Where the Memories Lie
By: Sibel Hodge
‘First of all she said, “If he thinks I’m going to fuck him again, he can fuck off.” Which I thought meant at the time she was talking about Chris. And then she said, “I’ve got something he wants and I’m going to make him pay”.’
‘You just happened to remember that, word for word, all this time later?’ DS Khan looked up from her note-taking and raised her eyebrows.
‘Well, I thought about it a lot at the time because I felt so guilty afterwards that I wasn’t there for her more. I think it was etched into my brain and must’ve just needed a nudge to resurface again.’
‘So, it’s possible she meant she’d stolen something from Tom?’
DI Spencer tapped the table lightly.
‘Yes, I suppose.’
‘Who’s Lucas?’ DS Khan asked, pen poised.
‘My husband.
‘So if Katie was here at the house a lot when she was going out with Chris, did Tom have much to do with her?’ DI Spencer looked round the table.
‘Well, we weren’t living here when Katie . . . um . . . left,’ Nadia said. ‘We lived in another house on the other side of the village. This barn came up for sale and Dad was renovating it around that time.’
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‘So the garage was built at the same time he was renovating the barn?’ DS Khan asked.
‘Yes,’ Ethan said.
‘Who would have had access to the garage when it was being built?’
Ethan shrugged. ‘Dad and Chris. Other builders and contrac-tors working for Tate Construction. But the site wasn’t secured while they were working on it. At the weekends or evenings when no one was around, anyone could’ve just walked in.’
‘But in order to hide a body under the floor of the garage, it would have to have been someone who was involved in the renova-tion?’ DI Spencer asked, although it was more of a statement than a question.
Ethan stared at a spot above DI Spencer’s head. ‘I suppose so, yes. I’m the company architect, but I wasn’t working there then.
I was at university, getting my architecture degree.’
‘So you don’t remember which employees would’ve been here?’
‘No.’
‘I was working for Tate Construction at that time, in their offices,’ Nadia said. ‘But I just dealt with the accounts then.
I didn’t have anything to do with which employee was working on which site.’
DI Spencer crossed one leg over the other and sat back. ‘Did Katie and Tom get on with each other?’
Nadia shook her head. ‘I never noticed anything strange between them, although I don’t think he approved of her. He thought Chris could do better, but he never said anything bad about her to me.’
‘Dad didn’t like her,’ Ethan muttered quietly.
DI Spencer tilted his head. ‘Pardon?’
‘Dad didn’t like Katie,’ he repeated. ‘He thought she was trashy.
He was glad when Chris saw sense and dumped her.’
‘He said that?’
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Where the Memories Lie ‘No. Not in so many words. But I thought it was obvious.’
‘Did Tom and Jack have much to do with each other?’ DS
Khan asked.
‘What? No way.’ Ethan frowned. ‘He thought Jack and Rose were even trashier.’
‘How was Katie’s state of mind before she disappeared?’ DI Spencer asked me. ‘Was she angry, happy, depressed?’
‘I’m not sure.’
‘You were her best friend, weren’t you?’
I thought about how she’d changed her appearance following her break-up with Chris. How she’d avoided me and confined herself to her house. A house she usually hated with vehemence. Analysing it now, it was entirely possible she was suffering from depression.
‘Yes, but I hadn’t really seen her much for the six months before she left so I don’t know for certain. But now I think maybe she was depressed. The only thing I really know for certain is that she hated her parents and they didn’t get on, and apparently they wanted her to leave home, anyway.’
DS Khan made more notes.
‘When was the last time you saw her?’ DI Spencer asked Nadia.
‘I don’t know. I wasn’t friends with her. Probably when Chris was still going out with her.’
‘How about you?’ he asked Ethan.