Page 67 of Then She Vanished

Gina leaned in. ‘We have a lead and your father-in-law is helping us.’

Keeley linked her fingers and held her hands under her chin. ‘We know him?’

‘It’s just a lead at the moment.’

‘What do you need to know?’

Gina passed the photo of John Doe across the table. The last time they spoke, the children were shouting and calling for Keeley. ‘Can you please look at this picture again?’ Gina hoped that having the cap included in the picture would jog Keeley’s memory but Gina didn’t mention that he wasn’t wearing a cap in the last picture. ‘Do you recognise this man?’

‘You’ve already showed me a picture of him. Is it different?’

‘Only slightly. Would you please take another look? You were understandably a little distracted last time.’

She shrugged. ‘Sorry about that. The kids were really unsettled.’ She stared long and hard. ‘I don’t know… maybe he might bear a slight resemblance to someone who worked on one of the renovations but that man had a beard. I’m not sure.’ She frowned.

‘Can you look once again? Try to imagine him with a beard.’ If needed, she’d ask for another mock-up of the man with a beard after the interview.

‘I remember someone wearing a cap like this, fussing over the kids. His face looked a bit rounder, more filled out, back then. As I said, he did have a beard, quite a full one. He kept saying how cute the boys were. To think of it, he said he had a daughter and that he loved kids.’

‘Do you remember his name?’

She shook her head. ‘Why are you asking me about him?’ She folded her arms and bit her bottom lip.

‘We have reason to believe he was working with the person who tried to take you.’

‘Was?’

‘Have you been watching the news?’

She nodded. ‘I’ve done nothing but watch the news.’

‘You will have seen a report of a man who was found dead at a local farm. There was an appeal for witnesses.’

‘I’ve seen some updates on Facebook. Suicide apparently. How does that link to me?’

‘This was the man we found dead in the car.’

Keeley began to hyperventilate. ‘No, no way. And what did you say? You said he might have been working with others. I haven’t seen this man in over two years, that’s even if we’re both talking about the same man. Not a sniff of him. If he waswatching me, he’s been like a ghost. And why? Why me? What for? I don’t even know him.’

‘Do you know his name?’

‘No, he was just another contractor.’ She began to bite her lip and furrow her brow. Gina gave a her a bit of space to think. ‘There is one detail I do remember about the man I spoke to. It was his daughter’s name. I thought it was pretty. I kept thinking, if I ever had a girl I’d like to call her Luna.’

Gina felt her heart banging away. ‘I mentioned the name Luna to you when we spoke last.’

‘You asked something about someone with a birthmark. I said I didn’t know anyone with a big birthmark on their face.’

Gina realised with the commotion going on that evening, Keeley hadn’t properly heard her. She couldn’t blame Keeley. She was a victim, a witness, and stressed out from her ordeal, and with her children calling for her, Gina’s words had been drowned out. ‘I’m sorry,’ Gina said, trying to remain calm on the exterior. ‘I should have asked you again. Did you meet Luna, or did he show you a photo?’

She shook her head. ‘No. Never.’ She paused. ‘I haven’t even thought about him since you showed me that photograph but sometimes I think about her and how he described her.’ She took a deep breath and continued. ‘He said she was about ten, I think, and that she’d been in a wheelchair since having an accident when she was younger. It was a sad story. Her agoraphobia meant she never left the house at all.’

Keeley paused and went to speak, but stopped and thought for a moment. ‘Where is she? He said that she depended on him for everything, which is why he had to keep coming and going. If she doesn’t have him, who does she have?’

FORTY-THREE

After giving Jacob a nudge back at the station, the time had finally come to attend the public meeting at Cleevesford Village Hall while the team prepped their visit to the farm that Gary worked at. But first, it was time to speak to Mrs Sellers about Elissa Pritchard.

‘I can’t believe we still haven’t found the paperwork relating to Elissa Pritchard’s disappearance,’ Jacob said as he pulled over. Their gaze fixed on the bleak-looking flat-roofed building.

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