Where the Memories Lie

 

 

‘Something?’ He tilted his head in a question.

 

‘Something about a runaway you dealt with a long time ago.’

 

‘You mean Katie Quinn? I remember talking to you at the time.’

 

‘Do you?’ A spark of hope ignited. ‘Do you remember the goodbye letter she wrote, by any chance?’

 

His gaze drifted into the distance somewhere above my head, thinking. He was silent for a while before finally saying, ‘Why don’t you come in?’

 

His house was small and neat and tidy. Definitely male-oriented, with dark grey and brown and navy accent colours.

 

I perched on the edge of the grey velour sofa as he sank into an armchair opposite that had a nice view of a back garden equally as beautiful as the front.

 

Tom would love it.

 

But Tom was the reason I was there.

 

‘So, you want to know about the letter Katie left?’

 

I nodded.

 

‘Do you know how many people run away each year?’

 

‘No.’ I played it vague, not wanting to give away that I’d been Googling like mad.

 

‘Hundreds of thousands. People go missing all the time. Especial y youngsters.’

 

‘Right. But you saw the letter, didn’t you? And you were satisfied that Katie had written it and it wasn’t a fake.’

 

‘A fake?’ He eyed me calmly.

 

‘Yes. I mean, did you compare the handwriting with something else of hers?’

 

‘Yes, I did. I even took it to our handwriting analysis officer, who told me it was a match.’

 

‘Oh. Did you ever manage to find out where she’d gone when she left?’

 

107

 

Sibel Hodge

 

‘No, I didn’t.’ He hesitated for a moment, his eyes searching mine with something that looked like expectation. ‘I remember you kept asking me at the time if I’d heard anything ? every few months or so for a long time.

 

I was suddenly an eighteen-year-old again, sitting in this very room, which was then his police office, asking if he’d had any updates about Katie’s whereabouts. I’d been hoping one day to get a letter from her, telling me all about her new life, but it never came. One half of me had felt like I should try to find her, although I didn’t have a clue how to go about it. If PC Cook couldn’t find her, then how could I? As the time wore on, I felt angry and hurt that she’d just upped and left without even a goodbye. We had been close. Like sisters for a long time. But not as close as I’d thought.

 

I’d felt betrayed in the end, and so I’d stopped asking him. Stopped thinking about her.

 

‘Why are you asking now, after all this time?’ His voice jerked me back to the present.

 

I couldn’t explain the real reason – that my father-in-law had admitted to killing and burying her somewhere. Not yet. Not until I was certain she was really missing. So far it could all be some great big coincidence that I couldn’t find any trace of her.

 

He cocked his head slightly, waiting for me to say something.

 

‘Well, I’ve just been thinking about her a lot lately. Wondering why she didn’t get in touch when she was settled wherever she went.’ It wasn’t strictly a lie. I had wondered a lot, especially in the beginning.

 

‘At first I thought she’d come back. That she’d just had a row with her parents or was trying to run away from a broken heart.’

 

‘Yes, I remember you saying that at the time.’ He leaned forward, elbows on his knees.

 

‘But don’t you think it’s weird she never got in touch with anyone in all this time?’

 

108

 

Where the Memories Lie

 

‘Are you suggesting something happened to her?’ He stared at me intently.

 

My cheeks flushed with warmth. Could he tell I was hiding something? Surely, as a policeman he was used to spotting lies.

 

‘I don’t know.’