Lost Girls

by K Leitch

  ‘What’s this?’ Luke asked bewildered, ‘What am I meant to be looking at?’

  ‘These are stills taken from a street camera which is situated on the main Redbank road at the junction with St Mark’s Square,’ said Frank, ‘as you can see Mr Wiseman at 9.47 on the night of Brenda Marsh’s murder the camera has captured an image of you driving into the Square, and then at 10.36 we have another image of your car driving away from the scene. By this time Brenda Marsh was dying from injuries received when you beat her into a pulp….’

  ‘NO…that’s not true, I haven’t seen Brenda for months,’ Luke shouted. ‘I haven’t been anywhere near her house, why the fuck would I kill the woman. Oh I know I said I didn’t like her…but I don’t like a lot of people that doesn’t mean I’m going to kill them….’

  ‘If that’s true Mr Wiseman,’ Frank went on, ‘why can you be seen driving into her road on the very night that she was murdered?’

  Luke put his head in his hands, ‘I don’t know,’ he said, ‘it doesn’t make any sense.’ He looked up at Carla. ‘I didn’t kill her; you’ve got to believe me….hang on what night did you say?’ he said at a sudden thought.

  ‘Tuesday…last week,’ Frank said.

  Luke sat up straighter, a bit of his swagger back, ‘Well I can prove it wasn’t me then,’ he said with a relieved smile.

  ‘Oh yes…how’s that then?’ Frank said raising his eyebrows.

  ‘I was at a hotel in Lingfield on Tuesday,’ Luke said triumphantly. ‘The Marriot actually, at Lingfield racecourse, you can check with them. I was there all day for the race meeting and then I stayed over…I’d had a bit to drink actually, a friend of mine, Bertie Black had got together a small party of us. We were in the bar until pretty late and….’

  ‘And your friend will verify this will he?’ Frank asked sulkily.

  ‘Definitely,’ Luke said, he gave Carla a sly look before saying, ‘I had a young lady with me that evening…she’ll verify that I was there all night as well.’

  Carla’s heart sank; she knew exactly which girl he was talking about.

  ‘Okay, we’ll need her name then as well,’ Frank said.

  ‘Maylee Willows,’ Luke said, Frank gave Carla a quick look before he wrote it down.

  Carla and Frank stood up. ‘Right, well we will need to check with these people Mr Wiseman, and I’m afraid I must ask you to remain here while we do that, hopefully we won’t need to detain you for too long. Before I do that though, who else would have had access to your car on that night?’ Frank asked.

  Luke shrugged, ‘Quite a few people actually,’ he said, ‘my brother for one or Millicent his wife…my mum has even driven it a few times but she prefers her Nissan….’

  ‘Ok Mr Wiseman, thank you for your co-operation,’ Frank said through gritted teeth as he left the room.

  ‘Bugger,’ he said as they made their way back upstairs to the office. ‘I was so sure we had him….’

  ‘Well we may still do,’ Carla said, ‘we haven’t checked out his alibi yet, although….’ she left her sentence unfinished.

  Frank looked at Carla sheepishly, ‘That’s a bit of a turn up, Maylee I mean,’ he began. ‘I didn’t know she had split with Dom.’

  Carla pulled a face, ‘No, well they haven’t, not yet anyway,’ she said shortly.

  ‘Shit,’ Frank said, ‘Poor Dom…look would you rather deal with her….’

  ‘God no,’ said Carla grimacing, ‘I’ll leave that to you I think…Maggie’s going to be fuming though….’

  ‘Well, I suppose there’s no reason for her to find out…I’m just saying,’ he finished as Carla gave him a death stare.

  Mandy caught up with Carla as she walked to her office. ‘Got that info you wanted Ma’am,’ she said handing Carla a piece of paper.

  ‘Alfred Sheenan disappeared in 1995, I spoke to a Sergeant Wellbock from the Liverpool force. Sheenan was reported missing by a Janet Fletcher; she was the landlady of his local pub. Apparently he was a regular and she got worried when she hadn’t seen him for a couple of weeks. Local police went round to his address but they found nothing suspicious so they put it on file but nothing more was done.’

  ‘What’s the odds that he’s dead and buried?’ Carla put in shaking her head.

  ‘Sister Frances…her real name was Joan Nightingale by the way, well she’s another story,’ Mandy went on. ‘She was murdered in 1996, her body was found in a barn not far from the convent that she lived in, she’d had her throat cut, but not only that she’d been sodomised with a brass candle stick, it was a terrible scandal, according to the officer I spoke to from the Garda in Limerick, especially when a few weeks later another body was found, this one had been buried for a while, some farmer turned it over with his plough. Anyway it turns out it was a father Seamus Leary who’d been missing for a couple of weeks and he’d been sodomised as well as far as they could tell.’

  ‘Shit…so Jonas wasn’t the first then, what about Agnes Cray?’

  ‘Well she’s still alive Ma’am, last known address is a nursing home in Westerham, Kent, “Hope Lodge” I’ve got the details for you….’

  ‘Mandy you are a star…I’ll give them a call.’

  CHAPTER 60

  ‘Oh she will be pleased to see you,’ said Nurse Lei with her friendly smile, ‘your last visit did her so much good. She’s in the Orangery today; you know the way don’t you?’

  The couple smiled and went on their way. They were a strange looking couple Anna Lei thought as she watched them go, he was so big and tall and she was so gaunt and angular, but it was nice to see Agnes getting some visitors at last. Anna had a soft spot for the old lady; she seemed so tiny and vulnerable. She would sit with her sometimes after her shift was over and listen to her ramble on about the things that she could remember from her youth. All her recent memories had gone now of course as the dementia took hold, and some days she didn’t even recognise Anna, but she seemed to be able to recall lots about her days as a cook in a posh London hotel. How much of what she remembered was true or just a confused fantasy it was hard to tell, but she enjoyed talking about it to whoever would listen.

  She had never had visitors, not as long as Nurse Lei had worked at Hope Lodge, but apparently these two were distant cousins, that had been hunting down their relatives for a family tree that they were compiling. Agnes had been cousin to their grandmother it seemed…anyway however they had found her, it was wonderful the way that they had taken it upon themselves to visit her occasionally…it did her so much good. It was a shame that the weather had been so bad today, they’d wanted to take her for a walk outside, oh well maybe next time.

  CHAPTER 61 - HELEN

  Andy waited anxiously for his mum near the café at the centre of the park. She’d been to the school a couple of times since the last time when Andy had given her the money. He’d ignored her, even when she’d shouted over to him during a football match.

  Lena had eventually persuaded Andy to tell Helen and Maya everything. He hadn’t wanted to at all but she had promised him that they would forgive him for taking the money and jewellery, and so he had tearfully admitted his crime to them the next evening.

  Helen and Maya had been really shocked, and Maya particularly had been disappointed, which had made Andy cry all the harder.

  ‘I’m so sorry,’ he kept repeating over and over, ‘I promise I won’t ever do it again, please don’t send me away…please,’ he said his bony little shoulders shaking with his sobs.

  Helen put an arm round him, ‘Of course we won’t send you away Andy,’ she said giving him a squeeze. ‘It must have been really hard to tell us what you’d done…thank you sweetheart for trusting us. Now I need you to tell me everything…absolutely everything that had happened since your mum appeared at the school…ok?’

  Andy nodded and keeping his head down he began. Helen and Maya listened without interrupting, although Maya did mutter a few choice words under her breath when Andy got to the part about being lef
t on his own in the middle of town, when he had finished he looked up at them, his eyes swimming in tears.

  Helen didn’t say anything for a minute, then she said, ‘Andy…what your mum asked you to do was wrong, you know that don’t you?’

  Andy nodded.

  Helen chose her words carefully, ‘And the way she’s behaved towards you is not the way that a mother should behave…you know that as well don’t you?’

  Andy nodded again but he said, ‘It’s the drink, it makes her spiteful, it always has...’

  ‘That is true Andy,’ Maya said, ‘but she is being selfish as well, if she was being a proper mum she would never ask her child to risk his own happiness…just for drink. Also, she needs to get proper help to get off the drink, she is not looking after herself, how can she look after child if she doesn’t look after herself?’

  Helen heaved a sigh; she knew that what she was going to ask Andy to do might alienate him from her, but she had to ask anyway it was the only way to help him break his ties to a mother that just didn’t care enough about him, and was willing to sacrifice him for a bottle of drink.

  ‘Andy, I think we have to tell the police where your mum is…’ she held up her hands as Andy began to protest. ‘Just hear me out ok?’ Andy nodded, so she continued. ‘If we leave things the way they are your mum is just going to keep on pestering you to get more and more money, and you know as well as I do that she will use the money to buy more and more drink no matter what she says she needs the money for, right?’ Andy nodded again. ‘She needs professional help sweetheart and she will get that if she wants it, and I will make sure that you are able to visit her whenever you can I promise.’ Helen grabbed hold of Andy’s hands and looked him in the eye. ‘I know how hard it will be for you to betray your mum Andy, but this is the best way to help her at the moment sweetheart. Sometimes doing what’s right is the hardest thing of all but I know you can do it Andy, because you are such a strong, brave, boy and you’ve dealt with much harder than this in your life.’

  All of them were crying by this time and so Lena said she would make them all a hot drink while they sorted themselves out and then they would think about how they were going to do this thing.

  And that is why Andy was now waiting by the café. He had waited for Mum to show up at the school again but this time he hadn’t ignored her, he’d run over and spoken to her.

  She had been just as demanding and nasty, calling him all the names under the sun until he’d finally agreed to meet her in the park and bring her some more money.

  He clenched his fists nervously, as he at last spotted her making her way unsteadily towards him. She looked dreadful, her hair was dirty and unbrushed and her clothes were covered in stains, she was holding a can in one hand and every now and then she would stop and take a drink from it before carrying on.

  ‘You come then,’ she said when she saw Andy, ‘whatcha got for me boy?’ she asked holding out a grubby hand.

  ‘I couldn’t get anything, sorry Mum,’ Andy said quietly.

  ‘Whatcha mean you ain’t got nuffin’, why’dya bring me ‘ere then?’ Kathy squawked angrily.

  ‘I think you need to speak to someone Mum,’ Andy began, ‘about your drinking I mean, Helen says that there are places where people will…’ he was cut off by a vicious slap round the head.

  ‘Don’t you fucking lecture me boy,’ Kathy shrieked slapping him again. ‘I don’t need no fucking lesbo telling me ‘ow to live my life and it’s none of your fucking business neither you little,’ slap… ‘fucking’… slap… ‘little turd…. aaarrggh!’ she finished on an angry shout, as she was unceremoniously pulled away from Andy by one of the police officers that had been watching from the other side of the café. She was dragged away across the park, shouting obscenities as she went.

  Andy collapsed in tears as he watched her being put into a car. Helen, who had had trouble restraining herself up to this point, came running over to him and pulled him into her arms.

  ‘It’s all over now sweetheart…she won’t hurt you again I promise…I promise Andy, you’re part of our family now and we love you so much….’ Helen rambled on holding Andy tightly to her until his sobs subsided and then she drove him home.

  CHAPTER 62 - MAGGIE

  Duncan and Maggie had raced home as soon as they’d got the call. Maggie jumped out of the car almost before it had come to a stop and fumbled with her keys, such was her haste to get inside the house. Duncan came up behind her and gently took the keys from her and opened the door.

  ‘Gently sweetheart,’ he said stroking her cheek, ‘he needs you strong and calm remember?’

  Maggie nodded; she took his hand and kissed it, then taking a deep breath she went inside.

  The house was in darkness, but the moon shone through the huge kitchen windows and Maggie could see Dom’s silhouette in there, hunched over the table. She rushed in and pulled him into her arms… she could feel him shaking with emotion.

  ‘Oh my poor darling,’ she said kissing his face, ‘my poor boy…tell me what happened.’

  Duncan followed on behind, switching on a few lights as he did so. He went over to where Dom was sitting and squeezed his arm.

  ‘So sorry mate,’ was all he said, before going over and switching on the coffee machine.

  In front of Dom on the table was a letter, it was from Maylee and it explained why she had left without a word, taking all her clothes (and a few of Maggie’s) and clearing out the joint bank account. She’d left one rather important thing behind her though, little Juke slept soundly in his bed above the garage, completely unaware for now that his mother had abandoned him.

  ‘Is this it?’ Maggie asked picking up the letter.

  Dom nodded. ‘For what it’s worth,’ he said bitterly, ‘read it if you want, it’s the most shallow, selfish excuse for a letter that I’ve ever read.’

  Maylee explained that she simply had to go away. Dom would understand, she knew, when she told him that Luke Wiseman had a friend in Hollywood and that he had said he would try her out for a part in his next film. This was what she had wanted all her life, it was her big break and she would always regret it if she didn’t grab it with both hands.

  “It’s time for me to be selfish for once,” she wrote, “I have to put my needs first for a change, I owe it to myself.”

  She went on to say that she had felt stifled by Dom’s love and that she was a bird that needed to be set free if she was going to flourish. She obviously found it a little bit more difficult to explain why she was leaving Jukie behind, but in the end she managed to make even that a dreadful sacrifice for her, that she had made for his own good.

  “He’ll see one day that I left him because I love him,” she wrote, “you and Maggie can give him so much more than I ever could…it was the hardest decision that I’ve ever had to make but I made it because I love him”. Maggie felt sick; the girl had once again manipulated her conscience to suit her own needs, regardless of the pain that it caused all those close to her.

  ‘Well she’s right about one thing,’ Dom said when Maggie finally put down the letter. ‘Jukie is better off without her; she never gave him the time of day anyway, except when she wanted to dress him up in “designer gear” of course. She treated him like a little doll, that she would take out once in a while to play with, but only if she didn’t have anything better to do of course,’ he finished with a sneer.

  Maggie didn’t really know what to say, she was boiling with hatred and fury but she knew that now wasn’t the time to slag Maylee off. Dom, whatever he said, was heartbroken and telling him that his girl had been a no good trollop just wasn’t going to help.

  ‘What do we tell Jukie?’ she said eventually, smiling her thanks at Duncan who was handing out coffees.

  ‘I think we tell him the truth,’ Dom said, ‘that his mum went in search of her big break and she couldn’t take him with her. But that she knew we loved him and that he would be safe with us so she asked if we could look after him�
��.’

  ‘Well we weren’t exactly asked,’ Maggie muttered under her breath.

  ‘I know Mum, but I want Jukie to know that we were happy to have him here with us. He must never know that his selfish cow of a mother just left him because something better came along….’

  Maggie squeezed his arm, ‘Oh darling of course he will be very welcome here with us, I love Jukie you know that. And what’s more, I’m so very proud of you Dom…he couldn’t have found a better Dad.’ She paused as she chose her next words carefully. ‘We do need to always remember though that we have no legal rights over Jukie, not unless we can get her to agree to let us adopt him. We need to try and do that as soon as we can Dom, otherwise she could come back in a year or two and take him.’

  Dom looked at Maggie his eyes hardening, ‘I’d like to see her try Mum.’

  Just then the front door opened and Jed and Jools rushed in, Maggie had phoned them from the car as soon as Dom had phoned her. Without saying a word Jed went straight over to Dom and threw his arms around him; Maggie could see Dom’s shoulders shaking as Jed led him out of the kitchen and into the living room. Maggie let them go, glad that Dom had his brother to talk to, he would say things to Jed that he would never say to his mum, and Jed wouldn’t molly coddle him like Maggie might do. What Dom needed right now was someone to tell him what he should do…and Jed was good at doing that.

  Jools, who had been reading Maylee’s letter, looked up at Maggie and shook her head in disgust. ‘What a fucking bitch,’ she said, which was after all what they had all been thinking.

  CHAPTER 63 - HELEN

  Two days after the drama with Andy and his mother, Helen had a call from Hester Binworthy asking her to attend a special meeting to decide what they were going to do about the play, now that Imogen had done a flit.

  It was obvious from the start of the meeting that the majority of people that had worked on the play wanted it to go ahead in some form or another.