Where the Memories Lie

 

‘What did the rest of the family think when they heard Katie had run away?’ DI Spencer took a sip of coffee.

 

195

 

Sibel Hodge

 

I stared into my drink, trying to remember. ‘Well, Nadia wasn’t there that night when I got back, I don’t think. She was probably with Lucas. And I don’t remember seeing Tom, either. I stayed at their house that night but Ethan and I were watching a film or something in his bedroom, and I don’t think I saw Tom until the next morning when Ethan and I got up for uni.’ What an awful friend I was. I’d been watching TV or having sex with Ethan while she’d probably been dying.

 

‘What happened as the time went on and Katie didn’t come back? How did Tom and Chris react?’ DI Spencer finished his coffee and placed the cup in a circular holder between the front seats.

 

‘Chris was just really upset all the time and kept wanting to talk to me about it because I was her friend. He said he felt guilty.

 

That it was his fault she’d run off. It took him a long time to get over Katie. Even though he was the one who ended things with her, he was clearly still in love with her. I think it took about four years for him to start seeing Abby ? that was who he married, eventually.

 

Tom . . .’ I shrugged. ‘I don’t really remember. I don’t remember him saying very much about it, although Ethan thinks Tom was happy they’d split up.’

 

‘We’ve just spoken to Lucas but he doesn’t remember anything helpful. We’ll need to speak to Ethan again, although he wasn’t answering his mobile phone earlier.’

 

‘No, he’s off walking somewhere again. He’s very upset about everything that’s happened.’

 

‘I appreciated this is very raw for you all.’ DI Spencer was silent for a moment. He glanced at a seagull that landed briefly on the side mirror before flying off again with a piercing screech. ‘Did Tom pressure Chris to end his relationship with her?’

 

‘I don’t think so.’

 

‘Do you think Tom was having an affair with Katie?’ DS Khan asked.

 

196

 

Where the Memories Lie I swallowed back the lump in my throat. ‘It’s possible.’

 

There was silence for a moment before DS Khan asked, ‘Do you have any other ideas of who could be the father of Katie’s baby?’

 

I stared out of the window again. That was the million-dollar question, wasn’t it?

 

197

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Twenty-Two

 

 

I was torn between going to Chris’s and asking him again whether he’d slept with Katie and going home for Anna. Anna was my priority. He’d already told me twice he hadn’t slept with Katie in the seven months after they’d split up, which meant he couldn’t be the father ? even if his sperm had started out life as Olympic swimmers ? so there was no point asking again. But Tom?

 

Was it really possible he’d got her pregnant? Was Katie using that as leverage to get money from him? Had she, in fact, planned the pregnancy to trap one of them all along? When it didn’t work with Chris because he was infertile, she tried to sleep with Ethan, and when that didn’t work, either, because he turned her down, had she then resorted to Tom?

 

I had always defended her over the years, but had Katie been more conniving and sly than I’d ever realised before?

 

When I got to the barn, it looked like Anna hadn’t budged from the TV all day. An empty bowl sat on the floor by her feet with the remnants of one of those packet cheesy pasta dishes that take five minutes in the microwave.

 

‘It stinks in here.’ I opened the French doors that faced the front garden to let in some air. I was about to tell her off for not putting Where the Memories Lie the bowl in the dishwasher but had second thoughts. I didn’t want to upset her and start off a crying fit again. I picked up the bowl, along with an empty glass of orange juice.

 

She turned the TV off with the remote control and looked at me, her mouth turned down in a serious expression. ‘Do you believe in reincarnation?’

 

‘No.’