spoke and her fears were confirmed.
“Jasmine.” It was Sue who spoke, one of the older ladies who had been working the streets for as long as anyone could remember.
“Oh, God, no! She was just a kid!” Belle had met her a couple of times. She couldn’t have been more than about seventeen. “Do they think it’s him again?”
“They haven’t said, but I found her, I saw what he did. It’s the same guy.”
The rest of the group murmured their agreement. Belle didn’t ask what he’d done; she didn’t need to. This was the eighth working girl to be murdered in the last four months, and always the same way. They were sexually assaulted, their throats slit, and then they were propped up, naked, against a wall. Just thinking about it now made her pull her coat tighter around her. They were all living in fear that they might be next.
A blinding, bright light suddenly hit her face and she had to hold up her arm to shield her eyes to see. It was one of the cameramen from the press, standing next to one of the female anchors from the local news station.