On the way to their respective cars, Ridpath asked immediately, ‘Did Mrs Ryder say anything when he were upstairs?’
‘Not a lot, she carried on knitting, but…’
‘But what?’
‘Did you feel something wasn’t right about the house? I dunno, but it felt more like a prison than a family home.’
‘Interesting. I wonder if Jane Ryder felt the same way too?’
‘And Mrs Ryder, well, she’s a bit strange, Ridpath, like she’s not really there. I mean, my mum’s weird, but Mrs Ryder makes her look like Josephine Normal.’
‘She’s on drugs and, let me tell you from experience, nobody is normal when they’re on those things.’
‘I guess you’re right. It’s just…’
They reached Ridpath’s car. ‘Right, Sophia. We have to follow up.’
‘What do you need me to do?’
He passed the picture he had been given across to his assistant. ‘First, make copies of this. We need to put a face to the missing girl, particularly when we’re interviewing people.’
‘You said “we” – does it mean you need me to come along too?’
‘As much as you can. Officially, I’m assisting you this time. Seems to be the story of my life at the moment.’
‘I quite like the idea of having you as my assistant. Does that mean you get the coffees from now on?’
‘Don’t bet on it. Second, which festival did she go to?’
‘Mrs Ryder couldn’t remember. But it should be easy to google.’
‘Problem is, we don’t even know if she went to the festival, or was ever planning to go. It may only have been a ruse to escape her parents.’
‘I know the feeling. I bet her school friends used to cover for her. That’s what mine did.’
‘You ran away?’
‘No, but I wanted to meet people without my parents knowing. Paula and I had a mutual support society. If parents rang up, we were always meeting soon.’
‘Did it work?’
‘Yeah. Particularly as Paula was seen by my parents as a goody-two-shoes girly swot and I was seen by her parents as a quiet, subservient Muslim girl. If only they had known the truth about both of us…’
‘Seems like Jane may have had the same scam going on. Her friends were called Rose Gray and Andrea Briggs. It was only after Jane disappeared that they admitted they didn’t go to the festival together.’
‘Obvs.’
‘Can you find out where they are and check their stories? We’ll decide later if we need them to testify at the inquest.’
‘They could be anywhere, Ridpath. It’s been nearly twelve years.’
‘I know, but I’m sure you can find them.’
‘OK, any last address?’
‘I’ll message you later. It may be in the misper files.’
‘Right. Anything else?’
‘Can you follow up with her school too?’
‘OK, will do.’
‘See if any teachers remember her. I’d like to know about her state of mind around that time. Any problems the teachers noticed? Unhappiness? Academic problems? Friends?’
‘Mr Ryder said she’d just finished her GCSEs,’ Sophia reminded Ridpath.
‘Was it a factor? Mr Ryder said she passed with good grades. She will have sat all of the papers, but the results wouldn’t have come out until the end of August. Find out if the teachers thought she had done well.’
‘Teachers never know the truth. She will have talked to her friends Rose Gray and Andrea Briggs though. It’s all we ever talked about. What grades we were going to get? What questions did or didn’t come up? How to answer each particular topic?’
‘Stressful?’
‘Through the roof. I was a wreck. My mum started cooking chicken soup for me to drink as I studied. Even today, the smell of chicken soup brings back nightmares.’
‘You did OK, though?’
‘But thousands didn’t. You should have seen some girls on the day the results came out. It was as if their lives had been wrecked by one stupid piece of paper.’
‘Might be an angle worth following up. She was an only child, perhaps the parents put too much pressure on her and she did a runner?’
‘But if that happened, why did she never go back?’
‘There, Sophia, is the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question. Why did she never go back? What happened to her?’
‘What’s your hunch, Ridpath?’
‘No hunches.’ He stared into mid-air. ‘But she was a young, pretty sixteen-year-old on her own, as far as we know, maybe at a festival or maybe on the streets, perhaps in a vulnerable state…’
‘Perfect prey for any predator.’
A long silence.
‘When I get the misper files from Chrissy, I’ll send you them. We’re going to have to put something together for the coroner well before next week.’
‘But that’s only a few days away?’
‘I didn’t set the timing, Sophia. You’d better get working.’
‘Mrs Challinor said you were working another case for MIT.’
He nodded. ‘It’s not straightforward either.’
‘Let me know if you need any help.’
He smiled. ‘You have enough to be working on.’
‘Anything to stay away from the house at the moment.’
‘The mother?’
‘She wants to introduce me to a friend of a friend’s son. Problem is, he doesn’t speak much English and my Urdu is probably as good as yours, Ridpath.’
‘Love always finds a way.’
‘Don’t take the piss, Ridpath, it’s what my mum says.’
He picked up his briefcase. ‘Call me tonight.’ He made the sign of a mobile phone against his face. As he did so, his real mobile phone rang. It was Dave Connor.
‘Hi Ridpath, Hannah rang me. She wants us to go to the lab, she’s found something.’