'Not very successfully. If Grace was already dead on the Tuesday, that exonerates Howard.'
'There's only Wynne's evidence that he didn't go out on the Monday night,' Jonathan warned. 'It's not something we can prove. She was never cross-examined in court because the prosecution plumped for the Wednesday.'
'Whose side are you on?' Andrew demanded. 'Howard wouldn't have gone back if he knew Grace was dead ... or if he did, he wouldn't have run away like a bat out of hell and refused to tell anyone. This is a gift, for God's sake! It's precisely the piece of evidence you and George have been looking for.'
'That's what's making me suspicious,' said Jonathan gloomily. 'Why would Roy Trent tell Louise to say Tuesday? It doesn't make sense if he's read
*21*
9 GALWAY ROAD, BOSCOMBE, BOURNEMOUTH
THURSDAY, MAY 15, 2003,11:30 AM.
The well-endowed young woman from WCH Investigations was nothing like Rachel or Billy's idea of a private detective. She was young and rather nervous and they both thought she resembled an Eskimo, with her sallow skin, heavy black hair, flat cheekbones and narrow eyes. She gave her name as Sasha Spencer and began by explaining that her firm's contract with David and Jean Trevelyan had long since expired, but that she had been interested enough by William's email to look up the file, as it was the second approach on Cill Trevelyan that the firm had had in four weeks.
'Who was the first?' asked Rachel.
'I can't answer that, Mrs. Burton. We take confidentiality seriously.'
'Georgina Gardener,' said Billy. 'She's the one who put me on to Louise, although she doesn't know who she is ... just spotted a similarity to Cill that wasn't real. Why didn't you respond to her approach? Why wait for ours?'
Sasha glanced uncertainly at her notes as if to confirm the name. It was a reverse-psychology technique that usually worked for her. Signs of indecisiveness and nerves persuaded interviewees that they knew more than she did, and it encouraged them to set her straight by telling her more than they intended. 'I didn't speak to the person in question, but I understand they were trying to discover the Trevelyans' address.' She looked up again. 'It's not the sort of information we can reveal, so the meeting ended fairly rapidly.'
'Meaning you didn't tell her anything?'
The young woman nodded. 'We couldn't take it any further at that stage, because we were given no details about why the person was interested in Cill or her parents. However, when we received your email I called Mr. Trevelyan and explained that we'd had two approaches from two different sources in under a month and asked him if he wanted me to pursue either of them. He told me he did.'
Rachel leaned forward with a frown. 'Are you saying that because your contract's with him, you won't be able to report back to us?'
'Not necessarily. I explained there was a quid pro quo-in return for divulging a name and address, one of the sources was asking for information for themselves. When I pointed out that it might be the only way to progress the search, Mr. Trevelyan instructed me to proceed as I thought best.' She looked from one to the other. 'I could, of course, approach the other party-whose contact details I have-and that person might give me the name and address for free, but I doubt they can give me the sort of background information that you can.'
'Not if it's Georgina Gardener,' Billy agreed. 'I think she only came across Cill by accident when she was looking into Howard Stamp's story.'
Sasha Spencer eyed him for a moment, then took a mini-cassette player out of her case and placed it on the coffee table between them. 'Do you have any objections to my recording this? I'll be taking notes at the same time but it's useful to have a backup.'
Billy looked unhappy. 'Who are you going to play it to?'
'No one. It's just a memory aid.' But Rachel shook her head firmly as she reached for the recorder and tucked it under a cushion. 'Sorry, love,' she said, 'but it's more than Billy's life's worth. His folks'll kill him if it ever gets out that he talked on tape about family secrets. Plus, there's no guarantee he's right, so he'll spend another few months tossing and turning because there's a cassette somewhere with his voice on it.' She nodded to the notepad. 'Let's stick to the old-fashioned way.'
'No problem,' said Sasha cheerfully, recognizing that the wife was tougher and cannier than the husband. 'I tend to concentrate better on what people are saying if the tape's running, but it's no big deal.' She sent Rachel a laughing smile that went all the way up to her eyes, deliberately courting her, while working out ways to persuade her to leave the room.
Listening in Robert and Eileen's old sitting room to Billy's account of his sister's upbringing gave substance to Louise in a way that hearing the same story in an office might not have done. There was an album of childhood photographs in a sideboard, items of furniture which had moved with them from Highdown and passed on to Billy when his parents left for Cornwall, even a china doll that Rachel said had once belonged to his sister.
Nevertheless, there were glaring holes in Billy's picture of the girl he grew up with. He claimed his mother was very protective of her after Cill's disappearance, but couldn't explain why-'I used to think she was worried Lou would abscond as well, but I'm not so sure now...' He said his father allowed her to behave like a prima donna-'He hardly ever told her off'-but again couldn't explain why-'I assumed he shared Mum's fear of frightening her away...' Nor was he able to give a clear sense of Louise's character, vacillating between describing her as a lying bitch-'She was always telling stories about people...'-and as being scared of her own shadow-'She'd go catatonic at the drop of a hat.' When he went on to describe her descent into prostitution and drugs, his clear implication was that her life had been wrecked by her parents' sudden relaxation of her moral boundaries when she was thirteen.
Sasha looked up from her notes. 'I'm not sure I understand,' she said carefully. 'Are you saying they backed off after Cill vanished because they knew Louise was involved in some way?'
Billy exchanged a glance with his wife. 'It just seems odd,' said Rachel. 'When you look at what became of her, you have to ask yourself why. It didn't happen with Billy. He turned out OK, but only because his folks never let
