Page 6

CHAPTER 6

MELANIE – D AY O NE

‘Why am I hearing divers may check the canal? Is there something you’re not telling me?’ Matthew’s face, across the table, is ashen as he speaks first.

It’s late evening now and Melanie has arranged this update in a hideous café near Maidstead police station. She checks her watch, trying not to let him see just how up against it she feels. That ticking clock.

Also – her dilemma.

‘Right. So I promised to be straight with you and I will, Matt, but before we talk about the dive team, you need to make me a promise too.’

Matthew shrugs, eyes uncertain now.

‘They’re only letting me take this case because I’m not related to Amelie. They do know I know her. That you and I are friends. It’s not ideal but fact is a lot of people in the force remember you. They care about you and, in the context, they need me on the case. And providing I’m careful and do everything by the book, we’re OK.’

‘I’m hearing a but?’

‘You can’t be involved, Matt. Not directly. Not out there. With the official police inquiry. You’re the parent and I get that you’re going through hell. But I’ve promised them I won’t let you up close. Interfere. I’m going to find her, Matt, but I can’t have you going rogue on me. Interfering. Going anywhere near witnesses or anyone else on your own.’

She means Dawn Meadows but she doesn’t say the name yet.

He doesn’t reply. He has his nails dug into his palms and she watches him move his hands to his lap.

‘I can’t just sit back and do nothing, Mel. My daughter is missing. Any parent would be out there looking.’

‘I get that. And it’s fine to be helping with the general search; to be checking with all of her friends. Her favourite places and all of that. But I’m here to tell you that you have to promise not to act on anything I share with you from the inquiry. Anything sensitive. I have to be sure I can trust you. That we have an agreement. That you won’t go off-piste on me. Anywhere near anyone we want to speak to.’

Still he doesn’t reply.

‘I need the promise, Matt. Please.’

‘OK. I promise I won’t do anything without telling you if you promise to keep me in the picture. Tell me everything. However tricky. Leave no detail out. Agreed?’

Mel feels herself colour. She’s not ready to tell Matthew about the more recent anonymous letter. She’s escalated the search for Dawn Meadows. She’s got Forensics checking the letter again. But she can’t face Matthew’s reaction. His anger. His judgement. Not until she knows more. Also she’s worried he’ll go after Dawn Meadows himself.

‘Agreed,’ she says.

‘Now please, Mel. Let me know where we are tonight. Why are the dive team setting up?’

‘And how did you hear about that?’

Melanie put the dive team on alert just an hour ago and hadn’t expected Matthew to know yet. A water search was normally only approved if a missing person was seen going into water. Melanie was sticking her neck out, authorising it this early on.

‘Someone called me, Mel. A mate. I don’t want anyone getting in trouble so you know I’m not going to say who ...’

‘OK. Fair enough. But I don’t want the press knowing about the dive plans yet.’

‘Understood. But they’ll find out soon enough; they always do. And you do know this is going to break Sally. She’ll see it on the news. I won’t be able to keep it from her. So what’s going on?’

He’s already told Melanie about the state Sally’s in. The doctor’s been out and Sally finally agreed to a sedative but the mildest of doses. There’s no family living nearby and so she’s with the family liaison officer, a nice and very experienced woman, but it’s obvious Sally won’t sleep tonight.

‘So is there CCTV pointing to the canal? Please. Tell me straight.’ Matthew is unblinking, his eyes pleading with her. It’s killing Melanie to see him like this.

‘No. The dive team is purely precautionary. Me needing to discount the canal.’

‘But why so soon?’

‘OK. So, we’ve got nothing useful from CCTV so far. From the shops or the High Street. We picked up Sally and Amelie walking around the centre of town earlier but nothing beyond them going into Freda’s Fashions.’

‘That’s where Amelie saw the green dress she wanted to try on?’

Matthew’s been over and over the details with Sally. Why there wasn’t time to try the dress; why Amelie was peeved.

‘OK. No judgement. And I share this with love and as your friend. But from the records, Sally was on the phone outside the shop quite a bit longer than she realised.’

Matthew’s face changes as if physically hit.

‘Like I say, no judgement and I don’t think it’s helpful to share this with Sally.’ Melanie feels anxious. Sal is her friend too. ‘We’ve all been there. It’s easy for time to run away when you’re on the phone.’

‘She said it was just moments.’

‘And I’m sure it felt like that to her. But it looks like it was long enough for Amelie to get bored. To get fidgety. So one of the theories, one of the possibilities, is that Amelie went back into the shop to check out that dress again. While her mum was distracted. The reason I’m sharing this with you is we haven’t picked Amelie up on any other town centre cameras after that point. Freda’s Fashions doesn’t have CCTV near the changing rooms. Privacy – blah blah. So we’re still checking all the cameras we can find. There’s a lot of footage to go through but so far – nothing. It’s a hell of a mystery.’

‘So why the canal? The dive team on standby?’

‘Like I say, there’s nothing specific pointing to the canal. No evidence per se; I’d tell you if there was. But there’s a direct walkway behind the High Street to the canal and the external CCTV at the back of Freda’s Fashions has been tampered with.’

‘What do you mean tampered with?’

‘Someone put a bag over it, Matt. It’s a high camera. They must have climbed up on to a wall to do it as far as we can see. But it means we don’t have footage to discount Amelie being on the towpath behind the shop, alongside the canal. There’s a rear door to Freda’s Fashions. It’s a fire door. Alarmed. Supposedly just for staff emergencies but one of the first uniforms on site opened the door and no alarm went off, so it’s just possible Amelie used it. Not likely – I’m not saying this is my theory – but it is possible. So we have to check it; I’m just ticking boxes, Matt. Because we can’t pick her up on any other cameras and because I can’t confirm she wasn’t by that canal—’

‘Dear God. What are you saying? You think Amelie took the dress? Bolted out the back door. Fell in the canal?’

‘No, no, Matt. I’m not saying that’s my theory; I’m just doing my job and discounting things. One by one. So that we can work through the list of possibilities rationally and methodically and find out where she is. What’s really happened.’

Sally watches Matthew’s face change again. He looks down at the table, his expression appalled, then back up at her, this terrible new fear in his eyes.

‘This will kill Sally. The dive. Seeing the divers on the telly. I don’t think it’s occurred to her to worry about the canal. Christ. I don’t know if I can handle the thought of this.’ Matthew looks away and has to take deep breaths in and out. Melanie observes his right hand, back on the counter and shaking. The plastic tabletop is dirty. Needs a wipe. She finds it almost unbearable. His shaking hand by the sticky marks of someone else’s coffee.

‘Take a moment, Matt. Breathe slowly. Remember that I’m just trying to rule out every possibility. I don’t have any firm evidence suggesting Amelie has fallen into the canal. That’s not what this is. We have ground teams out checking every garage, shed, outbuilding. Everywhere. She may have hurt herself. Got trapped somewhere by accident. Who knows? But I’ve put the dive team on standby too, waiting for my clearance. If we have no leads from the ground search, no sightings or CCTV overnight, I’ll order that sweep of the canal. They’ll do a grid search. It’s not that deep, so I’m hoping it won’t take too long. It’s just to discount that possibility; to know precisely where we are as we move on.’

‘Why would someone disable that camera?’

‘It could be nothing to do with Amelie. Someone up to no good. Dealing drugs on the canal path. Who knows what?’

‘Do you think she’s been taken, Mel?’

Melanie’s shocked he’s said it so bluntly. So soon. He looks shocked himself as if he didn’t mean to say it yet.

‘I don’t know what’s happened to her but I’m going to find out, Matt. I’m going to find her for you.’

‘And you’re going to check the Meadows? Dawn Meadows? Yes? Tonight? As soon as possible? I mean, you remember what she said at the inquest. The letters.’

She’s been dreading this. The discussion about Dawn Meadows. Melanie and all of Matthew’s friends tried so hard all those years ago to change his mind about leaving the force after she cursed him at the inquest. No one believed what happened was his fault. Any one of us would have done the same.

‘I’m going to check everything , Matt. You know how this goes. You know the job. You know the list I’ll be working through.’

‘Including the Meadows? Asap? Top of your list?’ He’s leaning in, checking her expression.

‘Including the Meadows. Yes. We’re already on that.’ She wonders if he can read her face. Tell that she is holding something back.

Matthew looks relieved and she doesn’t add that it’s not straightforward. No current address for the Meadows. Driving licence details out of date. Neighbours having no idea where they moved. She doesn’t tell him about the new letter, even though Tom is right: she should have told him the moment it came in.

She thinks of Matthew and Sally’s home. The extension to their open-plan kitchen with the huge sliding doors on to the garden. All the suppers they’ve shared there. The clinking of wine glasses. The fairy lights strung around the room at Christmas time, Amelie and George laughing and playing. She imagines Sally all alone there now, the family liaison officer trying to persuade her to get some sleep.

‘There’s something else I need to ask you. Something difficult.’ She takes a long, slow breath. She has been dreading this above all else. ‘I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t really important, Matt.’

He doesn’t speak and so Melanie plunges on.

‘The dive will attract more media coverage, which is a good thing so long as we control the narrative. Someone must have seen Amelie. There’s been some good coverage online already. We’ve sent out media appeals for the late news. People want to help. There’s a list on social media with people offering to join the search. But tomorrow, if we have no news, we need to step up a gear with the coverage. I’ve talked about this with the team and we’re all in agreement. We need everyone checking their phones. Their selfies. We need everyone who was in town and especially in Freda’s Fashions to see Amelie’s photograph. To help us find her.’ Mel tucks her hair behind her ear. ‘So I want to do a press conference tomorrow afternoon. In time for the evening news.’

‘A press conference?’ He sits up straighter. ‘OK, yes. Good idea. I can do that.’

She looks away for a moment and then straight at him.

‘It’s better if it isn’t you, Matt.’

She holds his gaze as his expression changes, the horrible truth dawning.

‘Oh no, no, no. I can’t ask that of her. No way. Sally’s not up to it, Mel. If you’d seen her in the car park.’

Melanie can’t begin to know how much it must hurt. The pain. The waiting. She doesn’t want to do this, but Matthew knows how this goes. If the roles were reversed, he would be saying the exact same thing: Get the parents on camera ...

‘Please let it be me.’

‘You know why that’s not a good idea.’ Melanie still believes it’s a long shot for Dawn Meadows to be involved. But just in case, it’s too dangerous to put Matthew on television. ‘We don’t know this has anything to do with Dawn Meadows but she is a suspect. And if she’s involved, it could be triggering to see you on television. I’m not risking it.’

‘Right.’ Matthew looks away, closes his eyes. ‘But I don’t know how I can ask this of Sally.’ He speaks very slowly. ‘Imagine it. Up there – in front of the cameras ... On her own?’

He squeezes his eyes tighter. ‘It’ll kill her.’