Where the Memories Lie

 

‘It wasn’t a burglary.’ I took a big sniff and wiped my eyes with the heel of my hands. ‘Come into the kitchen.’ I gripped her hand and pulled her behind me, introducing the new addition to the dig-up-my-best-friend party. ‘This is my sister-in-law, Nadia, Tom’s daughter. This is DI Spencer and DS Khan.’

 

Nadia looked at me, eyes wide with worry. ‘Has something happened to Ethan? Or Dad?’

 

‘Maybe you’d both like to sit down?’ DI Spencer indicated the oak dining room table in front of the French doors that led to the courtyard garden.

 

Nadia sat. I stood.

 

‘You found something, didn’t you?’ I asked.

 

DI Spencer and DS Khan exchanged a stern look.

 

‘Found what?’ Nadia frowned – just from between the eyebrows, mind you. ‘I don’t understand.’

 

139

 

Sibel Hodge

 

‘It’s OK,’ I said. ‘Whatever you’re going to tell me you can say in front of Nadia.’

 

‘I’m afraid we discovered bones consistent with a young woman buried underneath the concrete floor of your garage, Mrs Tate, just like you suspected,’ DI Spencer said, and the room swam in front of my eyes.

 

140

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Sixteen

 

 

I put my hands over my face, as if to shield myself from the reality of it. The floor seemed to wobble underneath my feet.

 

‘What?’ Nadia shrieked. ‘What do you mean?’

 

I dropped my hands limply to my sides. ‘It’s Katie,’ I told her.

 

‘Katie Quinn.’

 

‘Katie?’ She looked between Spencer, Khan and I, head going back and forth. ‘What the . . . How can she be under there?

 

She ran away.’

 

‘We can’t say who the remains belong to at this stage,’ DS Khan said. ‘Although, given Mr Tate’s confession to you, it seems most likely.’

 

‘Confession?’ Nadia said.

 

‘Who else could it be?’ I kept my eyes on DS Khan as I sat down before my legs gave out completely. Tears burned in my eyes.

 

‘The scene of crime officers and a forensic anthropologist are recovering the remains at the moment, along with any evidence they find,’ DI Spencer said.

 

The front door opened and Poppy bounded down the hallway, first coming up to me and wiggling with excitement, then turning her attention to Nadia and finally DI Spencer and DS Khan, who Sibel Hodge

 

gave a tight smile but ignored her. I called her to me absentmind-edly and stroked her head as she lay on the floor, panting.

 

My gaze met Ethan’s as he stood in the kitchen doorway. He could tell from my expression what was going on.

 

He uttered one single word loudly. ‘No!’

 

I nodded, allowing the tears to fall now, not caring. ‘Yes. She’s really there.’

 

‘How did you know?’ Nadia’s jaw dropped open.

 

‘Tom told me.’ I squeezed her hand as Ethan shook his head, his features dissolving into blankness.

 

‘He told you?’ Nadia asked again, her own eyes welling up. ‘Are you saying . . . that stuff with Georgia was just where he was getting mixed up?’

 

‘Georgia? Who’s Georgia?’ DI Spencer asked.

 

DS Khan retrieved a notebook and pen from the pocket of her mac and started taking notes. Why did she even have a mac on when it was about twenty-six degrees? Surely that alone would make her unable to judge things properly. How could she be a proper policewoman if she couldn’t even dress herself according to the weather?

 

‘Do you want to sit down?’ I said to Ethan, who glared at me in response.

 

‘So, who’s Georgia?’ DS Khan repeated.

 

Through the sniffs and tears, I started at the beginning, telling them how Tom had become agitated lately, having bad dreams, fix-ating on someone called Georgia Walker who he said was missing and that he’d killed. I said how Sergeant Downing had actually traced her to the next village of Abbotsbury and she was very much alive and well, and how we’d thought that was the end of it.

 

‘But then I went to see Tom again and he told me he wasn’t talking about killing Georgia: he was talking about Katie.’