The Girls Who Disappeared(84)

‘All these years. My mother knew and never told me. No wonder she didn’t see Maggie and the others again. How could she face them knowing the truth?’

‘It would have been difficult for her,’ pipes up Jenna, who had, until now, remained quiet. ‘She did say she was trying to protect you. I like to think I’d have done the right thing, if it had been me, but having to leave my son …’ Pain flashes in her face. ‘I’m not excusing her, just saying it must have been a hard decision.’

‘But it was self-defence, wasn’t it? He was chasing her,’ says Olivia. ‘She might not have gone to prison.’

Dale places his mug on the coffee-table. ‘She must have believed everything was stacked against her and didn’t want to take the chance. Maybe she was worried the police would find out about the drugs and her role in it all.’

‘I bet Jay didn’t help,’ says Olivia, her voice bitter. ‘He’s had a hold over her all these years. It was so manipulative,’ she turns to Jenna, ‘the way they pretended John-Paul was still alive by hiding out in the cabin opposite. Scaring you like that.’

‘Jay borrowed the dog from one of his dealer mates,’ explains Dale. He crosses his legs and Olivia notices he has novelty penguin socks on. ‘I don’t know if you’re aware, Olivia, but Jay is currently being investigated for his role in a drugs ring here in Stafferbury.’

Olivia isn’t surprised. ‘My mum said something about Wesley. Is he involved too?’

‘It’s looking that way. I’m sorry,’ says Dale. ‘There’s something else about Wesley.’ He grows uncomfortable and fidgets in his chair. He glances at Jenna, then back at Olivia. ‘I’m happy to tell you about it in private.’

‘I don’t care about Wesley,’ she blurts out. ‘After everything else that’s happened he’s the last thing on my mind. And Jenna,’ she turns and smiles at the journalist, ‘I have no secrets from her.’ She swallows the lie with a gulp of the hot tea.

Dale fidgets in his seat. ‘I went back to the stones last night, after I found you. I had my suspicions about what happened to you. And I found a needle and had it tested. Your theory was right. Someone injected you with a date-rape drug.’

Olivia sits up in her chair, her hands gripping her mug. ‘But … I wasn’t raped. There’d be signs, wouldn’t there?’

‘I don’t think the plan was rape,’ he says softly. ‘I’m not sure what it was. I’m afraid for that you’d have to ask Wesley.’

Nausea rises in Olivia’s throat. ‘Why?’ she asks. Her whole body goes hot and then cold, like she’s been doused with a bucket of water.

‘I went to The Raven and asked to look through their CCTV footage. I saw you with Wesley, around seven thirty p.m. He was carrying you along the high street, away from his flat and towards the standing stones. There was a witness too. A woman in the pizza place saw him carrying you across the road to the field.’

She recalls the fear she’d felt last night as she walked home, the neck-tingling sensation that someone was behind her, following her. A hand. A hand had clasped her mouth. And the pain she’d felt in her leg all day. That pin prick in her thigh, the tear in her jodhpurs. He’d injected her. She can hardly believe it.

‘Why? Why would he do this to you, Olivia? That’s … I just can’t comprehend it.’ Jenna shakes her head.

But Olivia knows why. ‘Because he’s been gaslighting me for years. I suspected it but I lacked self-esteem so I was just grateful to have someone. He knew I was moving away from him. He wanted me scared. And it almost worked. I went running to him like an idiot. Hoping he’d keep me safe from the monsters. But he is the monster.’

Dale and Jenna remain silent, just staring at her. Is that admiration on their faces?

‘God, you’re so brave, you know that,’ says Jenna. ‘I wish I had half your courage.’

It’s one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to her. And despite this being one of the most horrific weeks of her life she allows herself a moment to glow, until she remembers and her world comes crashing down again.

Later that afternoon Jenna decides they should go for a walk to clear their heads. Dale has promised to keep them updated but Jay is in a critical condition in hospital and her mother and Wesley are in custody. Olivia wonders if her mum will backtrack on her confession when faced with the police. She wants to see her as soon as she’s able, but Wesley, as far as she’s concerned, can rot in Hell. He’ll be looking at a prison sentence, Dale reckons. They might not be able to prove what he did to her with the injection and the drugging – it horrifies her every time she thinks of him doing that to her, then leaving her alone among the stones in the dead of night – but a raid on his flat found enough cocaine and MDMA to prove it was much more than recreational. Dale believes he’ll buckle under questioning and Olivia hopes he’s right. She never wants to see Wesley again.

‘I need to tell you the truth about something,’ Olivia says now, as they make their way through the thicket of trees. The sky has cleared and sunlight glints through the leaves, casting dappled shadows on the ground. Olivia thrusts her hands into her pockets to keep them warm.

‘What’s that?’ says Jenna, stepping carefully over tree roots. They are walking towards the clearing to where Ralph’s caravan is.