Page 58 of Then She Vanished

‘Their surname was Sellers and the name of the café was The Singing Kettle. The police investigated them at the time, and apart from being arseholes, there was nothing on them.’

Gina watched as Jacob jotted those details down. She wondered if the Sellers were still around. ‘Do you know where they are now?’

‘There’s only Patricia Sellers. I see her crop up on social media sometimes. She attends a lot of community meetings and is always complaining about dog muck. Her husband died about ten years ago and, at a guess, I’d say she was in her seventies, maybe even eighties now.’ He pulled his phone out and began to scroll. ‘Here she is, on Facebook.’

Gina took it and passed it to Jacob, who wrote down the details for a community meeting she’d RSVP’d to attend the next day. ‘That’s really helpful, thank you.’

‘Do you think you’ll find Elissa? We never once gave up hope.’ He began to breathe in and out, anger seething through him. ‘I want her back. I want to hold her and tell her how much I love her; how I’m sorry that I shouted at her and that all I want is the chance to see her again. I feel her’ – he pointed to his chest – ‘I feel her here. She’s still my baby and I know she’s close. This is all happening for a reason, and I have to believe it’s because she’s out there waiting for you to find her and bring her home.’He let out a roar and hit the draining board. A collection of badly stacked plates and cups bounced.

PC Ahmed knocked. ‘Guv, one of Ruth’s neighbours wants a word.’

She walked over to him and went outside into the garden. ‘Did they say what about?’

‘She saw Ruth rushing out yesterday and she looked really agitated. She said hello to Ruth from her drive, but apparently Ruth didn’t even see her. She also said Ruth and Gary looked like they were having words yesterday, too. Things got heated and Gary didn’t look happy.’

THIRTY-SEVEN

The birds sang as morning was breaking. Gina listened to a woodpecker; the tapping sound coming from the small copse behind the row of houses on Ruth’s side. PC Ahmed led her and Jacob across the road to the house next door to Ruth’s, where a woman with a grey plait trailing over her right shoulder leaned against the frame in her doorway.

Her pyjama top fell right over her jeans. ‘You must be the detectives in charge. Come through.’

She led them to a small library snug. A whole wall was floor-to-ceiling full of classic literature. ‘Sit.’ She grabbed a pile of broadsheets and magazines about crafting, then she threw them onto the floor.

Gina and Jacob sat on the old chesterfield. The woman pulled out a wooden chair and sat on the other side of the coffee table. The Tiffany-style butterfly lamp in the corner was all that was needed to light up the room as the morning glow started to reach through the leaded window. ‘You told PC Ahmed that you saw Ruth Pritchard yesterday.’

‘That’s right, twice. Don’t ask me times, I’m useless. I was eating lunch, but I don’t have set times for food. Then I saw her again in the evening.’

‘Tell me about lunchtime.’

Jacob shuffled a little to get comfortable.

‘I was eating a plate of crackers and waiting for a delivery. I heard something going on outside and thought my wine club package had turned up, so I looked out of this window. That’s when I saw Gary and Ruth having what looked like a heated conversation. He grabbed her at one point, not really aggressively, but it was a grab nonetheless. She looked angry and then they went inside. We share a wall, so I could hear raised voices, but I don’t know what they were saying.’

‘How long was Mr Pritchard inside Mrs Pritchard’s house for?’

She shrugged and bit the end of her nail. ‘I’d say about fifteen minutes, maybe twenty? He stormed out, striding across the road like he was on a mission.’ A rabbit hopped into the room and the woman lifted the white fluffy ball onto her lap. ‘Come here, Charlie, you know you aren’t allowed in the library. You chew up Mummy’s books.’

‘How about the evening, when you saw Mrs Pritchard again?’

‘I was just popping back from the garage convenience store after getting a bottle of milk. It’s only a five-minute drive. Ruth seemed to be staring at Gary’s house while standing on her drive. I said hello as I got out of the car, but she ignored me. She normally says hello when I see her. It was very odd, indeed. She definitely had something on her mind. So, me being me, I rolled my eyes and went back into my house.’

She stroked the rabbit’s long ears and its red eyes began to close. ‘I felt a bit concerned and wondered if she was okay, so I went back out to check on her, but her car was gone.’

‘How much later did you go back out?’

‘I can’t remember, sorry.’

‘How well do you know the man she’s been seeing.’

‘Eric?’

Gina nodded. ‘Yes.’

‘He seems nice enough. Ruth has been through a lot, what with her awful marriage to Gary and, before that, her lovely daughter Elissa going missing. I was so happy to see that she’d found someone, especially such a nice man.’

Gina felt for Ruth, wherever she was. To find out that the man you loved had a wife and family must have hurt.

‘He was the professional-looking type. I think she said he owns his own company. From what Ruth said, he manages the business deals, but he has staff that run it. He classes himself as semi-retired.’

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