The Girls Who Disappeared(78)

An image of Jay and Anastacia arguing on the side of the road pops into my mind. He made out he hardly knew her. Something shifts and settles.

‘Dale, can I ask you a favour?’ I say, into the phone, as soon as I’m back in the car. ‘What do you know about Jay Knapton?’

‘Why do you ask?’ He sounds bemused.

‘They were all together in Thailand.’

‘Who?’

I fill him in on everything Maggie has just told me. ‘They were all friends. Katie, Tamzin, Sally and Olivia’s parents. And they were all in Thailand when John-Paul got arrested at the airport.’ I explain about Anastacia and Derreck betraying John-Paul and then getting matching tattoos. ‘I don’t know how Jay Knapton fits into all this but I saw he had the same kind of tattoo –’

‘Hold on. I’m at the station right now. Let me just see if he’s in our system. Right …’ I can hear him tapping away at a keyboard. It sounds busy in the background with the murmur of voices and phones ringing. ‘Yes. So he’s sixty-five. Born 1953 in Australia. Oh, interesting. It looks like he was arrested and charged with possession of a class-B drug with intent to supply back in 1982 in Dover. He escaped a custodial sentence.’

‘What’s his full name?’ I ask.

‘Um … let’s have a look. It says here that his full name is Derreck Jason Knapton.’

Derreck.

‘I knew it! I don’t quite understand what’s going on but Anastacia Rutherford is a liar. She told me and Olivia that John-Paul killed a man called Derreck in Thailand. But then the tattoos … Derreck from Thailand and Jay Knapton surely have to be the same person. He must just have dropped his first name, shortened Jason to Jay. Apparently Anastacia was infatuated with him. And when I spoke to Jay he told me he didn’t know Anastacia but then I saw them arguing by the side of the road.’ I take a deep breath.

‘Okay. Hold on. I need to speak to my colleagues about this and I’ll call you back.’ He hangs up before I’ve had a chance to ask any more questions.

My heart quickens. I turn on the ignition, my head spinning. I don’t know how, or even why, but I think this leads back to Olivia and her missing friends.

The sky darkens and it begins to hail, hammering down so fast that my wipers can’t work quickly enough. I stay put, waiting for the hailstones to ease, watching as they ping off the windscreen, cocooned in the warm car with the wipers swishing back and forth, the hail drumming on the bonnet and roof. I run through everything I’ve learnt since I’ve been here. How does it all tie together?

When the hail slows I pull out of Maggie’s road. I drive along the high street and then down the Devil’s Corridor. It really is a sinister, lonely road. The type of road you’d get in TV dramas where people pull over and bury a body. I shudder. I turn left onto the dirt track that leads to the cabins and pull up outside mine. At least I’ll be going home tomorrow. On one hand I’m glad, I’m desperate to see Finn again, but on the other things are beginning to come together and I hope Dale keeps me informed. As I’m getting out of my car I see Samuel with his dog. I call a friendly hello and ask if there’s any more news about John-Paul.

He shakes his head. ‘I went into town earlier and asked around but nobody seems to know much.’

I hesitate, wondering if I should tell him about the connection with Anastacia Rutherford, then think better of it.

‘Actually,’ he says, reaching into the pocket of his coat, ‘I found this in the cabin.’ He shows me a bright orange card. ‘It says “A. Rutherford” on it. Do you know who it belongs to?’

My blood runs cold. ‘Yes,’ I say, taking it. It looks like a loyalty card for some kind of equestrian warehouse. Why would Anastacia’s card end up in the cabin? Unless … Bile rises in my throat. I’d assumed it was a man hiding there but could it have been her all along? ‘Can I take this? I know who it belongs to.’

‘Sure. I found it under the bed.’ He gives a little salute before his dog drags him away. I stand and watch as he heads further into the forest, his collar up against the weather.

It starts to rain heavily again so I dart into my cabin, shutting the door hurriedly against the gathering winds. My mind is full of Anastacia. What is going on? I slip the loyalty card into my pocket.

I take off my boots. I have mud on the hems of my jeans and they feel damp with rain. I’m freezing and little balls of ice fall from my coat as I hang it up. My mind feels fractured, like looking at my reflection in a broken mirror. I can see different parts but can’t understand where they all fit.

It’s dark in the cabin and, for a moment, I can’t work out why. Then I realize that all the curtains are drawn. That’s weird. I’d opened them this morning when I got up.

I’m halfway into the living room when I see I’m not alone.

‘Hello, Jenna,’ says a deep male voice I recognize.

It’s Jay.





48



Olivia


It takes Olivia twenty minutes to walk through town to the forest. She cuts through the standing stones and the fields at the back. Her leg aches and she’s soaked through by the time she finds herself outside Jenna’s cabin. She hopes she’s in. She tried phoning her but it went through to voicemail.