Page 12

CHAPTER 12

MELANIE – D AY T WO

In the car, Melanie’s rehearsing in her head how to say it. She won’t let anyone else tell them.

In college they were trained how to share bad news. To be kind and careful but also to be direct. Spit it out. Don’t use euphemisms that will confuse people.

I’m very sorry to tell you that Amelie’s been found. It’s bad news. The worst. I’m afraid she’s dead.

The rehearsal, the grim words echoing in her head, are too much. Melanie feels terrible shame for, in this moment, losing hope. She presses hard on the accelerator. It’s nearly 5 a.m. and there’s no traffic. She needs to know.

Is it Amelie?

She thinks of how little Ed was able to share from the dive. A ponytail . Did Amelie still have long hair the last time she saw her? Her dark hair is long in the photo Sally shared with them for the inquiry. The same photo Melanie was planning to use at the press conference later. But sometimes kids that age get their hair cut. Want a bob. Deep down she’s hoping that Amelie has had her hair cut. Clutching at straws. But Matthew would have mentioned a change in hairstyle, wouldn’t he? She made the right call, not to contact Matthew yet.

But a part of her wants to call her husband. For his support and to share this with him first, including the guilt over allowing herself to think the worst. But talking to Tom would be every kind of wrong. If the body in the canal is Amelie, Matthew and Sally must be the first to know. Also she thinks of the hour. Tom and George are still fast asleep in their Airbnb with family in the New Forest. Without her.

She pulls herself back to the inquiry. Back into professional gear. A shopping trolley? Was this disposal of a body after a crime? A wave of nausea hits her. But why a shopping trolley? Is that why the bag was placed over the CCTV camera in advance? A premeditated crime?

She needs to speak to Ed again. She’s already messaged the coroner’s office but needs more details to press for a pathologist on site pronto. She wants the works. Forensics crawling all over this. No stone unturned. Ed has texted that he’s getting a tent on site to conceal the body from any media that may get wind while they wait for ‘the team’, but it will be getting light soon. They won’t be able to keep this under wraps for long. The early dog walkers will be out before you know it.

And then, as if reading her mind, the phone’s ringing, linking immediately to the hands-free media system. It’s Ed.