Sunday 10th December 2023
Alice
The churchyard crawls with scenes of crime officers. Alice stands at the edge, feeling overwhelmed. It makes her nervous to see police officers swarming around Ethan’s grave, as if they’ll be able to tell, somehow, that they didn’t investigate his death as thoroughly as they should have at the time.
Chrissy comes over and they stand together, united, now, in their anxiety. Alice thinks about taking her hand but it still feels like a leap of faith.
‘What have they found?’ she asks Chrissy. ‘Anything?’
‘Some fibres from a navy jumper,’ Chrissy says. ‘Which may match the one Leo was wearing when he left prison. They’re sending them off for fast-tracked analysis.’
‘Really?’ Alice turns towards her. It’s hope that she feels, and she is happy to recognise it. Hoping that Leo is alive feels a thousand times better than wishing him harm.
Chrissy’s eyes are glassy. ‘The blood spatter experts think the blood is from someone with an injury, walking around the churchyard. They’re trying to get DNA from it but …’ Her chest rises. ‘I think he was here, Alice. I think Leo was here, not so long ago.’
Alice swallows. ‘That’s good, Chrissy. That’s good news, isn’t it?’
‘But where is he now? And if he’s hurt …’ Chrissy closes her eyes, and Alice feels the old desire to take her friend’s pain and absorb it into herself. The opposite of what she’s felt for the last two years. It’s like waking up from a spell. Except not everything is magically fixed; not everybody can wake up.
‘If he was here, it must’ve been because … he felt compelled,’ she says to Chrissy. ‘So, where else? Where else might he be drawn to?’
Chrissy stares towards Ethan’s grave, cordoned off now with fluttering yellow tape. ‘The village?’
‘Would he go there? If he doesn’t want to be found?’
‘It wouldn’t make sense. But he’s taken a risk, coming to this place. If he did come …’ Chrissy trails off as though there are too many ifs to contend with.
‘Well, maybe that tells us something about his state of mind,’ Alice says. ‘Maybe …’ She stops abruptly. Thinks of what Chrissy said when they finally had their showdown, about Leo feeling guilty about Robbie every day. ‘Maybe he’d go somewhere linked to Robbie, too? Somewhere that—’
A familiar expression has overtaken Chrissy’s face. The one that lights up her features when her thoughts and Alice’s suddenly synchronise.
‘The viaduct,’ she says, pointing into the distance.
Alice is already moving. Peter is talking to one of the SOCOs and she grabs his car keys out of his hand. He looks at her, confused, but she doesn’t explain as she rushes away. It’s only when she reaches his car that she realises he’s followed, and she throws the keys back over to him. She says the word ‘viaduct’ and he starts the engine.