Page 67 of The Truth Will Out
“I’ve got an old phone in my drawer. I’ll see if I can revive that and get it working. Take care and remain vigilant, Crystal.”
“I will. Don’t worry about us. Promise me you’ll do the same. Think before you make a decision, and never go anywhere on your own. Take Bob with you.”
“I will. Don’t worry. Love you.”
“Love you more.”
Sam ended the call and returned the phone to Bob. “Thanks. I wanted to call Crystal. I’ve told her and Vernon to go away for a few days, you know, to keep them out of harm’s way. I’ll get back to it.”
“Great idea. We can’t be too careful… after Rhys going missing. But I don’t have to tell you that. It sounds to me like you have it all in hand.”
Sam winked at him and returned to the office.
The post took longerthan normal for her to complete. She was amazed that she didn’t find herself distracted throughout the mundane task, which left her wondering if she had truly forgiven Rhys or not. She joined the rest of the team. Liam was at the drinks station, making everyone another cup of coffee.
“How’s it going? And please don’t tell me slowly,” Sam asked. She perched on the edge of the desk adjacent to Bob’s.
“As it happens, I was about to come and see you to bring you up to date on what we’ve found.”
Sam leaned in and rested her hands on her thighs. “I’m all ears.”
“Liam has been busy going through Claire’s files, and he discovered one that sparked his interest. Claire had decrypted the file. It showed the same list of people who were in that photo, but there was someone who wasn’t.”
“I’m intrigued. Go on.”
Liam handed Sam and Bob a coffee each and went to collect the others. “Well done, Liam. Not just for making the coffee but for finding the file.”
“It was nothing really, boss. I tried to think outside the box and opened file after file until I found it buried inside another one. It’s the type of thing I used to do when I was growing up because I didn’t want my brother reading my personal stuff. Times were hard, and we were forced to share a computer.”
“Worth knowing. Thanks for the tip. Sorry, Bob, you were saying?”
“Ivy Renshaw. I’ve checked the employee records. She used to be the housemaid at Pendle. She left suddenly back in 2006. No forwarding address. No exit interview on file. Nothing. She just vanished.”
“Can you bring up the file?”
“I can. I did some extra digging and found a photo of the woman on her personnel file.” He enlarged the photo on the screen.
Sam stared at it. There was something familiar about her, but she couldn’t for the life of her figure out what it was.
“Are you all right? Do you know her?”
“I’m not sure. I think I recognise her face. And she definitely wasn’t in the other photo we have?”
“No, she’s not on there. I double-checked before I mentioned it.”
Sam scratched her head as a smidgen of an idea came to her. She shoved Bob out of the way and pounded his keyboard, searching forsomething in particular. She brought up a different image and compared the two. “Isn’t that her?”
“What is this?”
“Rhys has the same photo at home, sitting in his office. It was taken at a recent charity event he organised at the university he attended. I think it might have been to raise funds for a different children’s home.”
The woman was there in the photo, older, worn down but unmistakable nonetheless. She appeared to be in the background, all alone, watching.
“She hasn’t vanished at all. Let’s see if we can find out whether she’s using the same name. Bob, can you get a list of attendees for the charity event for me?”
“I’ll do my best. It seems to be busy there. We could be looking at thousands.”
“Needs must. We have to find out who she is and what name she’s using these days. She appears to be alone. Let’s work on that, for now.”
