It’s fine. Now I’ve got my jitteriness out the way, maybe I’ll be able to answer their proper questions with more brevity.
‘Sounds … interesting,’ DI Manning says, giving his colleague a sideways glance. I want to add that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I bite my tongue.
‘How are you doing, Mrs Hardcastle – given your husband is in custody?’ Imogen Cooper asks, before taking a sip of coffee. I feel it’s a trick question. She’s asking it nonchalantly, no pen in hand, all to make me think this is breezy and conversational. Trying to put me at ease, perhaps. Or that’s what she wants me to believe.
I wish Maxwell hadn’t come here yesterday now. He’s managed to get me so worked up I’m overthinking the simplest questions. I force my shoulders down, and consciously relax my muscles. I’m going to do this my way.
‘Not great, really. As you can imagine this has come out of the blue. A lightning bolt, if you will. I just can’t understand it if I’m honest. How can you think Tom is involved in this woman’s disappearance?’
‘I’m sorry this has all come about so suddenly, Mrs Hardcastle—’
‘Please call me Beth, DC Cooper. Such a mouthful to always refer to me as that,’ I say with a smile.
‘Beth, I understand you’re shocked by your husband being taken into custody. We have reason to believe he was the last person to see Katie Williams, so of course, he is of interest. Often it’s been the case that the last person to see the missing individual was the one to have a hand in the disappearance.’ Now Cooper takes her notebook and poises her pen. She looks to DI Manning and he leans forward, placing his mobile phone in between us, ready to begin his questions.
I lick my lips, trying to lubricate them, but there’s little available moisture. I take a quick gulp of coffee.
‘For the benefit of the recording, DI David Manning and DC Imogen Cooper are interviewing Bethany Hardcastle at her home address …’
I feel myself zoning out as he continues to talk ‘for the recording’. There’s a rushing noise in my ears: a high-pitched squealing which is about to tip me into panic mode. I wasn’t expecting this. The pens and notebooks were already enough to make my nerves multiply.
He starts talking to me, rather than the phone. His voice brings me back from the edge, and I pull myself together.
‘You lived in London prior to moving here?’ he asks, looking directly into my eyes.
‘Yes, that’s right. We had a flat in Bethnal Green. Well, it was Tom’s flat – I moved in with him then we got married. When I fell pregnant, we realised we’d need to move at some point as it wasn’t big enough for a growing family. But once I had Poppy it wasn’t the right time, then when I returned to work from maternity leave, I got a promotion. So, we stayed a while longer. I knew within months it wasn’t what I wanted, though.’ I stop talking. One, to take a breath, and two because I know I’m doing the dead opposite of what I’ve been instructed to do.
Brief answers. For God’s sake.
I lay my hands in my lap, grasping them together and squeezing my fingers until it hurts. I purse my lips together to prevent more word vomit.
‘Where and when did you meet?’ he asks. He sits back in the chair, and it crosses my mind he’s settling in for another novel-length answer.
‘It was seven years ago. I remember it clearly, because it was my twenty-fifth birthday: Saturday April the fifth. It was outside Sager + Wilde. I was sitting on the terrace with my friends,’ I smile at the memory and stop speaking. Manning raises his eyebrows and sits forward to scribble something. I wonder why he’s bothering to take notes if it’s being recorded. To convey the seriousness of the visit? To ensure I’m as fully on-edge as possible?
‘Did he tell you about his previous relationship with Katie Williams?’
‘He did – that night, in actual fact. I remember him saying how his heart had recently been broken and he wasn’t expecting to meet anyone and get such an instant connection as he had with me. He said it in a jokey way in that moment, really. But when we were going out together and things were getting serious, he did confide in me that he’d been pretty gutted about Katie’s sudden departure. He’d not expected her to up sticks and go abroad like she did.’
‘Gutted enough to try and prevent her leaving?’ Cooper says.
I turn to look directly at her. ‘No. Tom was honestly heartbroken because she left. She’d gone. He didn’t stop her. And you know, after you told him the other night about your suspicions something had happened to her, he was devastated. All the years he’d assumed she was living her dream life abroad and you destroyed that belief. He might’ve been the last to see her in this country, that you know of, but surely someone saw her afterwards?’
Both detectives look down at their notepads, neither responding. I’m guessing they haven’t found anyone else who says they saw her. They still have Tom as the last person. Which is why they’re still holding him. But if that’s all they’ve got, that proves nothing. They aren’t going to be able to charge him, there’s no way.
‘In the seven years you’ve known Tom, have there been any times he’s shown aggressive behaviour towards you? To your daughter?’
I shake my head and sigh. Maxwell had said this would be an angle they’d take,
