Sent: Tues. 4/8/03 19:20
Subject: Cill Trevelyan
Dear Jonathan, You are absolutely right. I can find no record that Cill Trevelyan ever resurfaced. David & Jean Trevelyan left Highdown in the 80s but I have no forwarding address as yet. My new friend (!) Sergeant Lovatt is looking into it for me. He is also trying to locate the file on Howard. Apparently records from all the divisions were collected together in a central archive 20+ years ago. However, as redundant files are usually destroyed, he isn't holding out much hope. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Re: the schoolfriend and transference. Transference is commonly an emotional response-often experienced during therapy-where people transfer personality characteristics of parents/partners/friends to someone else. It's an immature reaction, where neurotic patterns of behavior, often formed in childhood, color subsequent relationships-e.g. in very simple terms, a child who grows up afraid of a stern father will fear all men in authority. Clearly, it's more complicated than that but, generally, transference relates to an imbalance, or perceived imbalance, of power within a relationship, which is taken forward to other relationships and will
If you're right that Priscilla Fletcher is the school friend, then it's highly likely that trauma at 13 has lingered into adult life. However, the most obvious contender for that is Cill herself as she's the one who experienced the abusive relationships! In some ways, I'd say idolatry or hero worship is closer to what you're looking for.
Interestingly, Howard was a case study in hero worship. You made the point yourself when you said he aped his hero, Ginger Baker. He wanted to look like Baker, wanted to have the courage to rebel in the same way, wanted to be admired in the way Baker was. It was a displacement of his unloved self to a more acceptable substitute. I shall have to do more research, but it's not inconceivable that Cill became a 'totem' to a traumatized child, particularly if her disappearance meant the loss of a best friend. I question how long those feelings would have lasted, however.
I shall certainly follow your advice to track down the friend. If nothing else, she will be able to tell us something about Highdown in 1970. Fred Lovatt suggested that one of the reasons Cill's disappearance dropped out of the headlines so quickly was because attention shifted within days to Grace's murder and Howard's arrest. The coincidences of time and place continue to fascinate me, however. It seems so unlikely that two unrelated events should happen within such a short period in the same area, although I take your point about the boys and chutzpah. It's not unknown, of course. Jack the Ripper killed two women within half an hour of each other, even though he'd been disturbed performing the first murder and the hue and cry was up. Adrenaline does strange things to the mind as well as the body.
Best wishes, George
*10*
9 GALWAY ROAD, BOSCOMBE, BOURNEMOUTH
FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 2003, 6:30 P.M.
George drew up in front of a smart semi-detached house and left the motor running while she listened to the end of a dispatch from Baghdad. The news was still dominated by the fall of the Iraqi capital, although reports of rampant looting now took precedence over correspondents' and politicians' surprise at the lack of opposition to the U.S. army. For George, a longtime peace campaigner, the three weeks of over-the-top war coverage had been depressing. State-sponsored killing had become a showpiece for technology-smart bombs, laser-guided missiles, embedded journalists with videophones-when the reality on the ground was chaos and death.
She sighed as she switched off the engine. Ideas and words were being twisted to distance sensitive Western consciences from what was being done on their behalf. The killing of Iraqi civilians was 'collateral damage'; the deaths of British servicemen at the hands of their own side were 'friendly fire' or 'blue on blue'; questions about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction-the excuse for war-the
Justice demanded honesty, and there was no honesty in validating war through euphemism and vague suspicion. She particularly disliked assertions that the aim of invasion was to bring democracy to the Iraqi people. You have no vote, was the overbearing message. Do as we say because we know what's good for you. It was the same sanctimonious self-righteousness that had caused every miscarriage of justice in every democracy in the world.
I accuse you because I dislike you ... I accuse you because I can...
It had been easier to obtain the name of Priscilla Trevelyan's school friend than George had feared. A request to the
However, it was indeed the same woman, now retired, and though she couldn't recall the information off the top of her head, she had kept meticulous files of all her work. George explained her interest by saying she was researching Highdown of the 1960s and 1970s, and Bronwen phoned back the next day with the name Louise Burton and the additional bonus that the family had been rehoused in Galway Road, Boscombe. 'I never spoke to her or her parents,' she finished. 'When I went to the house, her mother called the police.'
'Why?'
'I imagine they'd had enough of doorstepping journalists,' said the woman with a laugh, 'so let's hope you have better luck than I did.'
'Do you know where they lived when they were in Highdown?'
There was rustle of paper. 'Number 18, Mullin Street,' said Bronwen helpfully, completely unaware of the extraordinary face that George Gardener was pulling at the other end of the line.
A check of the electoral register had shown that a Mr. William Burton and a Mrs. Rachel Burton were still living at 9 Galway Road, and George rang the bell in the full expectation that she was about to meet Louise's parents. But it was a man of around forty who answered the door. 'Mr Burton?'
