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A deep chuckle at the other end. ‘I thought it would be. Must be – what? Eighteen months?’
‘More like two years.’
‘Everything OK?’
Which is code, as she knows, just as every cancer survivor does, for ‘Has it come back?’
‘All fine, Bax. I’m doing well. House is finally finished, hurrah. And the job’s good too.’
She’s biting her lip now, wondering whether to mention the wedding. She’s only told Ev so far, not even Fawley. She still hasn’t decided how much of her past she wants to invite back in.
‘Do you have a minute?’ he says. ‘The job is actually why I’m calling.’
‘The job?’ She frowns. ‘Myjob? I’m not with you.’
‘We need someone to help us talk to three teenage girls. Their friend died eight years ago.’
‘Eight years ago?But surely –’
‘That’s the thing – seems she didn’t die after all. And we need to talk to them in case they remember something now that they didn’t as kids. Or didn’t see the significance of, more like.’
‘I’m still confused, Bax. Surely there must be someone else with the right experience you could use – people closer to home –’
‘Not with your knowledge of the case, Somer. This girl that died, only didn’t? It’s Daisy Mason.’
***
Adam Fawley
25 July 2024
19.45
So here we are again, in the car park at Heathside, talking about another woman who didn’t kill her child.
Quinn must be thinking the same, because he turns to me and gives a wry grin. ‘Groundhog day, huh?’
‘It’s like those dreams you have when you’re back doing exams at school – “Compare and contrast, please write on both sides of the paper”.’
He pulls a face. ‘Well, they were both equally pissed off, for starters.’
‘Wouldn’t you be? Sharon Mason was never guilty. She’s known that all along, even if we didn’t.’
‘Not “innocent”, though, was she?’ he says drily. ‘Not by a long way.’
There’s no answer to that, and we sit there a moment, remembering everything that was going on in that family. My phone rings. Gis. I put him on speaker.
‘Boss? Just wanted to let you know I’ve checked out Barry Mason and turns out his conviction was quashed. That little tyke Jamie rocked up one day out of nowhere and said he saw Daisy put the kiddie porn on Daddy’s phone. Admitted he was the one who showed her how to do it – claimed he didn’t know exactlywhatshe downloaded, of course, though frankly, if you believe that, you’ll believe anything.’
What did I say? That little acorn is practically welded to the tree.
‘Do we know where either Barry or Jamie are now?’
‘Not yet. I’ve got Stillwell on the case, but I’m not hanging round tonight. Billy scored the winner for his team this afternoon and just for once I want to get home before my kid goes to bed.’
You and me both, Gis. You and me both.
‘What about you?’ he says. ‘Did you see Sharon?’