Nick parked in the car park marked ‘Staff Only’ and waited for Louise, the young teacher David had been close to, to emerge. It was 3.40 p.m., in ten minutes’ time the peace of the deserted grounds would be shattered by the gaggle of students who would burst forth, freed from the last lesson of the day.
He lowered the car window, breathed in the damp autumnal air and tried to ignore the dull pain in his abdomen which had started the night before. He had found Louise Hayes on LinkedIn. With shoulder-length blonde hair and green eyes, he’d put her in her late twenties, thirty at a push, more than a decade younger than Caitlin. She wasn’t conventionally attractive, but that meant nothing. There was no knowing what it was that attracted people to one another.
Inside the building a bell sounded, not the typical buzz that he associated with the end of lessons in his own school days, but a series of three notes that rose in pitch. Minutes later, a side door opened, and students began to spill out and diverge in two directions: one set making towards the gates through which he’d entered the car park; the other set drifting round the side of the building where another exit must lie. The main glass doors were obviously reserved for staff members only.
Nick sat in his car and watched the main entrance. The first person to emerge was a man in his twenties. He was dressed conservatively and carried a leather satchel. Teachers were getting younger, he thought, as the man approached and got into a black Volkswagen nearby. Two women were next to emerge, both dark-haired, laughing as they exited the car park on foot in the wake of their yelling students. Still there was no sign of Louise Hayes.
Twenty minutes passed, and the grounds fell silent again. He didn’t know what the protocol was for teachers – he knew they often had free periods between classes, but he didn’t know if that permitted them to leave early if their teaching duties had finished. He was considering giving up when the doors opened again, and he saw her come out. She was struggling with a large box. The handbag on her shoulder kept slipping to her elbow and she’d stop and balance the box on one knee as she tried to raise the strap of the bag again. Nick waited until he saw the indicator lights flash on a small red car parked opposite before getting out of his car.
‘Do you need some help there?’
She’d stopped again to juggle both box and bag. She turned to him, surprised. ‘No, I’m okay thanks.’
‘Are you Louise, Louise Hayes?’
She bent to put the box on the ground without taking her eyes from him. He saw her throw a quick glance at the main entrance, but there wasn’t anyone else around. He supposed she was startled, a strange man approaching her in the school car park, but she stood her ground. ‘Do I know you?’ she asked.
‘No. I’m a private investigator,’ he said. ‘I believe you were friends with David Casey?’
‘We were colleagues, yes. Why?’ She opened the passenger door of her car, stooped and juggled the heavy box onto the seat.
He figured she did it so she wouldn’t have to meet his eyes.
‘I was informed that you and David were close. Good friends. We’ve received some information that might shed some new light on the case and it’s important that we talk to everyone who knew him. I know you’ve probably gone through all this before, but if I could just go over a few things with you, it might really help.’
‘Who’s “we”?’ she asked.
‘I’m liaising with the police,’ he said.
She slammed the car door shut. ‘Does it have to be now?’ she said. ‘I have to be somewhere.’
Nick nodded. ‘I’m sorry, I’d have called you if I’d had a number. It won’t take long. If we could maybe go somewhere to talk?’
‘Where did you get my name?’ she asked.
‘A friend of David’s – Andy Quinn – he said that David had told him about you.’ He let the words hang, saw her glance towards the building again.
‘We could use one of the classrooms,’ she said. ‘But I can’t stay long.’
‘I won’t keep you, just a few minutes.’
She locked the car, and he fell into step beside her as they crossed the car park to the brightly lit foyer.
‘What did you say your name was?’
‘Nick. Nick Drake,’ he said.
‘Like the singer,’ she said.
‘Ha, yeah, I get that a lot. Thought you’d be too young to know.’
He followed her down the corridor and was disappointed to see that school buildings were just as depressing as ever – so cold with their brick walls and tiled floors. A cabinet in the corridor displayed trophies won by the school sports teams down through the years. Framed photos captured images of past students as far back as what he imagined was the 1980s – long before Louise would have started teaching. She might even have been one of those awkward teens caught in the lens.
She led him through a set of double doors then swung right into a classroom. She hit a switch on the wall and several fluorescent lights flickered to dispel the gloom. She closed the door, pulled out a chair at the teacher’s desk and indicated for him to sit opposite. He felt, momentarily, like a schoolboy again.
‘Who do you work for?’ she asked.
He gave her the name of an agency he’d found, figuring she’d never check, and told her that David’s wife had hired him. She nodded, seemingly satisfied. She didn’t even ask to see an ID. It’s the first thing he would have done, but again, what would it really prove? IDs could be faked too.
‘What’s this information then?’ she asked.
‘What?’
‘You said you had new information, a breakthrough?’ She was sitting forward in her seat, eager now to hear what he had to say.
‘I’m sorry, I can’t say,’ he told her. ‘It may be nothing.’
She nodded. He wondered if the police had spoken to her before, and whether Andy Quinn had told them what he’d told Nick. Or if he’d kept silent for Caitlin’s sake. If he spilled something like that to the police, surely Caitlin would know about Louise.
‘Have you ever met Andy Quinn?’ he asked.
The young teacher shook her head.
‘He said that you and David spent a lot of time together …’
‘We hung out some – we were good friends.’
‘According to David you were more than friends.’
‘That’s not true. David wouldn’t have said that.’ She stood up, agitated, and cast a glance at the closed classroom door. He wondered for a moment if she was going to bolt. He’d definitely touched a nerve.
‘Why not? Because he was married? Because he wouldn’t want people to find out? His wife, for instance?’
‘It wasn’t like that,’ she said.
‘Really? Then why would David have told his friend about you?’
‘I don’t know. I suppose he mentioned me, like people do. It’s not unusual, is it? Nothing happened between us. Like you say, he was married.’
‘And what about you, Louise? Were you in a relationship at the time? Or were you simply waiting, hoping that David would leave his wife for you?’
‘I don’t have to listen to this. What has this got to do with finding David? This is just bullshit.’
Nick kept his voice even. ‘Louise, I’m not here to judge anyone – and frankly, I don’t care what you did or didn’t do with David Casey. My job is to find out what happened to him, and I imagine that, as his friend, that’s what you want too.’
She paced before him, hands in the pockets of her smock dress. ‘I don’t know what I can tell you that would be of any help.’
‘Do you know Caitlin Davis? David’s wife.’
She stopped pacing. ‘No. Why?’
‘You never met her … at a work do, anything like that?’
She thought for a moment. ‘I saw her once, yeah, but I didn’t talk to her.’
‘And did David ever talk about his marriage? Would you have known if there were any difficulties there?’
‘Why don’t you ask Andy whatever-his-name-is? He seems to have plenty to say about David’s private life.’
‘Maybe, but he got it wrong, didn’t he?’
She didn’t answer, just stared defiantly past him, then made a thing of looking at her watch despite the clock on the wall in front of her. ‘Look, Mr Drake, I told you I didn’t have long. Is there anything you want to ask me that’s going to be of any use here?’
Nick sighed. ‘Louise, you haven’t been straight with me. To tell you the truth, I haven’t exactly been straight with you either.’
She fiddled with the strap of her bag, wary. ‘What do you mean?’ she said.
‘We know that you and David were involved. What I need to know is who else might have known about the two of you. Is there anyone, apart from Caitlin obviously, who might have found out – a boyfriend, for example? Someone who might have done something …?’
She seemed to pale before him. ‘You’re wrong,’ she said. ‘David and I were just friends.’
‘Your text messages would suggest otherwise,’ he said.
‘You found his phone?’ She continued to play with the bag, refusing to meet his eye. He didn’t confirm or deny it. ‘Nothing happened between us,’ she said. ‘He was married; I had a boyfriend. It was just banter … flirtation, nothing more.’
‘And your boyfriend, did he know about this banter?’
She shook her head. ‘That was already falling apart. We’re not together anymore. But it had nothing to do with David. It just fizzled out. You know how it is.’
‘How did he take it?’
She shrugged. ‘He couldn’t understand. Kept asking me why.’
‘Do you think someone might have told him about David? Maybe someone who’d seen the two of you together? Even if you weren’t doing anything, a jealous boyfriend mightn’t see it that way. Someone who’s just been dumped may go to great lengths to find the reason.’
Louise shook her head. ‘It didn’t happen like that. David was already gone. I kept ringing and not getting any answer. He didn’t show up at work, and then the police came … said David’s car had been found, that he’d been reported missing. I couldn’t handle it. Aaron kept asking what was wrong … he kept hounding me – it got too much.’
‘So, you finished it?’
‘Yeah, it was going to end one way or the other. But none of this, nothing I’ve told you, has made any difference, has it? You’re no closer to finding David. He’s not going to be found – he’s dead, isn’t he?’
‘I’m afraid I can’t say. We’re following some leads, but we can’t release any information to the public, not yet.’
‘But his phone, where did his phone turn up?’ she asked.
‘I’m sorry, Louise. I’ve said more than I should have. You’ve been very helpful. I know it isn’t easy. I’d best let you get on. Oh, just one thing, if you wouldn’t mind giving me your number, I’ll call you if we have any news.’
She called out her number, and Nick punched it into his phone. Then he stood up, moved towards the door and gestured for her to do the same.
He watched Louise get into the red car, pretending to search for something on the passenger seat, and waited until she’d reversed out of the parking space and exited the school gates before starting his own car. He’d done well to guess about the text messages – it was a gamble, but he knew that if they had been seeing each other they’d have left a trail. It didn’t matter that they hadn’t acted on their feelings for each other; the intention had been there. He wondered how much, if anything, Caitlin Davis knew about her husband’s indiscretion.