‘Missing? What do you mean, she’s gone missing?’
Izzy had looked at Josh standing there outside their flat, and her first thought had been, My God, he’s finally listened to me and arrested Plummers. But that dissipated the instant she saw his face and felt what he was feeling. And now here they were, inside the flat, and Izzy’s alarm was growing with every passing second.
‘Melissa didn’t make it home this evening. She didn’t go to her parents’ house and she didn’t go to her boyfriend’s.’
‘They’ve split up.’
‘So I understand. She was also supposed to be working as a bartender at The Knight’s Arms tonight. She hasn’t turned up there either.’
Fingers of dread closed over Izzy’s heart and squeezed it. She started towards the sofa, where she’d left her mobile.
‘I have her number on my phone. I’ll try calling her.’
‘No. Izzy, you won’t be able to get through to her.’
She stared at him, stunned by his words. ‘What do you mean? What aren’t you telling me? She’s only been missing a few hours and you’re already knocking on doors? That’s not how you normally do things for missing persons, is it? Not unless— What’s happened to her, Josh?’
‘We found her phone. It wasn’t far from her parked car. She was in the middle of a call to her parents when it was cut off. She was telling 164them she was on her way home, so it looks like she had no intention of wandering off at that point.’
‘She didn’t even make it to her car? Oh, my God. What else?’
Josh was silent, his expression pained.
‘What else, Josh? I can read you like a book. There’s something else you haven’t told me.’
‘There were … possible signs of a violent struggle.’
‘Oh, Jesus! She’s hurt. Melissa’s hurt. You have to find her, Josh. You have to move quickly.’
‘We are. Because of the unusual circumstances, we’re treating this as a high-priority investigation. Right now, I need you to stay calm and answer some questions, okay?’
Questions, yes. Questions were good.
‘Okay.’
‘When did you last see Melissa?’
‘Just a few hours ago. At the bookshop.’
‘At closing time?’
‘Yes.’
‘Who left the shop first, you or her?’
‘I did. I went at five o’clock. Melissa was still there.’
‘I see,’ he said, but she sensed a lot more in those words. Something of concern.
‘What?’ she asked.
‘We’ve spoken to the shop’s owner. Mr Stern. He told us that you’re the one who usually locks up when you’re both there.’
‘Usually, yes. This time was different.’
‘Any particular reason?’
She hesitated. She didn’t want to tell him about Melissa’s stealing. She had asked Melissa to cash up and close the shop as a gesture of faith, to demonstrate her belief in her colleague now that she wanted to change her life. It was meant to be something beautiful. She didn’t want to corrupt it. And anyway, it wasn’t relevant.165
‘I thought I’d give her the experience. She doesn’t get to do it very often.’
‘You trust her?’
‘Implicitly.’
‘You don’t think it’s possible she’s been involved in any criminal activity?’
She stalled. Did he already know about the cash?
‘Why do you ask that?’
‘Her boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend. He’s known to the police. I just wondered if you might have heard about her getting mixed up in anything illegal.’
‘No, nothing like that. She’s a good girl, Josh. She just has bad taste in men.’
‘Yeah, well, that’s not uncommon. How well do you know her?’
‘Well, we don’t mix socially or anything, but we get on okay. She’s—’
‘But well enough to be aware of something going on in her life?’
‘Like what?’
‘Her relationship with her ex-boyfriend? Possible threats against her?’
Izzy realised that Josh already knew the answer to this, presumably from talking to Melissa’s parents.
‘Yes, she did mention that.’
‘What, that he was making threats?’
‘Yes, but that’s got nothing to do with this.’
‘What do you mean?’
She began pacing the room. ‘He was waiting for her, outside the shop. That’s how he got to her.’
‘Who? Who are you talking about?’
‘Kenneth Plumley, of course. Who else?’
‘Plumley?’166
‘Yes. Don’t you see? It’s a message. He did this to hurt me, to warn me off.’
Josh came towards her. ‘Izzy, this isn’t about Kenneth Plumley. It’s probably got nothing to do with the disappearance of Rosie Agutter, either.’
She rounded on him. ‘Are you blind? Of course it has. It’s all connected.’
‘There’s no evidence for that. People go missing all the time, and there’s hardly ever a connection with other disappearances.’
‘You believe there’s a link between Rosie and Heather.’
‘Yes, I think there might be. But Melissa doesn’t fit their profile at all. She doesn’t look anything like them, and there were no signs of violence in those previous cases. They also weren’t associating with known criminals in the way that Melissa has been. You’re filling in lines between the dots that shouldn’t be there simply because you have a thing against Plumley.’
‘No, I’m doing it because he told me this would happen.’
Josh stared at her. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘It’s … it’s my fault. Kenneth Plumley told me to keep my nose out of it, and I refused. I said all the wrong things, and now poor Melissa—’
‘Wait. When was this? When did he warn you?’
‘Today. Lunchtime.’
‘In the shop?’
‘Yes. He came in when Melissa was on a break. He tried to bully me, told me to stop saying things about him. I said I was going to do everything I could to prove he was abducting young girls, and now—’
‘Sorry, Izzy. I know I’m repeating myself, but I want to get this absolutely straight. You are saying that Plumley came to the bookshop at lunchtime today and threatened that if you didn’t stop trying to blacken his name, he would hurt you or someone close to you.’167
‘Yes, more or less.’
‘More or less?’
‘Well, I can’t remember the exact words. I was panicking. But yes, it was along those lines.’
‘Why didn’t you call the police?’
‘After what happened yesterday? Would anyone have listened to me?’
Josh didn’t reply directly. He said, ‘I’ll talk to Plumley. Tomorrow I’d like you to come in and give a statement. Are you willing to do that?’
‘I’ll do anything to get Melissa back. He took her, Josh. It was him. He knows where she is. You have to believe me.’
‘Okay. Stay calm. I’m sure we’ll find her. You need to relax. Is your partner here?’
‘Andy? No. She’s on lates.’ She headed towards the fridge. ‘I need a drink.’
She filled a glass from the wine carton and threw most of it back in one gulp.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘Do you want one?’
‘No, thank you. I don’t drink.’
‘I’m not an alcoholic, you know.’
‘No, I didn’t think you were.’
‘And I’m not crazy either. Plumley did this. He took Heather, he took Rosie, and now he’s taken Melissa. You have to stop him.’
* * *
After Josh had left, she continued to drink. Sleep was out of the question. Hell, even just sitting still for longer than two minutes was a feat in itself. So she drank until her eyes stopped talking to each other.
This was too big for one person. Which was how it felt, no 168exaggeration. Isobel versus the world. Nobody listening or believing.
She didn’t know what time it was when Andy finally came home, and frankly she didn’t care. She needed her.
Andy looked as surprised as she was exhausted. Izzy knew it was unfair of her to land this on her partner now, when all Andy wanted was sleep, but this couldn’t wait. The weight was too heavy.
‘What are you doing up?’ Andy asked.
Izzy went to answer, but all that came out was a sob, followed by a flood of tears.
‘Hey,’ Andy said, rushing to her. ‘What’s the matter? What’s happened?’
They hugged. Izzy cried some more, then tried to produce sensible sounds not mangled by the tears and the alcohol.
‘It’s Melissa. She’s gone.’
‘Gone? You mean sacked? Did you have a fight over the money?’
‘No. Gone. Disappeared. Abducted.’
‘Abducted? What do you mean? Izzy, what’s happened?’
It came out in a jumble then, about talking to Kenneth in town, about chasing after him when she thought he had taken another girl from school, about his threats in the bookshop – although she didn’t mention following him to his home and hiding in his garden, because in hindsight even she found it hard to believe she’d taken such a risk.
‘You did all that? Jesus, Iz. What the hell were you thinking? You can’t go round playing private detective like that. It’s fucking dangerous.’
‘I know that now! He’s taken Melissa.’
‘How do you know?’
‘I told you. He threatened me. He tried to warn me away and I practically told him to go fuck himself.’
‘That doesn’t mean he took Melissa.’169
‘You’re as bad as Josh. Of course it does. It’s his warped way of sending me a message.’
‘Why would he do that? I mean, God forbid anything should happen to you, but if he wanted to get back at you, why didn’t he just abduct you?’
‘Because it would be too bloody obvious, wouldn’t it? I’m the one who’s been slinging mud at him. If I disappear, the finger points squarely at him. The police would be all over him like a bad rash. That’s the last thing he wants. This is his way of saying, “Look, Izzy, this could just as easily have been you.”’
Andy’s head-shaking was redundant, because Izzy could feel the doubt radiating from her.
‘I don’t know, Iz.’
‘Well, I do. He’s taken her and it’s all my fault and I don’t know what to do about it and—’
Andy cut her off with another firm embrace. ‘Hush now. You’ve had a lot to drink. You need a good night’s sleep. We both do.’
Izzy sniffed wetly. ‘I don’t think I can sleep.’
‘You have to let this thing go. The police are on it, right? Let them do their job. If you’re right about Plumley, they’ll get him, but that’s all the more reason for you to stop antagonising him. I really don’t want to see you get hurt, Izzy.’
Izzy nodded, deciding to say no more about it.
Because what was the fucking point?
Even through the alcohol-induced haze she knew for certain that the woman who loved her more than anything else in the world didn’t believe a word she had said about Kenneth Plumley.