about going to the shop. They got it into their heads that they wanted to toast marshmallows. They’re always doing stuff like that: they think of something and then suddenly they have to have it. They’re really, I don’t know… spontaneous? They said they were going to the shop and that they’d be back in a few minutes. Andrew, Amy’s boyfriend at the time, went with them. I wasn’t even involved in the conversation, I just overheard it. It was about half one when I noticed that I hadn’t seen them in ages. I just assumed she and Amy were off taking photos of stars or something… they’re really into photography. But by two a.m. I started to get seriously worried. I called her mobile, but it rang out.’
‘So her mobile was still turned on at that time?’ According to the file, its last recorded location was in this area. It was possible that she’d dropped it in a struggle, but it had never been found.
‘Yeah, she just wasn’t answering it. I tried Amy’s phone too, then Kayla again, but neither of them would answer. Calum said he could have sworn he saw them come back, so then I thought maybe they were around somewhere and I just hadn’t seen them. I looked in every room in the house, went around calling her name, but I couldn’t find her. I asked Calum where he’d seen her, but he was really drunk and wasn’t making any sense.’
‘Who’s Calum?’ I asked. I was interested because his name was on my list, along with Amy and Andrew’s.
‘He lives across the road; he’s one of my best friends. He said he thought he saw Kayla in the house, but he wasn’t sure. Somebody else said maybe she was off with Luke, this guy from her class that she was supposedly seeing, although she hadn’t told me or Hazel about it.’
‘Would she usually share stuff like that with you?’ I asked. Luke wasn’t one of the people I had to talk to, so he must have had an alibi.
‘Well, probably not with me, but with Hazel, yeah. Maybe she was embarrassed or something. I mean, he’s nice, but not really that hot. I rang him and there was no answer. I calmed down a bit then because I thought they were probably off… well, you know. But he rang me back half an hour later and said he hadn’t seen her since he’d left the party. I finally got through to Amy, who told me she’d got a headache and had gone home with Andrew. She said they’d left Kayla at the top of the road. That’s when everybody started to freak out and we went looking for her. We thought maybe she’d fallen on the way home and hurt herself. But there was no sign of her anywhere. Dad and Anna were staying in a hotel down the country and we didn’t want to worry them, but by six a.m. there was still no sign of her and we’d called everybody she knows, so we decided to ring Dad and then we rang the Gardai.’
Libby’s voice started to quiver and she looked like she was holding back tears.
‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘This must be hard for you, having to relive it.’
‘No, it’s fine,’ she said. ‘It’s fine.’
I felt really bad, but I wanted to get a clear picture of the night of the party.
‘So Kayla walked back by herself?’ I asked, as gently as possible.
‘Yeah,’ said Libby. ‘Dad and Anna were furious at Amy; they still are. But we always used to walk home alone – nothing ever happens around here, like, you can see our door from the top of the road. It was a bit crap of Amy to leave Kayla alone on her birthday, but I don’t blame her like everyone else does. Anybody can make a mistake – we all do things we regret; she shouldn’t be punished forever just for one bad decision.’
I admired Libby’s forgiveness – I wasn’t sure I’d be so understanding.
‘And anyway,’ said Libby. ‘It was probably Andrew’s idea to leave her, not Amy’s.’
I got the feeling Libby wasn’t a fan of his.
‘I love Kayla,’ she carried on. ‘I really do. But she is just way too trusting. If some random guy started talking to her, she’d probably stop and chat to him, that’s just what she’s like. And she’s so small and slight too; if some psycho was watching her and just grabbed her, then she wouldn’t stand a chance.’ Libby took another sip from her tea. ‘You heard about the serial killer, right?’
‘No…’ I said, feeling a shiver run down my back.
‘So many women have gone missing without a trace here in the last ten years that some people think a serial killer is kidnapping them. They reckon he’s keeping them for a while before… before murdering them. All these kidnappings have taken place in nice suburbs like this one, so we think that maybe this guy has Kayla. I mean, she didn’t run away – she wouldn’t just take off; she wouldn’t do anything like that. And it doesn’t look like she had an accident because there is literally no trace of her. We found nothing.’
She really thought it was an outsider. The thought that somebody from inside the circle might have hurt Kayla didn’t seem to occur to her. I trusted Matt Lawlor’s judgement and was prepared to accept that her killer may be in the video, even if the thought of it was almost too much to bear. But what if he was wrong? What if this
‘Would you mind if I took a look at Kayla’s room?’ I said. I wanted to see if I could sense her there. Last year Beth had appeared in places that were important to her, so I thought maybe Kayla might visit her bedroom. If she was anything like me, she’d probably spent a lot of time there.
‘Yeah, sure, it’s this way,’ said Libby.
I followed her up the stairs. Even though the house was beautiful, there was an eerie stillness in the air, like something wasn’t quite right. It felt like it was suspended in time, just waiting for Kayla to come back. We walked down the corridor, then up a narrow spiral staircase. The steps creaked under my feet and I felt a little bit dizzy, so I held on to the black banister to steady myself.
‘She has the attic room,’ said Libby. ‘Coolest room in the house.’
It was very cool. It was huge, and one wall was completely covered in Polaroid photographs. Photographs of Kayla, of her friends, scenery, bands, random things. Some of them were really quite striking. There was a picture of a white butterfly on a purple thistle, its slightly blurred wings suggesting that it had either just landed, or was about to take off.
‘It’s exactly as she left it,’ said Libby. ‘Anna told us not to touch anything. Not that I would – I hardly ever come up here.’
I followed Libby into the centre of the room. It was different to the rest of the house; its bright colours and organized chaos contrasted with the pastel shades and sparseness of the other rooms. There were similarities between it and my own bedroom – the giant piles of CDs, the posters on the walls, the dressing table covered with make-up supplies. It was unsettling to think that this kind of thing could happen to someone close to my age, someone like me. Libby started to look really uncomfortable. ‘I actually… I don’t think I can be in here now. It’s too upsetting,’ she said. ‘You’re welcome to look around, take as long as you need, but please don’t touch anything. I don’t mind, but Anna would probably notice and she’d freak out.’
‘No, of course. I won’t touch anything.’ I said. ‘Thanks for letting me do this.’
‘I’ll be downstairs,’ said Libby. ‘If you need anything, just shout.’
The room was really tidy, but I guess Kayla would have cleaned it before the party. There was a bookshelf in the corner, holding mostly photography and poetry books, and a few magazines, including some copies of
I walked around the room again, taking in all the details. I didn’t feel Kayla’s presence there though. The room actually felt calmer than the others, and I definitely didn’t sense her spirit there.
When I arrived back in the kitchen, Libby was leaning over one of her textbooks, her head resting in her hand.
‘What are you studying in college?’ I asked.
She jumped. ‘Oh, sorry,’ she said. ‘I didn’t hear you come back in… er, Medicine.’
‘Oh, wow, where?’ I said.
‘Trinity…’
‘Cool.’
