Echoes of the Past (10 page)

July 10

I
can’t wait to get away from here. P doesn’t understand why I am so angry. He doesn’t realize how betrayed I feel. S should never have kept that secret. At a time when she needed me most, she didn’t come to me. They have both betrayed my trust. She is supposed to be my friend.

July 13

P
came to me today at the farm. Jim chased him off but he waited for me to finish up. He tried to tell me that Sam meant nothing to him. He thinks that will make it all better. He doesn’t realize that it is even worse that he was able to use her and treat her that way. Sam hasn’t spoken to me since I found out. When her Dad found out about the knife, he went crazy. She hasn’t been out of the hotel since. I want to talk to her, but I can’t get near. I want to tell her how angry and hurt I am. I’m so lucky to have Jim to talk to. There doesn’t seem to be anything he doesn’t understand.

July 21st

Feeling
a bit better. I’m now looking forward to going to Aberdeen. It’s a new beginning and I can leave Coppersfield behind.

August 2nd

I
can’t believe it. Dad bought me a car. A blue ford escort. I will be driving up to Aberdeen. I love it. He said I could only have it if I promise to come down at least once a month. I wish I could show it to Sam, she would love it.

August 10th

All
packed, Mum and Dad want to drive up there with me to help me get settled. I told them I was a big girl and could manage. I think Dad is having a hard time with me leaving. He’s even worse than mum.

Look
out, world, here I come!!!

Tom felt a sadness come over him. That had been her last entry in her journal. It had helped him see another side of Angela, helped him get to know her better. But it had shed absolutely no light on what had happened to her just a short time later.

Tom
read through the letters that had been in the box. Most came from Patrick, begging her to take him back, but there was nothing that would indicate why she disappeared. Tom could feel something eating away at him. Something that just simply didn’t sit right with him. The possibility that the four women could all be victims of stranger abduction crossed Tom’s mind with a sensation similar to dread. These types of crimes were always the hardest to solve. If the perpetrator was unknown to the girls then there was no way of tracking him through his victims. Tom looked at the four files, he knew they had all gone missing in the first fortnight in August. At least two of them had mentioned someone offering them a job of some sort. Moreover, they had both been secretive about it.

However
it was the evidence that he didn’t have that drew a parallel with the four girls. There had never been another sighting of any of the girls after the day they disappeared. They had never used their bank accounts; they had never contacted family or friends. There were no record of them with the DVLA since they had left. There was no evidence of violence, and there had been no bodies as of yet. Tom knew that without a body or a crime scene, the chances of closing a case dropped by about 90%. He could feel the hair on the back of his arms stand on end as a chill went through him, the realisation that he could just have uncovered the crimes of a serial killer, one that had been active since 1968, began to dawn on him. He had left no clues, no witnesses and no evidence. In addition, for the last forty-five years, no one was even aware of his existence.

*****

The woman stood silently by his side. She knew, given enough time she would get through to him. She could feel the excitement building from all the women that had gone before her, and after. They knew they had finally found someone who would listen.

*****

The man sat in his car in the university campus watching the couple argue. He smiled to himself. A little part of him cringed as he watched the young man beg for forgiveness.

No
self
-
respect
! he thought.

He
watched as the young man climbed into his Datsun and drive off. The girl was upset. She kicked the tyre of her blue Ford Escort; she wiped tears from her face. The soft warm august breeze flicked her blonde hair around her face. He tooted the horn ever so gently, sure not to draw attention to himself. The campus was, for the most part, empty of people. The blond girl looked over, immediately recognizing the car; she smiled, waved and walked over. All he had to do was be patient, just another second, once she was in the car it would all be over.

*****

Jess woke from the dream, not fully remembering what it was about; her foot was resting on a pillow. The throbbing had, for the most part subsided. The swelling was not as bad as it had been the day before. She stretched her arms above her head and wriggled her hip slightly to ease the stiffness.

Within
a minute of her waking, Lee was there beside her, fussing over her, bringing her all the pancakes she could eat. She knew that within a day or two she would no longer be needing the crutches and would have no excuse for not going to her own bed. Aunt Lee had shook her head at her, telling her it was her own fault for being so stupid.

“You
scared yourself, that’s all. There isn’t anything in your room, Jess.”

“Easy
for you to say that,” Jess replied.

“Did
Gemma go in to school this morning?”

“Yes,
she text me at interval to see how I was. She said she’s never going up to my room again.”

“She’s
just saying that because she got a fright. Honestly, for such clever girls, the two of you can be really daft sometimes.”

“Gemma
said you used a Ouija board before.” Jess’s tone was challenging, Lee felt a discomfort wash over her as she recalled the last time she had picked up the board. Although it had been at the request of a friend, Lee had never believed that it really would work. She had never touched one since.

“Did
she now. Then you can take it from one who learned her lesson. There are some things on this earth that you just shouldn’t mess with. Spirits of the dearly departed are one of them.”

“What
if they choose to mess with you?”

Lee
felt the hairs on her neck begin to stand. Her intuition was telling her that some thing had begun and there would be no way of stopping it.

*****

Matt stretched his arms out to the side. At fifty-three, he was getting a bit too old for the acrobatics of the night before. As pretty as she was, Matt was glad to see her go. He had given her the eighty pounds for the taxi plus a tip. He swallowed his coffee and went upstairs to get ready. He knew little Jess had hurt her foot and he wanted to get down and see her today.

The
water shot from the walls of the shower with force, massaging away the aches in his lower back.

I
could
stand
here
all
day
, he thought as the water drenched his hair. He stepped out and wrapped a luxurious towel around his waist. The under-floor heating in the over sized bathroom kept the marble floor at a comfortable temperature. Everything in Matt’s life was pretty luxurious. He had always had the best of everything. From clothes to education. The confidant air of arrogance most likely came from the knowledge that his great-grand father had built Ingaldean, and most of the modern day part of the village, the hotel, the tearoom etc. Ingles, was a well-known and respected name in Coppersfield. His great grandfather had made his money in the copper mines in Cornwell before moving up here. Worlds apart from the way Matt made a living today. Mining was a thing of the past, but IT, that’s a business that just continued to grow for him.

He
finished getting dressed then headed downstairs to pick up his surprise gift for Jess. Loading it into the back of the car, he slipped behind the wheel of his BMW and revved the engine, listening to it purr.

Being
the respected member of the community that he was he took his foot of the gas before driving through the gates and on to the public high way. It wouldn’t do to go speeding irresponsibly down School Wynd now would it?

Nothing
was ever too far away in the village, it wasn’t big enough, within five minutes, Matt had reached Hill House. He hadn’t been up there in ages. He remembered coming here with Tom when he first started seeing Sarah. He rang the doorbell and waited with the special gift under his arm.

A
wide smile from Lee as she greeted him at the door.

“Guess
who’s here to see you, Jess,” she called over her shoulder.

Matt
followed her in. and popped his head around the living room door. Aware of the movement in the box under his arm. The house had that homely feel about it, the fire burning, the lamps lit. All the things that pointed to a woman being present. All the things that Matt had never valued, nor understood those who did.

“Hi,
Jess, got a gift for you.” He handed the box over. As Jess took hold of it, the lid popped off and a small white kitten peeked up over the rim. Jess squealed with delight.

“A
kitten!”

“Yep,
she is a Maine coon. Strongly resembles a lion, very loyal and highly intelligent. She reminded me of you, so, of course, you had to have it.”

Jess
laughed as the kitten scrambled from the box. “So I look like a lion, thanks, Uncle Matt. I’m really pleased it wasn’t a puppy you got me.”

Lee
stroked the long fur of the small kitten. “I hope you cleared this with Tom.”

“Now
where would the fun be in that?”

Jess
lifted the kitten and buried her face in the thick main around the kitten’s neck. “He will love her, thank you, Uncle Matt, you’re the best.”

“I
remember when your Dad and I were young, he would only have been about ten; I was a couple of years older. It was just like having a little brother. Anyway, I had taken him fishing at the stream behind the old church. When we got there we found a bag with two little kittens in it, so we waded in to rescue them.”

“Who
would drown kittens, Uncle Matt?” Jess was disturbed at the mere thought.

“A
farmer, maybe. Anyway, Tom took them home but his father would not let him keep them. Your old granddad was a strict old sod. He was really broken up about it. So I took them up to Ingaldean and Tom could still get to see them and play with them. So if he tries to tell you that the cat has to go, remind him of that story. So how’s the foot?”

“A
bit better, I should be up and around in the next day or two.”

“How
did you manage it?”

“She
missed her footing on the stairs, Matt, always in a rush.”

“Well,
once you’re up and about you can come up to the house; I’ve got a new horse that is waiting to meet you.”

Jess
hadn’t been up to the horses in a while and she was missing them. Now she had a sudden urgency to get back on her feet again. Not only that, but when she went up to Ingaldean, she would spend ages talking to Matt; they had good fun together.

“Where
is Tom?” Matt said.

“He’s
still at the station I think,” Lee said.

“Has
he not given up on that case yet? I wish he would just take it easy and wait it out till he retires.”

Lee
gave a snigger. “I would love to see Tom retired, I don’t think he would last five minutes, he would be jumpier than that kitten.”

*****

“My goodness, it’s cold in here.” Danny opened the station door and pulled the chill of the outside in with him. He switched on the central heating, one of the new commodities that had been installed in the old station house. “Can’t stay away can you?” He rubbed his hands together for heat and headed over to the kettle.

“You
know what, Danny; I think you might have something with this Angela Harrison case. Her mother gave me a box of stuff that the police never took. Moreover, I found out that she had an older friend who lives just up the lane from here. Jim Watt.”

“Oh
yeah, I know Jim, he’s a pretty private sort. You’ll see him at the coffee shop most mornings for breakfast. He must have been a good bit older than Angela though. Do you think you have enough to take to your DI? Maybe get them to look at it again?”

“Doubt
it, Danny, but I certainly don’t mind checking it out, shake the tree and see what falls so to speak.”

“Well,
Sarge, my station is your station.”

“Hey,
my time isn’t up yet, Sonny, but I do appreciate the gesture.” Tom knew working from home would be a lot warmer and more comfortable. On the other hand, here he could do spec searches and have full access to the police database.

“I
found something else, Danny.” Tom spread the pictures of the three missing women on the desk. “Any of these look familiar to you?”