Nine Elms (Kate Marshall #1)(92)

Another photo was a close-up of Caitlyn with a man’s penis in her mouth. She knelt on the same rug. There was something about the two naked legs that made Kate stop and stare. They both had dark hair, but the legs were of slightly different proportions and belonged to two different men, sitting close together. The second man was photographing Caitlyn with the first man.

They were both naked.

Kate quickly looked through the rest of the photos and found there were two more women who had gone to the woods for sex. Again, there were two men involved, and neither of them had their face showing.

The photos of a dark-haired woman made Kate stop in her tracks. She held it close and peered at the face.

“Jesus,” she said. “I know who you are.”





55

Just before nine the next morning, Kate and Tristan knocked on the door of the smart terraced house on the outskirts of Bristol.

They’d had only a few hours’ sleep, but they’d left at six a.m. to beat the Monday morning traffic.

“What if she’s not in?” asked Tristan.

Kate didn’t want to think about it. Nothing was ready for Jake’s visit. She would have to, somehow, fit in shopping, cleaning, and changing beds. She pushed it to the back of her mind as they saw, through the stained-glass windowpane, a figure moving down the hallway toward the door.

Victoria O’Grady opened the door wearing leggings and a long pink jumper. Her face was devoid of makeup, and it made her look younger, more vulnerable.

“Hello?” she said, confusion and annoyance on her face. “What are you doing here?”

“Can we talk to you?” asked Kate. “It’s important.”

“No. I’m getting ready for work, and how did you get my address?” she said.

“We googled you,” said Kate. “Please, this is important. It’s about Caitlyn’s disappearance.”

“I’ve told you all I know. Now really, you must leave.” She started to close the door, but Kate put her foot in the jamb. “Take your foot away.” She started to pull at the door.

Kate took a photo out of her bag and held it through the gap. It wasn’t the most explicit photo. It was of Victoria kneeling on a rug, next to the two men’s naked legs. Her face was turned up to them and lit up by the sun. Her arms were crossed protectively across her chest, and she looked to be steeling herself for what was about to happen.

Victoria stared at the photo for a moment and then started to shake. She went to close the front door again but slumped against the wall.

“Oh, oh, no,” she said, her face crumpling. She put a hand to her mouth and bolted away down the hallway and through a door, slamming it shut. They heard her throwing up. The front door swung inward and hit the wall.

“Do you mind going and waiting in the car?” asked Kate. “I don’t think she’ll want to talk in front of a man.”

Tristan sighed, then nodded.

“Okay,” he said, taking the keys. “But keep your phone on.”

Kate came into the hallway and closed the front door. She followed Victoria to the bathroom and knocked softly.

“Victoria?” she said.

“Go away,” came a muffled voice. “Please.”

“I have more photos. Paul Adler doesn’t have them anymore. And if you talk to me, I think I can help you . . .”

There was a long pause, and then the door opened. Victoria’s eyes were puffed up, and she was shaking. Kate reached through the gap and took her hand. “It’s okay.”

Victoria nodded.

Kate made them tea, and then they came to sit in Victoria’s cozy living room. It took a few minutes to get her talking.

“I was always made to feel plain at school, by the other girls. You’ve seen the school photo. It was a high-achieving girls’ school. And you know what teenage girls can be like. Paul Adler started to come in to the video shop, and he was flirty with me and with Caitlyn. One day he came in at the end of the day, just as I was closing up, and he asked if I wanted to go for a drink. He was handsome and had this magnetism. He was dangerous and exciting, and he said he thought I was beautiful. I started seeing him, we’d go for drives in his car, and then one day he arranged this amazing picnic, and he took me out to this lake. He was the perfect gentleman, and it was me who made the first move, and we kissed . . . A couple of weeks later, he asked if I wanted to go again, and this time he told me he had a new camera and he wanted to try it out. We’d been drinking wine, and I was feeling a little bit tipsy, and it gave me confidence. He took pictures of me, he asked me to pose, I had all my clothes on, and it was another lovely day. He even gave me the prints afterward . . .” She wiped a tear from her eyes. “He just seemed like such a nice guy, when I now realize he was . . .”

“Grooming you,” said Kate.

Victoria rolled her eyes and grabbed a tissue. “It’s so obvious when you say it like that. I was so stupid and naive . . .” She blew her nose.

“Did you tell anyone about your picnics?” asked Kate.

“No. He told me not to. He said that he would lose his license and that he had a sick mother to look after. He said that we should wait until I was sixteen and then we could get married . . . Looking back, I thought it was a relationship. How screwed up is that?”

“What about Caitlyn?”