others are unrecognizable. There are strong similarities, of course...' She broke off with another shake of her head.
'We did wonder if it was Louise Burton,' said George.
The woman gave a surprised laugh. 'Goodness me, no. Louise was a ferrety little thing with a pinched face and sharp nose. It was why she latched on to Priscilla's coattails-I think she hoped some of the other child's appeal would wash off.' She stared at Cill's smiling face. 'It was rather pathetic, to be honest. She went through a phase of trying to ape Priscilla's looks and mannerisms and merely succeeded in turning herself into a mimic. It was an unbalanced friendship, of course. There was a lot of jealousy on Louise's side.'
'What color hair did she have?' asked Jonathan mildly.
'She was a carrottop,' said Miss Brett, returning to the photograph of Priscilla Fletcher. 'This certainly isn't her.'
A black BMW slowed as it came up behind Billy's Renault and he had a glimpse of a dark-haired woman in his rearview mirror before the car turned left into the driveway in front of the Fletchers' house. He dropped the spectacles into his lap and lifted a pair of mini-binoculars to his eyes, using his hand to shield them.
He watched the car door open and the woman climb out. She was slim and smartly dressed in navy blue trousers and a pink polo-neck cashmere jumper with dark hair brushing her shoulders. He couldn't see her face because she had her back to him and, when she let herself into her house, he thought he'd put himself through the ringer for nothing. But she, reappeared almost immediately, looking directly at him as she went to the rear of the car and released her boot. It was a trip she repeated several times in order to carry her shopping bags inside and, even if Billy hadn't recognized her the first time, he couldn't have failed to identify the way she walked. Quick, small steps that spoke of an impatient nature.
'The Burtons moved after Priscilla disappeared so that Louise could go to a different school,' George said. 'Do you know what became of her after that?'
'No. She went to Highdown's equivalent in Boscombe, but where she went from there...' Miss Brett shook her head. 'I did follow up with her new headmaster but I'm afraid he wasn't very flattering. I believe 'unteachable' was the expression he used. Her parents changed her name and encouraged her to put the past behind her, but the headmaster said it was a mistake.'
'Why?'
'Oh, I imagine because it sent the wrong message. Changing one's name is such an easy way to wriggle out of one's difficulties, don't you think?' She was looking at Jonathan as she spoke, as if she suspected him of doing the same thing, and he felt his face heat up.
'What name did she take?' he asked.
'I believe it was Daisy.'
'Did she keep her surname?'
Miss Brett nodded. 'It was common enough not to worry about.' She paused. 'To be honest, I thought the Burtons overreacted. It's true Louise was picked on when she returned to school the following week, but it would have passed. The other girls thought she was responsible for Priscilla being punished-and indirectly for the child running away-so she had a difficult two days. I urged her mother to take a tougher line, but I'm afraid she wasn't up to it. In the end it seemed sensible to compromise on a move.'
'You don't think it was Louise who was overreacting?'
'Without question,' said the old woman dryly, 'but, as I wasn't privy to what had gone on between the two girls, it was difficult to know how genuine she was being. I understood from her mother that her greatest fear was bumping into the Trevelyans, so clearly guilt played a part.' She gave a regretful shrug. 'It was desperately sad. None of us was immune. We all felt responsible.'
There was a wistful note in her voice as if her own guilt still lingered and George wondered if that was one of the reasons why she needed to paint David Trevelyan as an abuser. 'I'm sure you're right about it being trouble at home that caused Cill to leave,' she said gently. 'It's impossible to read her story without seeing her as a victim. Do you know if she had ever run away before? It tends to be a pattern of behavior that's repeated until the child decides to leave for good.'
Miss Brett eyed her for a moment before leaning back to stare thoughtfully toward the window again. 'Do you know I've never considered that? How very interesting. I always put her absences down to truanting.' She fell silent for a moment or two. 'I think it's unlikely. On the one occasion when she was absent for three days in a row, Louise was also absent, and neither set of parents reported their daughters missing, which suggests they were going home at night.'
'Did the mothers work?' asked George. 'Perhaps the girls stayed in all day.'
'Oh, no, that wouldn't have been tolerated by either woman. I believe Mrs. Burton had an office-cleaning job, but she was home at lunchtime. Mr. Trevelyan worked nights, of course, so he'd have been sleeping during the day.' Miss Brett's mouth thinned with irritation. 'We had several persistent truants, particularly among the boys. It was an impossible problem, made worse when the leaving age was raised to sixteen. Short of tying them to their desks, there was little we could do if their parents wouldn't cooperate.'
'And ninety-nine percent of teachers would rather turn a blind eye and be shot of the disruptive element, anyway,' said Jonathan lightly. 'The job's hard enough without having to cope with an illiterate Neanderthal dragging his knuckles along the ground.'
The old woman gave a grunt of amusement. 'Are you referring to the students or their parents, Dr. Hughes? The more disruptive the child, the more ignorant and ill-disciplined the parents, I usually found. So many of the underachievers were lost causes before they ever reached Highdown. All one could ever do was pass the buck to the police and juvenile detention.'
'Was Roy Trent one of those lost causes?'
She studied him for a moment, a small frown creasing her forehead. 'I remember the name but I don't know why.'
'Dark-haired, medium height ... his father ran a newsagent in Highdown Road. We believe Louise may have described him as one of Priscilla's rapists.'
Her eyes widened as memory surged back. 'Good heavens, you are well informed. Roy Trent, Micky Hopkinson and Colley Hurst.' She watched George make a note. 'In fact, Louise was insistent she didn't know who they were and could only give a vague description. It was the police who settled on those three because of their past history. They denied it, of course.'
