“Hello, Mary? It’s Amanda. You said that I could come around today to talk about what you mentioned in your call?”
“You’re quite persistent, I’ll give you that.”
“Well, okay.” Replied Amanda, who instantly got the feeling that Mary was going to either attempt to prevent another visit or clam up completely. “Is it okay if I come around? I just thought I’d call to check if you were in.”
“I am, but it’s not a good time at the moment. I’m still dealing with that mess from yesterday. After you left I managed to get rid of the glass, but there’s still the window and I’ve other things to attend to as well. I’m not sure, perhaps it would be better…”
“How about I come around this evening. I suppose it won’t take long, will it? Or you could tell me now, over the phone.”
“Now? Well, maybe not over the phone.”
“Well, this evening then, at seven. I’ll see you later. Sorry, I have to run.”
As she ended the call, Amanda heard Mary attempt to mutter another ‘but’. A pang of guilt rose up within her, especially as her curt treatment of Mary reminded her a little of the way she had been treated by the deputy only the night before, and the way Mary had treated her when they had first met. However, she was keenly aware that if she had let Mary continue to talk, the woman would have done her best to postpone the visit. Indeed, Mary would probably have done the same thing again the next time Amanda called. It was better just to get the thing over with as soon as she could.
A brief glance out at the car park revealed to Amanda that the day outside was notably more miserable than the day before. Nevertheless, she was going to go out as the idea of spending most of the rest of the day cooped up in her room did not appeal to her at all. For a moment, a number of different possible options for what to do flittered through her mind: one quickly stood out. She gathered together the case files she had scattered over the room, threw her raincoat on over her leather jacket and headed for the door.
***
It did not take long for Amanda to reach her destination, partly because she already knew the way from travelling to Mary’s house. She discovered that Caroline’s description of the site had been right; almost the only thing she came across after driving down Old East Lane were a cluster of farm buildings, the place of Milch’s attack. She parked her Clio in front of the entranceway to the now remodelled red brick farm building, which she could see just over the property’s newly installed farm gate, and stepped out into a drizzly grey day.
While she had been able to get a broad idea of the area from the map on her phone, she had wanted to see if what she suspected was true with her own eyes. As she stared across the open flat fields before her, near the horizon on the other side, she could just make out the end of Balfour Lane through the sheets of drifting rain. It might have meant nothing; the proximity of the site of Milch’s attack to Mary’s home may have just been a coincidence. Milch had long been in the area and had cast no aspersions against Mary at all, he had even been a guest in Mary’s home on several occasions. Nevertheless, Amanda also saw no reason to completely ignore the fact that both Brenden and Johann had been killed so close to that particular field.
There was also a good reason why Milch would not necessarily see Mary in any way connected to his attack: it clearly could not have been her who perpetrated it as his attacker had been a man. Furthermore, he was more than convinced that his murder had been committed by someone who had escaped from the Tunnels, a conviction he seemed to have absorbed into his personality to such an extent that to even doubt that this was the case would offend the man.
Amanda was so taken with her line of thought that she even wondered if Mary’s piece of information, which the woman was so hesitant to pass on, somehow related to Milch’s attack and Brenden’s. This would even explain why the woman had let Milch into her home when she generally seemed to be opposed to visitors: according to Milch, Mary had even sought him out. Maybe she wanted to pass something on but had never mustered up the courage to actually do it.
From what Amanda had experienced the night before, she could now see that Mary’s hesitancy was potentially justified. If it were the case that the shadow she had seen in Mary’s garden belonged to Milch’s killer, or someone working on his behalf, then it was no wonder that the woman considered it too risky to talk over the phone. Perhaps whoever was involved in the killings was not just keeping an eye on the woman, but had spoken to her about what terrible things he would do if she were to give him up. Could this have even been the reason why Mary was so reluctant to allow Amanda into the back room? Could she have feared that Amanda would see the man in the yard? Amanda just hoped, for the sake of future possible victims, that Mary could overcome her fear to tell her what she knew.
As she continued to stare across the fields, Amanda noticed that a car had turned into Balfour Lane, given away by its lights which were struggling to penetrate the foul weather. Though she was not sure, it seemed as if the driver brought the car right to the edge of the field before coming to a halt. On a clearer day, perhaps she could have
