‘I am aware that some people have said that, yes. I assume several more think it or suspect it. But I loved her. I would never harm Hannah. We’d been together almost a year and it was serious. We were planning a future together.
‘I’m afraid we did argue that morning on the day she went missing. I was annoyed with her. They’ve probably already told you that they’d been playing strip poker.
‘You’d have to speak to Vlad about that. She hardly “spent the night with him” in the way you’re suggesting. Ask Isak, he was there as well. They played cards, that was all.
‘I hardly think her disappearance would be anything to do with a poker debt of some kind.
‘I don’t know anything about Sam’s argument with her.
‘I did hear that she’d kissed one of the French sailors in the pub, yes. But I wasn’t jealous about that. Not at all. She kissed a lot of people. It didn’t mean that she’d run off with any of them. 314You had to know her.
‘I don’t believe she would have “done a runner”, as you put it. To teach me a lesson? I hardly think disappearing from the face of the earth is a normal response to one brief disagreement.
‘She was used to drink. She was used to smoking a little weed. I never saw her do other drugs. I can’t imagine that caused an accident. I just can’t see her falling.
‘What? No! She would never harm herself. Yes, we’d had an argument, but we hadn’t split up, and she wasn’t the sort of person who’d do that. No. Definitely not.
‘What do I think happened?
‘I don’t know. I just don’t know … just. Yeah. Give me a minute.
‘I didn’t go to the North End. I had no idea that’s where she might be. I’ve no idea why she said she was meeting me there. When the storm started I went back to the cottage and waited. I assumed she’d be sheltering somewhere.
‘I was on my own. I fell asleep after a bottle of wine. I started looking for her … the next morning. Hang on. I just need a second.
‘I just … look, two women were brutally attacked that afternoon. My mother and Charlotte both up at the North End. And that’s where Hannah told Alison she was heading. Surely that’s the most logical explanation – whoever hurt my mother and Charlotte had something to do with Hannah disappearing.
‘Of course, if I think of anything else …
‘I won’t be leaving Tresco, no. I’m moving into a room at the Old Ship until we find her. We have to find her!
‘And you have to find the man who was in the balaclava. You have to! 315
‘Okay … Yes. Please get in touch if there’s anything else I can do to help. You can leave a message at the pub as I might be out searching. I seem to have lost my mobile phone.’