‘Things just got worse at comprehensive school,’ she continued. ‘It was like all our abnormalities became highlighted. My parents began to realise they were losing their control. The more they fought for it, the more Luke and I rebelled. Especially me. I did everything I could to piss them off.’
Chloe stood from the sofa, turned and lifted her sweater. A tattoo of a black butterfly spread across the base of her spine. ‘They both went mental,’ she said, sitting back down. ‘And I enjoyed every second of it.’ She gave Alex a sad smile. ‘I bloody hate that tattoo though.’
‘I was excommunicated from the watch tower at seventeen,’ she explained. ‘It was a wonder it hadn’t happened earlier really, but I think my parents had done some grovelling with the elders. It hadn’t been for my sake. They were worried about their own reputation amongst the group, about being kicked out themselves. That church meant more to them than anything. Anyway, three months later I left home. I was still studying for my A-levels. I actually liked school – it was the only escape I had.’
‘How did you manage to finish school?’ asked Alex. ‘Where were you living?’
‘I rented a room.’
‘But how did you—’
Alex cut herself short, realising the naivety of her own question. Of course, she already knew how Chloe had made the money she’d needed to move out of her childhood home. Everyone now knew.
‘I worked in a garden centre at the weekends; you know the one over in Morganstown? Sometimes I’d skip school to get extra shifts. It didn’t take long to realise it wasn’t enough. The girl I was renting a room from, she more or less made her living, you know. It didn’t matter to me by then. I’d already lost everything. Well, except Luke.’
‘Is he the reason you stayed in Cardiff when you went to university?’
Chloe nodded. ‘I’d have gone as far away as possible, but there was no way I was leaving Luke with them. I was saving up for us. Once I had enough, he was coming to live with me. I think that’s why he got so close to Emily, to be honest. We’d always had each other to keep us going, but then I left him. I had to. Despite what my parents might have thought, he was with Emily because he’d wanted love, not sex. He wasn’t like me.’ She reached across and took Alex’s empty coffee cup from her hand. Her face had flushed with embarrassment. ‘I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m telling you all this.’
It seemed to Alex that someone should have heard all this much sooner. Had she shared her secrets with another person, perhaps things may have been different for her now. Nobody should have been expected to carry the weight of all this alone.
I haven’t been completely honest with you, Chloe thought, knowing she couldn’t bring herself to say the words aloud. There’s something I haven’t told you.
She sat back and closed her eyes, pushing her head back against the sofa as though trying to expel the memories that now flitted beyond her closed lids. She could sense Alex’s eyes on her, watching her.
Chloe wondered whether keeping her eyes shut tightly for long enough would eventually make the thoughts go away. Why should it? It had never worked before.
She snapped her eyes open and stood hurriedly from the sofa. She gestured to the empty coffee cup in her hand. ‘Do you want another?’
Chapter Forty-Seven
Alex returned to the station after visiting Chloe at her flat. She still felt certain the press had broken a law in publishing those images of Chloe and nothing would be more satisfying than being able to prove it. When had people stopped becoming culpable for their actions? When had it become acceptable for everyone’s private business to be made public knowledge? Alex was hell-bent on making sure the press was made answerable over their printing of those images.
But it wouldn’t change the mess Chloe had managed to get herself into by accessing those files without permission. Whatever happened next, Alex wasn’t going to let her face up to that alone.
She got herself a coffee and went to her office. The station was busier than usual that evening, with investigations into the Lola Evans and Sarah Taylor cases ongoing. In her office, Alex was able to shut out the noise of the rest of the building and submerge herself in her thoughts. There was something they were missing; something that had as yet managed to elude them.
She had barely had two minutes to herself when there was a knock at the door. DC Mason entered, carrying a notebook with him.
‘Don’t you have a home to go to, Dan?’ Alex asked.
He sat at the desk beside her. ‘I could ask you the same. Anyway, look.’ He gestured to the notebook, where a list of nine names was written: four female and five male. ‘According to Tim Cole, these are the additional names of everyone else who’d attended the support group between May and December of last year.’
Alex scanned the names: Zoe Morris, Katie Finnegan, Fiona Williams, Rebecca Marsh, Callum Davies, Christian Cooper, Joseph Black, Tom Meredith and Michael Reid.
‘Only one of them has a criminal record,’ Dan said. ‘Tom Meredith. Drink driving charges. I’ve spoken with him this afternoon – he’s got alibis for the night we think Sarah was moved from the pub, as well as the evening Lola was last seen. I’ve checked both of them out and they’re solid. He was in work.’
‘And the others?’
‘We got Tim Cole in this afternoon and asked him to identify the remaining people from their social media account profiles. We’ve accounted for seven of them. I’ve spoken with three of them today – again, they’ve all got alibis. I’ll contact the other four first thing tomorrow morning.’
Alex gave him a tired smile. ‘Thanks, Dan. You’ve done a great job.’
She was aware her focus had been distracted that day. She couldn’t allow it to happen again. It was likely their killer would find a next victim. Time was a luxury they didn’t have.
‘Which two are still unaccounted for?’ she asked.
‘Christian Cooper and Joseph Black. Neither has a criminal record and neither was identified from any social media accounts. Tim has given a description of both, but they’re pretty generic. He doesn’t seem to know much else about them.’
Alex nodded. ‘I’ll get straight on to it,’ she said. ‘Can I take this?’ She gestured to the notebook. ‘You should go home now,’ she told him. ‘Get some rest. Tomorrow’s likely to be another busy day.’
Dan stood and went to the door. ‘See you tomorrow. And try to take your own advice.’
Alex sighed and sat back in her chair. There were things that were bothering her, some similarities between the two victims they were unable to ignore. Both were of a similar age: Lola, twenty; Sarah, twenty-four. Both were attractive. Yet there was no evidence of any sexual assault on either of the victims. If the killer’s motive wasn’t sexual, why had he chosen these particular women? Why had he made them suffer in such precise and horrific ways?