Got into work early, Carla had written in green, and Janice was still there. She said she’d overslept. She hadn’t. I’m sure of it. She wanted to see me. She told me what had happened on the holiday, said she felt I should know. The colour then changed to black. What the bloody hell is Janice playing at? It then went back to the earlier green.
She’s given me chapter and verse of everything that happened between Lorraine and someone called Beth, and she says Lorraine is leaving Sheffield, leaving her boys, her job and Kenny to go to this woman. It worries me that if she’s told all of this to me, she’s spreading it around in general, and she’s putting Lorraine in danger. We’re supposed to be friends, for heaven’s sake! Janice knows what Kenny is like, and if he hears these rumours, he’ll do something. He’ll not let Lorraine go. I asked her who else she had told, but she said nobody. She said she only told me because she thought I might be able to talk some sense into Lorraine. I’ve got an awful feeling she only said that because she knew she’d told others, and she shouldn’t have. Now what do I do?
The entry finished there, the words had taken Carla to the blank space under the bottom line with the last word do? and Holly checked the date. The 1 May 2018. She flicked over to the next page and saw only one entry, Friday 4 May. On Saturday 5 May, Carla and Lorraine died.
The 4 May entry was much briefer than the one on the previous page, and was written in red.
I need to see Lorraine, tell her not to trust Janice. She needs to know what our so-called friend is saying, even if we don’t know who she’s saying it to. Couldn’t sleep last night for thinking about it, and I sure as hell know Lorraine needs warning. I’ll wait till after work tomorrow then we can have a bit of a chat when we’ve locked up. I can always tell Graham I needed to train her on the new machine, he’ll not query that. But I will bloody talk to her, I’m scared for her. Lorraine’s my mate and has been for a long time. I love her. I’d like her to stay alive.
Holly finished reading, wiped a recalcitrant tear from her cheek that surprised her, and heaved a huge sigh. This was the end for Carla and Lorraine. Carla never got the chance to tell Lorraine, never wrote anything else in her secret journal, and it was possible the little book would have stayed hidden in the rabbit until one day Kelly might have taken him down to have him on her bed instead of on top of the wardrobe. That would have been the point when the book was destroyed. This beautiful tome of beautiful words that must never be returned to that thug of a man.
Holly made a note on her pad of the latest entries, then took out a lacy cloth from her bag. She carefully folded it around the journal and placed it in her drawer; locked it and tested it was secure.
Tom looked up at Holly as she stood framed in his doorway.
‘Something wrong?’
She shook her head. ‘No. I’ll be fine. It’s only that I know this woman so well now, and her final entry was the day before she died. Tom, you have to bring Janice Marshall in, and lean on her.’
He looked at Holly, his forehead creased in a frown. ‘Janice Marshall? You think she’s behind some of this?’
‘Only because she’s a gossiping old fishwife. I think because she couldn’t keep her mouth shut about Lorraine and Beth, two women, possibly three have died. We need to bring her in. It’ll all become clear after the briefing, but it won’t be a short team-talk, trust me.’
The room was full. Everybody had come back in, armed with reports detailing what they had been doing, anything that had required a follow-up visit, searches that were still ongoing for Isaac West, and anything that had happened as a result of the planned work.
Tom Fowler began by thanking everyone for the efforts they had put in, and were still putting in, and promised that as soon as they had a result in the case, the ban on annual leave would be lifted. There was a ripple of applause at that news. Three of the male officers present had had to postpone holidays, and their wives were not amused.
Tom started by calling on the team members who had been organising the searches for Isaac West, and they detailed every area covered, marking them off on the oversized map on the whiteboard.
‘And there’s nothing?’ he asked at the end.
‘No sightings beyond that first CCTV on the night he went missing, sir.’
Tom nodded. ‘Anybody have any theories?’
There was silence for a moment and then one of the younger officers stood, struggling to find the courage to speak. ‘He’s still alive, sir.’
‘What makes you think that?’
‘Two things, sir, and I apologise if I’m being a bit stupid here, but the first thing is we don’t have a body, and the second thing is this search has been thorough. After that knife was found, even that little pond at the bottom end of the playing field was dredged, but nothing has been discovered. We have been in every shed on the estate, with or without owners’ permissions, and we’ve checked every public place.’
Tom silently commended the youngster for his bravery in speaking out, and gave added encouragement to him by saying, ‘So where do you think he is, PC…?’
‘Sorry, sir, it’s Ormond, Zak Ormond. Five of us were seconded to help out. And I think Isaac West is being helped. Somebody has hidden him away, and I don’t know whether it’s for his safety, or whether it’s because he’s involved up to his neck in everything that’s going on.’
Zac sat down with a thud, and everybody clapped. By that point his cheeks had changed to bright red and he wished he’d never agreed to become the spokesperson for the secondees.
‘Thank you for that, and I hope for Isaac West’s sake that you’re right about every aspect. I think you well may be. And it’s always best to get the owner’s permission to search their shed, PC Ormond,’ Tom added with a laugh.
‘Yes, sir,’ Zak Ormond said, his face turning even more fiery.
Several others gave reports on where they had been spending their time, and then Holly stood.
‘As you all know, I’ve been glued to my desk for the best part of three days. While we were doing a search of the Andrews home, Adele Shea found a journal that belonged to Carla Andrews. It was hidden, so meant for nobody’s eyes but hers, and it’s pretty obvious Graham Andrews hadn’t seen it, because he would have destroyed it. This was the book that told us about the rifle he had in his kitchen, and I have to tell you that bit of information shocked him to the core. He actually asked us if we had a Ouija board because only Carla had known about it.
‘We believe the rifle in the kitchen is the same that was used to shoot Carla and Lorraine, but at the moment we have no proof of that. According to Graham Andrews, he put it in his car boot to hand it in to Moss Way, but it was stolen before he could do that. It would be logical for him to take it to his best mate’s house and ask him to hide it, and one day we hope to show to a jury that that is what happened. Once Carla had seen it, he couldn’t hide it anywhere, in case she came across it again.’
Holly paused for a moment and turned to Tom. ‘I have a lot to tell them, DI Fowler. A lot to read to them. Can we take a comfort break, get drinks etc?’