Page 24 of The Girl in the Grave
‘What’s up, officers?’
Josh couldn’t afford to be subtle; he decided honesty was the best way forward. They didn’t have the luxury of time on their side and he hoped that it wouldn’t come back to haunt him.
‘What I’m about to tell you is highly sensitive and not to be spoken about to anyone. This is confidential between us, Barry.’ He stared at him waiting for an acknowledgment of the seriousness of the situation.
Barry nodded, confirming he understood.
‘A girl has gone missing and we think there’s a strong possibility that the same person who put that girl in your grave might have taken her. We can’t find Jason either and I’m more than a little bit concerned that he might have something to do with this whole mess.’
Barry stared at Josh, then began shaking his head. ‘Nah, you’re wrong. Jase is mouthy, full of himself and a lazy bastard. But he’s not like that. He’s not a weirdo.’
‘How would you know that?’
‘I work with him, don’t I? You can tell a lot about a person when you work closely with them. He likes a laugh and a joke, and he’s partial to the ladies but he wouldn’t do that. Never.’
‘Then why has he vanished off the face of the earth when one of my officers asked him to come into the station for a chat?’
‘Scared, the stupid bugger. He watches too much TV, always banging on about some poor sod in America who got locked up for a murder he didn’t commit.’
‘Whoever killed the first girl now potentially has a new victim. There’s a chance she may still be alive.’ He glanced at the graveyard around them. ‘We need to know if there are there any unused outbuildings here that he might have access to?’
‘Well yeah, there’s a couple. There’s the equipment shed, then there’s our little lock-up; but I’d know if there was a girl hidden away in there. I use them every day.’
‘What about places you don’t use?’
He shook his head. ‘I’ll take you to all the hidey-holes, so you can have a look for yourselves. You won’t find anything out of the ordinary.’
He began to walk off and Sam whispered in Josh’s ear, ‘How’s he so sure about all of this?’
Josh stared at her. They jumped out of the car and jogged to catch up with him, just in case he decided to do a runner as well.
Thirty-Seven
Beth had finished at a reasonable time today: she’d still make it to her usual self-defence class if she got a move on. She looked at the bottle of wine on the kitchen worktop. It was tempting, but she knew she wouldn’t sleep unless she’d done something to properly tire herself out and burn off this nervous energy that was coursing through her veins.
Upstairs, she changed into a pair of loose-fitting gym pants and a baggy T-shirt – no tight Lycra for her, nothing to make her stand out and draw attention to herself, despite her having a good figure for a woman in her mid-thirties – she then dipped into the spare room to grab her trainers. She secretly loathed this room. It was a nursery when she’d first moved in, but it was now repainted and packed with boxes of odd junk, her weights and swinging punch bag in the corner. She’d never settled down long enough to consider having children before meeting Robert. After they’d been together a while the possibility had crossed her mind, but he had never really seemed like the paternal type; he was so particular about everything, couldn’t stand mess, or noise, or sticky fingers all over his pristine life. After the attack she knew she wouldn’t ever trust anyone enough again to ever try. At one time it had made her sad that she wasn’t able to join in with her friends when they were talking about what little Skye or Jacob had been up to this week at nursery. But now she knew it was a blessing; some things were meant to be. As she laced up her trainers, she wondered why Josh and his wife had never had children. He’d make such a great dad – he was that kind of man.
The drive to the community hall didn’t take very long but parking the car did. Even though it was after six, the car park a short walk away was full. Who wouldn’t want to watch the sun setting over the lake with an ice cream or a bag of fish and chips on such a beautiful evening?
As she drove past the small street which led to the Windermere Lake Hotel she wondered why there were so many police vans parked outside. There was a PCSO standing guard at the entrance to the hotel. She checked her phone. There can’t have been a sudden death, as she’d had no missed calls. Circling back around, she managed to pull into a space in front of Costa just as another car pulled out. Lots of people were milling around by the church and coffee shop. As she locked her car she headed towards the community hall. She’d ask Josh tomorrow if he knew what had gone on.
The class had already begun by the time she slipped inside. Phil glanced across at her, grinned and lifted his hand in greeting. She did the same back. He was cute in his own way, and very muscly. Not her type at all, but he was excellent at teaching women how to defend themselves against would-be attackers. She joined in with the rest of the class, who were warming up. Focusing on the exercises, she pushed today out of her head and before long she was punching, blocking and kicking, and Phil was throwing her around on the mats. She didn’t mind, she was great at blocking punches now and enjoyed the power of the roughness and close contact between them. It was as close as she’d got to intimacy since the attack. Her mind wandered for a moment and she felt herself flying through the air, once more landing heavily on the mats.
‘You’re losing your touch, Beth.’
She looked up at Phil, aware that he could have thrown her a lot harder than he actually had. Grinning, she rolled over.
‘Maybe I’m just luring you into a false sense of security.’
He laughed, holding out his hand for her and pulling her to her feet. Turning around, he told the class to practise what he’d just shown them and then turned back to her, asking quietly, ‘Is everything okay? You’ve been a bit distant the last couple of sessions.’
She nodded. ‘I’m good. Work is busy. It’s my own fault I keep getting distracted, nothing’s wrong. Thank you for asking.’
‘Good, I worry about you. I think you work too hard and you need to have some fun. Why don’t you come out for a drink with the rest of the class when we finish? It’s Bob’s birthday and we’re going to The Stag for a couple.’
Beth always said no, Phil knew this, but Beth liked that he never stopped asking, never stopped trying to pull her back into the fold. It was nice. It made her feel as if she belonged to this mixed bunch of people who would probably never have the need to use what they got taught once or twice a week. At least, she hoped they wouldn’t. Opening her mouth, no one was more shocked than she was to hear herself say: ‘OK, just one drink.’
Thirty-Eight
