AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Nearly thirty years?’ Jennie frowns as she scans the top page of the financials. ‘You’re sure about that?’
Naomi nods. ‘I’ve double-checked it. It’s weird, right?’
‘It’s certainly curious,’ says Jennie. Especially when Elliott said he didn’t see Simon much any more. ‘Thanks, Naomi. I’ll take a look.’
‘We should get going,’ Zuri announces, standing up from her desk and pulling her jacket off the back of the chair.
Jennie glances at her watch; it’s just gone 8.30. She puts Elliott Naylor’s bank statements into the file for later, then gets up and grabs her bag. ‘Okay, let’s go.’
As they walk towards the lift, DS Martin Wright emerges through the door from the stairwell. He’s supposed to start work at eight o’clock.
‘Nice of you to join us,’ says Zuri, sarcastically. ‘I’ve left a note on your desk; can you follow up on the janitor?’
Martin ignores Zuri and instead fixes Jennie with a charming smile. ‘Sorry I’m late; the baby’s teething and Matilda was having one of her pre-nursery tantrums. I couldn’t run out and leave Kath to deal with it all.’
‘Okay, see you later,’ says Jennie, following Zuri into the lift. As they start to descend, she turns to Zuri. ‘What’s going on with you and Martin?’
‘Nothing,’ says Zuri, quickly.
Jennie raises an eyebrow. ‘The two of you have been at loggerheads for weeks, months, now. Something must be going on?’
‘It’s …’ Zuri shakes her head. Sighs. ‘It’s nothing. He’s just … Martin, you know?’
Jennie nods, but she doesn’t know, not really. She needs to focus on Hannah’s murder investigation right now, but she adds the issue between Zuri and Martin to her list of things to get onto once this case is finished. She needs her detectives to be working well together, not barely tolerating each other’s presence. Once Hannah’s murderer is caught, she will get to the bottom of whatever’s going on.
Chapter 18
Upper Heydon is four miles from White Cross, but the rush-hour traffic makes the journey take more than three times longer than it should. They pull into the driveway of Hermit’s Rest just after nine o’clock and wait, the engine idling, for the automatic wooden gate to open.
‘Nice place,’ says Zuri as the gate slowly opens giving a first glimpse of the huge imposing mock-Georgian mansion beyond.
‘Yeah,’ says Jennie. She’d known at school that Lottie’s family had money; after all, Lottie was always splashing the cash and paying for stuff. But she’d never realised quite how wealthy she was. Places in Upper Heydon don’t come cheap, and Hermit’s Rest must have at least five or six bedrooms, plus there’s a tennis court off to the side and what looks like stables beyond. The place must be worth millions. ‘Very nice.’
They park in front of the detached double garage and walk across the gravel to the front porch. Hermit’s Rest is a huge red-brick mansion, with a square-fronted portico supported by four white pillars forming the entrance. Twin bay trees with fairy lights adorning them sit on either side of the stone steps leading to the black gloss front door. Ignoring the heavy iron door knocker, Jennie presses the Ring doorbell and steps back, waiting.
It takes Lottie more than two minutes to answer the door, even though they’re late and the automatic gate opening must have let her know when they arrived. Still, she pulls open the door without apology and ushers them through into the kitchen, offering tea, coffee and a range of chilled soft drinks. It takes a few minutes of buzzing around for Lottie to fetch the drinks and settle down at the kitchen table with them. Jennie takes the opportunity to scan the room. It’s a large kitchen diner, with a huge island in the middle, a massive gas range cooker and an American-style fridge with an ice-maker in the door. It looks like the sort of room you’d see in a magazine, all marble countertops, two-tone cabinets and Farrow and Ball paint. The kitchen table is solid oak with ten seats around it. Jennie tries, unsuccessfully, not to compare the space to her recently inherited, mould-smelling kitchen.
‘So how can I help?’ asks Lottie, sitting down opposite Jennie. Her expression is keen, her eyes overly bright. ‘I want to do whatever I can to help you find who did this. Hannah was my best friend. It’s just so awful to think that someone killed her and hid her body away all these years.’
‘It would be really helpful if you could talk us through what happened in the weeks leading up to Hannah’s disappearance back in 1994,’ says Zuri, getting out her notebook and opening it up on the table in front of her.
‘Oh, well, okay, if you need me to.’ Lottie smiles and glances at Jennie.
Jennie nods. She agreed on the way here that Zuri should take the lead on this interview. She didn’t tell her it was because Lottie might think it weird if the types of questions they need to ask came from her. ‘Please, go ahead.’
‘Okay.’ Lottie takes a deep breath. ‘I’d been friends with Hannah a long time; she was my best friend from primary all through school to sixth form. We were inseparable; anyone we were at school with will tell you that.’ Lottie looks at Jennie then back to Zuri. ‘Hannah was always the life and soul of the party, larger-than-life, you know the kind of person? But she hadn’t been acting herself in the weeks before she disappeared. Something was off.’
Zuri makes a note, then leans closer across the table. ‘What sort of thing?’
‘I’m not a hundred per cent sure, really.’ Lottie looks thoughtful. ‘Hannah was always super easy-going. She was kind of carefree and adventurous, always looking for a new experience, but in the weeks before she went missing, she started seeming kind of secretive, withdrawn almost.’
‘Why do you think that was?’ asks Zuri.
‘I don’t know.’ Lottie looks down at her hands. She clasps them together. ‘I’ve been so angry with her for all these years. After the investigation back then decided she was a runaway I assumed she’d been planning to leave White Cross for a few weeks and that’s why she distanced herself from me and the rest of her friends. I was hurt that she didn’t tell me she was going, or ask me to go with her, but now … now I find out she didn’t leave, she was at the school all this time and I never even knew …’ Lottie sniffs loudly and reaches for a tissue from the box on the countertop.
‘It must be hard,’ says Zuri, sympathetically. ‘Please take your time.’
Lottie dabs at her eyes with the tissue. She looks at Jennie. ‘It’s been a lot to process, you know?’
