Where the Memories Lie
By: Sibel Hodge
‘Well, you don’t just disappear without a reason, do you?
And from what I found out at the time, Katie didn’t get along with her parents, and she was running away from a troubled home life and a recent traumatic break-up with your brother-in-law, so it may not be that strange that she didn’t get in touch with anyone again. Although plenty of runaways do turn up later, some just don’t want to be found. Katie was an adult when she left. It was her choice to leave home, and I’m certain she left of her own volition. I made enquiries with the local hospitals, just in case she’d been in an accident. I searched the house and didn’t find anything that made me suspicious. I questioned Jack and Rose, and you and other people who knew her, and was satisfied there was no foul play. But I was pulled off the inquiry as soon as I established that, and there was nothing more I could do at the time.’
‘Did you keep a copy of the letter she left?’
His eyebrows pinched in an intrigued frown for a moment before he stood up. ‘Wait here.’ He disappeared out of the room.
I glanced around while I waited. There were several trophies for lawn bowling on top of the grey slate mantelpiece, along with a photo of him in his police uniform at an award ceremony, looking much younger. On the desk in the corner of the room was a laptop with a stack of hand-written notes at the side.
When he came back he handed me a clear plastic folder with a few sheets of paper inside.
‘What’s this?’
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‘It’s the notes I wrote up when Katie went missing. And a copy of her letter.’ He tilted his head towards his laptop. ‘I always intended to write a book when I left the force. I’ve got a big interest in the history of the village, and I thought it might make good reading, all the things that happened here. So I always kept personal notes on everything.’
Tears pricked at my eyes as the possibilities of what might have happened to her bombarded my thoughts. I gripped the letter and started reading.
I’m leaving this place and you can’t stop me. You know what you both did. I hope you rot in hell!
Good riddance!
That was it. No To Mum and Dad. No from Katie. It was definitely her writing, though.
I paused to gather my thoughts. Her medical notes flashed into my head. ‘What do you think she meant by “what you both did”?’
‘I asked Rose and Jack that at the time but they said it was just referring to a row they’d had the night before she left and Katie was just being melodramatic. It wasn’t an unusual occurrence for them to argue, as I remember. Rose told me the argument started because they wanted Katie out of the house now that she had a full-time job. Jack said she was lazy and they’d had enough of her attitude and it was time for her to get her own place and fend for herself.’
‘They were throwing her out?’ I asked. Why had I not heard that at the time? I put the letter on the arm of the sofa.
‘Yes.’
‘So you don’t think she was referring to . . .’ I trailed off, unable to ask if he thought Jack had been abusing her. Maybe 110
Where the Memories Lie
because I didn’t want to say it out loud. Saying the words made the possibility stronger, and if it was true, the thought of what Katie could’ve endured over the years went way beyond neglect.
He picked up the letter and read it again. ‘Referring to what?’
‘Um . . .’
‘I think I know what you’re asking, but I never found any signs of abuse going on ? just neglect. I suspected Rose and Jack liked a drink, I suppose, but they hid it well behind closed doors.
After Katie left, they didn’t really bother to hide it any longer. God knows how long they’d been alcoholics. So, you see, that’s what I think Katie meant in her letter. Her parents had neglected her.