Woman in Black (36 page)

‘We’re not accusing you of anything.’

‘Why am I here then?’ Sam was shouting now, emotional, standing and pushing back her chair.

Jessica was lost for words and surprised when Rowlands spoke. ‘It’s okay, Sam.’ They were the first words he had uttered since the woman had entered the room. The outcome was strange because he had only said three words but it was almost as if hearing her own name calmed the woman. Sam looked at him and regained her composure, sitting and staring back at Jessica.

‘We’re not out to trip you up,’ Jessica said, trying to sound reassuring.

‘What do you want to know?’

‘I know it’s going to be hard but can you tell us what happened on holiday eleven years ago?’

Sam looked sideways to Dave, who gave a small nod. The woman said she had initially enjoyed a holiday romance with Edward but then went on to confirm more or less everything Steven Povey had told them. Her mood veered from anger to upset and back again before eventually finishing calmly.

‘This is the first time I’ve told anyone about this since it happened,’ she added. ‘My husband doesn’t know and we’ve been together for five years. We’ve got two kids.’

Sam seemed steady and Jessica made sure she was all right to continue talking. The woman nodded, and said she wanted everything finished with. ‘We have got to ask you about your whereabouts over the past few weeks,’ Jessica said.

‘Can I use my phone? My diary is on there.’

Jessica ran through the dates the hands had been left, as well the nights before and a few other random times in between. With the exception of one instance, Sam had an alibi for everything. She helped out in clubs for her children and her family had recently been on a week-long holiday with friends. Rowlands took notes of everything and it would be checked discreetly but Jessica knew it would all match up. With her husband also with her on the holiday, it seemed to rule him out too.

Sam asked if they could keep everything from her husband and Jessica assured her they would try. He wasn’t a suspect and, although they would check the details of the holiday and make sure he was there, it didn’t necessarily mean he had to be informed. The woman repeated she had never told anyone, including her parents, about what had happened, insisting she’d had no contact with any of the men after that night in Faliraki. Jessica believed her and asked for the woman’s maiden name, if only for their records.

They released her and Jessica gave the woman her card just in case she managed to think of anything. Jessica phoned Cole to tell him what had happened but the car journey back to Manchester proved to be something of an inquest, the only positive that they would be back in plenty of time for Jessica to get to Caroline’s house.

‘Poor woman,’ Rowlands said.

‘It’s my fault,’ Jessica replied. ‘I didn’t know what else to do and ended up sticking her face on the news for no reason other than the fact she was attacked eleven years ago. She spent all this time getting over it then I punished her for it.’

‘It wasn’t your fault,’ Dave said but Jessica knew it was. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t had many other options; it was her who had gone to the DCI and asked to work with the press office. Jessica didn’t reply but it wasn’t long before Rowlands asked the question she knew she didn’t have the answer to. ‘What do we do now?’

Unless another hand showed up unexpectedly, they were completely out of leads. ‘I really don’t know,’ Jessica said, not even trying to hide her dejection.

Between the two of them, they went over everything that had happened so far. They still had the CCTV footage of the woman in black but no clue as to the person’s identity and, now that Sam Kellett had pretty much been ruled out – although it would take some time to officially check her alibis – no reason why the person was making things so public.

They could return to the lists of college-leavers but everything had already been gone over once and, as the holiday photo had shown, the links between the young men could be widespread and unexpected. Jessica felt deflated and unsure what she should do next.

Because of the light traffic, they had time to go via the station. Jessica went to Cole’s office, reiterating what she had told him on the phone. She would arrange for an officer to formally check Sam Kellett’s whereabouts but had no doubts it would be accurate.

Cole said the garage owner had started to speak in the Johnson case. The man apparently had text messages that could implicate George Johnson but the chief inspector said that was information that couldn’t get out. Jessica felt strange that something so big was going on where she worked but that she wasn’t a part of it and even worse that her case had stalled. They agreed to leave things over the weekend, which would give them a chance to think things over, then decide where to go next on Monday. It wasn’t ideal but, with Caroline’s wedding, Jessica didn’t have any better ideas.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Jessica tried to have a fun evening with her friend on her ‘last evening of freedom’ party as Caroline had dubbed it. The two women drank and reminisced about their younger days. Jessica tried to put to the back of her mind the feelings of failure and inertia at having her investigation come to a halt. She happily shared bottles of wine and the more she drank, the more she felt able to laugh and join in. Caroline asked who she was bringing the following day but Jessica remained tight-lipped. ‘You don’t know him,’ is all she would say, adding she had arranged to meet the person at the church.

The Saturday morning was a rush of people coming and going from Caroline’s flat. The bride-to-be had a small team of friends and relatives from the groom’s side coming round to help her get ready, with Jessica was left to sort herself and the other bridesmaids into their light blue dresses. The two younger bridesmaids were relatively cooperative and their parents were also present to help, which was a relief. The girly atmosphere wasn’t really to her taste and she was glad when everyone had finally left and it was just her and Caroline alone waiting for the car to take them to the church. The bride anxiously watched the clock on her wall as Jessica tried to assure her everything would be fine.

The car was on time, as Jessica said it would be, and she helped her friend into the rear seat. As the driver set off for the short journey, the two women were sitting next to each other but turned so they could talk face-to-face.

‘It’s really happening,’ Caroline said with a nervous giggle.

Jessica smiled back. ‘I wondered what all the dresses and fancy car were about.’

Caroline laughed again. ‘What do you think of Thomas?’

‘He picked you, so he’s got pretty good taste.’

‘I’ve been wondering if I’m on the rebound because of…y’know, Randall.’ Caroline’s voice had dropped at the mention of his name and she paused for a moment before continuing. ‘I’m sorry things drifted between us after that.’

Jessica looked into her friend’s eyes. ‘It’s not your fault. Things happened and it’s where we are now that matters.’

‘Do you think I’m on the rebound?’

Jessica didn’t know whether to answer honestly but it wasn’t really in her nature to stay quiet, even at what could be inopportune times. ‘I don’t know, you tell me,’ she replied.

Caroline blinked back tears and laughed. ‘I wanted you to say “no”.’

Jessica could tell her friend was being half-serious. ‘Sorry…’

‘It’s all right. I don’t know either. He’s nice though and he loves me, that’s what matters.’ Jessica said nothing, letting her friend get things off her chest. ‘It’s just big-day nerves,’ Caroline added. ‘I’m not going to make a dash for it when we get to the altar.’

‘I don’t think you’d get too far in those heels anyway.’

The church was a small building in a little village on the outskirts of the city that had been on the same site for hundreds of years. As the sun shone and the two women stepped out of the vehicle, the photographer rushed in, taking photo after photo. Jessica hated having her picture taken at the best of the times but she gritted her teeth and did her best to smile, knowing this was bad enough but the posed pictures that would be taken after the ceremony would really test her patience.

When he finally left them to enter the church and get into position for the aisle walk, Jessica looked up to see the setting properly. The picturesque church and its green surroundings, along with the bright blue sky, really was like something on the front of a postcard.

‘This is lovely,’ Jessica said.

Caroline looked a little emotional as they walked the short distance to the church’s main doors. They entered a small room just inside where the other bridesmaids were waiting with their parents before the adults went into the main part of the church, leaving just the four of them.

As the church organ started up with the opening chords of the wedding march, Jessica winked at her friend. ‘Deep breath.’

They stepped out of the room and began to slowly walk down the aisle. Aside from the organ, Jessica could only hear shuffling as people turned en masse to look at them walking together. Jessica had visions of tripping and wiping out her friend along with the other bridesmaids but kept a careful eye on where she was stepping.

They neared the front and Jessica glanced up to see the grinning face of Thomas and his best man then glanced to her left and almost gasped with embarrassment. The man sitting on the end of the line two rows back caught Jessica’s eye and smiled. She could see he was wearing a purple velvet smoking jacket along with dark green trousers. Jessica couldn’t see what shoes he had on, if any, but dreaded to think what they could be.

‘What
are
you wearing?’ Jessica mouthed silently to the man but he shook his head as if to indicate he hadn’t understood. She stopped looking at him and continued to walk until the small party arrived at the front and the organ went quiet.

It was clearly a little strange for her to be giving Caroline away but everyone involved must have known the situation. The ceremony went as would have been expected but Jessica felt self-conscious standing at the front.

After it was over and the newly married couple walked back down the aisle towards the outside of the church, Jessica didn’t waste the opportunity to slide in next to the man two rows back.

‘What
are
you wearing?’ she demanded in a loud whisper as the church organ blared again.

‘What?’ he said.

Jessica looked down to see he was wearing a pair of canvas trainers that matched his jacket. ‘You’re wearing purple shoes, a purple jacket and green trousers to a wedding. What kind of idiot wears trainers to a wedding?’

The man shook his head as if he didn’t understand the point. ‘You said “dress smartly”.’

‘Exactly!’

‘These are my best clothes.’

Realising she wasn’t going to win the argument, Jessica stood back up, offering the man her arm to exit the church. ‘You and I are going to have to go shopping, Hugo.’

THIRTY-THREE

The other people at the wedding seemed part-bemused, part-amused by Hugo. His real name was Francis but he was a magician who used ‘Hugo’ as a stage name. Jessica had first met him a couple of years ago and, although not a friend as such, she figured he was as good a person as anyone to take to a wedding. There was no real attraction but her thinking had been he could at least entertain the other guests. She’d overlooked the fact he could also embarrass her but, given this was the first time she had ever seen him wearing shoes that matched, Jessica figured it could have been worse. He did at least look as if he had combed his hair for the occasion, his shoulder-length brown locks as tidy as she had seen them. The one good thing was that Caroline fell in the ‘amused’ rather than ‘bemused’ camp.

Jessica tried to pretend she was enjoying herself as she was yanked, sometimes literally, from one posed photo to another. By the end of it, she could quite happily have cut off the photographer’s hand to stop him putting it in the air every time he wanted the assembled people to smile and say ‘cheese’.

When the organised picture-taking was over, Jessica finally got a chance to catch up with her parents. She had seen them in the church but only to wave to while, before that, she hadn’t seen them in a few months. Her dad took the opportunity to tease her about her new ‘boyfriend’.

The bride and groom had gone off to their hotel room for a few hours before they were going to return to the party. When the youngest bridesmaid had asked why they weren’t just going directly to the reception, Caroline had told her she and her new husband were going to ‘rest’, completely ignoring Jessica’s inadvertent snort of laughter.

‘Enjoy your “rest”,’ Jessica said with a giggle.

With a few hours to kill, Jessica, Hugo and her parents went to a local pub for a chat before heading to the reception venue. Hugo didn’t seem to mind the fact he wasn’t really involved in the conversations and happily sat around watching people go by. Jessica wondered if he was feeling hot in the velvet jacket but, if he was, he said nothing. After a couple of drinks, she even began to warm to his outfit and, before long, they had to catch a taxi to the reception itself.

The party was being held in a massive conference room at a nearby golf club where Thomas’ father was apparently one of the higher-up members. Huge bay windows on one side of the room opened out onto the course itself and it was along there where the long head table was placed.

Jessica saw from the seating plan that she was on the main table with Caroline on one side and Hugo on the other. It was the traditional spot the father of the bride might have had and she couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed. Her parents were on one of the circular tables placed around the room. Each one was named after a different country for a reason Jessica didn’t know. Her parents were on ‘Canada’, which was next to ‘New Zealand’.

Although Caroline told her she didn’t have to, Jessica had spent some of her free time trying to put together a speech. Despite that, when the moment came after the meal, she just ad-libbed, talking about her friend and telling the story of how they met quite by chance because they ended up sitting next to each other in a lesson many years ago. She ended with a standard ‘Congratulations’ and sat down, leaving it to the best man to poke fun at the groom.