Final Cut(58)

The officer responds once more, still without breaking stride. ‘He’s done nothing, far as we know.’

‘Why’ve you arrested ’im, then?’

There’s no answer, and I realise he’s not under arrest but being protected. There are more calls, and finally the officer responds.

‘Look, we still don’t know where Ellie is. So you lot’d be better off trying to find her than standing here causing trouble. Okay?’

There’s a mumbling in the crowd. A few look back towards Bluff House, but Bryan’s gone inside and the door is closed. I can’t see Monica anywhere.

‘Is that it?’ comes a voice. ‘That’s all you’re going to do?’

The officer on David’s left responds. ‘Someone’s on their way,’ she says. ‘Now, get lost.’

I turn to Gavin. ‘Let’s get away from here.’





33


We decide to walk. The tide is out. Before we even reach the slipway we hear laughter, shouting voices and the hard clink of bottles. Music floats over, surfing on the crash of the ocean, thump-thump-thump. A little way along the beach, near one of the groynes, five or six boys sit bunched around a fire, smoking and drinking. There’s a joint being passed round, from what I can see. A bottle of vodka.

‘Come on,’ I say to Gavin.

We skirt the teenagers, keeping away from the water, walking next to the scrub in the shadow of the cliff.

‘What d’you think has happened to Ellie?’

He swallows. ‘I don’t know.’

‘It’s happening again, isn’t it?’

He gazes at the distant clouds. ‘Who knows? Maybe she just lost track of the time. It hasn’t been that long.’

We stop walking.

‘You really think that?’

He shakes his head. ‘No. I suppose not.’

I think of what I saw upstairs in the pub. Of what Zoe’s parents told me.

‘The girls. I think they’re being abused.’

It’s the first time I’ve used the word since coming back. It sticks to my tongue. Gavin folds his arms and I can’t tell whether it’s because he doesn’t want to believe it or because he doesn’t want to admit he’s thought the same.

‘No—’ he begins, but I interrupt.

‘You know Zoe was pregnant?’

His body seems to slump. ‘Who told you that?’

‘Her parents. Well, her mother.’

He stares out over the water. ‘You went to see them? When?’

‘A few days ago. But—’

‘You didn’t tell me.’

He’s staring at me. I regard him for a moment. Is this anger? Annoyance?

‘No,’ I say. ‘I didn’t.’

‘Why not?’

A weight settles on my chest. I’m in trouble, I’m going to be punished. I’ve opened my big mouth when I should’ve kept it shut.

Fuck that. I look straight at him.

‘Since when do I have to tell you everything I do?’

He stares down at the ground now. I wonder if I’ve handled it all wrong, whether he’ll turn on his heel now and walk away. But when he raises his head he attempts a smile.

‘I’m sorry. I just … I could’ve come with you.’ He hesitates, and we carry on walking. ‘What else did they say?’

I don’t feel inclined to share everything, not now, so I just say, ‘Not much.’

‘Who was the father?’

‘They didn’t know. But her mother thought she had a boyfriend, an older man, out here in Blackwood Bay. There was an uncle she was close to, but they didn’t think he had anything to do with it.’

‘They’re sure?’

‘They said not.’ I pause. ‘They’re not convinced Daisy killed herself, either.’

‘So maybe it is all linked?’

I nod. ‘We need to find Ellie.’

Gavin glances back towards the group of boys at their campfire.

‘Is it worth asking them?’

‘Can’t hurt.’

We go over. My camera is hanging round my neck and I start recording as we draw near.

‘Excuse me,’ I say. The boys look up. One tries to hide the joint in his cupped hand, but the smell is pungent and unmistakable.

‘What?’

It’s the boy from the café, the one who’d been with Ellie and Kat. He somehow manages to look both aggressive and utterly uninterested in anything I have to say.

‘I was wondering. You know Ellie?’

‘What’s it to you?’

‘You know where she is?’

‘No idea, sweetheart.’

I want to react, to tell him he has no right to call me that, that unless he watches it I’ll teach him a lesson, but I let it go. There are times to fight that battle, and this isn’t one of them.

‘You know she’s disappeared?’

‘Yeah.’

‘But you don’t know where she went?’

‘No. I dunno where Ellie is. Okay? Nothin’ to do wi’ me.’

There’s no response, just the noise of the speaker they have hooked up to one of their phones, the music they haven’t bothered to turn down. He stares at me defiantly, so I turn my attention to the others.