‘You’re absolutely sure?’ questions Kate.
‘Mmm,’ mumbles the woman non-committally, as if she’s suddenly conscious of breaking some human rights clause in the bureaucracy handbook.
‘Maybe it’s not who you think it is?’ presses Kate.
‘I’m usually pretty good,’ she says. ‘I know that face, but can’t place her for the life of me.’
‘Might it have been here, at the university?’ presses Kate. ‘Or somewhere in town perhaps?’
‘Gosh, I really don’t know,’ says the woman, oblivious to Kate’s growing frustration. ‘I just know I’ve seen her somewhere before.’
‘Well, to be honest, if her name’s different to the one she used here, it tells me all I need to know anyway,’ says Kate, slipping the picture back into her bag. ‘But if you remember anything more, perhaps you’d give me a call?’ She hands over her business card.
‘Of course,’ says the woman, a puzzled expression still clouding her features.
Kate thanks the ladies for their help and walks out into the sunshine, wondering where to go next. She’d hoped to at least be able to start tracking Jess’s past, but the only lead she has is the university, and with that going cold she has nothing to follow up on.
‘Shit!’ she says aloud, as soon as she gets around the corner, ignoring the bemused looks of passers-by.
‘Hey, excuse me,’ comes a voice from behind her. ‘Excuse me . . . Miss!’
Kate turns around, praying that it’s the same woman, having had an epiphany. She struggles to contain her buoyed enthusiasm when she sees that it is.
‘I don’t know if it’s going to help you any,’ pants the woman. ‘But I’ve just remembered where I know her from.’
It’s what Kate had wanted and feared in equal measure.
‘Oh,’ she says, trying to sound nonchalant.
‘As odd as this may sound, I think she was working in the cafeteria.’ The woman looks at her quizzically over the top of her glasses. ‘What that means, I don’t know, but you might want to ask down there.’
Kate’s brows knit together in confusion. ‘Working?’ she asks.
The woman nods confidently. ‘She wasn’t a student here; she was an employee.’
Kate’s brain feels as if it’s about to explode. ‘But then why . . .?’ she starts, to which the woman shrugs her shoulders.
‘I have no idea, but your best bet is to go down there and ask around. I can safely say I’ve seen her there in the last six months.’
‘Erm, okay, thanks,’ says Kate, hurrying off.
‘It’s that way,’ says the woman, nodding in the opposite direction to the one in which Kate’s heading.
‘Thanks,’ says Kate hurriedly, her feet taking her faster than her brain can think.
It looks more like a cafeteria in an upmarket department store than a university. No wonder it costs nine thousand pounds a year to come here.
Kate heads straight towards the girl on the till, with the photo of Jess in her hand.
‘Hello,’ she says, offering a friendly smile. ‘I wonder if you can help me. I’m looking for this girl.’
She shows Jess’s picture and watches the young woman’s expression carefully.
‘Has something happened to her?’ she immediately asks, making Kate’s stomach turn over. ‘Are you the police?’
‘No,’ says Kate softly. ‘She’s my friend and I’ve lost track of her. The last time we spoke, she was working here.’
The girl’s face relaxes and she nods. ‘Yes, Harriet was working here until a couple of months ago.’
‘Harriet?’ Kate repeats, unable to stop herself. She senses the girl tensing up again, so quickly adds, ‘I’ve not heard anyone call her that in a long time. I know her as Jess, which is her middle name.’
‘Oh,’ says the girl. ‘Well Harriet, or Jess, left just before the summer. She said she was going up to London. She wanted to make a name for herself.’
Well she’s certainly doing that, thinks Kate.
‘I’ve been round to her place in Lancaster Road,’ says Kate, hoping to give the impression that she knows more than she does. ‘But they’ve not seen her for quite a while.’ She crosses her fingers in the hope that the girl doesn’t call her bluff.
‘Well, the only place I’ve known her to live is at Elm House on the Clifford Estate.’
‘Ah, that must be where she went to after Lancaster Road,’ says Kate, making a note in her head.
The girl looks taken aback. ‘How long did you say it had been since you’d seen her?’ There’s an accusatory tone to her voice and Kate feels hemmed in.
‘It’s been a while,’ she says. ‘But thanks for your help.’
The girl nods. ‘Well, say hello when you find her.’
‘Oh, I will,’ Kate replies with a smile.
25
Lauren
As Lauren walks out of Harrogate station, she feels like she’s stepped back in time. Everything’s exactly as she remembers it from when she was last here as a teenager, just before her family suddenly upped and moved to London.
The bench where she spent hours smoking and kissing Justin still sits opposite the station, surrounded by a well-stocked bed of flowers. The council had long since cottoned on that the spa town could be a popular tourist destination and had presented it as such, ploughing funds into quaint hanging baskets and attractions such as Valley Gardens and the Royal Pump Room Museum.
It feels odd being back here with her three children in tow, having left this place declaring that she’d remain childless.
‘Which way do you think we should head?’ asks Jess, interrupting her thoughts.
Lauren shields her eyes from the midday sun as she takes a moment to get her bearings, looking left and right up Station Parade.
‘We need to go up the hill,’ says Lauren, feeling like a reluctant tour guide. ‘It was one of the roads off on the right, up by the Majestic hotel.’
Jess leads the way, pushing the double buggy with Noah and Emmy in, whilst Lauren follows with Jude in a front-wearing sling. This trip would have been an impossibility on her own, but
