by Helen Cox
‘Of course, no worries. After everything we found out last night I think Kitt will be taking the lead for a while – she’ll need to question Selina further. Suss out her alibi and such.’
‘Wait . . . Kitt’s going to go back to Selina?’
‘Yeah, I mean, you asked her to speak to Kitt and she agreed, so . . . is there a reason why she shouldn’t?’
‘Nothing specific, and I did ask her to do that as a favour in case you still wanted to talk to her. It’s just . . . after everything she said, the story she told me about her father, you still think she had a hand in Jodie’s disappearance?’
‘Yes, er, well, I mean we certainly don’t have enough information to discount her yet.’
‘Even after what she told me, about what her fight with Jodie was really about? I mean, if she felt that way about Jodie she wouldn’t hurt her. And you know, I’ve been thinking, how would she even commit an abduction or a murder with a bodyguard following her around everywhere?’
‘She managed to give him the slip long enough to have a scuffle with Jodie,’ said Grace. ‘If she’s done it once I’d imagine she could do it again.’
‘I suppose,’ said Patrick. ‘It’s just, she doesn’t seem a likely suspect to me.’
‘That’s probably because you’re assuming she’s telling the truth. What she told you last night is useful background information, and don’t get me wrong, if she is telling the truth then what happened with her father is nothing short of tragic, but until we can prove where she was at the time of Jodie’s disappearance, we can’t remove her from the suspect list.’
‘Oh, I see,’ Patrick said, pursing his lips.
‘What?’
‘Well, you can’t prove where I was at the time of Jodie’s disappearance. So if that’s the criterion you’re working with am I on the suspect list too? I mean, I think I have the right to know.’
Not wanting to answer that directly, Grace tried to deflect with a question of her own. ‘I don’t understand. What’s going on with you? Why are you being so defensive about this?’
‘I’m not, I just want to know: if Selina’s fair game in terms of suspects, am I too?’
‘Well, you said yourself that your alibi wasn’t airtight. Those were your exact words. And Kitt said she might have further questions.’
‘So, is that a yes? You still think after everything I’ve told you that I would hurt Jodie in any way? That I would make her disappear or kill her?’
‘I don’t, or at least I didn’t until about two minutes ago when you started acting really defensive.’
‘Right.’
‘I don’t. Really I don’t.’
‘But Kitt still does? The person I hired?’ Patrick picked his blazer up, which had been hanging on a chair, and threw it on. When he looked at Grace again he glared at her with those brown, sorrowful eyes and she felt a familiar stab through her heart. She hated to think she’d caused him pain, but what was her alternative? Lie to his face?
‘Patrick, you told us when you hired us that you wanted to get to the truth. Selina’s story will probably check out but we have to properly eliminate her from the line of suspects.’
‘I said that when I thought you’d do a good job. You haven’t said a thing about the man in black I told you about – when are you going to go after him? Don’t you understand?’ Patrick said, grabbing Grace by the arms. ‘He’s the one I need you to track down. He walked after her and then I never saw her again.’ Tears started to form in his eyes but Grace could see he was working hard on holding them back.
‘There wasn’t much to go on with the man in black, and even if there was, the odds are he wasn’t acting alone. If anything, the man you describe sounds exactly like the kind of person a millionairess might hire to do her dirty work.’
‘You didn’t look into Selina’s eyes when she was telling her story, I did. There’s no way she hurt Jodie.’
‘I’m not saying she hurt her, but for all we know she might have used her ample resources to help her disappear.’
‘So, your alternative theory is that if Selina didn’t kill her, and I didn’t kill her, then my girlfriend of five years left with no word and in the year she’s been missing hasn’t contacted me? Why would she do that?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘You think she was running away from me?’ Patrick’s eyes filled with tears again.
‘I have no reason to think that.’
‘Yeah right,’ Patrick said, shaking his head. ‘I think hiring you and Kitt was a mistake. Next time you talk to her, tell her she’s off the case. My mother won’t be sending any more cheques her way.’
‘What? Patrick, wait,’ Grace tried, but it was no use. Before she had time to stop him he was out of the door, slamming it behind him.
Sighing, Grace went over to her desk, picked up her mobile and dialled Kitt. The phone rang and rang before eventually lapsing into Kitt’s voicemail message. Grace caught sight of a picture of Jodie sitting on her desk next to some of the notes she’d made on Elvis McCabe. The words of Jodie’s mother, Jean, used at the press conference they gave, came back to her again. We will not let you become just another lost girl who’s never found. We will never give up. The tone beeping on Kitt’s voicemail snapped Grace back to the present.
‘Er, Kitt. Hi, it’s Grace. I was just ringing to . . .’ She looked again at the picture of Jodie and took a deep breath. ‘To say I’m going to try and get myself invited around to Selina’s house this afternoon. If you can organize to question her like she promised Patrick once you’ve finished work, I might be able to find a way of listening in on the interview without breaking my cover. Drop me a text when you get this so I know the game is on.’
Grace ended the call and leant her hands on the back of her computer chair, keeping her eyes on the picture of Jodie. She couldn’t just abandon her: with or without Patrick’s blessing, she had to give it one last shot.
Eighteen
At seven p.m. on the dot that evening, the buzzer for Selina’s front entrance sounded, interrupting the almost non-stop laughter Grace and Selina had been engaged in since four o’clock. Selina could be quite dry-witted when she wanted to be, a quality in a person that never failed to amuse Grace, and at times she had to remind herself that she was engaging in undercover work rather than building a real friendship. The only brief moment of seriousness happened when Grace first arrived and admitted to feeling out of sorts after the night before. Selina had been sympathetic enough, explaining that she had sent Grace home as soon as she had realized she’d drunk more than she should.
‘Oh, who’s that?’ Grace asked, making her eyes as wide and innocent as she could without overdoing it.
Selina padded over to the door and pressed a button that presumably opened the front gates. ‘It’s just this favour I promised to do for Patrick. He’s got a PI looking into the disappearance of his fiancée and because I knew her I said I’d give her a bit of background information on Jodie.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you knew her too. I heard about it, obviously. Horrible. Do you want me to leave, then? I don’t want to get in the way,’ said Grace, praying Selina wouldn’t call her bluff.
‘Nah, it’s not going to take long. You could just go up and chill in my bedroom while she’s here.’
There was a swift, sure knock at the door just then and when Selina opened it Kitt introduced herself before stepping over the threshold.
‘This is my friend, Grace,’ said Selina. ‘She’s just going to go upstairs while we chat through whatever questions you have.’
‘Nice to meet you,’ Grace said, trying to keep a straight face as she addressed Kitt in such a formal, distant manner.
‘And you,’ said Kitt. ‘I shouldn’t think we’ll be long.’
Nodding, Grace turned to walk up the stairs.
‘My room is the third on the left,’ Selina called after Grace, even though she was already halfway up the stairs.
‘Oh,
thanks,’ said Grace, cringing over the fact that if Selina was even just a little bit more suspicious she could have just blown her cover. She turned to flash Selina a dopey smile. ‘I probably would have figured it out eventually but directions make it much easier.’
Selina chuckled, then indicated that Kitt should follow her into the living room. As soon as they were out of sight, Grace began to slowly creep back down the stairs. From the passage she’d be able to hear whatever was said quite clearly without Selina knowing that she wasn’t up in her bedroom, as instructed.
‘Cool hat,’ Selina said, just before the creaking of the armchair indicated that the pair were now seated.
‘Oh, er, thank you. I really appreciate you agreeing to talk to me,’ Kitt said.
‘Well, I’ve managed to convince Dad’s bodyguard that – since I was having a night in – he deserved Friday night off. I probably won’t be able to do any follow-up interviews though – at least not in person. He’s supposed to keep his eyes on other people to make sure they’re not a threat but I swear he spends eighty per cent of his time watching me and I don’t need him listening in to conversations like these where we’re likely to cover topics I don’t want my dad knowing about.’
‘Being watched constantly doesn’t give you much room to explore yourself,’ said Kitt.
‘And that, of course, is my father’s plan in a nutshell,’ said Selina, coupling her statement with a small, awkward laugh.
‘Well, I’ve no desire to get you into any trouble,’ said Kitt. ‘I’ll try and get everything done this evening so we don’t have to take up any more of your time.’
‘I’ll help any way I can when it comes to background on Jodie’s life in the time that I knew her. I did hang out with her pretty extensively for a couple of weeks but, well, I take it Patrick told you about the fight I had with her just before she disappeared?’ Selina said.
‘He said you’d given him permission to, and I appreciate the information. It helps me to know what frame of mind Jodie was in just before that call to the radio station.’
‘I don’t really think our fight had any impact on her frame of mind, to be honest.’
‘But she must have been upset about it?’ Kitt pushed. ‘According to Patrick, Jodie wasn’t one for letting people into her inner circle easily, so it was probably a bit of a blow when she was just starting out at a new institution that someone she was friends with didn’t want to see her any more.’
‘She was upset when I told her. And a bit angry about it. But I’m not sure the impact was lasting. If it was a big deal to her, I never knew about it because unfortunately the fight we had was the last time I ever spoke to her. I heard a rumour that some drugs were found in her locker before she disappeared but they obviously didn’t belong to Jodie, if the police had come to me at the time I’d have told them as much. She wasn’t into anything like that – I should know, I tried to tempt her on several occasions.’
‘But the drugs that were found in her locker, they weren’t yours?’
‘No,’ Selina said with an indignant laugh. ‘I enjoy a rush as much as the next person, a little more, actually, but I don’t have a stash of that kind of stuff. It’s all social and very intermittent. Besides the fact that Berkeley would lose it if she found something like that in your possession, addiction is not cool.’
‘Noted,’ said Kitt. ‘I was quite surprised by the fact that you and Jodie had fought in such a public place. You mentioned your bodyguard earlier and I assume he’s with you all the time, so did he just let you and Jodie push each other around without intervening?’
‘No . . . neither my bodyguard nor my dad know anything about the fight. I told my bodyguard I was going to be at home for the rest of the day, arranged to meet Jodie at the cafeteria and then left my phone at home. My dad tracks it via GPS so the only way I can trick him is to leave the house without it and for obvious reasons I didn’t want him knowing about my meeting with Jodie, or for my bodyguard to overhear the conversation I had to have with her.’
‘I see,’ said Kitt. ‘I’m sorry you had to go to those lengths just to have a talk with your friend, and that it ended so badly.’
‘Yep, I’m sorry about those things too,’ said Selina.
‘So, going back to Jodie’s behaviour. It’s fair enough that you don’t know anything about the drugs that were found but can you tell me a little bit about Jodie’s behaviour before you had your falling-out? Was there any secretive behaviour or anything like that?’
Selina shook her head. ‘There was nothing out of the ordinary. We met on the first day of term at a freshers’ event. After that we hung out around campus. We’d meet for lunch or go to club nights.’ A smile flashed over Selina’s face. ‘She was different to other people I hung out with.’
‘You mean, she came from a different background to the people you were used to associating with?’ said Kitt.
‘It wasn’t just that. When you’ve got as much money as our family does, people mostly just want you around to pay for the drinks. Or to find some other way of weasling money out of you. But Jodie was different. She didn’t have much but she wasn’t interested in what other people had. She was caring and beautiful and . . . God,’ Selina said. Though Grace couldn’t see her face she could guess by the waver in her voice that she was upset. ‘Why did she have to disappear like that?’
‘That’s what I’m trying to understand,’ said Kitt. ‘I’m sorry to have to ask, Selina, but before I can move to the next step of the investigation I have to ascertain where everyone was at the time Jodie disappeared.’
‘You mean you’re asking for my alibi?’
‘That’s right.’
‘I don’t have one.’
‘You mean you don’t remember or . . .?’
‘No, I mean I was home alone that night studying and then I went to sleep. From what I understand, Jodie disappeared in the early hours of the morning and because I wasn’t out that night I was already in bed.’
‘I see, and nobody can confirm that?’
‘Nobody should need to. I didn’t have any cause to kill Jodie.’
‘Except that she knew your deepest secret, something that you were trying to keep quiet and that would cost you your inheritance if it came out.’
‘And you think . . . what? That Jodie was going to out me and so I got rid of her? Bit of a wild accusation to throw around, isn’t it? Considering how expensive my father’s lawyers are.’
Grace bit her lip. Selina was essentially threatening Kitt with a lawsuit. Knowing Kitt’s temper Grace willed her to tread carefully. Of course they wanted to get to the bottom of Jodie’s disappearance but they definitely couldn’t afford to go up against the lawyers of a millionaire in order to do it.
‘I am not accusing you of anything,’ Kitt said, her tone surprisingly even. ‘That much I want to make clear. All I’m trying to do is find out the truth about what happened to Jodie and I have to explore every possibility.’
‘Well if I were you I’d be careful about what possibilities you explore until you have some evidence.’
‘I’m only stating the obvious,’ said Kitt. ‘Jodie did have information on you that would be damaging to your income if it got out. And on top of that, several people I’ve spoken to have suggested that you have some rather unusual extra-curricular activities that may also have played a part in all this.’
‘I’m booked to trek the Catskills during my mid-term reading week so you’re going to have to be more specific if you expect me to have any idea what you’re talking about,’ said Selina.
Grace’s shoulders tightened. Selina was growing more hostile by the second. She’d had an edge to her when Grace had first approached her in the ladies, but that was to be expected when you approach someone as a random stranger. Particularly a person with money who’s used to people trying to squeeze it out of them. But otherwise, Selina had been perfectly friendly towards her. Her hostility towards Kitt right now probably meant one of two things: ei
ther she was innocent and resented the accusation that she would hurt someone she loved, or she was guilty and Kitt had hit a raw nerve with her questions.
‘There is a rumour,’ said Kitt, ‘that you are part of a secret society here at Venerable Bede’s. Off the record, and in the interests of making sure I have all the information I need to find Jodie, is there any truth to that?’
‘Well if there was, I wouldn’t be a very upstanding member of the secret society if I told you, would I?’ Selina said with a mocking note in her voice.
‘This isn’t a game,’ Kitt said. ‘Justice for Jodie is at stake here.’
‘Why would a secret society have anything to do with getting justice for Jodie?’
‘Maybe she was mixed up in it and something went wrong? Or someone we haven’t thought to question was a member and had something to do with her disappearance?’
‘If there is such a secret society, I can guarantee you Jodie didn’t have any part in it. If she did, I would know about it.’
‘Because you’re in charge of it?’
‘Because I was her friend,’ Selina said, with a slight waver in her voice. ‘I wish more than anything we’d parted on better terms than we did. She didn’t exactly say the words but I could tell Jodie thought I should break free and stand up to my parents so I could embrace who I really was. I suppose, in a way, that’s how I got into all this thrill-seeking stuff. I’ve been trying to prove that I’ve got guts ever since. But you understand, don’t you? That I couldn’t stay friends with Jodie, feeling the way I did. That there was a lot at stake if the truth came out about who I really was? That I had to keep the secret?’
‘Yes,’ said Kitt. ‘I understand all too well.’
Nineteen
Approximately thirty minutes after Kitt left Selina’s house, Grace walked to the end of the road on which Selina’s mansion stood and turned left. Not far along, Kitt was waiting, as promised, in Halloran’s Fiat, well out of sight of the CCTV cameras outside Selina’s house.
