“Great,” said Ashley, but she pulled a face. “This was all in 1968, though, right? So this Rita will be dead by now.”
Jude didn’t answer her. He was on a trail, which was something he enjoyed. Many times in the past he had become interested in a subject and followed the breadcrumbs across the Internet in search of answers. He entered ‘Rita Glendale’ into the search bar and hit enter.
Something came up immediately.
He clicked the first article.
“Says here she was the town’s first female councillor. Wow, she was in charge of our ward.”
Ashley frowned. “What does that mean? She was like a politician or something?”
“Yeah, she used to help run this part of town, like a representative or something. There’s a picture of her here from the eighties. Look.”
The two of them studied the faded picture of a bony woman with curly grey hair. In the photograph, she was holding a young boy against her side. The caption explained it was her son, Peter, an avid young artist. A chalk picture of some daffodils had been drawn on the pavement. It was pretty good if the kid had drawn it.
“She had a son. Peter Glendale.”
Ashley scratched at the inside of her nostril, grossly dislodging some dried blood. “So maybe we search for this Peter, then? Although, if his mum sold the farm before he was even born, he probably doesn’t know any more than we do.”
Once again, Jude followed the breadcrumbs. He typed in ‘Peter Glendale’ and tapped enter.
There were no articles about Peter, but he was listed as a company director on a government website. It looked like he owned some kind of marketing agency, but the crazy thing was, the website listed his home address.
Jude gasped. “He lives here. Packer Street. Isn’t that down near the supermarket?”
Ashley nodded. “Yeah, my mum used to clean for a lady down there. Nice houses.”
“Do you reckon he could help us? Do you think he has any idea who Rose is?”
Ashley shook her head. “No. It happened too long ago. Why would he?”
Jude was about to conduct another Internet search, but a loud banging at the front door interrupted him. His mum yelled up the stairs for him to come down.
He looked at Ashley. “The police, you think?”
“Dunno.”
They went over to the bedroom door and stepped out onto the landing. Rather than head downstairs, they eavesdropped.
It was Ashley’s father. “Is she here?” he said, sounding tired. “I just need to talk with her, Helen.”
“I think you’ve done enough talking for tonight, Tony. She wants to be left alone. She’s perfectly safe here, for now, so leave her be.”
“She needs to come home with me. She needs to be home when the police come back. This has all gone way too far.”
“I agree, but she said you hit her.”
“That’s… It’s not like it sounds.”
“Jesus, Tony.”
“Keep your nose out of my business. Go pour yourself another drink and leave my daughter to me.”
“How dare you!”
“You’re pissed. My daughter isn’t staying here.”
There was the brief sound of a scuffle followed by Jude’s mum grunting. When she spoke again, she was angry. “Come inside my house and I’ll have you locked up, Tony, do you understand? You might knock your own family about, but you’re not gunna play that game with me. Ashley’s here because she’s upset, so just give the poor girl some space. I’ll take care of her tonight and call you in the morning. If the police arrive, I’ll talk to them, okay?”
“No, not okay. I want my daughter.”
“You’re not coming in.”
There was the sound of another scuffle and Ashley raced halfway down the stairs. When Ashley’s dad saw her, his face lit up. “Ashley? I need you to come home. We need to talk about things.”
“No, we don’t. Leave me alone, Dad.”
He sighed and leant against the door frame. His right foot was inside the hallway. “I’m sorry for losing my temper, okay, but you need to come home. You need to face the mess you’ve made.”
Ashley hissed. “Are you for real? The mess I’ve made? All Jude and I have done is the right thing. It’s everybody else who’s fucked up. I’m not coming home, Dad. Just go.”
Her dad pushed himself away from the door frame and barged into Jude’s mum. She yelped in surprise and fell against the wall but threw out a hip to keep him from getting past. The two of them started wrestling.
Ashley screamed and ran down the rest of the stairs. She paused in the hallway to point a finger at her grunting, red-faced dad. “Just fucking leave me alone!”
Jude didn’t know what to do. His mum was fighting with everything she had to keep Ashley’s dad out. Meanwhile, Ashley fled into the kitchen. “Mum, I-I’m going to call the police, okay? Hold on.”
“Yes! Call 999,” she begged. “Tell them I’m being attacked.”
Ashley’s dad gave up the struggle and moved back outside. He adjusted his misshapen shirt and growled. “Fine. I’m going, okay? But you tell Ashley I want her home. Tonight. Or I’ll be the one calling the police.”
“Get the hell out of here, Tony.”
Jude raced into the kitchen, intending to tell Ashley that her dad was leaving, but when he got there, he found the kitchen empty and the back door wide open. Ashley had gone.
The sun was shining outside, and Jude had to blink to adjust his vision. Ashley couldn’t have gone far because she had entered the kitchen only ten seconds before he had, and sure enough, he found her marching through the alleyway at the end of his close. The alleyway led to the playground, which was where he figured she was heading. The small park was away from the roads, which meant her dad wouldn’t catch up to her in
