‘I can’t comment on that yet,’ said Erika after a pause. ‘I’ve come to you straight from the results of the post-mortem.’
She could see the incredulous looks on their faces.
‘Vicky’s not dead? She’s alive?’ said Tess.
‘We’re now classing Vicky as a missing person.’
‘Missing. Have you tried tracking her phone? What about her credit cards?’ asked Tess, standing up. She moved to the kitchen and grabbed her phone, which was charging on the counter, and dialled a number. There was a moment of silence as they all watched her make the call. ‘It’s gone straight to voicemail… Vicky, it’s Tess. Where are you? Please can you call me as soon as you get this message!’ She ended the call and didn’t seem to know what to do next. She replaced the phone on its charger. ‘What are you doing about this? You’re just standing there looking at me!’
‘We’re reacting to this as fast as we can—’ started Erika.
‘Oh, well, that’s good to hear,’ said Jasper, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
‘Sir. Vicky is now a missing person, and we’ll be opening a missing persons case.’
‘And when are you planning to do that?’
‘That’s happening as we speak,’ said Erika. He shook his head and then saw Tess had started to cry. He got up and went to put his arm around her, but she swerved out from under it and crossed back to the kitchen, where she tore off a piece of kitchen towel and wiped her eyes.
‘It would really help us if you could make a list of people who Vicky knew – knows,’ said Erika. ‘Friends, work colleagues, anyone else you can think of. Was she close to anyone who worked at your restaurant?’
‘No. Vicky isn’t popular at work, due to her habit of not showing up for shifts,’ said Jasper.
‘Don’t…’ started Tess, fixing him with a hard stare.
‘Don’t. Don’t what? Speak ill of the dead? She’s not dead now, is she?’ Jasper seemed to realise that they weren’t alone, and took a deep breath. ‘I’ve always tried to help Vicky with the life she’s chosen as a sometime actress.’
‘Actor,’ corrected Tess. He shot her another stare, rolled his eyes.
‘Has Vicky gone away without telling you before?’ asked Erika.
‘Where would she go? She never has any money,’ said Jasper. ‘Tess has become this support group for her, supporting her, feeding her, lending her money. We often don’t do things because Vicky is coming too and she doesn’t have any money so we all have to go without!’ He stopped himself.
‘A day has gone by, and she’s out there, missing,’ said Tess, turning to Erika with a pleading look on her face. ‘Please do everything you can to find her… I thought I’d lost her once, I couldn’t bear to lose her again.’
18
Vicky Clarke crouched on the mattress hugging her knees to her chest. The storm raging outside had woken her, and she was scared and disorientated. It had taken a moment to remember where she was. The wind whistled and groaned and seemed to rock the house. A crash of thunder was followed by a bright flicker of lightning. The room was small, and there were no curtains. Lightning strobed again, illuminating the clouds behind the thick bars on the window. Bars on the window, she thought with a shudder. A heavy wooden wardrobe was at the base of the bed, and in the mirror, Vicky caught sight of her reflection. She looked like a scared animal, crouching on the mattress with her knees drawn up to her chest.
The ceiling creaked and something outside the door rattled. She shivered and pulled the long folds of the nightgown around her cold legs.
With another strobe of lightning, Vicky was seized with dread when she saw the high-backed chair next to the bed was empty. A cold sweat broke out between her shoulder blades. She’d gone to sleep with her backpack on the chair. Where was her backpack? Then she saw with relief that it had fallen off the arm, and now lay between the chair and the wall. There was another, long rumble, and a crash of lightning. She got up and retrieved the backpack, fumbling with the straps to get it open. She felt around inside, amongst the change of clothes she’d grabbed at the last minute, the wallet with her passport and money, her toiletry bag, and there, tucked at the bottom, was the small computer hard drive, the size of a glasses case. It was cold in her hand, and just seeing it filled her with an overwhelming fear.
There was a knock at the door, and she jumped. She pushed the hard drive back to the bottom of the backpack, and fastened the straps.