‘Sir, we’ve found some clothes! There are a few bags here. Look like he was prepared for her – all seems like charity shop stuff but she’s been looked after. Blankets too, food and water. There’s a stable. No horses, just a stable in a field off the estate just outside St Albans. No Becky, but I’m getting Forensics down here now, going over the evidence of someone having been held here.’
Sunny’s voice is buzzing down the line. They have evidence, but they don’t have Becky. Where the hell is Becky?
‘I’ve just got off the phone with Jenny’s father!’ The excitement in Adrika’s voice is contagious.
‘Yes?’
‘Well, one of the articles that had come up was about a mother and a daughter who fell in years ago, and the mother later died. I’ve spoken to Jenny’s father: he told me that Jenny fell in, then watched her mother struggle in the lake. She died later.’
‘Where?’
‘She fell in by the waterwheel, but her mother was swept downstream to the lake – by the weeping willow. That’s why it was the same spot – it must be!’
That’s it. ‘Adrika, you are a star. If she was out there the night Leigh went missing, then she probably has no idea what she knows, or how she knows it, but I bet she has seen something. Do we know where she is now, any update?’
Adrika shakes her head. ‘No, and her husband is frantic. He’s still here – I told him to wait.’
‘Well, I’ll try the lake. If she’s been going back there, chances are she has returned. She talked about rushing water near the willow, but we couldn’t hear any. But maybe it was nearby – somewhere you can see from the willow, and still hear the bells. You stay to focus on the search for Becky. I’ll get Will Brennan. We’ll head back to where it all started.’