‘What do you mean? Were there witnesses?’
DCI Carter cringes, as if he regrets saying it. ‘Oh, I don’t know, Katie,’ he says. ‘Maybe not. A lot of my colleagues just thought it was her getting mixed up – with other faces she’d seen before, or at the hospital that night. It’s entirely possible there was no one there.’ He pauses. ‘But … yes, she thought there had been someone else there. Two people. A boy and a girl.’
He takes a sip of his coffee, sets it down neatly on the coaster, then centres it with his thumbs.
‘She gave us a detailed description. Said they’d seen her. She said they weren’t part of it. She said for a moment she’d thought they were going to help her. And then they disappeared.’
I think of Rachel, alone on the floor of the boathouse, looking up and seeing two faces, thinking she was going to be saved. How could anyone have done that? How could they have seen that, and done nothing? Said nothing? I shiver.
‘Did you ever find them?’
Carter gives me a sad smile, shakes his head.
‘I tried, believe me. We went through all the club members, anyone who might have been there working, or cleaning, or training. All the boats were signed in and out, in a book. We went through the lot. Not one of them fitted the description. So then we looked at anyone who’d been seen on the river that day. Anyone who was even seen nearby. At one point, I thought I’d found them.’
He pauses.
‘A group of them who’d taken a boat without signing it out. They weren’t supposed to. A girl and a boy admitted returning the boat. But they denied seeing anything. Said they’d been at the boathouse, but earlier in the day. That it had been empty when they got there, empty when they left. That they couldn’t help.’ He looks up. ‘I thought they were lying. That they’d been up to something they shouldn’t have. But I couldn’t prove it, and you can’t force people to testify. My boss wanted me to keep going, put more pressure on them. I didn’t think we needed to. We’ve got the DNA evidence, I thought. Her internal injuries. What more do we need?’ He smiles sadly. ‘I was still a bit naive about sexual offence cases back then, only just made detective. My boss always said it wouldn’t be enough. He was sorry to be proven right.’ He sighs. ‘It was a lesson for me. Juries can be … well. Rape cases. You know the challenges.’
We sit in silence for a moment.
‘Do you remember their names?’
He blinks at me.
‘The boy and the girl,’ I prompt. ‘The ones you thought were lying. Do you remember their names?’
Carter wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. ‘It was a long time ago, Katie.’
‘Was one of them called Rory?’
DCI Carter looks me in the eye. He is giving nothing away.
‘I’m not trying to get a story here,’ I say, trying to control my voice, even though I feel like shouting, slamming my hands down on the table. ‘I’m trying to work out why a girl has gone missing. Maybe even been killed. I’m trying to work out what … what might have happened to her.’
DCI Carter stares down at the table. ‘Katie, I appreciate your concern for Rachel but …’ He scratches the back of his head. ‘We’re talking here about stuff that might not even be in the case files.’
‘You’d have it, though. You’d have the names. In your notebooks. Wouldn’t you?’ I know I’m right. ‘You wouldn’t close a file on a case like that. They’d be somewhere. You know they would.’
DCI Carter shakes his head, holds his hands up. ‘Katie, I can’t help you,’ he says. ‘I’m sorry. I’ve said too much already.’
I stand up. I feel heat rising to my face. ‘Fine,’ I say.
‘Where are you going?’
‘I’m going back to Greenwich. If you’re not going to tell me, then I’ll just have to ask them myself.’
‘Katie, wait –’
I get in my car and start the engine. I pull my steering wheel round and speed out of the car park, snowflakes swirling on my windscreen. Before I pull off, I see him still at the table, turning his phone over and over in front of him.
KATIE
The pavements on Maze Hill aren’t gritted. The steps up to her house shine like icy mirrors. I bang the elegant knocker, then ring the bell. Nothing. The painted shutters in the bay window are closed, the lavender on the windowsills in grey-green hibernation. There are lumps of snow nestled on the soil inside the pot.