It Could Have Been Her(30)

“Daisy?” Dexter suggests.

Jane nods. “Yes,” she says brightly. “Maybe. Let’s just assume that it is something flowery and take it from there.”



* * *



They start at the farthest end of the terrace that leads toward Stuart Tucker’s house. Here there are three small stucco-fronted cottages in a row, each one a different shade of cream. It’s four o’clock and Jane hopes they’re in time to catch people at home after the school run or maybe working from home. Nobody comes to the door of the first house. At the second house an au pair or nanny opens the door. She has an accent and no idea about the neighbors. She tells them her boss will be home at six, but that her boss has lived in their house for only a year.

At the third cottage, a middle-aged man answers the door. He is handsome and stylish in a T-shirt and shorts, horn-rimmed glasses, and a deep suntan. He looks at Jane and Dexter curiously. “Yes?”

Dexter begins: “Sorry to bother you, but I used to have a friend who lived down here. About my age. I’m not sure which house she lived in, I can’t quite remember. But we were both at Waterside Academy. She lived somewhere up there with her mum, Jessamine.”

“Hold on,” says the man. He turns slightly and looks over his shoulder. Then he calls out, “George?”

There is no response from behind him and the man calls out again. “George? Can you come here a minute?”

“What?” a disembodied male voice calls back.

The man sighs. “Just… come.”

Jane hears a loud groan and then a second later a beautiful boy appears. Stupidly tall—why are young men all so tall these days?—with black eyes peering out from beneath a dark blond fringe.

“These people are asking about Daisy Black.”

Jane’s heart jumps in her chest and she resists the urge to share a triumphant smile with Dexter.

The boy’s face brightens, and he nods. “Oh. Yeah. Daisy! I know Daisy. She’s like”—the boy points to the left with one long finger—“down there. In the end house.”

“Is she there now, do you think?”

“I don’t know. I mean, I think so. But like, yeah, I also haven’t seen her for a while.”

“Did you used to see her?”

“Well, yeah, like every day. We went to the same primary school. She was in the year below me. And then we went to different schools after that. Didn’t see her as much, but we still hung out sometimes. We played Fortnite together. But yeah, now you say it, it’s been a while. I haven’t really seen her since lockdown. I think she might even have moved out?”

“Oh,” says Dexter, feigning disappointment.

“You could ask the guy who lives there. He might know?”

“Yeah. Right. I’ll try that. What’s his name?”

“Stuart? I think? He’s kind of like her stepdad? Or something. I can’t remember for sure. Anyway, he was, like, her primary carer. The mum was…” He squints and pulls at the back of his neck, awkwardly. “I don’t know really. Not around?”

“Is she still alive? Her mother?”

The man and the boy exchange a look, and the man sighs. “Who knows? That family”—the man shifts his glasses a little up the bridge of his nose—“was always a little strange. There were… rumors.”

The boy shifts awkwardly from one huge, socked foot to the other.

Dexter says, “I do remember her saying that things at home were difficult.”

“Well, I don’t know the ins and outs of it,” the man continues. “You want to stay clear of things like that, in a community like this. So close-knit, everyone cheek by jowl. You can go mad knowing everyone’s business. But one thing I do know is that that house is not somewhere I’d want to spend any time, and those people are not people I’d want as friends.”

“The parents?” Jane asks.

The man nods. “Well, her mother, mainly. I don’t remember ever seeing her father.”

The boy called George interjects. “Daisy liked that guy though—Stuart. I think he was the only one who really took care of her? I think they were quite close.”

Jane absorbs this unexpected observation. She had assumed that Stuart was the bad guy in relation to Daisy, the reason for her running away from home. But maybe it wasn’t that simple?

George continues. “We saw the police there a few years ago. During the first lockdown. They were there for, like, a long time. And I don’t know what it was. Daisy wouldn’t say. But, like, it felt really bad. The whole atmosphere. You know? And Daisy was—yeah, when I think about it now—she was like really different after that. Not as friendly?” George turns to Dexter. “How do you know her?” he asks.

“Oh,” Dexter replies. “We went to school together too. Waterside Academy?”

“Oh yeah. I remember. She was there till… I dunno—year eight or nine?”

“Yes.” Dexter nods. “And then she…”

“Left. Just after lockdown ended.”

Dexter nods. “That’s right. I remember that. And that’s when we lost touch.”

The boy nods too.

“Any idea,” Dexter begins, “where she might have gone? Did she know anyone? Outside London?”