After PC Wyndham had left, Maggie had just stood there trembling, looking fragile and unable to talk coherently. In the following few hours, she simply sat where she was told, drank tea when it was made for her, walked up to Claire’s house when the others took her, all with the liaison officer glued to her side. Once or twice, Claire wondered if Maggie was about to tell her something, as though she needed to get something out, but when it didn’t come, she didn’t press her. She didn’t understand why Maggie wasn’t making a greater effort to contact Rain’s father.
Between her childminder and Marcus, Amy was being taken care of. Claire didn’t want her upset by the goings-on – the reunion was now far from the fun gathering she’d planned. Shona was making soup in Claire’s kitchen, though her heart wasn’t in it, evident by the way she slowly stirred the pot, dropping in a few more roughly chopped vegetables she’d found in Claire’s fridge.
‘Pat,’ Shona said, turning towards him. ‘Things are done differently these days.’ She chopped more carrots – anything to keep busy.
Claire stared at her phone, cursing the missed call. ‘Unknown number,’ she whispered, her stomach churning.
‘They’ll leave a message if it’s important,’ Greta said, passing around yet more cups of tea.
Angus had decided that he and Jenny should go home now that Patrick was feeling more himself. ‘Shona doesn’t need more mouths to feed,’ he said, when Jenny thought they should stay to help. Claire hugged them as they left, feeling terrible that they were leaving under such circumstances. But the police had said they wouldn’t be needed for further statements, and Jenny promised to phone later that evening for an update.
As she watched them drive off, Claire’s phone pinged with a voice message. She was about to listen to it, but Nick, Jason and Marcus blustered back in, all talking at once. Maggie mustered enough energy to look up, having just left another message at Rain’s father’s office. He seemed unreachable.
‘We just spoke to the lad who works at the surf shop. His name’s Blake,’ Jason said. ‘He told us that he thought he saw a girl like Rain up near the shop on Sunday afternoon. He’s already been interviewed by the police.’
‘Why didn’t they tell us?’ Claire said, remembering how any information about Lenni had been fed to her parents on a need-to-know basis.
Maggie stood up, gripping the back of her chair.
‘Apparently, Blake saw a girl getting into a car. An old white van, to be precise. It was about 4.30 p.m., he remembers, because he was outside having a smoke and thinking of packing up the surfboards as business was quiet.’ Jason took the tea handed to him. ‘Though judging by what Blake was smoking just now, I’d question his memory.’
‘Is this good news or bad?’ Patrick replied. He stared at his son for a moment before turning away, realising what he’d done several moments after the shock registered on Jason’s face; his father had actually spoken to him.
‘If there’s anything significant to report, Maggie will be the first to know,’ PC Watts said in a tone that urged them not to speculate.
‘But Rain would never get into a van with anyone,’ Maggie said quietly. ‘Not unless she knew them.’ There was silence as everyone digested what that meant. No one dared ask the obvious, whether Blake had seen a struggle.
‘That’s good, then, Mags,’ Claire said. ‘They’re making progress.’ Claire turned her mobile over and over in her hand. ‘And perhaps it was someone she knew. A friend from school or something. It’s a small world.’ She stopped. The possibility of Rain bumping into someone familiar in Trevellin when she’d lived most of her life in a boarding school hundreds of miles away was extremely unlikely. Claire’s phone pinged another alert, so she ducked out into the hallway to listen to the message.
Claire, it’s me. We need to talk urgently. Come to the staff canteen as soon as you can. Text me when you’re here. Claire thought the message had ended, but then Callum added, And keep quiet about it.
She hung up, puzzled. It almost didn’t sound like him. She’d never heard him scared before. She went back into the kitchen, forcing the frown from her face. ‘Jeff called,’ she said, staring at the floor. ‘There’s an important contract and he can’t find it.’ She felt the colour rising in her cheeks. ‘I’ll have to dash into the office quickly.’ She hated lying. ‘But I won’t be long,’ she added, before anyone could say anything. She grabbed her bag and keys, wondering why Callum had sounded so insistent.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Callum walked briskly down the hospital corridor towards the canteen to meet Claire, the nausea rising in his stomach. He couldn’t face the sandwich his secretary had fetched him for lunch, could barely keep down the coffee she’d left on his desk.
‘Darling,’ he said, holding out his arms. She was sitting at a table in the corner of the canteen, the place already filling up with the lunchtime rush. She stood up as soon as she saw him, her hands pressing lightly against his chest as they embraced. The fresh smell of her hair grounded him, making him believe everything was going to be fine.
‘What’s going on?’ she said. ‘You sounded really worried.’
‘Sit down.’
‘Sure, but…’ Her face folded with worry.
‘Those cops came to see me again.’
‘Here at work?’
He nodded. ‘I was about to go on ward rounds. It was very unprofessional.’
‘It might be worth a complaint.’ She reached out, touching his hand.
‘Look, I’ll get straight to the point.’ His mouth went dry. ‘It turns out they’ve found Rain’s fingerprints in our bedroom. They were asking me if I knew how they got there.’
‘What?’
He paused, allowing her to process the implications. He wasn’t about to spell it out, but he also needed to be sparing with the truth. It was for her own good.
‘I mean… but… how?’
‘Exactly.’ He locked on to her eyes. ‘It must mean that she was snooping about in there.’ He sighed heavily, shaking his head. ‘It’s horrible, and the last thing Maggie needs to be dealing with under the circumstances, but I want you to check your jewellery box. Don’t make a big thing about it. There’s bound to be an explanation.’
‘I don’t understand…’ Claire was squinting, frowning, thinking. ‘Rain wouldn’t steal from us. No way.’
‘I know. I don’t want to believe it either. But why else would she have been in our bedroom?’
Claire swept her hair off her face. ‘For any number of reasons. It doesn’t mean she’s a thief.’ Callum watched as she tried to assimilate the news. She shook her head, biting her lip. He knew her default setting was trust.
He allowed himself another sigh and squeezed her hand. ‘Look, it probably wasn’t the right thing to do, but I felt I had to say something to protect the silly girl. And even after everything, I felt sorry for Maggie too. Her daughter’s gone missing.’
Claire was looking right at him, studying his expression. ‘I know, but… after what you said Maggie did to you?’
‘They’ve both clearly got issues, love. I’m not heartless.’ Callum tilted his head, touching Claire under her chin. ‘And Maggie’s not exactly a great maternal influence. Why do you think Amy is such a delight?’ He stroked her cheek.
‘So what did you tell the police?’
‘This is where it gets tricky,’ he replied, unable to hide the tension in his voice. ‘I said she’d been in our bedroom with you.’
‘With me? Why?’ Claire recoiled.
‘It was a spur of the moment thing. I wanted to make things easier for her. I said I’d seen you both chatting in there on Saturday and that’s how her prints must have got in our room.’ He watched as Claire absorbed the news. ‘It’s not going to make a scrap of difference to whether they find her or not, but it might make things easier for Rain if it turns out she has stolen something. The insurance will cover it, so we don’t need to make a big song and dance.’
‘I’m really not sure that’s right, Cal.’ Claire was quiet, thoughtful. ‘Why didn’t you just tell them the truth, that you didn’t know why Rain was in our room? What if it does have something to do with her disappearance? I can’t believe you lied to the police.’