Where the Memories Lie

 

 

‘She was looking for attention and love,’ I insisted, still defend-ing her even though the discovery of her propositioning Ethan was still raw in my mind. ‘Also, I found something else in her medical notes that could raise a red flag for possible sexual abuse.’ I told them what I’d discovered about the vaginal infections.

 

Nadia let out a horrified gasp.

 

‘Anyway, then I went to see Mr Cook, to see if he remembered what her goodbye letter said, to make sure she really wrote it. Katie put in the letter that she was leaving the village and they couldn’t stop her. She said, “You know what you both did”.’

 

DS Khan wrote that down. ‘Did the letter say anything else?’

 

‘Just that she hoped they rotted in hell.’

 

DS Khan wrote frantically in her notepad. ‘Did she ever mention her father was abusing her?’

 

‘No. Never. And, of course, there could be reasonable explana-tions for her symptoms.’

 

DI Spencer stared over my shoulder, looking deep in thought.

 

‘What was her relationship like with her parents?’

 

‘Not good. She hated them and they argued a lot.’

 

147

 

Sibel Hodge

 

‘She was a thief, too,’ Ethan butted in. ‘When she was seeing Chris, she was here at the house all the time and things kept going missing. She stole stuff from Nadia.’

 

‘Is that right?’ DS Khan asked Nadia.

 

‘Yes, I’m afraid. She took things from my room. I confronted her and she denied it but it must’ve been her.’

 

‘I was glad when Chris finished with her,’ Ethan said. ‘She was a troublemaker. She would’ve messed his head up if he’d married her.’

 

‘Rose and Jack were alcoholics, although I don’t think anyone realised how bad they were until after Katie left,’ I added, still feeling as if I had to stick up for Katie. ‘Looking back, they must’ve neglected her from an early age. I think she had to fend for herself most of the time, although she never admitted that to me. As she got older, she didn’t spend much time at home if she could help it.’

 

‘Did Katie drink, too? Or was she into drugs?’ DS Khan asked.

 

‘She liked to drink, I suppose. We both looked older than our age so we used to sneak into pubs when we were seventeen,’ I said.

 

‘But it was just usual teenage experimenting. She wasn’t like Jack and Rose or anything. And she never did drugs that I knew of.’

 

DI Spencer looked pensive. ‘Did she ever steal anything from Tom?’

 

Nadia and Ethan looked at each other and shrugged.

 

‘Not that I know of,’ Nadia said.

 

‘He never said anything if she did,’ Ethan said. ‘But it wouldn’t surprise me.’

 

A memory flashed into my head then. The last time I’d seen her. Something else she’d said to me that had seemed insignificant at the time but now it put a new slant on things. ‘Um . . . I think she might have taken something.’

 

‘What do you mean?’ Nadia turned her hands palms up in a question. ‘What did she take?’

 

148

 

Where the Memories Lie ‘I don’t know. But I just remembered something weird that she said to me the day before she supposedly ran away. We were all going to the Kings’ Arms on the Saturday night to see a band. There was Nadia, Lucas, Ethan, Tom, Chris and I going. I’d been spending a lot of time with Ethan then, and Katie hadn’t wanted to go out much because she was still upset about breaking up with Chris.

 

I went to the shop where she worked and asked if she wanted to come with us all.’ A picture of Katie in the shop swam clearly into my head, then. How she’d looked frumpy and dowdy and plain, but how her head was cocked as she spoke, her hand on her hip, her defiant body language in complete contrast to her new meek look.