Finding Grace(51)

He’d also insisted on walking her and Angela home one night when they’d had drinks in the student union bar.

‘He’s never offered to walk me home before when I’ve been alone,’ Angela had remarked sourly.

Lucie tried to tell herself there was nothing in it. He was a full ten years older than her, after all, and more like an older brother. She ignored the silly butterflies in her stomach, and the fact that she now took much greater care with her appearance.

Stefan had already told her he felt protective towards her. That he’d lost his sister while he was still at high school.

‘She had leukaemia,’ he said sadly, his brown eyes seeming to darken with grief. ‘She’d had it for some time, battled through the treatment, and we all thought she’d beaten it. Then suddenly the bastard thing killed her. One day she was there, the next she’d gone.’

They’d sat in silence for a moment, Stefan remembering his sister, Lucie thinking about her mum.

‘I’m so sorry you had to go through that,’ she’d said softly.

He slid his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. The heat of his body both stimulated and soothed her, and she nestled into his strength.

She’d looked up then and seen several of the other girls watching with poorly disguised envy. She pulled away from his embrace and sat up straight. She could see what it looked like, but it had been a pure, natural emotion between them. Nothing more.

Now she broke away from the flow of students and took the path across the grass that led directly to the entrance of the library.

She did feel guilty about abandoning her study plans that evening, and even worse about the fact that she wouldn’t be able to speak to her dad. But she also felt a building excitement about her evening out. She had a proper student lifestyle now!

She really liked Stefan and she valued his friendship, but that was all it was.

She wanted to give this degree her best shot, and that meant keeping life simple. She didn’t want the complication of getting into a relationship with an older man, who, although well-meaning, had the potential to really throw her off track when it came to her study plans.

There were plenty of girls who’d do anything to date Stefan O’Hara.

Lucie told herself she wasn’t one of them.





Thirty-Seven





Lucie





Monday morning





Blake and I sit and stare at an uncomfortable-looking DI Pearlman.

‘So you’re telling us there’s nothing at all? You’re no further forward in finding Grace,’ Blake states bluntly.

‘It feels as though she’s just disappeared off the face of the earth,’ I say faintly, still feeling a little vague from having taken one of my tablets after Bev left.

‘As I said, we’ve interviewed Mrs Charterhouse, who is adamant she did see Grace. Unfortunately, she has nothing to add to the information already given. Grace was in her sight for a matter of seconds.’

I can’t bear to think that if the Charterhouses had stopped the car and asked Grace if she was all right, this whole terrible situation could have been avoided.

‘We launched another door-to-door on Abbey Road, where Grace was sighted, but all inquiries in the area have drawn a blank so far,’ the detective continues. ‘One or two people think they may have seen her walking up Violet Road, but they can’t swear to it. Infuriatingly, it just seems to be a small pocket of time when everyone was busy doing something else.’

From where I sit, I can see Grace’s slippers, tucked under the sideboard next to the television. They’re too small for her now, but she loves the sparkly pink and silver design so much she’s just flattened down the fabric heels and continues to wear them like mules.

‘CCTV, hospitals, train stations, airports… nothing?’ Blake says, incredulously.

DI Pearlman shakes his head. He looks pale and tired around the eyes. He’s wearing the same suit and shirt as yesterday and I suspect he’s been working around the clock to find Grace one way or another.

‘We’ve circulated a full description around all points of exit from the country. There’s no CCTV anywhere near Violet Road or the surrounding area, and we’re currently in the process of checking with nearby houses if anything has been caught on a residential security camera. A further complication is that we don’t know what car we’re looking for – if indeed a car is involved – making it extremely difficult to trace a vehicle at this stage.’

‘We’re also putting out an urgent plea for drivers in the area to check their dash-cam footage,’ DS Paige adds.

‘We’re very grateful for everything you’re doing,’ I say. ‘I’m sorry if we come across as the opposite.’

‘No need to apologise, Lucie. I simply can’t imagine what you’re both going through,’ the detective says. ‘Believe me, we’re doing everything we can to find Grace, and we will continue to do so. In cases like these, a breakthrough can literally come at any moment, so we must all stay positive. We just need one person to come forward with something solid we can follow up on and we’ll be straight on it.’

There are a couple of moments of silence, then DI Pearlman speaks again.

‘There is something we’d like to run by you, something powerful that you could both do to give a real boost to the investigation.’