The Girls Who Disappeared(11)

And despite the warm room a chill runs down my spine. ‘I read that Ralph Middleton was a suspect?’

‘Yes. He’s a strange fellow, a loner. But I always thought he was harmless. Still, we had to bring him in because he had found the car after the accident and rung the ambulance. He did save Olivia’s life. She was in a bad way.’

‘That was the only reason he was a suspect?’

‘No. It was also the way he acted when we first interviewed him. Very twitchy. He kept changing his story. First he said he was out in the forest at that time of night walking his dog, and then because he couldn’t sleep. He lived – well, still lives – in a caravan in the forest. Not far from where your cabin is, actually. So it is plausible he was up at that time and wandering the forest with his dog. But, well, he intimated that he saw something strange at the scene …’

‘Like what?’

‘A bright light. He then started going on about alien abduction. I think he was high that night – he is said to smoke a lot of wacky baccy. A few days later he changed his statement and said he’d been mistaken about the bright light. And then a witness came forward.’

I sip my coffee, not taking my eyes off her.

‘Someone reported seeing a man believed to be Ralph with a young girl fitting Tamzin’s description around ten a.m. on the morning after the accident. We brought Ralph back in for questioning but he said it had been his friend Jade Marlow, a known petty criminal and drug addict who, at the time, was in her early twenties.’

‘And did she back up his story?’

Brenda nods sagely. ‘But she would, I expect, and knowing her, for the right fee. She looked nothing like Tamzin apart from the blonde hair. Anyway, after the accident Ralph and Olivia became closer. He would visit her all the time and when she got better she would often go to his caravan and hang out there. But, of course, people began to talk. Thought perhaps the two of them had been in it together. But you know how people like to gossip.’ I make a mental calculation of Ralph’s age. He’s got to be at least in his fifties now which would make him in his thirties back then.

‘What else do you know about Ralph? Has he ever been married?’

‘Nope. Never married and has always lived alone with his animals.’

I pause to drain the rest of my coffee, then place my cup on the table. ‘And were there any other suspects?’

She picks a crumb of pastry from her lip. ‘Yes. Wesley Tucker.’

‘Who’s he?’

‘Olivia’s boyfriend.’

I can’t hide my shock. ‘Olivia’s boyfriend was a suspect? Why?’

‘Some say he had a fixation on Sally Thorne before he started going out with Olivia. According to reports from her parents, he’d made a bit of a nuisance of himself, bombarding her with messages, leaving notes outside her house and sending her flowers and presents. You know the type? Doesn’t like taking no for an answer. He’d been in the same class as Katie at school and there had been no love lost between them either, let’s put it that way. According to her friends and family, she made no bones about how much she disliked him. And two days before the accident a witness reported seeing him and Tamzin Cole arguing in the street.’

‘Did you ever find out what about?’

‘He said it was about Olivia. Apparently Tamzin didn’t approve.’ She pushes her glasses back onto her nose and offers me another croissant and I take a chocolate one this time.

‘I wonder why Olivia would want to go out with someone who had so obviously been hung up on her friend,’ I say, breaking up my croissant.

‘Yes, we found that odd too. But they’re still together all these years later.’

‘What? They’re married?’

Brenda shakes her head. Her hair doesn’t move. ‘No. They never got married. Olivia still lives at home helping her mum run the riding stables. And Wesley lives in a studio flat above Madame Tovey’s. But they’re still a couple.’

‘Wow.’ This is a surprise. Olivia is around my age and she still lives at home. In a town where it sounds like she’s viewed with suspicion. ‘Why would she want to stay?’

Brenda shrugs. ‘It’s not that unusual. A lot of folk stay in this town.’ She chuckles. ‘Me included. Stafferbury born and bred. I doubt I’ll leave now.’ She casts her eye around her conservatory. ‘It suits me here. I’m bedded in, a bit like the weeds in my back garden.’ She twinkles at me. I realize I like her. I like the solidness of her, the no-nonsense attitude. She reminds me of my mum.

‘But did you ever seriously think Wesley Tucker had anything to do with it?’

‘We couldn’t prove anything about him or Ralph Middleton. And there are a lot of folk around here who believe that this town is cursed. Olivia Rutherford’s friends aren’t the first to disappear from here. Over two hundred years ago a similar thing happened – if you can believe the reports.’

‘What? Really?’

‘Three local farm girls went missing back in 1750 or something. I think it was believed they were sacrificed. The stones can attract cults and paganists. Especially back then.’ She folds her arms. ‘Not that I know much about the history of the stones although historians do think they were built in line with the sun and moon, and that human sacrifices were made there. The night the girls disappeared, apparently the sun and moon were in the right alignment with the stones.’