Pip:
What time did you leave the pub? Was this the King’s Head?
Joanna:
Yes. I think we all left just before eleven. Everyone was tired and it felt wrong staying out too late enjoying ourselves, after the memorial. The Lowes live in Prestwood, as you know, but the Morgans are out in Beaconsfield and, as Arthur says, I’m terrible for chatting, so I didn’t get back until quarter past twelve at least. Connor and Arthur were there, in bed. But no Jamie. I texted him before I went to sleep. Look, I’ll read out what I said. Going to bed now, sweetie, will you be home soon? xx That was at 12:36. Look. It never delivered. It hasn’t gone through.
Pip:
It still hasn’t gone through?
Joanna:
No. That’s bad isn’t it? His phone is still off and it must have already been off before 12:36 . . . or something, something bad . . .
Pip:
Please don’t get upset, Joanna. OK, let’s stop there.
Pip:
Recording. You need to stop chewing your nails though, the mike’s picking it up.
Connor:
Sorry.
Pip:
So I wanted to focus on that comment you made earlier, that Jamie had been acting strangely the last few weeks. Short-tempered and distant. Can you give me specific instances and dates?
Connor:
Yeah, I’ll try. It’s been the last couple of months, really, that Jamie’s mood has seemed kind of erratic. He was fine, just normal Jamie, and then at the start of March he seemed really miserable and quiet, would hardly talk to anyone. A ‘black cloud hanging over him’, to use my mum’s words.
Pip:
Your mum seems to think Jamie was upset when Nat da Silva got a new boyfriend, as they’d been getting so close. Could that have explained Jamie’s mood then?
Connor:
Yeah maybe, that probably matches up timewise. So he was like that a couple of weeks and then, suddenly, he was OK again, smiling and joking, spending a lot of time on his phone. We have a ‘no phones with Netflix’ rule, otherwise Mum just goes on Facebook and we have to rewind when she misses stuff. But I noticed Jamie was always on his, and not just on Reddit, it looked like he was typing, talking to someone.
Pip:
And he seemed in a good mood during this period?
Connor:
Yeah definitely. For like a week and a half, he was on really good form: chatty, smiley. Normal Jamie. And then it switched back again, just as suddenly. I know exactly which day it was, because we all went to see the new Tomb Raider film, which was the 30th March. Before we left, Jamie comes out of his room and says he’s not coming, and I could tell from his voice he was trying not to cry. But my dad told him he had to because we’d already bought the tickets. They got into a bit of a row about it, and in the end Jamie did come. I sat next to him, could see him crying during the film. He didn’t think anyone could see, because it was dark.
Pip:
Do you know what made him so upset?
Connor:
No idea. He carried on like that for a few days, locking himself in his room, straight after work. I asked him if he was OK one night, and he just said, ‘Yeah, fine,’ though we both knew he wasn’t. Jamie and me, we’ve always told each other everything. Everything. Up until recently. I don’t know what happened to us.
Pip:
And after those few days?
Connor:
Well, then he kind of went back to normal. He seemed happy, not like happy happy, but better than before. And on his phone the whole time. I just wanted us to be close again, to play around like we always used to, so one day when he was typing away on his phone, a few weeks ago, I ran past and grabbed it, saying, ‘Who’re you texting then?’ It’s just a joke, he always does it to me. But Jamie didn’t take it like that. He snapped. Pushed me up against the wall until I dropped the phone. I was never going to actually look at it, it was just a joke. But when he had me up against the wall like that, it . . . it didn’t feel like my brother any more. He said sorry afterwards, said something about privacy, but it was . . . you know, it felt wrong. And I’ve heard him, up really late on the phone. In fact, almost every night the last two weeks or so. And a couple of times over the last week or so, I’ve heard him sneak out of his room once Mum and Dad have gone to bed. Don’t know where he goes. He did that last week, on his birthday night. I heard him sneak out before midnight. I waited up, listening. He came back in around two and when I mentioned it the next morning he said I must’ve been hearing things. And I woke up randomly at three a.m. Monday night this week; I’m pretty sure it was him sneaking back in that woke me.
Pip:
I see.
Connor:
But this is not normal Jamie. You know him, Pip, he’s usually so easy-going, calm. And now his mood is suddenly up and down. Keeping secrets, sneaking out. Getting angry. Something’s wrong, I just know it. My mum showed you the text, right? She sent it to Jamie around half twelve last night and it’s still not delivered. His phone’s been off since before then. Or broken.
Pip:
Or out of battery?
Connor:
No. It was on almost full-charge. I know because when we were in the car, I asked Jamie the time and he showed me his screen. He was on eighty-eight percent or something. It’s a newish phone, it wouldn’t die that quickly. And why would he turn it off when he was out and about? Doesn’t make sense.
Pip:
Yes, the text not delivering at that time certainly is significant.
Connor:
What do you think it means?
Pip:
I can’t speculate until I know more.
Connor:
It means he’s in trouble, doesn’t it? You just don’t want to say. That someone’s hurt him. Or taken him?
Pip:
Connor, we don’t know anything yet. I’m not ruling anything out, but we can’t settle on conclusions without any evidence, that’s not how this works. Let’s move on to yesterday. Can you talk me through your day, your interactions with Jamie? Anything significant?
Connor:
Um.
Pip:
What?
Connor:
Well, there was something.
Pip:
Connor . . . ?
Connor:
You won’t tell my mum, will you?
Pip:
Remember what you asked of me? This will go out to hundreds of thousands of people. Your mum is going to hear it, so whatever it is, you need to tell me and then you need to tell her.
Connor:
Shit, yeah. It’s just . . . OK, so Jamie and my mum, they get on really well. They always have done. I guess you might call him a mama’s boy; they just click. But Jamie and Dad have a tricky relationship. Jamie’s said to me before that he thinks Dad hates him, that Dad’s constantly disappointed by him. They don’t really talk anything through, they just let things build up until they occasionally explode into big arguments. And then once that’s done and the awkwardness has gone, they go back to normal and the cycle resets. Well . . . they had one of their big arguments – yesterday.