Where the Memories Lie

 

Maybe it’s not a good trait, but I am pretty nosy. And that was what spurred on my curiosity about what could’ve been in the papers to do with this missing woman that would make Tom ‘remember’ it so well and become so agitated by it.

 

Anna had also left the laptop on. It was the family laptop, although really it belonged to me and her. Ethan had his own. I was still worried about her having complete freedom to trawl the web for anything. Still worried about paedophiles grooming innocent girls.

 

Even though I’d had to cave in recently and let her have her own Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat accounts, at least sharing a laptop meant I could monitor her online usage and make sure she was safe.

 

I opened it up and sat on the sofa, knees tucked to the side, resting it on my thighs. I supposed Georgia wasn’t a very common name, but I didn’t have a surname to go on so I wasn’t expecting much, but I at least had to look.

 

I typed in Georgia and missing person. I got pages and pages of hits. Of course. Most of them had no relation to what I was looking for. There had to be millions of missing people in the world.

 

I needed to narrow it down somehow.

 

Georgia, missing person, Dorset.

 

That still resulted in several pages and I started scrolling through. There was a missing persons page on Dorset Police’s website, asking if the public knew the whereabouts of certain people.

 

I checked each name but there was no Georgia. There was a story on the Dorset Chronicle’s website dated ten years ago about the body of a murdered young woman called Georgia Preston found in some woodlands, and her boyfriend had been convicted of the crime.

 

How awful. Was that what Tom remembered? Had there been something in the paper recently giving an update on the case? Yes, that was the most likely scenario.

 

28

 

Where the Memories Lie I chewed on my bottom lip, searching for any more recent articles about the case but couldn’t find any. The rest of the pages didn’t relate to anything relevant so I called Nadia.

 

She answered on the second ring, as if she’d been waiting for the phone. ‘Lucas?’

 

‘Sorry to disappoint you. It’s just me.’

 

‘I was expecting him to call hours ago. I hope he’s not otherwise engaged !’ Her voice rose with a bitter edge.

 

‘Are you sure you can handle this without confronting him about it? I mean, you’re going to be a nervous wreck every time he’s late or misses a phone call or gets a text. If I was in the same situation, I’d want to know for certain.’

 

‘Well, I don’t want to know,’ she said, slightly offishly.

 

‘OK, I’m sorry. It’s your marriage, your decision.’

 

‘Yes.’

 

‘I’m not going to mention it again, but if you want to talk, you can call anytime. You know that, right?’

 

‘Thanks.’ She warmed up. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how worrying and hurtful this was for her to deal with. ‘Well, I’m waiting for him to call so . . .’

 

‘Oh, yes. Um . . . has Tom mentioned anything to you recently about someone called Georgia Preston?’

 

‘No. Never heard of her. Why?’

 

I paused for a moment. There was nothing to tell her, after all.

 

I didn’t even know now why I’d called her. It was perfectly obvi-ous that the story I’d read must’ve been what Tom was getting confused about.

 

‘I think there’s a Georgia in Charlotte’s class, though,’ she added.

 

My heart rate kicked up a notch. ‘Is there? Is she still up? Can I talk to her for a minute?’

 

‘Hang on a sec. She’ll never hear me over that racket!’ I could hear bouncy music in the background. ‘Why are you asking, anyway?’

 

29

 

Sibel Hodge

 

‘Oh, no reason, really. Just being nosy – you know me.’

 

‘Don’t keep her long. I want her in bed soon. She’s been so busy cramming for her exams, and what with that virus thing she still can’t seem to shake, she’s wiped out.’

 

‘I thought she looked exhausted and pale.’