Echoes of the Past (27 page)

Gemma
turned away from the old desk. The confused look was replaced with something resembling fright. Jess felt a presence behind her as the shadow of a man was cast on the dirt floor before her.

*****

Eva’s hands were shaking as she handed Tom a mug of coffee. When she sat back down Tom noticed she looked exhausted.

“Was
there anyone with Duncan that night?”

“No,
he acted alone.”

“Who
was the cousin you were with, I take it you both witnessed this?”

“Mathew
Ingles.”

“Matt
witnessed this? He saw his father do this?” Tom considered that this might be the reason Matt was happy to lock his father away. Pretend that he was dead.

“You
know him?” Her surprise was clear.

“The
night Jill disappeared, tell me about it, I take it you believe Duncan took her too?” All the pieces were starting to come together, Containing his anticipation he continued to dig for more answers from Eva.

“No,
it wasn’t my uncle. Jill had left to meet friends at the Lands End pub. I didn’t go that night, I had no money.” Eva shuffled in her seat; her discomfort was palpable. “That night I had a visitor. He knew Jill was my flat mate. He had offered her a job in his new company that Daddy had help set him up in.”

“Matt?
Matt visited you that night?”

Eva
nodded. Nothing was making sense to Tom. Matt had been like his older brother, none of this added up.

“I
told him where she was, but I also told him to leave her alone. You have to understand, I was terrified of the Ingles family.”

“I
thought your mother hadn’t seen them in years.”

“She
hadn’t, but when Matt started university in England, he used to call in on me sometimes when he was going home for holidays. He would subtly remind me that some secrets were to be taken to the grave. Anyway, he liked Jill. I warned him to stay away.” Eva closed her eyes as if trying not to remember. “As he was leaving he whispered to me.” Eva swallowed hard and lowered her shaking voice. “It’s so easy to make a young woman disappear now-a-days. Half the time the police don’t even bother to look for them, Eva, especially if they are all alone in the world like you.” Eva wiped her hand over her face. “Anyway, that was the last time I ever saw Jill, that was my guilty secret.”

Tom
looked at her in disbelief. “You’re telling me that Matt killed Jill?”

Eva
nodded.

“And
Matt? Do you see him?”

“He
hasn’t approached me since that night. A few times I have seen him around, in coffee bars that I go to or just standing outside a shop. As though he’s just letting me know that he’s still watching. That was why I didn’t want to meet with you, but I think it’s time I faced the fear and the guilt. I knew what the Ingles family was and I never stopped them.”

Tom
could not offer her comfort. “I don’t understand why you never sought help; they lived far enough away that you could have gone to the police without their knowledge.”

“What
do you think I was doing when I wrote that story, it may have taken me years to do it, but after my mother passed away I was truly on my own. Even you had doubts that the Ingles could be involved.”

“Did
you discuss this with Sara?” A sickening realization was beginning to dawn on Tom.

“She
asked if it was Coppersfield. I didn’t tell her. She asked if Jill was connected to the story. If that was why she was taken.” Eva leaned forward with her head in her hands. “Oh God, I told her, Yes. If I had known what would happen I would never have told her anything. But after I heard that Sara had died in an accident, I started to believe the Ingles where untouchable.”

“You
met with Sara the day she died. It was in her diary. Did you tell her it was Matt Ingles?”

“No.
We only spoke for a few minutes then she left, she just lifted her mobile phone and left.”

“My
God, Jess!” Tom lifted his brief case. “I have to go, thank you.”

“What’s
wrong?”

Tom
was out the door and down the steps before hearing Eva’s question. He pulled the mobile from his pocket and dialled Lee.

“Where
is Jess?” Tom’s sounded breathless as he spoke into his mobile phone while he raced to his car.

“Hello
to you to, she’s gone up to Matt’s with Gem–”

“Get
Danny, Lee, and get up there. Get her back home, take Danny with you. Call her on her mobile and tell her to head home.” He could hear Lee’s voice, panicked and questioning him as he hung up the phone and dialled Danny.

He
jumped into the Jeep as Danny’s voice mail picked up.

“Danny,
I’m on my way from Edinburgh, I’m about two hours away, it’s Matt, it’s Matt Ingles. You have to get up there, Jess and Gemma are there. Get them.”

He
sped through the narrowed streets with cars parked on either side of him. Heading toward the M8

He
dialled Scott Kerr at Edinburgh station. No reply.

“Damn
it.” He said as he realized it was a Saturday morning. With one eye on the road and the other on the mobile phone, he scrolled down for Detective Inspector Kerr’s mobile number.

“Scott?
Its Tom, I’ve got him.”

“How
the hell can you go from not a clue yesterday to …”

“It’s
Matt Ingles, I don’t have time to join the dots for you just now, just get all the local forces from Helensburgh and surrounding areas and get them up to Coppersfield, I can’t get hold of Danny.” The line went quiet for a second. “Scott?”

“Are
you sure it’s Matt Ingles?” Scott’s voice was quiet and deliberate.

“I
have a witness to the Susanna Wheeling murder, it was Matt’s father. She also puts Matt with Jill Patterson the night she disappeared.”

Scott
paused, as if choosing his words. “I don’t have to tell you what kind of shit storm this will cause if the man that set up our computer systems is a killer.”

Tom
sighed. He didn’t care about the implications, “Scott, you need to get backup there. My daughter is at Ingaldean Estate.”

“Ok,
Tom, I’m on it. And, Tom, you better be right about this, you may be retiring, I’m not.”

The
line went dead. “I pray I’ve got it wrong, Scott.”

Tom
weaved in and out of the busy lanes in the crowded city before finally reaching the motorway. He could feel his chest tightening as the realization of the danger Jess was truly in swept through him like a flood. Crossing all three lanes he moved into the outside and pushed his foot hard on the accelerator. He had over ninety miles still to travel before reaching Coppersfield.

*****

Jess turned to see Matt standing behind her.

“What
are you girls doing down here?” His voice was calm and unthreatening.

“Uncle
Matt, we found this room by accident.”

Matt
walked over to the table next to Gemma and examined the tools there. Jess caught a metal glint from his hand as he lifted it up and brought it down hard on Gemma’s head. Jess let out a screech as she turned and fled for the stairs. In a second, Matt had a hold of her, a pain filled her head and shoulders and everything went black.

Jess
began to stir as if waking from a bad dream; her head throbbed. She could feel the dirt floor beneath her, still sitting on the floor; she pulled herself into an upright position. She could feel the chill from the wall against her back. Her eyes began to focus as she watched Matt lift the lifeless Gemma and place her in the large wooden box and close the lid.

“What
have you done to Gemma?” Her voice was dry and her throat hurt.

“Don’t
you worry about Gemma. You're in enough trouble, young lady.”

Matt
walked back to the desk and stood with his back to her. He leaned on the desk with both hands.

“What the hell do I do with you, Jess?”

Jess
looked over to the door just past him. She wondered if she could make the forty-foot distance from the corner she was sitting in, to the doorway before he turned. The fear paralysing her she could not even bring herself up on to her feet.

“You
have to let us go, Uncle Matt.”

Matt
let out a short ironic laugh. “Let you go. And, of course, you won’t tell a soul.”

Jess
shook her head. “I won’t.”

“Jess,
please do not insult both of us. You are far too intelligent for that.” He turned to face her leaning against the table behind him. “You were never meant to be part of this, Jess. You have to know that, this is going to be very difficult for me. You mean a great deal to me.” Matt sighed. “But you have left me no choice, if I let you go, the first thing you will do is go running to Tom. You and I both know what, ‘must do the right thing, Tom’, is going to do. No, that is not an option I’m afraid. I could keep you up at the house.” He spoke almost absently, as though he were discussing his options with himself rather than with Jess, as though he was there alone. “The problem is, Tom is never going to stop looking for you is he.”

“Uncle
Matt.” Jess struggled to get her words out; her voice seemed trapped in her throat.

“Unless
may be there was an accident. He may accept that. He never looked much into Sara’s untimely death.”

“Uncle
Matt.”

His
eyes lifted from the floor and looked over to her. “Sorry, Jess, I was thinking aloud.”

“Did
you take Olivia?”

Matt
sighed again. He pulled the chair out from the desk and sat facing her.

“Did
you see her photograph?” he asked indicating the wall behind him filled with pictures of young women.

“No,
Gemma found her bracelet in the desk drawer.”

Matt
nodded. “Gemma; no end of trouble that girl. Yes, Jess, I suppose if you have the courage to ask me, then you deserve the truth.”

Something
inside of Jess told her to keep the communication going, even if it was only to delay the inevitable.

“Why
did you take her?”

“Why?”
Matt let out another short laugh. “Why, indeed. I wanted to, Jess. Can you understand that?”

Jess
shook her head unable to relate in any way to the man in front of her.

“Did
you take all the women in the pictures?”

Again,
Matt glanced at the wall behind him, a look of pride came across his face, which he quickly dismissed and replaced with his usual demeanour.

“Yes,
Jess, why do you want to know?”

“I’m
trying to understand what happened.”

“What
happened? All right.” Matt began to roll his shirtsleeves up and leaned forward on his seat. “First thing you must know, Jess, is these women.” He turned slightly and pointed to the pictures on the wall above the desk. “Every last one of them came with me willingly. I did not grab strangers off the street kicking and screaming into my car boot.”

“Olivia,
did she go willingly?”

Matt
nodded.

“Did
she ever try to get away?”

He
shifted slightly in his seat. Jess knew the questions were getting closer to hitting a nerve, if he had one.

“That’s
irrelevant, Jess, the fact remains that each and every one of those people got into my car willingly without any fuss. Now back to the issue at hand, what to do about you.”

“Why
did you take their pictures, Uncle Matt?”

“Why?
Well, Jess, in truth. I took these pictures for my father. I have excellent control you see. I only do this once a year and only to take the photographs for my Dad for his birthday. I don’t need to do these things, I simply like it, so every August I find just the right one and I bring her back here, After Dad’s stroke in 1981, in September I take the pictures to my Dad at the nursing home, and it’s all over for another year.” He leaned forward to stand, obviously coming to some sort of decision on what to do with her.

“But
Olivia was taken in December.” A panic rising in her blurted the words out. Matt leaned back in his chair.

“Yes,
Olivia was for me. I admit it, your honour.” he said mockingly raising his hands. “I wanted to have her, so, she was an early Christmas present to myself.”

Jess
could feel a vile taste rise from her throat. Falling to the side, she threw up on the dirt floor. The water running down her face, her legs felt like dead tree limbs beneath her, unable to move. Matt handed her some tissues and rubbed the side of her arm.