‘Detective Constable Cooper knows the people here better than I do/
‘They’re interesting/ said Cooper. ‘No doubt about it. And some of them I can’t imagine living anywhere else/
Both the Renshaws looked at him as if he had said something very profound.
‘I’ve been trying to persuade Sergeant Fry to come to our Emma Day/ Howard told him. ‘You’re going to come, aren’t you, Sergeant?’
Fry wanted to bolt for it, but she couldn’t. Sarah seized on her hesitation eagerly.
‘Yes, you must both come. We need all the support you can give us, so we know you’ll come/
‘That would be wonderful/ said her husband. ‘We’re so grateful. So grateful for everything you’re doing for us/
Fry began to shake her head, but Sarah Renshaw had fastened her intense gaze on her.
‘Bring Constable Cooper with you/ she said. ‘He’ll appreciate Emma’s work/
There’ll be a little display in the garden, if the weather’s fine/ said Howard. ‘Down in Emma’s Corner/
‘What’s that?’
‘Well, we decided to plant a tree on Emma’s eighteenth birthday, and we wanted something significant. She always loved the buddleia, because of its scent and the way its flowers attract the butterflies in summer. They call it the Butterfly Bush, don’t they?’
‘I wouldn’t know/ said Fry, her gardening experience having
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been limited to dandelions growing in a window box.
‘We planted another one on the anniversary of the day she disappeared, as well as on her birthday. And the same again the following year. Now there’s a little grove of bushes at the bottom of the garden that holds another bit of Emma.’
‘Marking the days is important. The day she was due felt a bit like Easter.’
‘Easter? Not - resurrection?’
In a way. If we think about Emma hard enough on that day, it seems as though she will actually walk in through the door and say she’s sorry for taking so long to come home. It hasn’t happened yet, of course. But perhaps that’s because we haven’t wished hard enough. What do you think?’
1 really don’t know.’
Then the Renshaws looked at each other, and flushed a bit pink. Both of them now had the beginnings of tears in their eyes.
‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’ said Sarah to her husband.
‘It would be the ideal time to make contact,’ he said.
Fry thought they were still talking about support. It was a strange way of putting it, but lots of things were strange about the Renshaws.
‘Yes, that would help you a lot, wouldn’t it?’ said Sarah.
‘Sorry, what would?’
‘Making contact.’
‘I don’t really follow you. Contact with who?’
‘With the Other Side, of course.’
‘We thought that while you’re here,’ said Howard, ‘it would be the ideal opportunity to have a seance.’
‘We’ve been consulting a psychic, and using a pendulum to try to locate Emma,’ said Sarah. ‘It seemed very appropriate, because they’re things that Emma is interested in herself, anything mystical or supernatural. If we held a seance, you could ask all the things you want to.’
An uncomfortable silence followed. Fry wished that Cooper would say something. Why had she bothered going to the trouble of arranging for him to come with her, if he was just going to sit there and take it all in, saying nothing?
But then he did decide to speak. And Fry blessed him for changing the subject.
‘Mr and Mrs Renshaw, I wonder if you have any more photos
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of Emma? From around the time she went to university, I mean.’
‘Once she’d gone to university, we didn’t manage to take as many,’ said Sarah. ‘But there are a few.’
Howard fetched an album. ‘If we let you have this,’ he said, ‘we need it back for Monday.’
‘That’s all right.’
Cooper opened the album and turned over the pages rapidly. Towards the back, he seemed to find something that interested him. Fry leaned over his shoulder.
‘What on earth is that?’ she said. ‘Was your daughter going to a fancy-dress party or something?’
Fry began to laugh, but she met Cooper’s eye, and the laughter died in her throat.
‘Oh, that,’ said Sarah. ‘It was something Neil Granger got Emma into. I really don’t know what she saw in it.’
Tn what?’
