Page 279 of The Silent Appeal

Roderick Tanner, KC

Hello both.

Femi Hassan

Hello Mr. Tanner. Are you well?

Roderick Tanner, KC

Very.

Charlotte Holroyd

Good to hear. Is anything wrong?

Roderick Tanner, KC

My colleague works with a family in Lockwood. He has a strange story to tell. I’ve copied and pasted below.

Hello, Rodders! Visited my Lockwood client again last week and think you’ll be amused by this little tale.

Stayed later than intended. Pitch dark and freezing when finally toddled back to car. Narrow little lane, barely noticed it in the day, streetlights few and far between and just my own footsteps for company. Know all the muggers in Lockwood personally, so why feel on edge? Like I wasn’t alone. Can’t explain it. Carried on through pools of light, swathes of darkness until finally, end of the lane in sight, eyes focused on the blessed gap when fuck me if a HUGE black shadow didn’t appear ahead.

Tried—and failed—to focus on its face, and at that very moment, it flitted across the path, solid and yet not somehow. Stopped dead in my brogues. What the…? Thinks: must be a gate or opening in the wall each side and someone just ran from one to the other. Toddled on, breath turning to mist until reached the place the figure had been. Church hall one side, vicarage the other—both in darkness. Nowhere for this thing to have come from or gone to.

But that wasn’t all. As I watched the shadow, it was as if all sound fell away until it wasn’t just the quiet of the night that surrounded me. This was a silence so profound it was as loud and disturbing as any noise.

Ran like stink ’til emerged back out on the road. Shaking like the proverbial indisposed dog. Looked back and the lane was empty. Nothing. Imagination, or something, playing tricks on me. What do you think, eh?

Francesca Elroy-Jones

c/o HMP Colney Marsh

September 1, 2026

Dear Issy,

Hope you’re well and that the Colney Marsh envelope isn’t too triggering, but I want to say something.

I didn’t understand how completely one can be consumed by one’s “need” for another person, nor how destructive that is. I know now I had no conscious hand in what happened last year, but nonetheless it was the result of how I felt in that terrible moment and I live with the consequences, as do the innocent victims I left behind. Believe me when I say they are always in my thoughts.

My parents are acting on my behalf while I’m here. Lucas and Georgia have my permission to stay in the flat and are paying rent. I understand Lucas may have to serve a custodial sentence himself when his case comes up, but Georgia and baby Celeste can stay there for as long as they want.

If I am to have any hope of forgiveness myself then I must forgive others. It was a strange affair, with Lucas and Georgia pretending to be cousins, all because Lucas couldn’t end his relationship with Amelia. Love is so strange. It changes how we see everything else—money, home, family, obligation—and changes how we behave, in shocking ways.

We have friends in common now. Femi Hassan and Charlotte Holroyd helped me as they helped you all those years ago. I didn’t meet their mentor Mr. Tanner, as he’s been unwell, but I understand he’s recovering now.

The days here are long and the nights very dark. If you can bring yourself to write to me—and I fully understand if you can’t—do let me know what’s happening at Fairways.

Forgive me if I don’t talk much about last year. I’m still processing everything and talking it through with my counselor. I need to forgive myself and that will take time, but forgiveness is one thing, forgetting is another.

With love, Fran

44a Wormsal Road

Upper Fowey

Greater Lockwood