'So why did they take her out from the Wednesday?' Jonathan asked.
'For the reasons that Louise and William gave. She kept throwing fits. Her father called a doctor, who diagnosed delayed shock and put her on sedatives. The idea was to wean her back to school gently but, what with Grace's murder and Cill's continued disappearance, the doctor's advice was to start again somewhere else. He even helped them by putting a recommendation for a move to the housing department.' Sasha shrugged. 'I asked Mrs. Burton about the hair dyeing and the name change and she said they were done to give Louise courage. She dyed her own hair to make the child comfortable. She was completely immovable on the subject of abuse. As far as she's concerned, it never happened ... Louise invented it to excuse her prostitution and drug addiction.'
'What did Mr. Burton say to that?'
'Very little,' said Bartholomew. 'I don't know if he realized she was hanging him out to dry if Louise makes the abuse allegations public ... but he managed to pull himself together enough to bluster a bit. It wasn't very convincing. He went white as a sheet when Sasha repeated what William had said about his visits to Louise's bedroom. He obviously thought he'd kept it secret from his son.'
'The chances are he'd react the same if he were innocent,' George said fairly. 'It's a terrible accusation ... and very frightening if both your children are making it.'
'The abuse isn't in question,' said Bartholomew. 'He had no answers for anything ... couldn't explain why he visited her bedroom and not Billy's ... why he wanted her in provocative clothes and makeup ... why he encouraged her to bring her friends home so that he could sit them on his lap. If we'd had him on his own he'd have given us chapter and verse, but Sasha's right-Eileen's a different kettle of fish entirely.'
'Was she telling the truth?' asked George.
'About what?'
'Anything.'
'I'd say she was being truthful about what she knew at the time,' said Duncan. 'Whether she's worked out since that things were happening behind her back-and has chosen to close her mind to it-I don't know.'
'Then Louise lied about telling her Cill was at Grace's?'
'We think so.'
'What about Robert?'
'He denied it very strongly. It's the only time we believed him.'
'Then there's only Louise's word that Cill was ever there?'
'I'm afraid so.'
'And that's not enough to convict Roy Trent?'
'No. He can draw on the evidence from the time that the only fingerprints found were Grace Jefferies's and Howard Stamp's.'
There was a short silence.
'So what's this small discrepancy?' asked Jonathan.
'The scars on Nicholas Hurst's arm,' said Sasha. 'He's right-handed and they're on his right forearm-on the ventral surface-and there's some muscle wastage and loss of mobility in his hand. He can't touch his fifth finger with his thumb. This is characteristic of median nerve damage and it takes a long time to repair, apparently. Sometimes, as in Hurst's case, minor losses of function can become permanent.'
Jonathan was ahead of her. 'And it can't be attributed to the brain damage?'
'Unlikely. The arm's not paralyzed or semi-paralyzed. It's just the hand that's affected. One thing the consultant was very clear about was that anyone with the sort of scars Hurst presents would have been in considerable pain at the beginning and his hand would have been seriously-and
Jonathan gave a small whistle. 'I'm surprised Roy forgot that.'
'How does it help us?' asked George. 'He'll just say he made a mistake on the dates.'
'Except the details are in Hurst's medical records,' said Sasha with a grin, 'and when I asked the consultant when the damage occurred, he told me the treatment was dated 1972-the year after Howard was convicted.'
Extracts from a report compiled by Sasha Spencer, on the instructions of Mr. and Mrs. Trevelyan, requesting that Priscilla Trevelyan's disappearance on Saturday, May 30,1970 be reopened as a murder inquiry.
WCH INVESTIGATIONS REPORT
SUBJECT: Priscilla 'Cill' Trevelyan, aged 13
INCIDENT: Went missing from her parents' home in Lacey Street, Highdown, Bournemouth on the night of May 29/30,1970
PRESENT WHEREABOUTS: Believed buried under the Colliton Way industrial estate
CIRCUMSTANCES: Murdered by Roy Trent, Nicholas Hurst and Michael Hopkinson (deceased) on the night of Saturday/Sunday May 30/31, 1970
The full details of WCH Investigations' examination of Cill Trevelyan's disappearance are available on request. Much of the evidence is circumstantial. However, WCH Investigations is confident that if the case is reopened as a murder inquiry, further proof will be found. It is outside of the scope of WCH Investigations to carry out searches, trace witnesses who have left the area, fully substantiate medical evidence or locate police files from 1970. Nevertheless, the case for murder is a compelling one.
(Attachments include transcripts of interviews and statements made by: Louise Burton, William Burton, Robert Burton, Eileen Burton and Roy Trent, and additional material supplied by Councillor George Gardener and Dr. Jonathan Hughes.)
