The Cornish Guest House (33 page)

‘C’mon, Sally,’ she said, feeling for the lead in her coat pocket, and the dog sprang up the overgrown hillside in front of her while Jenny trudged behind.

‘Wait!’ she called, when Sally’s tail disappeared into a clump of brambles, then, more loudly, ‘Stop! Heel!’

Of course it was useless. Jenny could hear crunching noises as the dog jumped into patches of vegetation, snapping off twigs and stems, then paused to sniff around before leaping on.

In the distance came the rumble of a van or lorry, making its way to or from the village, and Jenny was frightened that Sally would forget herself and race on to the road.

‘Sally!’ she shouted, scrabbling around in her pocket once more for the whistle. She was out of breath now, not nearly as fit and nimble as her pet. She blew as hard as she could and waited, ears pricked. Sally seemed to have stopped moving. Good. Perhaps she did have a bit of sense after all.

Jenny was nearly at the top of the bank when Sally yapped again, three short, sharp yips, more excited than before. Jenny knew that sound; the dog had found something. Jenny hoped that she hadn’t put up a rabbit or stumbled across one of the unsuspecting wild deer that roamed the countryside and sometimes strayed into people’s gardens.

Jenny quickened her pace, pumping her arms and legs and panting heavily. She was boiling hot now and would have liked to throw off her coat and sweater. At last the trees thinned and she spotted Sally just a few yards ahead in a little clearing. She had something brightly coloured in her mouth and was shaking her head to and fro with the object between her teeth, and growling,

‘Drop it!’ Jenny commanded, but Sally had no intention of giving up her prey, so Jenny bent down and wrestled it from the dog’s jaws, smacking her sharply on the nose to show that she meant business.

Damp and soggy as Sally’s find was, once safely in her hands, Jenny could see that it was a child’s cuddly toy dragon, with a pink head, yellow tummy and purple and pink horns and wings. Dirty and torn, one eye was missing while the other stared at her, black and mournful, and Jenny was tempted to throw it away or hand it back to the dog to finish off completely, but something stopped her.

It could have belonged to any one of the children from around here, who’d perhaps been out on a walk with their parents and mislaid it. Jenny had seen things like it in toyshop windows and knew that it wouldn’t have cost much; just a few pounds. No mother would want it back in that condition, surely? It would make more sense to buy a new one.

She looked at it again and it seemed to wink at her with its one glass eye and smile enigmatically. A gust of wind whispered through the leaves, making them hiss and tremble, and Jenny shivered. Pink was one of Loveday’s favourite colours. Liz had told Jenny about all the pink items she’d chosen for her new flat; they’d laughed about it, wondering how Jesse would feel. Loveday liked to pretend that she was hard, with her thick, black eyeliner, her bolshie attitude and punky hairstyles, but she wasn’t really, she was a softie; wouldn’t hurt a fly.

Jenny dug into a pocket and pulled out a plastic carrier bag. Her hand quivered slightly as she dropped the wet toy in and tied a knot. She fastened Sally’s lead and kept her close as they walked swiftly back along the road to the village. She was being silly, she told herself. It was nothing, just some kid’s lost or discarded plaything, valueless. But Loveday was missing, police were swarming round the village asking endless questions and there was a new air of tension and mistrust. Every little piece of information was important, officers insisted, and Jenny, for one, wanted to do all she could to help.

As soon as she reached home she grabbed for the phone and dialled the number that they’d been given. She was standing in the middle of the kitchen, hadn’t even taken off her coat or wellington boots.

There was a pause while the woman at the other end spoke to the supervisor. Would they tell her just to chuck the toy, it was nothing, of no significance? Jenny certainly didn’t want to waste their time.

‘Someone will be with you straight away,’ the woman said. ‘Don’t leave the house or mention this to anyone until we’ve arrived.’

Jenny could feel her pulse, which had slowed since the vigorous walk, start to rise again and the blood whooshed in her ears.

‘Oh, Sally,’ she said to the little dog, who was waiting patiently at her feet to be unleashed. Sally cocked her head to one side and whimpered enquiringly. ‘I think we might have found something.’

*

There seemed to be a new, stranger mood in the village and Tabitha sensed it immediately. It was early afternoon and she was on her way to the supermarket, but when she went to fetch her car from the car park there were no signs of police and the place was so quiet that she might have mistaken it for calm. However, glancing left as she passed Dynnargh, she saw Liz, Esme and Jean, huddled together and deep in conversation. Jean’s face was grave and Esme shook her head a couple of times while Liz spoke. Tabitha was curious but merely nodded when they looked up and continued on her way.

Later, while she was preparing Oscar’s tea, Luke came home in a hurry and said the police had ‘found something’.

‘What?’ asked Tabitha, alarmed.

‘Something in the woods, I think.’ Luke ran a hand through his floppy fringe. ‘Robert said it’s gone for analysis. Even he doesn’t know what it is.’

‘Oh, God.’ Tabitha’s head started to swim and she clutched the edge of the worktop for support.

‘Stop being dramatic, it’s probably nothing.’ He fetched himself a beer from the fridge.

But he was on edge that evening, she could tell, and drank a lot and barked at Oscar when he whinged, making him cry. He seemed to find fault with everything she did, too: the steak for supper was tough and he only ate half, throwing the rest in the bin; there was no loo roll downstairs, which annoyed him, and even her appearance was wrong. Her hair was frizzy and she was wearing too much ‘slap’ on her face. She’d only put it on to try to disguise the dark circles under her eyes, and she went straight upstairs to wash it off.

In the end, he disappeared into the study to make phone calls and she hovered outside, her ear pressed to the door, listening while he talked very fast, his voice angry and insistent.

‘I don’t want… Just a girl… Can’t be that difficult… Oh, for fuck’s sake…’

Then she heard something that made her heart stop and her mouth go dry.

‘Good… Hurry up… Let me know when you’ve done it…’

His chair creaked and she jumped back, stifling a cry, but the door remained shut so she sneaked away and took herself off to bed where she tossed and turned, plagued by black thoughts. Luke came in much later and he, too, was restless; she could hear his brain whirring. She lay quiet as a mouse, so he wouldn’t guess that she was awake, and eventually they must both have fallen into a fitful slumber.

The following morning he rose early and left before breakfast, saying that he was heading to the office because ‘some of us have to go to work to pay the bills’.

It was about 8.30 a.m. when the first guests appeared and put in their orders, and while Shelley cooked, Tabitha switched on the DAB radio in the kitchen. Tuning into the local news station, she heard the presenter announce that a woman out walking her dog yesterday had discovered a toy dragon, believed to belong to Loveday, in the woods near Tremarnock. The toy had been sent for analysis and results showed that there were traces of the girl’s blood on the dragon’s head. A local man, Jesse Lacy, had been arrested in connection with her disappearance.

Tabitha’s own blood ran cold. She wanted to scream but instead listened with mounting dismay as the presenter said there would be a press conference at 2 p.m. that day, and police were preparing to undertake an extensive search of the village and surrounding areas using helicopters, divers and sniffer dogs. She turned down the volume a little. Could she hear helicopters overhead already? Her mind flitted to Luke and she wondered what he’d be thinking right now. She was sure that he’d have been listening to the report, too. Had he got to Loveday already? She felt sick. There again, the pink toy had been discovered before he’d spoken on the phone last night. Perhaps she was all right – for now.

Tabitha felt a quiver of hope, then fury bubbled when she remembered the lie about Jesse that Luke had made her repeat. Loveday wore her heart on her sleeve, there couldn’t be much that Tabitha didn’t know about her, and she didn’t for one moment suspect Jesse of having harmed her. Was an innocent man to be condemned and, most importantly, where was Loveday?

She went about her morning chores like a robot, smiling mechanically at the guests, clearing away plates, fetching dishes from the kitchen scarcely knowing what she was doing. Then, just before two o’clock, she sat Oscar on the sitting-room floor in front of her with a pile of toys and a plate of chopped-up apple, and turned on the TV.

It was a shock to see Loveday’s parents, Sarah and Andy, sitting solemnly in front of the flashing cameras. Robert was on Sarah’s left. Andy looked pale and uncomfortable in a brown tie and white shirt, the collar of which was slightly too big. Clean-shaven, the remaining hair around his bald head cut close, he looked as if he’d spent some time getting dressed and ready, preparing himself as carefully as you would for a job interview. There was something poignant about the way his broad shoulders were pulled back, his chin jutting, as if he’d made up his mind to project an appearance of steely manliness, however he felt inside. He took a sip from the glass of water on the pale wood table in front of him, and his big, workman’s hands shook.

Loveday’s mother, Sarah, a plump woman of about thirty-five in a dark, long-sleeved top, was close beside him, their upper arms just touching. Her small hands were resting on the table, clutching a scrunched-up white tissue, and her eyes were wide and darting. Robert, meanwhile, in a pale blue shirt, jacket and navy tie, sat very still and upright, staring gravely ahead.

The cameras clicked, lights flashed and Andy, gazing into the lens, began to speak.

‘Loveday, darling, we miss you very much and we want you to come home. Please, sweetheart, if you’re watching this, call me or your mum, or Robert or one of your friends, it doesn’t matter who. Just get in touch and let us know you’re safe. If you’re in any trouble, we can sort it out. There’s no problem big or small that we can’t deal with.’ His voice cracked and he shook his head to indicate that he couldn’t go on.

Sarah took over. ‘Baby girl,’ she whispered, fixing on a spot at the back of the room, ‘we miss you so much, your cheeky grin, your jokes, even your stroppiness.’ She smiled before dabbing her eyes with a tissue. ‘It’s killing us not knowing where you are. No one’s angry with you. We just want to know you’re safe.’ Then she raised a hand to show that she, too, had no more words and Andy put a comforting arm round her shoulder.

Now it was Robert’s turn; the camera panned to his face and he cleared his throat.

‘Loveday – that’s my niece,’ he explained formally. ‘She’s a bright, bubbly person, full of love and laughter. We can’t see any reason why anyone would want to hurt her.’ He stopped and took a sip of water. ‘No one’s seen her since last Thursday night, a week now, and we’re desperately worried.’ You could tell that it was an effort to keep his voice tight and contained. ‘If anyone has any information, however small, please get in touch. We need to find her as soon as possible.’

After that, the scene switched to a street outside the building full of parked cars, people and more cameras. A young male reporter announced that there’d just been ‘an emotional appeal’ for Loveday’s return from her parents and uncle. This was followed by shots of circling helicopters, lifeboats waiting to be launched and uniformed police officers with dogs on leashes, eager to begin their search.

Tabitha snapped off the TV and stared into space, scarcely aware of her son, still playing at her feet. Her eyes were unfocused, her thoughts jumbled, and she found her mind darting forward then back, back, to every encounter that she’d had with Loveday, starting with the very first time that she’d met the girl and commented on her way-out boots.

Tabitha remembered how wary she’d been at first, not wishing to employ Loveday, Luke’s choice. Little by little, though, she’d softened, won over by the girl’s openness and funny ways. She’d seen through the spiky exterior to the kind soul within and, despite the difference in age, background and circumstances, they’d become firm friends.

Oscar got up and started tugging on the leg of Tabitha’s jeans, bored now and wanting attention. She decided to take him for a walk and strapped him into his pushchair, thinking all the while, hoping that something, some useful piece of information might be hiding in the dim recesses of her mind if she could only tease it out, like a winkle from its shell.

She marched swiftly along the seafront, ignoring Oscar’s shouts of protest, because he wanted to run about. Outside The Lobster Pot, a group of locals had gathered and Barbara was in the centre, padded red jacket zipped up tight to keep out the chill and clipboard in hand. To her right was a uniformed woman police officer and to her left stood Luke, wearing the smart pale blue suit in which he’d left for work this morning.

Tabitha might have asked him why he was back from the office so soon, but she knew the answer. Barbara was speaking and everyone shuffled aside to make room for her as she joined the group. She soon spotted the faces of Ryan, Nathan and Annie, as well as Tom and Jean, standing behind a double buggy, plus Felipe, Jenny, John and the boys from A Winkle in Time.

Tabitha quickly gleaned that Barbara was co-ordinating a search party of local volunteers, working with the aid of the WPC by her side.

‘Lots of people have been wondering what they can do,’ she was saying. ‘We’ve all been feeling so helpless, but now we can assist in a really positive way. Police say they need as many feet on the ground as possible to help them cover a wide area. We’re going to follow a line of search starting here.’ She held up a map and pointed to the open area of fields to the right of the dense woodland where Loveday’s toy had been found. Everyone was listening intently; you could have heard a pin drop.