Fruit Cake and Fear

by Agatha Frost

  Julia dialled ‘999’ and reported Jessie missing. When she told the operator that Jessie was seventeen, she began to ask if it was possible that Jessie was with a friend, or if an argument had caused her to run away, making Julia feel even more to blame. The operator promised that an officer would come to see her soon to take Jessie’s details before Julia hung up and tossed her phone onto the table. She planted her face in her hands, her mind whirring.

  “Here you go,” Dot said, resting a cup of peppermint and liquorice tea in front of her. “It’s not like you to leave without cleaning up.”

  “What?”

  “Your kitchen,” Dot said, pushing up her curls as she sat across from Julia. “You’ve left it in a real state. Looks like a bomb’s hit it. Flour everywhere.”

  Julia slid off her chair, knowing she had left the café spotless after closing the night before. She burst through the beads and into the kitchen. Somebody had been baking a cake on the stainless steel counter in the middle of the room, and just as Dot had mentioned, there was flour everywhere. Julia looked down at the flour covered floor, sure there were more footprints than one person could make.

  “She was here,” Julia called back. “Jessie was here.”

  “Does she always make such a mess?” Dot asked, following Julia into the kitchen. “Looks like she was having a food fight.”

  Julia walked around the edge of the room, not wanting to touch anything. Her initial relief at finding evidence of Jessie being in the café quickly vanished.

  “If she was here, where is she now?” Julia thought aloud. “Look, these are her Doc Marten boot prints, but whose are these?”

  “Maybe she had one of them twins in here with her?”

  “I’ve already called them, and they haven’t seen her since Wednesday,” Julia mumbled, her bottom lip wobbling. “What if something has happened?”

  Julia could not hold back the tears. Dot pulled her into a tight hug, rubbing the base of her neck, which was something she always did when Julia was a child.

  “She’ll walk through that door any minute,” Dot said. “You watch. She’s probably wandering around the village trying to clear her head as we speak.”

  At that very moment, the bell above the café door rang out, signalling the arrival of someone. Julia tore away from her gran before bursting through the beads, only to be disappointed to see Johnny wiping his feet on the doormat.

  “Julia? Are you okay? You look –”

  “Have you seen Jessie?” she asked as she hurried around the counter. “She’s missing.”

  “Missing?” Johnny mumbled with a frown as he walked into the café, pulling his canvas messenger bag over his head. “Where has she gone?”

  “I don’t know, Johnny!” she cried, her cheeks burning red. “That’s why she’s missing!”

  Johnny placed his bag on the chair Julia had been sitting in, fiddling with his glasses, before planting his hand on her shoulder. Julia could not hold back the tears and collapsed into his arms.

  “Have you called the police?” Johnny asked as he patted her back awkwardly.

  “They’re on their way.” Julia wiped her nose with the back of her hand as she pulled away from the hug she had forced upon her old friend. “Why are you here so early?”

  “I was on my way to meet Sarah for a breakfast date at The Comfy Corner,” he said, fiddling with his glasses as he blushed a little. “I saw your light and thought I’d drop in some photos I found in the archives at the office. I thought they might be useful. I couldn’t see anything, but your mind works differently to everyone else’s.”

  Johnny opened his bag and pulled out a thick frayed brown envelope. He pulled out a stack of photographs, but Julia’s mind could not have been further from the Astrid Wood case if she tried.

  “Johnny, I –”

  “Your gran was right,” he said as he flicked through the pictures. “Astrid really does look like Jessie.”

  Julia snatched the stack from him and flicked through, looking down at Astrid’s face. Her heart sank as her mind pieced together a theory she did not want to accept.

  “Julia?” Dot called tentatively from the kitchen. “I think you might want to see this.”

  Julia dumped the pictures and hurried through the beads. Her gran was holding a small piece of lined paper with a pair of metal tongs.

  “I didn’t want to touch it,” she said. “I think you need to read this.”

  Julia took the tongs from her gran and looked down at the red writing on the scrap of lined paper, which looked like it had been hastily ripped from Julia’s notepad.

  “‘Help me, Julia,’” she read aloud. “It’s Jessie’s handwriting.”

  “There’s something on the other side,” Dot said, gulping hard. “It looks like a circle.”

  Julia turned the paper over. There was a half-finished circle on the left side of the paper, but the red pen dribbled off the edge of the paper, as though her hand had been dragged away.

  “Somebody has taken her,” Julia said firmly, her eyes glazing over. “Whoever locked Astrid in the basement has taken Jessie.”

  “Why?” Dot asked, her brows pinching together. “What does Jessie have to do with this?”

  “Absolutely nothing,” Julia said, resting the tongs on the flour covered table. “But you said yourself how much Jessie looks like Astrid.”

  13

  “Hand these out!” Dot instructed, thrusting a fresh batch of missing posters in Shilpa’s hands. “I want every person in this village to know Jessie’s face. Amy, how are the search teams doing?”

  “The ramblers are checking the Peridale trail,” Amy said after checking the messages on her phone. “The Green Fingers are canvassing the rest of the village.”

  “Barker,” Dot instructed, clicking her fingers to summon him across the café. “What’s the latest on the door to door visits? Have your officers found anything yet?”

  “Nothing yet, Dot,” he called back, resting his phone against his shoulder. “I’m just talking to my boss now. They’re rushing through the fingerprints they found in the kitchen. I’ve made sure to let them know it’s urgent.”

  “Julia?” Dot said, hurrying through the full café. “How’s the social media canvassing going?”

  “People are sharing it all over the web,” Julia said, resting her hand on her gran’s shoulder. “A couple of people are saying they’ve seen similar girls, but nothing is confirmed yet. One guy asked me if she was wearing a yellow coat.”

  “That’s definitely not Jessie,” Dot said, checking her watch, and looking to the door. “Dolly and Dom should be back with the next batch of posters now. Those twins would be dangerous if they had a brain between them. What time are Billy and Jeffrey getting here?”

  “In the next two hours,” Julia said, checking the time on the laptop screen. “It’s a four-hour ride from Cornwall. I don’t know what they’re going to do.”

  “Man power, my dear!” Dot exclaimed, leaving Julia’s side, and hurrying to the door as Dolly and Dom hurried in with a fresh stack of posters from the printers at the library. “There you are! I was about to send out a search party for you two as well.”

  “We got lost,” Dolly said.

  “Couldn’t remember where Julia’s café was,” Dom added.

  “The library is around the corner!” Dot cried, taking the posters from them. “You better run back and print some more. The rambling club should be back soon, and I’m going to send them out to the surrounding villages.”

  The platinum-haired twins nodded enthusiastically and hurried out of the café. Barker finished his phone call and walked over. He kissed Julia on the top of the head before resting his hands on her shoulders.

  “I’ve never seen your gran like this,” Barker said. “She’s running this whole thing.”

  “It might all be for nothing,” Julia said, catching Barker’s eyes in the reflection on the laptop. “What if –”

  “Don’t think like that.” He s
queezed her shoulders hard. “We’re going to find her.”

  Julia pushed forward a smile, not wanting her mind to go to the dark places it had been lingering on in the hours since discovering the note in her kitchen. The second the police had tried to dismiss her theory that the person who locked Astrid in the basement had also taken Jessie, Dot had jumped in and risen to the challenge in an instant. Nobody cared about a worthy cause like Dot.

  “Where is Johnny?” Dot cried, checking her watch. “He was supposed to be back by now with the camera crew. We need blanket coverage. Somebody will have seen her!”

  Julia looked up when the café door opened. She expected to see Johnny, so she was shocked when she saw Evelyn. The villagers in the café who had been calling everyone they knew to get them involved in the search were at once silenced by the appearance of the B&B owner.

  “Oh, Julia!” Evelyn hurried across the café and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. “I’ve only just heard.”

  Julia closed her eyes and clung onto Evelyn. She buried her face in her kaftan, the scent of lavender and incense comforting her. If anyone knew how Julia was feeling, it was Evelyn.

  “This is all strangely familiar,” Evelyn said, glancing around the café uneasily as she pulled away from the hug. “Do you have any idea what has happened to her?”

  Julia grabbed Evelyn’s hand and led her out of the café to the alley. When the two women were alone, Julia’s heart ached in her chest as she realised she was feeling a fraction of what the poor woman in front of her had been feeling for twenty years.

  “Have you ever noticed how Jessie looks like Astrid?” Julia asked, glancing over her shoulder at the village green as the rambling group made their way towards the café. “Gran pointed it out, and I haven’t been able to un-see it since.”

  “I did notice a certain similarity,” Evelyn said, frowning a little. “Dark hair, pale skin. There are hundreds of girls out there who look like that. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen teenage girls like that and thought they were Astrid. I had to remind myself she wouldn’t be a teenage girl if she – if she had been alive.”

  Evelyn forced a smile, even though her eyes began to water. Even if it was only in a small way, she looked like she had accepted the fate of her daughter more than the last time Julia had seen her.

  “You might think I’m crazy, but I think whoever locked Astrid in the basement took Jessie.”

  “I don’t think you’re crazy,” Evelyn replied bluntly. “If you believe something, I believe it too. But I need to ask, why do you think that?”

  “Jessie was in the café last night. She left my cottage in the storm, and she came here.” Julia paused, wishing once again she had tried harder to stop Jessie from leaving. “She was baking. It’s something she has started to do when she needs to calm down. I think she learned it from me. She probably would have come home straight after, but I think someone came here and took her. She left a note to let me know she was in trouble, and she tried to leave me a message, but whoever took her stopped her.”

  “Do you know who took Astrid?” Evelyn asked, her fingers fumbling with the crystals around her neck.

  “No.”

  “Do you know why they took her?”

  “No.” Julia looked down at the ground, embarrassed she had not figured it out. “I’ve been talking to everyone I can think of who might know what happened that night, but nobody seems to know anything that hasn’t already been said.”

  “Or someone is lying.”

  “Most likely,” Julia said with a firm nod. “But I don’t know who. That’s what I need to figure out. If I do, I find Jessie and it –” Julia paused to choke back the tears. “– it might not be too late for her.”

  Evelyn’s eyes rested on one of the crystals. She whispered something before kissing it. She pulled the thin rope over her head and placed the crystal around Julia’s neck.

  “Garnet,” Evelyn said as she positioned the red stone in the centre of Julia’s chest. “Astrid’s birthstone. She has not come to me yet, but she might feel your pain and guide you to Jessie.”

  Before Julia could say anything, footsteps clicked on the cobbles behind her. She turned, hoping to see Jessie, but it was just Roxy.

  “I couldn’t leave school earlier,” Roxy said as she ran towards Julia to hug her. “Hi, Evelyn. Oh, Julia! I’ve been worried sick all day. What can I do?”

  “I don’t know,” Julia said as she clung to her best friend. “I can’t lose her.”

  “You’re not going to.” Roxy pulled away and clutched Julia’s hands. “I’m going to take my car and drive around. I might see something.”

  “Thank you,” Julia said, not wanting to admit that if someone were going to see Jessie wandering around, they would have seen her already. “Maybe she’s just out shopping or something and doesn’t realise we’re looking for her.”

  “That’s what teenagers are like,” Roxy said, brushing Julia’s cheek with her thumb. “I’ll call you if I see anything.”

  Roxy hugged Julia one last time before hurrying back down the alley towards her car. Julia turned back to Evelyn, who was smiling sadly at her.

  “I was the same way in the beginning,” she said. “I didn’t want people to know how worried I was. A small part of me knew she was dead from the beginning, but this isn’t what has happened here. I feel it, Julia. I feel Jessie’s energy. I know you’re not a believer, but believe me when I say I know she is going to turn up safe and well.”

  Evelyn and Julia clung to each other’s hands for a moment, sharing a pain only they could understand. After Evelyn returned to her B&B, Julia walked back into her café, surprised to see Aiden and Grace talking to Barker. When Barker looked over their shoulders to smile at Julia, Aiden and Grace spun around.

  “We can’t believe it’s happening again,” Grace said, looking like she had been crying. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “We came as soon as we heard,” Aiden added as he tucked his scruffy blond hair behind his ears. “I’ve got the boys ringing all of their friends’ parents to see if they’ve seen her. If there is anything we can do, we’ll do it. We know what you’re going through.”

  “You can hand some of these out,” Dot said, thrusting a pile of posters into Aiden’s chest. “Make yourself useful.”

  Aiden nodded and split the stack with Grace. They both looked over the picture of Jessie, their eyes lighting up at the same time.

  “I’ve never seen her before,” Aiden said. “She looks just like –”

  “Astrid,” Grace jumped in. “It’s uncanny.”

  “There are plenty of girls out there with dark hair and pale skin,” Dot exclaimed, pushing between them, and shoving them in the direction of the door. “Those posters aren’t going to hand themselves out.”

  Grace and Aiden both smiled sympathetically over their shoulders at Julia as Dot forced them out of the door. When they were outside, Dot closed the door, turned, and rolled her eyes.

  “I’m still not convinced he didn’t kill her,” she muttered through pursed lips. “I don’t trust men with long hair.”

  “Gran!” Julia said. “Now isn’t the time.”

  Dot shook her head and collapsed into one of the free chairs, clearly exhausted. She rubbed her temples before sipping her stone-cold cup of tea. Julia looked around the café, almost not believing that she had not offered anyone any cake yet. As she stood up to see what was in the fridge, Amy jumped out of her seat, her phone in her hand.

  “Jessie always wears Doc Martens and a black hoody, doesn’t she?” she asked, her eyes glued on her phone. “I’ve just had a picture message from Malcolm.”

  Amy walked forward, her hands shaking as she looked down at the phone. When she met Julia’s eyes, Julia knew it was not good news.

  “The Green Fingers have just found these in a river,” Amy mumbled, turning the phone around. “I’m so sorry, Julia.”

  The floor disappeared from underneath Julia when she s
aw the grainy photograph of a soaked black hoody and shiny black Doc Martens on a riverbank. They were the same clothes Jessie had been wearing when she had left the cottage the night before. Without even realising it, Julia fell back into her chair.

  14

  The seconds passed like days and the days like weeks. Julia could no longer distinguish between night and day, and only slept in small bursts when she could no longer keep her eyes open.

  “I’ve made you some breakfast,” Barker said as he walked into the dining room with a plate of toast. “Have you been up all night?”

  “Is it morning?” Julia mumbled as she drummed her pen on the table, looking over the mountain of notes she had made. “What am I missing, Barker? I’ve mapped out everything I can find out leading up to Astrid’s death, and I’m still nowhere near.”

  “It would be easier if Aiden had chopped her up and put her in the walls,” he joked, forcing a smile before putting the toast on the edge of the table and stepping back. “Why don’t you open the café today?”

  “Because Jessie is still out there,” she replied bluntly. “And it’s my job to find her. Why didn’t Astrid want to go to the prom? I thought she was in love with Aiden? What kept her away?”

  “She was being bullied.”

  “But by who?” Julia asked. “And why the basement under the toy shop? Not a lot of people could have known it was there.”

  “Alistair has been interviewed half a dozen times, and he’s sticking to the same story.” Barker leaned against the doorframe, tilting his head to peer at some of Julia’s scribbled notes. “‘Astrid knew about Grace’s pregnancy’.”

  “I think Astrid was the only person who knew until the baby came,” Julia mumbled through a mouthful of toast. “I don’t even think Doctor Gambaccini knew about it.”

  “How can you hide a pregnancy from your mother?”

  “Not everyone blows up like Sue,” Julia said, grabbing at a picture of Grace at the prom with Aiden, which had been in the pictures Johnny had given to her. “She was wearing a floaty dress. According to Aiden, the baby grew under her ribcage, so she would have had a tiny bump.”