Chapter 36

Calista’s call comes through at 6pm.

“Antigone, is it? Don’t ever call me at work again and mention my father.”

Her accent isn’t as polished as her profile pic. And she’s just confirmed who she is.

“Thank you for calling me back, Ms Faulks. I wasn’t sure how to get to talk to you. I’ll be more circumspect next time.”

“There won’t be a next time.”

I wait for her to hang up. She doesn’t.

Instead she sighs. “What do you know? Or want to know?”

I launch into the angle Rupert and I discussed.

“I can’t help,” she says. “My father murdered children. After the police finished sifting through his things, are you surprised I never looked for keepsakes?”

“I understand and I’m sorry to have bothered you.” I cast around for another angle before I lose her. “Is there anyone who knew him who might be willing to talk to me?”

“Only one I remember. His name is hard to forget. And don’t meet him anywhere private, if you get my drift. Tremayne Templeton. My father’s barrister.”

Round and round it goes, the implications adding to the spin. I’ve believed that Tremayne Templeton must have been the prosecuting barrister who put Milton Faulks behind bars for the abduction and murder of Alex Loxton.

But Calista said the opposite: ‘My father’s barrister.’

Meaning he defended Milton Faulks from various heinous crimes against innocent children. So what does that mean when it comes to Faulks pleading guilty to Alex’s murder?

Something to do with a trace of DNA?

If only I could barge into the police station and have a quiet five minutes with Lou-Lou.

Instead I pour myself a glass of red and log into the archive of the Echo. Because I know Faulks pleaded guilty, I haven’t trawled the reports about the discovery of the shallow grave in Woolley Wood disturbed by a fox and the forensic details that followed. I just used DNA in my keyword mix and didn’t find any ‘confusion’ when I skimmed.

Now I dig.

At 11pm, I find it.

The headline doesn’t give anything away.

Shallow Grave found in Woolley Wood

A woman walking her dog on Wednesday morning was shocked to find disturbed ground where a deceased pet had been recently laid to rest.

‘We’ve walked past the little grave with the home-made headstone for a few weeks,’ Kaye, a local dog-walker, told the Echo. ‘Hildegarde my poodle always wanted to explore but I wouldn’t let her. Then on Wednesday, we saw the headstone was knocked over and the ground dug up. I didn’t get any closer because everyone’s been told to be on the lookout for disturbed ground. I called the police.’

Forensic pathologists are undertaking a detailed examination of the grave which appears to have been raided by a fox. Soil and other fragments have been collected and are being sifted to find any DNA. Initial samples show the grave’s occupant was a small dog. Rumours that a small button was also found have been officially confirmed but it may have been consumed by the dog.

Then the follow-up a few days later.

Human Remains Confirmed in Woolley Wood Grave

Meticulous testing by a forensic team has identified three human hairs and a child’s sticking plaster in a mountain of soil and samples collected from a dog’s grave in Woolley Wood.

It is now confirmed that they belong to missing child Alex Loxton who was last seen on the afternoon of October 31, Halloween. The three-year-old was wearing a werewolf suit and playing in the front garden of a house in Exeter.

Detective Chief Inspector Kisner said in a statement: ‘It appears that the perpetrator took advantage of a recently dug pet’s grave to hide the child’s remains in plain sight. And he might have succeeded if a passing fox hadn’t decided to raid it.’

Members of the Loxton family have asked for privacy at this difficult time.

The report avoids awkward details about the intentions of the fox in raiding the grave and its disposal of most of the remains of young Alex. How utterly tragic and distressing. No wonder Electra’s memories about it were confused. A stress response. So stressful that a nasty interview might have pushed her over the edge. I copy both reports to my file.

This must be the confusion in the DNA that Perry referred to. Samples from the dog and the child. And the fox. There’s no mention that Helena Loxton was called in, but the fastidious sifting is her trademark and the button must have looked like something Alex was wearing. Then the fragments of DNA on the sticking plaster added to the proof, justifying the intensive examination for the further confirmation from the human hairs.

There’s no mention of what led to the arrest of Milton Faulks for the murder. That must have come later. Would someone as ingenious and painstaking at hiding Alex’s body have left any traces?

‘There are always traces left behind,’ Helena said in an interview.

The team who located those three human hairs would have found them.

Is this what Lou-Lou has fixated on in her desperate need to ‘belong’ in the same family that lost her two step-siblings? Put like that, her whole quest feels macabre. Does she think this is an anomaly like the typo? The DNA from Alex and the animals might have been ‘traces’ but pieced together they tell the whole sad tale.

I should go to bed but I find myself adding Milton Faulks to the keywords and skimming more reports. He denied guilt for Alex’s death multiple times, then rolled over. They must have finally found something incriminating in that grave.

I fall asleep at the table, wake in the early hours with a wet nose prodding my cheek, stretch my stiff back and take myself to bed with the pooch padding along behind me.

It’s when I return to my laptop after sleeping in that I see I didn’t dream about sending an email to Tremayne last night. I actually sent it.

I had a chat with Calista Faulks tonight, I wrote. Generous with her time when she heard about my upcoming crime mystery. She hasn’t kept any of her father’s memorabilia for obvious reasons but she remembered your name as his barrister. I haven’t been able to find the evidence that convicted him of Alex Loxton’s murder. Thanks again for all your help.

His reply came through at 7.45 this morning. This time he doesn’t call me TJ. No greeting at all. Just a link to a newspaper article. Written by Perry Windermere. An article I was too tired to find last night.

Faulks Pleads Guilty to Murder of Alex Loxton

By Peregrine Windermere, Crime Reporter

Another search of the soil collected from the grave where Alex Loxton (3) was buried has produced some particles of fluff which match the lining of an old coat found in the bedroom cupboard of convicted paedophile, Milton Faulks. Faulks had denied involvement in the crime, but is now pleading guilty. This eliminates the need for a trial.

Before I make an appointment to visit Lou-Lou again with what I’ve found, I ask Hayden to check on what she said about Clemence Gagner: ‘Not her real name.’

“I couldn’t check the French records,” Hayden says when he calls me back, “but I found her deed poll here.”

“She changed her name.”

“Twenty years ago. Her former name was … Blythe Clementine Templeton.”

Templeton. Not a common surname. Is she Tremayne’s sister, daughter, niece? Or his former wife? Did Clemence meet Ambrose Loxton through Tremayne’s connection to Helena?

Lou-Lou was right about one thing. I find this interesting.

A quick call to Anita Blaine ensures my question isn’t in writing. Not that she ever forgets anything.

“Did you ever come across Blythe Templeton?” I ask

“That was her. The office girl who worked for Ambrose Loxton. Disappeared after little Alex was murdered. I told you there were rumours. How did you track her down?”

My mind has started fitting her into the puzzle but I need to prevent a ‘whatever happened to?’ feature in Echo Chamber.

“Your archives are full of rabbit-holes, Anita. You just need a good bottle of red and an empty social calendar. Like me.”

She laughs. “When I gave you access, I thought it would help you get that book written.”

“I’d better get back to it!”

Fingers crossed she’s too busy to do any digging of her own.

Hayden could probably find out if Templeton was her birth name or a married name. She based Clemence on her own middle name but what about Gagner?

A quick search for famous people called Gagner brings up a Wiki page with three spellings. From sports stars, a beauty queen, a cartoonist and a politician, people named Gagner, Gagne or Gagné come mainly from America, Canada and France. No-one jumps out but Lou-Lou’s adopted mother might be a fan of ice hockey or synchronised swimming and named herself after a star player.

I check with Rupert.

“It’s a French surname,” he says, “so I didn’t think about it. But gagner is the verb to win. ‘I have won’ translates as j’ai gagné.”

A good name for sports stars.

Rupert is distracted but I wonder why Clemence chose that name for herself and her adopted daughter. Lou-Lou seems to know. Will she tell me?