Tina felt a twinge of guilt. She’d laid it on a bit thick. But it worked. Pat moved closer to her, giving her a kiss on the cheek. ‘I’ll do some preliminary searches. And if you can bring me actual evidence of your suspicions about his little girl being … harmed, or abused, then obviously I’ll report it immediately and do things through the correct channels.’ He turned again to walk away, then added: ‘But when I say if you can bring me evidence, I don’t mean you lot should play bloody detective and go seeking it out. I mean if you come across it, if Eliza tells the school something, stuff like that. Tell me that. Don’t you dare go snooping and putting me in an awkward position. Promise?’

Tina caught the concerned tone in Pat’s voice. He knew he’d said the wrong thing about taking evidence to him. He seemed scared, probably quite rightly, that the women of Mapledon might take it as a green light to do some of their own digging.

Chapter Forty-Nine

2019

Anna

Monday 15th July – evening

The revelations, tense conversations and sense of unease had all taken their toll on Anna and now, slumped on her mother’s ageing, saggy sofa, she felt utterly drained. Numb. And yet, her mind wouldn’t settle, wouldn’t quieten. Loud, annoying thoughts and questions swamped her tired brain. She wouldn’t sleep if she didn’t at least attempt to get rid of a few of them. Get some of her queries out, maybe even get some answers.

Strangely, her mother hadn’t quizzed her when she’d returned from lunch with Lizzie. She’d fully expected to be given the third degree, but instead she’d been met with indifference; Muriel didn’t even ask what Anna’d assumed to be the burning question: was it Lizzie who’d left the doll’s head and arm? Anna hadn’t said much either – if her mother wanted to know, she’d ask. Perhaps it’d been too much for her, too. A day filled with unexpected twists. She was probably too tired to care.

Anna had taken the opportunity to call Carrie. She’d been excited to share what she’d been up to – James had taken her to the cinema, as promised, and then for fish and chips, which they’d eaten on the seafront, guarding them with their lives while seagulls swooped. It was lovely to hear her upbeat chatter, but it also created a deep ache in Anna’s stomach. She should be the one spending time with her daughter, enjoying the school holidays. She shouldn’t be running about the countryside on some wild goose chase with Muriel and the daughter of a child murderer – her childhood friend’s killer. It didn’t seem right, somehow. But Carrie reassured her they would still have plenty of time – five more blissful weeks without school. Anna repeated ‘plenty of time’. Would they still have lots of time to spend together? She supposed it’d only been four days so far – but there didn’t seem to be an end in sight yet. It could easily be another four days. More, even, before Anna felt it was safe to leave Mapledon. Leave Muriel to her own devices. Or, take her home to Bristol – temporarily at least. She was beginning to realise this might be the only course of action. Unless she could get Muriel talking. Dig under the surface, find out the real story behind Billy Cawley and his abduction of Jonie Hayes.