The Girls Who Disappeared(77)

‘Yep. He never bothered her again. A few months later he was going out with Olivia. I remember Sally telling Tamzin about it up in her bedroom.’ She laughed. ‘I used to eavesdrop on their conversations. But my sister was worried about Olivia. She thought Wesley was a creep.’

Maggie comes back into the room with a tea tray and a plate of custard creams. ‘Sorry about that. It was Martin, my husband,’ she says, setting the tray on the table. ‘He’s a bit of a worrier. Since Sally … Well, he likes to check up on us regularly while he’s at work, bless him. Milk?’

‘Just a little. Thanks.’

She hands me the tea and offers me a biscuit. I resist the urge to dunk it.

‘So,’ I begin again, when she’s sitting down. ‘Did Anastacia get pregnant in Thailand?’

‘No, she was already pregnant before she went. She didn’t know it at the time, though. It wasn’t until she was nearly sixteen weeks gone that she found out, because she was still getting her periods. Anyway, the baby was definitely John-Paul’s with those dates,’ she clarifies, as though reading my mind. ‘But poor Stace was heartbroken. Here she was back in Stafferbury, broken-hearted over having to leave Derreck behind, guilty about what had happened to John-Paul and how he ended up in prison. She had to move back in with her parents.’

‘And you all still stayed friends?’

‘Yes. I found out I was pregnant with Sally around the same time so that bonded us. Leonie and Hannah already had kids – they’d started young. They’d left them with grandparents when they went to Thailand, which I was shocked about because Tamzin and Katie were not yet a year old and –’

‘Wait,’ I say, frowning, as my brain plays catch-up. ‘So your other friends who stayed with Derreck in Thailand were …?’

‘Hannah and Trevor Burke and Griffin and Leonie Cole. The parents of Katie and Tamzin.’





47





They were all in Thailand together.

‘You were friends?’ I ask.

‘That’s right. Great friends. Not so much with John-Paul as he hadn’t been going out with Stace that long, but the rest of us, definitely. I think you’ve already met Katie’s mum, Hannah, haven’t you? She told me you went to see her. Sadly her husband, Trev, died a few years back. Prostate. And Leonie and Griff split up. They’ve both moved away and we don’t keep in touch.’ She looks wistfully towards the fireplace. ‘Stace and I were best friends. We were very close when the girls were small and remained that way until … well, the accident. After that Stace seemed to retreat and cut off me, Leonie and Hannah. Olivia was so badly hurt in the crash and Stace had her hands full, being her carer and looking after the riding stables and … I had no bad feeling towards them. I knew Olivia wouldn’t have done anything to hurt my Sal. But it was like Stace couldn’t face me, or Hannah and Leonie.’ She looks down at her hands and twiddles one of her rings. ‘I think she felt guilty because her daughter was still here while ours … weren’t.’ She sighs and Izzy moves closer to her. ‘Anyway,’ Maggie lifts her head, ‘I’m shocked that John-Paul’s back in town.’

‘Apparently before the accident Olivia said she saw a man with a scar following her. I’ve just found out that John-Paul had a scar after some fight.’

Maggie clutches her throat. ‘So you’re saying that could have been him?’

‘It’s sounding that way now.’

‘So where has he been since then?’

I lean forward to place my teacup on the coffee-table. ‘Well, that’s the thing. Nobody seems to know. It sounds like his brother has been trying to find him for years. But the trail has led back here.’

‘I wonder if he ever tried to contact Stace,’ she says, nursing her mug. ‘She did tell me that she wrote to John-Paul once, in prison, to tell him about Olivia but she never heard anything back. She wasn’t even sure he’d received the letter.’

‘And what happened between Stace and Derreck? Did she ever see him again?’

Maggie sips her tea and offers me another biscuit, which I gratefully take. ‘Actually she was very cagey about him but I got the sense they kept in touch. She’d disappear every now and again for the weekend, without Olivia, to meet up with some mystery man. She told me she wanted to compartmentalize her life now that she was a mum, and I respected that. But she was so smitten with Derreck. I’d never seen her like that with anyone before, so I have wondered if it was him she was still seeing. I remember on the last day of our holiday in Thailand she and Derreck disappeared for the day. You can just imagine the atmosphere in the villa – poor John-Paul. The lads were great with him, though, took him out drinking. Anyway, when Stace and Derreck came back she told me that they’d got matching tattoos and asked me not to tell the others. They both had it done in the same place, here.’ She points to her upper arm. ‘A Chinese symbol to remind them to take chances, not to settle. To be brave. So they were serious about each other. It was more than just a holiday romance.’

A Chinese symbol. It rings a bell and I try to remember who I’ve seen recently with a tattoo like that. And then, with a jolt, I remember. It was Jay. I noticed it when I was in his office and he was reaching for the blind. It was also on his upper arm. What did he say it meant again? Courage.